Every story needs a hero... | Lezhe, Albania

Every story needs a hero...

That's creative writing 101, right?

The story of Albania shines most brightly through their favorite son, Skenderbeg.  Afterall, the nation's flag, the fearsome double-headed black eagle, comes from his family's crest.

Skenderbeg's Mausoleum, Lezhe

Born in 1405, he lived in Albania until age 18 when he was whisked away as a hostage by an Ottoman sultan.  Trained by the Ottomans and groomed as a leader then placed into leadership back in his homeland, he defects during a battle and organizes a league to push out the invaders in his people's land.

The shields on the wall each represent a different battle led by Skenderbeg

He goes on to live another 25 years as a brilliant warrior, diplomat, and over all leader uniting the various groups within Albania to fight against their common enemy, the Ottomans. In spite of limited human and financial resources, of 25 battles, he only lost 2.  He is considered one of the most significant figures in European history during the 15th century.

His physical strength was legendary, supposedly able to split a cow in two with one blow of his massive sword, he is also credited with having killed 3,000 Ottomans by his own hand.

"Une jam Shiptar!"  (I am Albanian!)
So proud of my children's heritage -- can you tell?

Upon Skenderbeg's death from malaria in 1468, Albania eventually falls under Ottoman control. But for more than two decades he had diffused their strength and prevented them from advancing further into Europe.

Had Greater Europe come to his aid, we believe Albania would look quite different today.

Posthumously Skenderbeg (along with another great warrior, the Hungarian Janos Hunyadi, who incidently happens to be the namesake of the street we live on here in Tirana) was heralded by the Pope as "Christ's Champion" for saving Europe from the spread of Isl*m.

Skenderbeg's family was bestowed a royal title in Italy and his descendants can be found in several royal households across Europe today.

We are getting quite the collection of 'canon' shots.  Sometime I'll have to post them all together in one place!  It's pretty much the ONLY place Reni requests to have his photo taken, so we oblige.

Legend has it that knowing Skenderbeg's grave would be targeted by his enemies, locals buried another unfortunate soul in his place.  Tragically, as predicted, the site was dug up and the bones made into necklaces in hopes of conferring his courage and strength upon the wearer.

So while this mausoleum isn't technically his burial site anymore... maybe it sort of is??? 

Beautiful Albania | Shkodra

Editor's Note:  I know that most of our family and friends will likely not have the opportunity to visit Albania, so consider my "Beautiful Albania" posts to be an attempt to give you an arm chair tour of our little neck of the woods.

In my previous post I shared that Christmas-time traditionally would find us on the road, splitting our break between Illinois and Ohio.  After 15 years of this holiday tradition, it felt a little strange to be in our own home for Christmas. Since we finally had back-to-back days off we decided to go away for a few days beginning on the 26th, returning to Tirana before the 'craziness' of New Years Eve.

As to where to go, we decided on Shkoder, a city in the northwestern part of the country.  We heard that the former prime minister was from the north and had heavily invested in road improvements there so it wouldn't be a difficult drive. 

I don't want to say that my expectations were low -- it's just that sight-seeing in Albania is ... evolving.  For a worthwhile trip, one needs to utilize word-of-mouth recommendations and a good dose of self-education to know where to go and understand what you're seeing.  Historical sites aren't necessarily well-preserved, well-identified (though road signs have been popping up over the past few years which is super helpful) or well-described (few sites have tour guides or multi-lingual signage/markers -- the day they offer handsets I'll fall over). In spite of doing some research and going with some idea in mind of what we wanted to find, I was still concerned we'd be able to fill our time adequately.  Especially when I learned the ferry we wanted to ride (and I had devoted one entire day in our schedule to) had closed.

It turned out that we found in the north a great combination of natural beauty, rich history, decent food, new friends, and plenty to fill our days, yet also plenty of time to relax.  

A break was just what we needed and we returned with an increased appreciation for the history and culture of this country we now call home. 

I'm learning again that distance is relative.  Looking at a map, Shkoder looks so far away.  In reality, we made the trip in less than two hours.

Ura e Mesit (or, Middle Bridge)

Driving through town we saw signs for the Ura e Mesit, a bridge we had been told was worth visiting, so we took off in it's general direction. Less than 2km away, we started to doubt ourselves and pulled out the GPS.  We laughed when we discovered how close we were.

