Shkoder Part 2- Markets and Minarets

Shkoder Part 2 - Markets and Minarets

Dear Blog Readers,

I just want people who read this to know how much I appreciate having you for an audience. It makes writing this feel worthwhile and fun. I know there are 5-6 of you who are reading this whenever I post and another 5 or so who read it sometimes. I am enjoying writing it but the program, Blogger, is really frustrating to use on the ipad. Goggle will not let me reply to your comments if you comment on the blog. I can’t figure out why, I have tried. I thought about migrating the whole thing to Wordpress but I am not sure I want to do that from my ipad or if it would even work. SO thank you for reading and commenting. I will do my best to respond to comments via email. Please include your name with your comment so I can do that. Thanks!

Shkoder Part 2 -

Back in Shkoder we spent two nights at a nice hotel as a treat. This cost 50 $ for a suite in contrast to 20$ for a private room in a hostel. I was ready to have a bathroom we did not have to share and just a little more comfort. We got a lot more comfort! Breakfast was included and it went beyond the US style hotel breakfast to include freshly made crepes and poached eggs. It felt luxurious and the people treated us great. 

A corner of our fancy suite:

We explored Shkoder some more including hiking up to the castle ruins and of course I went all over the market. Now lots of photos from the market, including two left over from the Kotor, Montenegro market. I love markets!

We met a woman who makes traditional costumes and heard the amazing story of how she and her American friend, who was visiting, met.

We have had many short interactions and connections with Albanians who usually seem so happy to talk and share their culture and country with you.

I loved hearing the call to prayer in the morning and the evening. Although we did not go inside any mosques I found their presence fascinating,  maybe because they just seems like a normal part of the landscape. And a part we don’t see often at home.

An old man on a bus told us all about his life in a combination of Italian, English and Albanian. His main point was people should not fight but be friends. Many older people here speak Italian and there is Italian influence in the cuisine. During the closed communist years ( post WWII till about 1990) Italian radio was one of the only ties to the outside world. Getting caught listening to it was not good. We learned a lot more about how the culture here was formed and effected by communism in at our next stop, the capital, Tirana.