FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Albanians have a beautiful, time-honored phrase - 'blessed are the feet that brought you here'.
"Treasures of Albania: Ahead of her new TV series, BETTANY HUGHES celebrates the enchanting coast, majestic mountains and attractive people of a country that is 'blooming'", this is the title of the prestigious British DailyMail, which writes about the natural beauties of Albania and the hospitality of Albanian citizens, broadcasts the Swiss newspaper in Albanian Le Canton27.ch
Inspired by the travels of three wild Britons – Lord Byron, Hon Aubrey Henry Molyneux Herbert (half-brother of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who helped discover Tutankhamun's tomb) and intrepid adventurer Edith Durham, we set out to explore Albania.
Three landscapes to conquer – river, mountain and sea. Albanians have a beautiful, time-honored phrase 'blessed are the feet that brought you here'.
There were four of us; my husband and I and our 20 year old daughters. I have been bringing them here for 15 years, but now trips to Albania are booming.
After 50 years of isolation under a communist regime – with dictator Enver Hoxha in office from 1944 to 1985 and fully independent only since 1992, Albania is welcoming the world with open arms. So hurry to Albania while the welcome is sweet and authentic, and a feast for four costs little more than a round of pubs in the UK. I admire the Albanian attitude towards the cake. They are great early morning snackers, often freshly baked with oranges and crunchy pumpkin seeds. Fortunately there is mountain hiking to deal with the inevitable results.
Above the Kruja Castle, 40 minutes from the capital Tirana, there is a rock-cut shrine belonging to the Bektashi sect (a fusion of Muslim, Christian and ancient faiths) that collapses time. About 3,000 feet high, lit by candles, pilgrims come here to make offerings: meat and perfumed oil. A Bektashi father – with a long white beard that Noah would have envied – confided to me that the only things Bektashis curse are bare knees and rabbits. This is complicated in Albania, as pale rabbits as well as fat ducks and small donkeys share many of the mountain roads. An old woman sold me freshly plucked flowers and rose oil for my hair for tea. It is easy to imagine why Byron loved this place so much. It reminded him of the distant highlands of Scotland.
Moving south from Tirana to the hilltop town of Berat, with the sacred Mount Tomorr blazing red in the morning, its slopes home to bears, booted eagles and black vultures, this city 'of a thousand windows' it was a trader's stop on the old silk roads.
"Albania has a strict code of hospitality - Besa - which means that people will give up everything to protect respected guests..." quotes the Swiss Albanian newspaper Le Canton27.ch. It became one of the rare countries where the Jewish population, mostly refugees fleeing the Nazis, was larger after World War II than before.
Further south, about a three-hour drive, Butrint – said to have been founded by Trojan War hero Aeneas – is a site where ancient Greek remains overlook Roman arches, Byzantine mosaics and the remains of Venetian lagoons. We spent the night without staying, but Dua Lipa and other stars in the Albanian-Kosovar sky rent villas in nearby Kep Merli. The rivers in Albania carry juicy stories.
The wild waterway of Vjosa has been turned into a national park, flowing into the Adriatic from the Pindis mountains in Greece. Chamomile tea is from meadows, cherry jam from shaded wild cherries. Around the fortress town of Tepelena, the Vjosa swells to offer white-water rafting. It is worth following the river Osum and its tributaries, surrounded between the town of Berat and the small village of Roshnik by stalls of fresh olives and apricots. Our daughters Sorrel and May insisted on treating us to a thanksgiving meal. The locals told us to find a place called Alpeta. Our table quickly grew thick with spiced goat cheese, jugs of red and white wine, cornbread, pumpkin pie. We ate until we couldn't eat any more. I could see the girls nervously checking their Monzo accounts. cost? £36 for four./ lecanton27.ch
Lini një Përgjigje