Honeymoon pt 3: Albania

Albania has crept its way up my travel list in the past few years—luring me in with gorgeous mountain views and beaches that rival Italy’s. If you don’t know, Albania is a country in Eastern Europe, wedged in between Montenegro and Greece. It’s one of those countries that is a bit rough around the edges (people included) but overall very welcoming and kind.

For example, as we were leaving the airport in Tirana, looking for our pre-paid shuttle, we passed a line of rental car kiosks, with every single kiosk having a different version of the same gruff Albanian man outside. Every one of them leaned against the wall, smoking a cigarette, wearing either a puffy vest or a jumpsuit, with a sling body bag across their chest, asking if we wanted a rental car. One of these kind, cigarette smoking, vest-wearing men personally walked us to our shuttle bus where he then handed us off into the safe hands of the next smoking Albanian man in a jumpsuit.

The Shala River

The Shala River is often called “the Thailand of Europe” because of its gorgeous turquoise waters and steep green cliffs. To get to the Shala River you must take a shuttle bus from Shkodër to the Koman ferry port and then take a ferry across Lake Koman to the Shala River, specifically to the riverbed where all of the fun lives. The ferry port is at the end of a single lane tunnel that does in fact have a stoplight to prevent people from driving into the tunnel going opposite directions, but no one pays any mind to this stoplight. Instead, this narrow and dark tunnel is filled with shuttle buses, motorcycles, and tourists with luggage—all of which are simultaneously going in both directions. Our shuttle driver opted to drop us off before the end of the tunnel, so we walked the remainder of the way. The ferry port was in complete chaos and Hayden and I wandered around, buying water and bananas, trying to find our ferry.

Our ferry ride was absolutely gorgeous as we carved through Lake Koman and up the Shala River. We made it the section of river that is filled with a smattering of home stays, restaurants, and lounge chairs where we were spending the next two nights. There really isn't too much to do here, which was so so nice.

We spent our days walking up and down the river, reading our books, playing lots of backgammon, and in general soaking up the views. One afternoon we found the 10 year old son of our camp’s owner smoking a cigarette while wearing a puffy vest, with a cross body bag, and talking on the phone. So they train them young…

The Albanian Alps

After the Shala River, our next stop was to Valbonë for the Valbonë to Theth hike in the Albanian Alps. To get here we had to take a ferry back to the Koman ferry port, then get on another, larger ferry where we backtracked just about the entire way we had just come, but took a right onto the Drin River instead of a left on the Shala. Eventually, you get dumped at Fireze where you then hop on a shuttle bus for an hour before getting dropped off on the side of the road in Valbonë. On said shuttle, you will also realize that you don’t have any more Lek and that there are no ATMs in either Valbonë or Theth, with no one accepting credit cards, only cash. This is also about the time that you learn you didn’t book a guesthouse in town, but one that is a 40 minute hike into the mountains instead.

After consulting ChatGPT, who suggested we ask our guesthouse if we can work in exchange for a free stay, I found on the depths of the internet on an obscure Albanian travel Facebook group that there is in fact ONE ATM in all of Valbonë. (Adrianna 1, AI 0) We were saved in terms of cash and learned that our guesthouse was well worth the hike.

View out of our window at the guesthouse

This part of Albania felt like stepping back in time, but with the modern luxuries of indoor plumbing, wifi, and electricity. The town wasn’t much of a town, case in point here is the one “market” in town:

Our recently built stone guesthouse was on a plot of land with a much older stone barn, a stone chicken coop, lots and lots of chickens, a handful of cats, and wandering cows—all set against the backdrop of the dramatic Accursed Mountains. A fresh mountain spring runs through a wooden trough to keep all of their drinks cold. The guesthouse dutifully asks if you’d like dinner for 10 euro, as if you have any other options for dinner. So we settled into the small dining room with all of the other guests and a small fire. We ate until we were full, before going to sleep in anticipation of our hike the next morning.

The Valbonë to Theth hike is a 17km hike that can be done in either direction, with us choosing to hike the direction of Valbonë to Theth. Many people hire a car to take them to the trailhead from their guesthouse but we opted to walk, which made our day a full 13 miles of hiking fun.

The hike was challenging but absolutely gorgeous. Hayden and I had fun guessing where the trail would lead us to cross the pass and all of our guesses were wrong.

After a day full of hiking, we cut off to our guesthouse before fully making it into town. We were blessed with another guesthouse that had incredible views, had a hot shower and a few hours of laying on the bed, enjoying no longer being on our feet. At dinner, we met an American who created a startup that builds devices that track and recognize bird sounds—helping researchers and non-profits gain valuable data on birds! Which we thought was just about the coolest thing ever.

We woke to rain the next morning that had no intention of letting up. After breakfast, we made the 25 minute trek down to our shuttle bus that would take us back to Shkoder. Online I booked a comfortable sounding 40 person Mercedes van. However, a nice cigarette-smoking Albanian man in a jumpsuit pointed us to a van with peeling paint and a leaking roof after I showed him our tickets. Hayden and I managed to grab the last two dry-ish seats in the back before we set off on a 2 hour drive on harsh switch-back roads through dense fog while our driver blasted Albanian pop music and talked on the phone.

Our time in Albania was short—even with 4 months of travel, it’s hard to squeeze everything in! We only explored the north, but I’ve heard great things about their beaches to the south. We’ve now got 3 flights ahead of us with overnight layovers in both Dubai and Kathmandu as we make our way to Bhutan! Stay tuned :)

Honeymoon pt. 2: Turkey

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