We had 1 full day in Shkoder before heading off into the mountains for our big hiking adventure. So we spent it doing very little. We did a load of laundry, bought some lunch food and trail snacks, repacked, and did lots of stuff on the laptops since we’d be without them for the next 12 days.

Our Peaks of the Balkans route started and ended in Theth, and before the hike we hadn’t spent any time exploring the town itself, saving that for when we got back. Partly this was because one of the famous spots in town, the Blue Eye, a natural swimming hole, seemed like a good place to recover from our long and strenuous hike. And, because we’re gluttons for punishment, we decided to hike to it.

We were looking at rain arriving in the afternoon so set off fairly early. Our first stop was the small church in town, a pretty wooden building set against the backdrop of towering mountains. It wasn’t open, but the views around the outside were beautiful. We then continued down the valley, enjoying the downhill path, until a short clamber up a very rocky ravine to reach our second stop, a pretty and secluded waterfall. From there it was back downhill again to a small village where the car park for the Blue Eye was located, and then a few more kilometres of up and down to get to the Blue Eye itself. At this point we were joined by a lot more tourists, as this is one of the main reasons people come to Theth. We finally reached a sparkling blue river, full of people lounging on the banks and playing in the water. But it didn’t look anything like an eye, so we continued along a path that disappeared into the forest, and after a few minutes of wondering where on earth we were going, we entered a clearing jam packed with the most humans I’d seen in one place on our whole Balkans trip. The weird thing was despite the throngs of people on the rocks, initially obscuring our view of the Blue Eye itself, there was no one actually in the water here. We soon discovered that’s because it’s so freezing cold that you can’t bear to be in the water for more than about 30 seconds. We did our duty and jumped in, and then clambered out again as fast as the slippery rocks would allow. Fortunately the weather was warm and sunny so it didn’t take too long to dry, and we sat and watched some brave souls who’d hiked around to the cliffs on the other side of the Blue Eye to jump in from up high. Despite it being one of the top sites in the whole of Albania, without feeling any need to keep swimming there wasn’t much reason to stick around. We did the walk up and around the cliffs, and across a very rickety bridge, and then headed back to the pretty river banks with more space to lounge around for a while before heading back to town. The way back to town would be all uphill on foot, so we’d planned to take a well-deserved taxi back and finally stop hiking everywhere. We found the taxis waiting offroad only half way back to the car park, which was a pleasant surprise, especially as the weather picked that exact moment to start raining.

We made it back to town, picked up our bags from the hotel, and ran through the rain to the main restaurant and bar to wait for our bus back to civilisation. We had a couple of hours to kill, but the local wine was pretty good so we didn’t mind. Before long the rain picked up, and then up some more, and then it started hailing huge balls of ice, and the road turned into a river, and we thanked our lucky stars we weren’t hiking down that slippery gravelly mountain path today. We’d considered taking an extra day off in the trail, and I’m so glad we didn’t. We did end up bumping into some other hikers in the bar, who we’d been on the same timeline with until they did take an extra day off along the way, meaning they’d been caught in the crazy downpour and essentially ran last 5km to make it to sanctuary. They were still in good spirits, and I was still very glad it wasn’t me. The rain cleared up and we had no trouble on the drive back, and we made it to Shkoder town with enough time to grab some huge plates of shawarma take away and then not move from the bed for a very long time.

The next day we were off to Tirana, the capital of Albania and our last stop in Europe before heading home. We decided to fit in some final sightseeing in Shkoder, walking (yet again) out to the big ruined castle on the hill overlooking the city. Then it was time for the bus, and then we took another local bus from the station to the town centre where our apartment was located, except this bus drove into a car while navigating a roundabout – very gently, so nobody was hurt, but enough that it was a whole issue and everybody had to get off the bus. The distance to the next bus stop was surprisingly far, almost half way to our destination, so once again we were walking and once again it was raining. But the apartment at the other end was beautiful, and the local takeaway food was delicious. In the evening we ventured back out to explore some of the quirky pubs and bars close to our flat, and a very odd pyramid that was all lit up and visible for miles around.

The next day we wandered the main square, visited a small but beautifully decorated mosque, and waited in line outside a bell tower before deciding it wasn’t worth going up. We took a trip out towards the cable car on the edge of town, which online said it was around $2, but turned out to be around $25, so we changed our minds. Similarly the war bunker turned art museum had increased its prices by over 100% in the past year, and after a lengthy decision process we decided against that too. We always feel bad about not doing things purely based on cost, especially when it’s not so outrageous compared to the US or UK, and extra especially after we’ve made the effort to get there and almost certainly will never go back. We pretty much always do the things we really want to, and we’ve taken some fairly expensive trips recently because of that, but the smaller touristy sites in a destination are increasingly more than we’re willing to pay. When the cost increase has happened so rapidly because of a boom in tourism, or when the price of a ticket is 20 times more than the price of a delicious meal, we just get caught up in the lack of logic and then can’t bring ourselves to just embrace it. But I don’t feel like we missed out – we’d just come from 12 days in the most incredible mountains, so a cable car up a smaller one wouldn’t be a trip highlight, and we’re not big museumy people, unless it’s natural history or interactive science, I’ve never been particularly artsy. So, we were pretty much done with Tirana tourism in the space of about 5 hours. We spent the rest of our day lounging around the cool apartment, and finding more good food and good wine. On our last day we didn’t need to head to the airport until the evening, so after considering a last minute car hire and day trip to the beach, we embraced continued laziness and sat in the park in the sunshine, enjoyed a very long lunch, wandered the shops to spend the last of our cash, and generally just wasted time. Sorry for the low review Tirana – it’s a cool city, but small enough to only really need a day for sightseeing.

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!