This morning we arrived at the Albanian port of Durres. This is the largest and busiest port, and it is the gateway to visit Albania's modern and historic capitals. We met with our local Albanian guides, and boarded the motor coaches to ride to higher elevation, towards the old Albanian capital of Kruje.
As we traveled through the streets of Albania, we noticed many recent buildings and nice houses. Throughout most of the way, we had a sense of being in a place that is half urban and half rural. It was nice to see that most homes, instead of growing ornamental trees, grew their own food. Most backyards were small vineyards and corn plantations, and some had a good variety of fruit trees and we even saw a cow here and there.
Arriving to the small town of Kruje, we had nice views of the high mountains that rise not too far from town. Stone streets and tile roofs revealed the medieval nature of this interesting town. Some of the highlights are the Scanderbeg museum and the smaller, but quaint, Ethnographic Museum.
George Kastrioti is Albania's national hero, and he is better known by the name of Skanderbeg. The Skanderbeg Museum was beautifully built about twenty years ago, on the same location as a castle. With our local experts guiding us, we learned about Scanderbeg repelling the Ottomans from this area, and we could admire some of the original artifacts and some modern-day frescoes that depicted the battles in a marvelous way.
A medieval bazaar leads to the entrance of the museums, and here we had the opportunity to visit small shops that sold all kinds of crafts and antique oil lamps, bronze coffee grinders, musical instruments, plus a myriad of other interesting objects.
We moved on to the capital city of Tirane, where we visited a restaurant with traditional musicians and dancers. With beautiful traditional attire and instruments, "The Eagles of Shqiperia" delighted us with their music and dance.
We left the port of Durres behind to head towards Croatia. Sea Cloud navigated North through the night, to take us to Dubrovnik, our next destination of the journey.
