We were both up around 06:00, and both went into the walled city to explore it a bit.  It was very  empty, more like what we had hoped for in Dubrovnik.  Our main hope was to climb the citadel, but we saw it wasn’t open until 09:00.  Seeing the sing on the door, we realized we didn’t notice the entrance last evening because it looked like the entrance to the restaurant.  Oh well, while unfortunate, this wasn’t going to be at the top of our lives’ regrets.  Between the beach and the hotel entrance, we saw a cat chilling on a sun chair, getting first dibs on the best chair for the day.

Back in the room, before leaving it for the last time, we took note of all of its flaws.  [We aren’t sure why we hated this particular room so much relative to others, sorry Avala Resort for catching so many strays.  Maybe it’s because all of the ingredients were there, and they just screwed up the recipe.]  With the room itself so huge, and the bathroom so tiny, it would have been easy enough to just move the wall to extend the bathroom – there still would have plenty of room in the sleeping area.  Also, there were tons of drawers right next to desk (creating a mega-wide desk of sorts), but they were on the wall close to the foot of the bed, such that there was a passageway of only about 2 feet (60 cm) in between the bed and the desk/drawers. 

The bathroom was quite dark, with no lights above the shower, so when the shower curtain was drawn, it was almost impossible to read anything on the bottles for shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner.  There was also a big step down out of the tub/shower onto floor – we hoped no one had any issues with that.  The sink stuck out over the bathroom countertop shelf, not far from the toilet, to the point that it was difficult to get on and off the toilet without hitting the sink bowl.  To top it all off, the AC didn’t really cool the room down.  Oh, and when we left the room for the final time, we almost fell because there was a tiny granite step between the room and the hallway, making the footing uneven.  Down in the lobby, everything reeked of paint.

So when we left at 08:00, we weren’t exactly sad to leave.  Our first stop on the drive today was at the other end of the hotel spectrum, the Aman Sveti Stefan.  The hotel resides on a private island owned by the government and leased to Aman Resorts.  There’s a short walkway linking the island to the mainland, and beaches on the mainland.  After having stayed in three different Aman Resorts over the years, we couldn’t fathom what this place would cost.  [Well, actually we can fathom, we guessed the cheapest rooms would be around $2000-2500 per night, and we over-estimated, but not by much.]

We continued down the coast on a windy road, and it was raining a bit the whole time.  It was extremely green everywhere, and we figured the two of these were related.  We turned inland at Ulcinj, not far from the Albanian border.  We stopped at a grocery store shortly before the border.  It was a repeat of yesterday’s breakfast of champions, but with slightly different stuff.  Justin’s rum bottle had a logo reminiscent of Aunt Jemima or other logos long-since unacceptable in the US, but the rum itself wasn’t half bad.  There was a fancy Audi in the parking lot, but a hideous green color, and we asked around how much cheaper it would have to be than another color for someone to say “sure, I’ll take the discount.”  There didn’t appear to be an answer.

We entered Albania at 10:45 and met our local guide, Adrian, who would be with us for several days.  He told us Albania was first inhabited by the Illyrians, over 2000 years ago.  As mentioned before, the Illyrians weren’t centrally organized, but rather an amalgamation of disparate tribes, and the local tribe in this area was called the Albani, and there was a settlement called Albanopolis near present-day Durres.  Adrian told us a theory has been floated that the name indicated that the tribe had many albinos, but that’s just a theory.  Interestingly, people in Albania don’t refer to themselves as Albanian, or the country as Albania, but rather as Shqipëri, which means “land of eagles.” 

Adrian then gave us some more history.  Adrian mentioned that the Illyrians were part of the Roman Empire for 7 centuries, then part of the Byzantine Empire after that.  Specific to Albania, it was later part of the Hungarian Empire and some others as well, always at a crossroads.  In the 15th century it fell to the Ottomans, and stayed part of the Ottoman Empire until just prior to WW1.  Albania was a theater of war during WW1, and then invaded by fascist Italy during WW2, and then part of the communist block after WW2, so never really free to just live their lives however they wanted.  Indeed, during the communist era, the government decided who was going to work and live wherever in the country, based on 5 year plans.

Our first stop of the day was in Shkodër (which sounded like it was pronounced Sko-dra).  It was quite rainy there, so we hoped we weren’t doing any sort of walking tour.  Our first stop was at a Catholic Church, Arqipeshkëvia Metropolitane Shkodër Katedralja e Shën Shtjefnit.  Adrian mentioned that because of communism for multiple generations, religion was not that prominent in Albania, and that many people had mixed heritage, including one of his friends, who was named Christian Imam.  Many members of the clergy gave their lives trying to protect freedom of religion in Albania, and there were memorials to them in the church.  Adrian mentioned there was a phrase along the lines of “Live So That You Can Tell” that was popularized related to this (sorry we don’t remember the exact details).

