This post sees us drive from Tirana to Elbasan where we overnight and then on to Pogradec on the shores of the largest lake in all the Balkans – Lake Ohrid.
The drive from Tirana to Elbasan took us past the iconic Petrela Castle, only 15km from the Capital and 398m above sea level. Built in the 6th Century AD by Emperor Diocletian at the same time as his palace in Split. Now it has a small hotel and restaurant at the top and you can see the Tirana City Centre from here. Amazing.
Elbasan (Pop 266,245, Elev 123m, Founded 1466) is an inland city with an interesting past. The Old Town is constructed on the Via Ignatia that connected Rome with Constantinople – amazing that we stood on a piece of East-West History here in humble Albania !!! Dinner in Elbasan was a real treat – the restaurant ATTIKI was run by a couple that worked in Athens for 8 years and spoke almost perfect Greek !!! They fed us “Xorta” or Dandelions followed by fried eggplant and beef critharaki, just like our collective mums and grandmums made it – amazing !!! We continued to speak Greek in this part of the country – how ironic that we cannot speak a word of the very complex language that is Albanian but we can get long perfectly in Greek – we even ordered coffee the next morning in Greek – no wonder that all the people here speak Greek since the border is only 298km from here.
The drive from Elbasan to Pogradec was very scenic with a 65km road snaking through lush valleys fed by melted winter snow from huge mountains in North Macedonia. This place is green green green as you will see in the photos. Pogradec is situated on Lake Ohrid, the iconic lake symbol of the Balkans. It is 358 square kilometres and 693m above sea level. This lake is 6.5 times the size of Sydney Harbour. We went for a swim in the 17C water which was warmer than we expected given it is fed mainly by melted winter snow.
Pogradec (Pop 61,530, Elev 735m, Founded 1662) is a very scenic city at the base of Lake Ohrid, complete with a very long shoreline sandy beach, tree covered restaurants and plenty of sunshine. People of all ages stroll along, sitting, chatting, eating. The place has a great vibe with the huge mountain backdrop of Macedonia just opposite. What a terrific dinner we had in our fully equipped apartment. Our host took us to a fish shop with a tank of live swimming trout from Lake Ohrid – we chose three 600g fish which were clubbed in front of us and packed up for only 17AUD for the lot. Paris gutted the fish back at the apartment and we cooked them in the oven with 1kg of oven fries and 1.5kg of boiled veggies – a magnificently healthy and tasty feast for a mind-blowing total of 25AUD for the 3 of us.
Tomorrow will see us drive into neighbouring North Macedonia and so we wave farewell to Albania, a place full of surprises. When we think of Albania, we think of the land of double-parked cars, crazy traffic, super-dooper cheap prices, a vibrant capital and a country full of potential.
Enjoy the spoils of Albania…
PETRELA CASTLE:
ELBASAN:
ELBASAN TO POGRADEC:
POGRADEC:
ALBANIAN FOOD:
STOP PRESS: Farewell Albania - Dag Dance from Skanderbeg Square
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