  

This was built in 1780 by the Ottomans when they realized what an important commerce center Shkoder represented.

Keep taking this road north east and one would end up in Pristina...

A cute, bright spot on a gloomy day.  Anyone remember the post where Ellie bought this umbrella 3.5 years ago?  Amazing she still has it!

Shkoder has a couple of pedestrian streets that are being refurbished (below).  

Crumbling buildings and old fashioned lamp posts are always a good photo-op!

We stopped for coffee, of course, but not before bumping into one of our friends from the Hope Center, visiting family in Shkoder for the holidays (I never cease to be amazed at what a small country Albania truly is, and how we seem to run into people we know almost everywhere we go).

We were humbled to be invited to dinner by the Zefi family.  We have several mutual friends but had never met them personally.  When we were inquiring about hotel recommendations, friends in the States and friends in Tirana independently contacted this family.  Fredi and Prenda both work for Hope For the World Albania in their orphanage ministry, so we knew we already had much in common with them! Thanks, friends (you know who you are) for connecting us!

The kids enjoyed a picnic on the floor.

 

Oh my goodness, Albanian women can cook.  The longer I am here, the more and more impressed I am with the women of this country.  They do so much and do it all well.

Another recommended site was the mask factory.  We were told that the masks produced in Shkoder were world-renowned, primarily sold and used in Venice and Las Vegas.

Visits are 'by-appointment-only'. While waiting for a reply from a local contact about arranging a tour, we stumbled upon a travel PDF for Shkoder online.  It contained a phone number for the factory which we called.  A gentleman answered the phone, welcomed us to come over right away, and offered to meet us at a major intersection in town so we could follow him to the factory grounds.

He shook our hands upon arrival, then excused himself after introducing us to another employee.  After reading this article and seeing his photograph, I discovered that none other than the owner of the factory itself had come and met us!

This factory now employs 60 artists which produce 20,000, hand-painted masks per year.  They use the best materials, including real gold leaf and Swarovski crystals which set them apart from the mass-produced, lesser-quality masks from Chin*. 

We were a little overwhelmed at the volume and variety of mask designs available for sale in their shop.

On a side note, a few nights a week, Abby, Anna, Nathan and I will watch an old episode of The Amazing Race on hulu.  Imagine our surprise last night when we saw the contestants compete in a challenge involving identifying these very masks on actors during the contestants stint in Venice!  (Season 3, episode 2)

Genti told us to drive around the edge of the lake (Lake Shkodra is the largest lake in the Balkans, bordered by three countries) to the village of Shiroke.  He said there would be a handful of restaurants and any of them would have a lovely view of the lake.

It was off-season, but we managed to find a place to eat.  The menu was... seafood. ;-)

As promised, the lake was stunning and beautiful in its raw, rugged state.  We kept remarking how much tourism money could be pumped into the economy if someone would invest in development -- but then I can't help but think it would lose a big part of its charm.

No visit to Shkodra is complete without a trip up to the fortress.

And like the legend we heard related to the landmarks surrounding Berat, the Fortress/Castle Rozafa has it's own tragic legend.  You can read it here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rozafa_Castle#Legend

This fortress hill dates back to the Illyrians, but the present walls date back to the Venetians.  It's been sieged several times, which isn't hard to imagine when you see how imposing it is from below.

I didn't take many photos since this was my second visit (click here to see more pics from my 2009 visit when the weather was better).

They did say 'selfie' was the official word of 2013, right?  There were lots taken by these two on this trip...

 The fortress grounds are quite immense.  We discovered this little stair well that led down to some tunnels requiring flash lights for illumination.  Pretty cool!

Ellie and Reni were good sports in spite of visiting yet another place built out of 'old rocks'.

Above -- my favorite souvenir from the trip

My next "Beautiful Albania" post will be from Lezhe... (Layzh)

Beautiful Albania | Berat (Calling all window washers...)

While we have the girls with us this fall/winter/spring we want them to see and understand as much of Albanian culture as we can squeeze in.  We are fortunate that it's a small country and a lot of places can be seen in day trips, so we don't have the expense of overnighting.  Last month during Ryan's visit (and before the time change) seemed like a good time to visit the city of Berat so he (as well as Abby and Anna) could get a view of a different part of Albania (albeit less than 65 miles from Tirana).  Nathan and I last visited in 2004 so we were looking forward to returning, armed with a better understanding of what made this city unique.

