The Guardian: Strange, Ancient and Wonderful Albania

Strange, ancient and wonderful. There is much to be discovered between the cultural intersections of a country that provides you with a real adventure, writes Fiona Dunlop for the renowned British newspaper” The Guardian”.

Was it a wolf? As our car rose to another narrow bend in an Albanian village, a strange hairy creature was watching us from the edge of the road. No doubt it was the wolf, after we had just left behind a natural reserve, where a local wildlife panel referred to an identical lupus canis.

This was not the only unexpected experience in Zogu's country (the only king of Albania, in 1920-30s), where, under the depressive dictator Enver Hoxha, it was hermetically closed until the years of dealt with the rest of Europe.

We had decided to begin our trip to Corfu, to avoid chaos and expenditures in the capital, Tirana. Out of all the straits, Albania's mountain silhouette appeared and fled strangely like an aureol, so that when our ship finally stormed the port of Saranda, it was a shock to find a jungle with random buildings embracing the coast.

This departure for the Albanian Renaissance was not for us, however, as my partner and I had described our road journey deep into the broken south, in search of Byzantine jewels, strange Ottoman hotels, mosques, castles and restaurants producing delightful local products.

“Albania has only one way it runs to Kosovo. You can't lose!”, he told us he rented our car at the port. It's not actually this case, but actually a map should definitely. In this strange place, where private cars have been alone for about 25 years, double parking, wrong driving, and vague road signals have become part of the experience.

Strong Mercedes and glistening SUVs were the norm, but when you drove after an old man riding a bicycle or on a donkey, all of this challenged the centuries.

Their habits are interesting, especially the custom of shaking their heads to say yes and he's leaning on it to say "no." The English language itself is different from any other language, although the Italian influence seems to be on a short scale.

Some things work on the opposite side: A large morning began with cake and went on with hard cheese, tomatoes, and sausages before it ended with eggs and finally with a side of fruit coffee.

Our first destination was Butrint, proclaimed a World Heritage Zone by U NESTO, located south of Saranda.disposed on a forested and accessible peninsula through a series of unspoiled trails, it is an incredible variety of ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian buildings, while there is also a small but magnificent museum.

A few hours went by as if by magic, and they added a few seas and fragrant wildflowers. Not far away, we stopped for lunch at the House of Honey. At a table near a large lagoon, covered by mountains, we ate local raisins, gulls of sea fruit, grilled fish, and local wine all for 22 pounds.

Finally, we were able to reach the land of the region's beauty, the Green Eye, located in a green valley. Here was a source that came out of a hearty rock and poured into its lake with every possible variation of the emerald.

It seemed like a mirage, or perhaps an Albanian fairy tale, because right next door we saw that wolf, not only that one but also wild horses, flocks of sheep and goats grazing nearby.

Gjirokastra, our next stop, is known for its castle and Ottoman-style harmonious neighborhoods. This beauty included the carved house of the Skkouls, where he was shown by an heir of the eleven generations.

It was confiscated under Hoxha's communist regime and returned to its owners in 1993. At the same time, the refuges of the population from the bombarding aircraft, a maze of tunnels and underground offices, were impressive reflections of Hoxha's regime's paralogue. However, we cannot blame the food or kindness of the local people who kindly awaited us.

High hooks, steep rocky mountains, and a light present industry followed us north along the main route that passes through the cities along the vast Vjosa River.

Ancient ruins hosted us at the archaeological site of Biblicalis, a beautiful and abandoned city of 2,500 years before we arrived at Berat, which was a real spectacle to me.

This vibrant city embraced beautiful windows (another World Heritage site W) NCO) and lay along the Osum River between the two hills facing each other, packed with Ottoman houses, with a castle that looks like a crown in the highest quarter, Mangalemin.

Within the walls of the fortress are medieval churches, two destroyed mosques, private houses and an extraordinary museum of Byzantine art, while low - paying hotels and restaurants had flourished in the interior of the castle.

The food is well cooked in Berat. One evening, we sat in a restaurant window with a bright view of the river, where we enjoyed a specialty cooked with fresh frogs from under the restaurant.

Another evening we came to the fort to talk to the Union, owner of the charming restaurant Ant withoutrea. Dinner included spinach pies and yogurt pans for a total of 18 pounds.

As we drank some good red wine from his vineyard, the Union told us about his 17 years of work in Florence and that a third of Albania's population lived abroad. Italian is widely spoken, but English is also spoken somewhere, so communication was rarely a problem.

Berat was where we realized how Christianity, Islam, Bektasism, and Judaism have co-existed in harmony for centuries in Albania.

This tolerance was illustrated by the XV - century Sultan's mosque, still in use, a Sufi mosque, a small Jewish museum, and a magnificent Orthodox cathedral.

From where the distant snow - covered mountains appeared, we headed a long road surrounded by numerous cafés. The sun was approaching, and hundreds of men and women walked along the boulevard, stopping for a conversation or a coffee.

This Boulevard was the same as Italian promenade or Spanish pace. Despite its exotic past, Albania is a very Mediterranean country. Thus it was found that Albania is a brilliant cultural crossroads where Greece, Italy and the Balkans meet. After the change, I think Albania is a truly admirable country and, of course, to visit”, ends the” The Guardian”.