There are
many reasons for Albania to be on your bucket list for 2018, as recommended by
prestigious travel magazines. This time, it is the British media Express UK that promotes
Albania as a new hot spot for 2018.
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| Unesco world heritage site Berat, which dates back to the 4th century BC- Getty |
“Within
sight of Italy and Greece, Albania it is an easy-going place with welcoming
people and a land stacked with natural and ancient treasures.” writes Maisha
Frost, the author of the article.
In Albania
you will find authentic beaches resorts and not the typical luxury
Mediterranean writes Express UK. “True, its beach resorts lack the luxury
Mediterranean touch. But this is a tolerant Balkan beauty of a different cast
where fiery red Orthodox icons and swirling Islamic mosaics grace holy places
side by side, and limestone ridges add a luminous dimension to hilltop citadels
and wildflower meadows.”
But
following the Second World War Albania, a country on the edge both physically
and culturally, came under the iron grip of Communist rule. Raw traces of those
brutal years remain, most dramatically in the shape of concrete nuclear
bunkers, mushroom-like humps that mark the landscape.
Tirana
One of the
most intriguing cities in Albania is its capital Tirana.
Tirana is
lively and safe and rather surreal. Part Mediterranean, part Soviet relic its
rainbow-coloured apartment blocks, painted on the orders of a former mayor to
bring some cheer, is more faded pastel these days. The city’s cultural
highlights include a triumphalist history mural guarding the entrance to the
classical, artefact-packed national museum and the pretty 18th-century Et’hem
Bey mosque’s minaret and rare floral mosaics.
National Historical Museum mural- Getty Images
Kruja
Just after a
steep bend the scenery changes dramatically and for a moment I thought I had
time-travelled to Game Of Thrones land as Kruja’s fortress ramparts reared
above. Through a great stone archway lies a bazaar with low, long-eaved
timbered houses and busy cobbled alleyways. Beyond is the tower and castle, now
a museum full of sculptures and homages to Skanderbeg who fought the Ottomans
and for a while reunited Albania.
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| Kruja’s old town feels like being on the set of Game Of Thrones- Getty Images |
Berat
Dating back
to the 4th century BC, the city’s seven-arch Gorica bridge, a favourite Ottoman
masterpiece, spans the Osum river and tiers of white gabled houses climb steep
cliffs to its citadel. There towering walls form a hilltop cradle for ancient
mosques and eight medieval churches, one housing a stunning collection of
icons.
My amble
took me to the 18th-century traditional Ottoman home that is now the city’s
Ethnographic Museum. Behind its covered verandas I got a glimpse of what
communal life was like until just a few decades ago as men pressed olives and
the women wove cloth and waited on them.
The River Osum flows by revitalised vineyards and the lovely town of Berat- Getty Images
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