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Albania
Albania
Bec2004-09-15 15:50:14
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reader of my site will tell me. Finally, a year later, Bebian Becollini, an Albanian from Philadelphia, sent me an e-mail to tell me that Petrela was part of the Skenderbeg triangle along with Kruja and Preza.
At Elbasan, I changed to another minibus for Pogradec on the shores of Ohrid Lake.
Hoxha was obsessed with the need to fortify his small country against invasion by his neighbours. He spent huge amounts of money building bunkers and pillboxes everywhere. You can see examples below. What waste when the people needed schools and hospitals!
Qafe Thana
After Elbasan, the road climbed through a wild mountain range treating us to some of the most spectacular mountain views I have ever seen. (In the same class as the La Paz to Coroico road in Bolivia or the Kishinev to Osh road in Kyrghistan). Then, it dropped rapidly down this series of switchbacks to the level of Ohrid lake at Qafe Thana and followed the shore hence to Pogradec.
Pogradec
The tourist industry, fully developed on the Macedonian side of Ohrid lake, is just beginning to grow on the Albanian side.
This is Hotel Royal, the best place in town, right on the waterfront.
Most Albanians are Muslim but there is a vigorous Greek orthodox minority as this fine church attests.
In Pogradec, I had a large room with balcony on the first floor of the Hotel Kinezi for only 5 Euros.
I had lunch in the restaurant downstairs. The owner's daughter, who spoke French, helped me communicate with some labourers seated at the next table who were as curious about me and my motives for visiting their country as I was about them and their lifestyle. We had a pleasant conversation.
There was no regular bus service to the Macedonian border but one of them brought me to see a friend of his who drove me there for a very reasonable price.
Copyright Bernard Cloutier
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See photographs from:
Albania Gallery