After leaving the church, we went to a Venetian mask factory.  We definitely did not expect something like this on our tour today, but sure enough, yes, thousands of intricately detailed Carnaval masks are made in an inland town in Albania every year.  We first saw the factory itself, where we couldn’t take any photos.  It reeked of glue, paint, and likely other chemicals as well, and shockingly no one was wearing any masks and there didn’t seem to be any air filtration systems.  After a couple minutes seeing how the masks are formed and then painted, we went into a showroom they had next door.  We saw lots of very interesting masks, some with themes a little different than usual, such as a bunch of “day of the dead” type masks.  Bill bought a huge lion piece, and the artist himself signed it.

Back in the vehicle, Martin told us that there was a change of plans regarding lunch, and that we’d get lunch here in Shkodër.  We got dropped off on some street (Rruga Gjuhadol), and meandered along it for a bit before coming to a pedestrian street (Rruga Kolë Idromeno).  Along Rruga Gjuhadol we saw literally dozens of $100k vehicles, including luxury vehicles, sports cars, and pimped out SUVs.  We didn’t know the city at all, but the street didn’t give off vibes of Rodeo Drive, and we wondered how and why there were so many expensive vehicles. 

When we broke for lunch, we had no clue where to go, as we hadn’t thought we’d be here for lunch, and accordingly had done no research.  We asked Adrian where to get some authentic Albanian food, and he took us back a couple streets to a very local place, Arti Zanave.  The two of us shared some stuffed peppers, meatballs, and white wine served out of a plastic water bottle.  There was Albanian music playing on YouTube, and décor from the 1960s and 1970s on the walls.  We paid about €13.50 total for everything.  When we walked back towards the group on Rruga Gjuhadol, more fancy vehicles passed us, and we couldn’t help but ask Adrian if he’d noticed and if he had any idea whether this was mafia and/or drug related. 

He chuckled a bit and said it was possible, but that also it could be very innocent.  He said it was commonplace in Albania for people to spend money they didn’t have in order to keep up appearances, so in that regard somewhat like the US.  He told us a joke about a German guy, Italian guy, and Albanian guy that had all just arrived in Heaven.  They were asking each other how they ended up there.  The German guy said he was driving his BMW too fast on the Autobahn and got into a crash.  The Italian guy said his story was similar, that he was driving his Ferrari too fast on the Amalfi Coast, got distracted by the coastline, and went over a cliff.  The Albanian guy said his story was similar as well, as he bought the brand new Mercedes SUV and then died of hunger.

We all got back in Drago’s van around 13:45.  Adrian mentioned that hydroelectric plants give Albania about 90% of its power, and it’s almost to the point they’ll be an energy exporter to its neighbors.  Crystal listened to podcasts on the ride, and Justin chatted with Bill and Peter about a wide variety of topics - energy generation, Madagascar, rain shadows, and ethnographic museums.  By this point everyone had more-or-less chosen “their” seats on the van.  The rows were two seats on the left and one seat on the right.  Alan and Cheryl were closer to the front of the van, though occasionally Joyce would sit near the front instead.  Martin was near the front on the right.  Andy was around the middle of the bus on the left, and Crystal was behind him.  Bill sat behind Crystal, and Peter sat on the right side, either in the row with Crystal or in the row with Bill.  Justin sat in the very back row, which was 4 seats together, such that he could slide across from one window to the other depending on what was visible outside.  He’d set his camera to very fast shutter speed (usually 1/1600 of a second) such that the photos wouldn’t be blurry, even if they might be a bit noisy.

We took a “shortcut” on the way to Kruje – it was through the middle of nowhere, it was very bouncy, and there were occasional cows.  Justin looked at his offline maps to see where we were, and saw a reference point for a George W Bush statue that was on map.  He asked Martin what that was all about, and apparently the former President had stopped in Fush Kruje in 2007 to great fanfare in an unexpected visit.  A local restaurant and coffee shop changed their names afterwards to include reference to Bush, and they received many more guests now.  As the story goes, the Secret Service lost him in the throngs of people, and there’s an apocryphal story where he had his watch taken.