I thought some of you might also enjoy a glimpse of this pretty little corner of Albania that, according to Reni, is usually filled with "broken stuff."  :-)   That little boy is pretty wise for his 52 months of life.

To give you a little context, Berat is nestled between two great mountains (Shpirag and Tomorr) and divided by a river (Osum).  There is a fantastic legend about two brothers named Shpirag and Tomorr who fought each other over a woman named Osumi, to the point where both died and Osumi drowned in her tears.  The story captivated Ellie's imagination -- and cemented the names of these geographical landmarks in my memory!

But Berat is primarily known for its dense concentration of Turkish architecture.  In a country brimming with partially built concrete houses and crumbling communist-style apartment buildings, this city holds a rustic charm that is a refreshing change from our typical views.

Also known as the city of a thousand windows, both sides of the river are lined with homes that literally appear stacked upon each other leaving many to joke, "If you fall out the window, don't worry, you'll just land on the roof."  

Above all these homes sits an immense castle/fortress that was built before 200 BC.  It was here where we spent most of our afternoon.

We drove partway up to the castle, then parked and climbed the remainder of the immense hill to reach the little town within the castle walls.  Upon reaching the top, we discovered there was ample parking.  Oops.  There is now a nominal admission charge (about $1 per person) to pass through the gate, but once inside, there are lots and lots of little stone alley ways to explore.  We wandered around looking for something to eat, but only found one place.

The restaurant was empty of customers but open for business in the early afternoon.  The owner dropped some menus in our laps then just as quickly picked them back up again.  In Albanian he said something to the effect of, "Forget this.  You should eat traditional Albanian food."

Then he started bringing plate after plate from the kitchen.  Thankfully, these Asburians are adventurous eaters and relished the opportunity to eat an authentic meal.  And thankfully, the bill was pretty reasonable, considering we didn't ask for a single item we were served (aside from our beverages) and we had no idea the prices for any of the dishes he brought out!

We found it quite ironic to be sitting under a needlepoint of what appear to be George and Martha Washington by Mount Vernon?  Or maybe it's Schonbrunn Palace?  Who knows, it just didn't appear to fit our surroundings!

I don't even know where to begin to describe the dishes we ate... they included beans with parsley (lower left), some sort of cooked spinach and egg (far upper left), cooked green and red peppers and ground beef (mid right), greek salad with white cheese (center),  byrek with cheese and spinach (lower center), and egg plant (lower right).  The peppers and beef dish was our favorite.

Byrek (burr-eck) -- the unofficial national dish of Albania -- is basically a savory layered pastry (filo dough) that depending upon where you are geographically holds cheese and some other filling like spinach, tomatoes, or chicken or ground beef.  It's best fresh out of the oven, but usually it's been made ahead of time and reheated (albeit not always thoroughly).  The best byrek I've ever eaten was at the Greek restaurant in Elbasan and was served on a hot iron skillet as a hot pocket of filo filled with chicken, cheese, tomatoes and mushrooms.

I'm a sucker for taking photos of arched wooden doors and stone walls...

Sadly, haze and dust clouded our view of the normally majestic mountain vistas.

Visiting places like this leaves me in awe of the heritage Ellie and Reni have running through their Albanian veins.  Such a hard place to live, wracked with centuries upon centuries of wars from invading armies in this crossroads between greater Europe and the middle east. At times like this their very existence seems miraculous to me.

An obligatory 'cannon shot'

Yes, this ancient stone road is just as slippery as it appears.  I can only imagine how horses and donkeys made it up in years gone by, pulling heavy loads.

Okay, I couldn't resist including this photo below.  

No, this isn't our vehicle, but it does seem like it's calling our name...

A small billboard outside of town confirmed the rumor we heard earlier that a whitewater rafting company had opened outside of Berat.  Adventure sports are still relatively new in this country (day-to-day life has enough excitement to meet most folks' need for adrenaline surges), so we are really curious about this possible activity.  Combined with the beauty of the city, I found myself wondering why this wasn't a tourist destination yet ... then we left the city limits and the road literally fell apart.  Our poor Caddy.  Maybe we won't be returning again for a while after all.