Trip to Pick up Ryan - Krujë, Albania
Thursday morning we ate a European sandwich for breakfast at the hotel, packed the car and then headed off to Krujë — a hillside town with a great castle. Even the drive up was impressive. We passed cattle wandering on the road and then pulled over at a great spot to look up at the colorful houses dotting the hillside. Stopping right next to a group of men at a carwash, they invited me over for an even better look up some stairs. Albanians have really been very welcoming and helpful. What a view!
We continued up the windy road to the top of the city and parked by the castle. Then we made it our mission to find a bathroom. Yikes. We settled on a little restaurant who had a bathroom down some outside stairs and around the corner and it wasn’t great — but since I was desperate I was grateful.
The cobbled streets were lined with little markets selling blankets, Albanian souvenirs and trinkets. I remember the pictures Ryan send of the P-day he spent here. Such a cute little town.
Love this view of the mountains and colorful houses nestled in green trees.
The ruins were neat, the red Albanian flag against the mountain was cool and even the museum was interesting…. all about Skanderbeg - Hero of Albania. The castle balcony was a great place to take pictures and see the view. From here we could see a walkway and viewpoint between cobbled roofs (above left) and decided we would make our way down through the streets.
On our way we found multiple cobbled alleyways worth exploring and photographing.
When we finally got to the walkway we realized it was private property but the landowner anxiously invited us in to see the mosque and even his own living quarters just to show us what a great view he had. And then he gave us candy — which is apparently quite common.
We stood on his private balcony and then he offered - in Albanian of course - to take our picture. I’m always leary to hand my camera off and have low expectations of what I will receive, but he was so willing to help that I gave instructions to Ryan and he translated. He was SO HAPPY to take a picture with my camera he could hardly contain himself. He snapped the picture and moved the camera in exhuberate joy so quickly after that I was positive the picture would be blurry. It was pretty funny. He kept pointing to his little flip phone and said ‘this is my camera’ in Albanian. He was so cute. When I looked at the picture later I was pretty impressed. We have very few pictures of the three of us on this trip! Definitely a great memory!
After the gorgeous views from the castle and cobbled alleyways Ryan was anxious to take us to the TOP of the mountain for a magnificent view of the whole valley. Ryan and his mission friends had hiked it on their P-day excursion but we didn’t have time today so we drove to the top. It was pretty spectacular.
SOOO high up! What a great day. So glad Ryan suggested this for our Albanian tour!
Loved seeing these little goats all over the mountainside.
So long Krujë!
Quick stop in Lezhë
From Krujë we headed up through Lezhë. We drove around the town and Ryan pointed out where he lived, shopped and went to church in his first area. Fun to see. We quickly stopped in town to go see THE door. Ryan had always loved this door and was exited to show it to us. Very cool.
Dinner in Shkodër
We ate dinner at one of Ryan’s favorite restaurants in Shkodër — another place Ryan served. It was so nice that he already knew the area and had ideas of where we would eat. This cute restaurant was by the river going right through town.
It was such a great meal.
Spaghetti Bolognese
Mixed Salad
4 Cheese penne Pasta
Fried Potatoes
Everything was so inexpensive! It was easy to keep ordering sides so we could just try everything. One of our many ‘best meals in Albania’.
In Line for the Montenegro Border Crossing
We continued North and waited for a long time at the border to get into Montenegro. While we waited Ryan and I got out and took a few pictures. Our travel time was great and was filled with lots of questions and answers, some podcasts, some music and so many great conversations. Today we listened to Minamalists and Dave Ramsey podcasts and talked about all of it.
We stayed in a town called Bar, Montenegro and had no idea it was such a resort town. So many people on the roads as we made our way to the hotel. Driving here is just crazy. No lanes, no rules of who goes first or second. People and bikes in the road. Ryan loves driving here. I wouldn’t!
The hotel was nice. Really cute room. We played a game of Istanbul, watched some family videos and then headed to bed.