We drove up into the foothills into Kruje, through a pine forest.  We arrived just after 15:30.  Right near where we parked, we heard some loud music, and arrived just in time to see a bunch of school-aged kids doing a choreographed dance, so that was a nice surprise.  Then we walked through a small bazaar full of clothing and other goods.  Martin had told us that we were supposed to go to the ethnographic museum, but it is still not open.  So instead we went to the Kastrioti Museum. 

Gjergj Kastrioti, aka Skanderbeg, was a military leader in Albania in the 1400s, and led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire that made him famous.  He was part of the Ottoman military for quite some time before deserting them (along with the 300 Albanians under his command) to lead a rebellion.  He started his dominion in Kruje and branched out from there, using a forged letter from the Sultan to give him control of the area.  Thereafter he worked out an agreement with the Kingdom of Naples to ensure some protection against the Ottomans, and the Kingdom of Naples was fine letting him rule over the area and fight off the Ottomans.  He fought against the Ottomans from 1463 until his death in 1479, and was one of the most successful leaders fighting the Ottomans during the Ottomans time in the Balkans.  We walked around a museum where we learned all about this, and more.  There was a huge statue of Skanderbeg and his army in the main foyer of the museum that was quite impressive.  We found out that his straight sword, and his helmet, reside in Vienna, so we thought maybe we’d check that out once we get to Vienna.

We walked back through the bazaar on the way back to the vehicle, and we bought some souvenirs for our niece and nephew – matching outfits, such that neither of them could/would be jealous of the other.  Some goats walked through the shopping area, and everyone parted to let them through.  As we were wrapping up shopping, some thunderstorms started, so we all quickly returned to the van.  On the ride, it was very dark and rainy going back downhill, towards Fushë-Krujë.  Likely because we were going to see the George W Bush statue, we discussed where all of were, and what we were doing, on September 11.  We didn’t stop the van to get out to see the statue, but just drove by.  It looked like he was trying to hail a taxi.  We asked ourselves which was more of a surprise to see today – a statue of George W Bush, or a Venetian mask factory?

We came into Tirana around 18:00.  Adrian told us that any building taller than 6 stories must’ve been built in the last 30 years, as nothing taller than that was permitted during the communist era.  We hit rush hour a couple miles from our hotel.  Justin slept through the traffic, but Crystal was awake to hear Adrian mention that today is his daughter’s 16th birthday, so he was hoping for the traffic to dissipate quickly.  When we arrived, Adrian quickly headed out.  Everyone thanked Drago for his patience today.  Our hotel (Rogner), was a big change from the one in Budva.  Everything seemed to be in the right spot, where you would expect it, with plugs where you want them, switches where they seem they should be, etc.  Our room was at the southern edge of the hotel, close to the hotel next door, the Marriott, which had a very cool red and gray design, one of the classier-looking hotels we’ve ever seen.  Our room also had an old-timey poster of San Francisco, which was an unexpected treat.

Dinner was at the restaurant in our hotel.  We were seated outside, and at first the employees turned on the infrared heaters, but almost instantaneously Alan and several other people told them they were unnecessary (and unwanted).  For much of our meal we were the only group seated outside, and it was nice to finally have a quiet table where all 9 (maybe 10, we can’t remember if Drago was with us) of us could be part of the same conversation.  We were discussing healthcare and foreign languages at dinner.  Everyone else was fairly shocked at what we paid for healthcare in Tenerife, and everyone at the table had horror stories from themselves or from close friends about some absurd event.  Andy, who taught economics in high school for decades, agreed that the fundamental tenant of the supply-demand curve gets thrown out the window for an inelastic good, i.e., your health.  All of us (besides Martin) had difficulty learning foreign languages, and it seemed like the two of us (and maybe Andy) were the ”most” bi-lingual of the bunch.

The Blloku neighborhood was near our hotel, and home to many of the city’s best bars and restaurants.  We’d picked out a couple places that looked good.  Our first choice was Tiki Bar, but it was horribly misnamed – it was basically a dance club with no tiki drinks.  So we used the wi-fi (that we’d needed to use to access the menu on our phones) to find another bar, and fortunately one of our other bars, the Illyrian Saloon, was just 80 meters away.  So we got up before ordering anything and walked basically across the street and down some stairs into a very cool bar with an interesting menu.  At first we were seated at the bar, where there was a cool air diffuser shaped like a volcano, with little puffs of air every couple seconds.  We got a spicy raspberry margarita, called an Illyrian Inferno.  Somewhere along the line we moved to a cushy couch in the back corner of the bar, and enjoyed the blues-rock on the stereo (Black Keys, White Stripes, Kasabian, etc.).  This vibe was much more our jam.  We got two rounds, then went back to the hotel around 23:00 to crash for the night.