Albania is on only a few tourists' wish lists for their next vacation - and wrongly so. The small Balkan country has fantastic coastlines and untouched beaches along the Ionian and Adriatic Seas, offering perfect conditions for a relaxing beach holiday.
Half of the Albanian territory is of mountainous terrain with altitudes of over 600 m above sea level. A small proportion of these are high-mountain regions. From Skadar Lake in the north to the south in Vlora a few kilometers wide alluvial soils partly extend along the coast, which expand to large Myzeqe level in central Albania. There are numerous lagoons and wetlands on the coast.
At about 1000 BC the Illyrians settled in the Western Balkans. Residential cities were Scodra and Rhizon. After the Illyrian wars in late 3rd century BC, the Western Balkans came under Roman influence and the Romanization of the Illyrians began. With the division of the Roman Empire 395th BC, today Albania came under Byzantine rule. In 591 the Slavs from the north penetrated into the area, followed by looting allover the Balkans.
Next to our content articles we publish blogs to certain topics. Please follow the given links to get to our topic relevant blog articles with couple of additional pictures about Albania.
It was early afternoon when we talked with the operators of the Legjenda campsite about the Ottoman bridge Ura e Mesit, which ended spontaneously in the approach to the bridge.
There are only a few destinations in Europe that can be reached by motorhome as part of a summer holiday that are considered to be little discovered and therefore offer not only rest and relaxation, but also a little adventure and lots of new things to discover: Albania is undoubtedly one of them.
In some of our topics along the journeys along the Roman road system, the old, partly Greek or Roman names of the settlement areas of the tribes or settlement areas that have long since disappeared today also appear.
In our article about the Rozafa fortress, we had already mentioned the first settlement of the Illyrian tribes, which settled here in Shkodra in ancient times. The earliest traces of human settlement date back to the 2nd millennium BC, they were found south of today's town at Tepe and can be classified dating back to Bronze Age.
In and around Shkodra, the Albanian habitual right, often referred to as Kanun, was revived with the beginning of the 1990s together with the decline of the dictatorship of Envar Hoxha.
If you are traveling from Montenegro to the second largest city of Albania called Shkodra as a mobile home camper, you will inevitably encounter the outflow of the Lake Skutari, which is called Buna.
Almost as before, the preparations for many camping and vehicle exhibitors, travel agencies and other participants have already been completed, as the start of the trade fair will start soon (14 - 22 January 2017) in Stuttgart.
"The place of testimony and remembrance," as the Museum of Communist Crimes in Albania is described, crime committed and held by the dictator Enver Hoxha, which is in Shkoder too because of so many victims of the communistic regime from here.
The next day at Legjenda Camping should bring another surprise for us, because Linda and Franc invited us to a special boat trip to Shurdhah Island (Albanian: Ishulli i Shurdhahit).
There is no doubt that the city tour through Shkodra shows the influence of the Ottomans, which is not only evident in the numerous mosques.
The "Peaks of the Balkans" hiking trail is a 192 kilometer long hiking trail in the Prokletije mountains, also known as the Albanian Alps. For practiced long-distance travelers, this trail leads of about ten day stages through Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro.
Indicated already during the first 100 meters of the ascent into the Valbona valley, in spite of the foggy weather in the late autumn now, what a splendor of autumn colors would still await us in the further course of the valley.
Several travelers and campers had already told us about the gorges and the lake at the Koman dam, which is said to contribute to the indescribable character of its nature, due to its length and narrowness.
After some explorations in the city of Shkodra and the surrounding areas, we also wanted to have a check at the Adriatic beach in the coastal area, especially as the sun started laughing again in the cloudless sky.
After a few days of mostly cloudy skies with light rain showers, the sun is back, so we prepare ourselves for further excursions around Lake Skutari and, after a brief consultation with the hosts of the Campsite Legjenda, also on the lake, the largest of the Balkan Peninsula.
On a hill, steeply above the Buna and Drin rivers, from the Legjenda campsite to be seen well and just 10 minutes on foot reachable, you will reach the ruined castle Rozafa.
Ohrid Lake - Together with Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika, Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest and most fascinating lakes in Albania and Macedonia.
It was actually raining at Lake Ohrid, all the more reason to explore the surrounding area. We wanted to continue following the Roman footsteps along the Via Egnatia, so we drove from Kalista to the border crossing between Macedonia and Albania, just 8 kilometers away, on the pass near Quafe Thane.
The first historically known settlers in the area of Elbasan belonged to the ethnic group of the Illyrians, which in the 2nd century erected first dwellings at the river Shkumbin, at that time called Genusus.
Due to the expansion policy of the Ottoman Empire in the 13th and 14th century, the Ottoman Turks also came to Elbasan, no wonder that one finds their marks in today's city architecture.