We left Pogradec on September 1st and took a total of 4 buses to arrive in Shkoder (2 of them were city buses 😊). Shkoder is a wonderful town with tons of bicycles and a beautiful pedestrian street. The food here is very affordable and delicious.
It is the gateway to the Albanian Alps so we had to travel to Theth to see the magnificent mountains with our own eyes. We also took a day trip to Komani Lake &v the Shala River.
#shkodër
#shalariver
#albania
#theth
Goodbye Pogerets and hello Scodra. So on September 1st, we left Pogerets and we hopped on a bus. We had to say goodbye to beautiful Lake Eward and to all the wonderful people we met in Pogards and that that wasn’t easy. So, if you’ve been following along, we started out in velour in May. And then we moved to Pogards for the summer, June, July, and August. And then on September 1st, we had an adventure cuz we took four buses. We took one from Pogards to the East West Terminal South of Tana. Then we took two city buses to the south terminal. And then finally we took a bus to Scodra. This was our last view of Lake Orid from the bus window. And when I say bus, they call them a ferggon. It’s like a large minivan. But we loved swimming here. Now the clarity and cleanliness of the water would differ in different areas of the lake. So depending on the current and the wind direction. The bus to Tana was 600 le per person, which comes out to be about $7 and change. And this was more of a challenge getting on the city buses. We use Google Maps and sometimes Google Maps isn’t always accurate. And Jim looked so stressed. I chuckle when I watch this video because he was wondering, are we on the right bus? The bus to Scotia was clearly marked with a sign in the front window. So, we knew we were all set. And here’s Scorra. It’s a town of about a 100,000 people. And this is the beautiful pedestrian walkway. The town is often called Bike City of Albania because there are tons of bicycles all over. And we couldn’t believe how inexpensive it was to rent a bike. €5 a day. Our rental came with bikes, but still. Isn’t that awesome? There are many beautiful churches here. And the statue on the right is dedicated to the victims of communist persecution. And we didn’t know before we came here that Mother Teresa was an ethnic Albanian and she is revered here and you can see her image and several places in town. There are several mosques in town and this large one is located right near the pedestrian walkway. We love street art and there were just so many beautiful murals all over Scodra. [Music] Now to one of our favorite topics, food. the produce markets just like in poker and velour just had so many options and Jim was in seventh heaven picking out fresh fruits and vegetables. We find that eating out here is cheaper than in velour and pogets and we’ve kind of gone wild with dining out especially the first week we were here. One of our favorite foods is an Albanian traditional dish called forazi. I’m sure I didn’t pronounce that correctly, but it’s roasted peppers with onions and cheese. It’s just so good. Oh, I forgot. It has tomatoes, too. So, there’s this little village alongside Shkodra, and it’s called Shuroka. And you could walk there. You could ride your bike there. And it was a hot on the day we went. So we took a bus and it was 80 le. We wanted to get our eyes on Lake Scodra and we even went for a swim. Now not to sound like a total lake snob, but we did prefer Lake Orid over in Pogerets to this lake. This was nice. We we enjoyed ourselves, but we found Lake Orid to be cleaner and clearer. And I’m sure there are areas of the lake that we didn’t have access to that were just as nice, but that’s just our humble opinion. So, one morning we took a walk to the castle, and it was about a twomile walk from our rental. and our rental is near the center of town. And it was such a beautiful morning. The castle has a long, complicated, and extensive history, which is just so fascinating, and we read up on it before we went to the castle. And I encourage you if you’re into history to Google it because it’s so interesting. And if you’re not really into history, it’s still worth the walk just for the incredible views. If you don’t want to walk here, there are taxis that will bring you closer to the location, and there’s a city bus that will drop you off, and you still have to do some walking, but not as far. There are a lot of slippery stones, so you need to be really careful here as well. So Scodra is often referred to as the gateway to the Albanian Alps and we just had to experience it ourselves. So we took that fam from Scodra and it was 1,200 le a piece and it brought us to the village of theft. It’s about a 2-hour drive and the road is paved, but it’s a one and one half lane road, so our van driver had to constantly pull over so that other cars could go by. And the views on the way there were awesome. And I would say it’s one of those instances where the journey is nearly as beautiful as the destination. Hikers come here from all different parts of the world to hike the many trails that originate in this area, but we are not very sure-footed anymore. So, we primarily stayed around the village, but there’s plenty of areas to explore and we absolutely loved it. Check out this next video of a shepherd tending to his flock on the roadway as our bus is trying to maneuver around the sheep. So, Scodra is also considered to be the gateway to the Shala River and Kamani Lake. We paid around €38 a piece and that included the roundtrip bus tickets as well as the roundtrip boat ride. With today’s exchange rate, that would be about $44 in US money. The scenery was just so beautiful, and the Shala River was so clear and clean, and it reminded us of the Florida Springs, but of course, there’s no mountains, and there’s plenty of alligators in Florida, but not here. Although it’s located in a remote area, it’s become a bit commercialized and we’re really happy we went, but it’s probably not somewhere where we would return. Also, please note that the road is very rough on the way to the ferry. So, in my other videos, I mentioned about the infrastructure issues in Albania. And let’s face it, there is no perfect place anywhere. Scorge is similar to other towns we visited in that we’ve experienced some power outages, some water interruptions, there seems to be some waste management issues, and Scodra does have his share of stray cats and dogs. Thanks to some candid YouTubers and bloggers, none of these things surprised us, and we were able to come prepared with a solar light and with a power bank. So, we met some super nice YouTubers who now call Scodra their home. And although they’re not going to go for residency at this time, they have made a decision to settle here. And they just love it. They are a wealth of information and they do exhaustive research. So check out their channel. It’s secret destinations with Kevin and Wendy. So I usually like to end all my videos with a sunset picture, but I don’t have any here in Scodra. So here’s a sunrise picture in Scodra when we were on our way to Kani Lake. And I just wanted to thank you so much for for coming along with us. I know my videos are very unpolished. I do it all on my Android phone. We don’t own a laptop. But thanks a lot and take care. Safe travels.