Ridiculous Road to a Remote and Beautiful Spot in Albania

It's extremely hot in Tirana. The weekend approaches. What to do? Why not head up in the mountains in one of the most remote places in Albania. This is the Lura Lakes region. It is 7 or more lakes set up in the craters of the high mountains. Few tourists or Albanians have ever visited. Why? For starters, the 2 1/2 hours to get into the region from the paved road and the 2 hours to get out of the area require an SUV type car.
 4 1/2 hours of jostling and banging around in your seat could deter the faint at heart.

That is a road along that slope!

Views, as always here, are breathtaking and compensate for the wild ride.

They lakes are colorful and serene. The only problem is that years ago angry Albanians cut down swaths of the trees around some of the lakes, for little reason except to destroy some of the beauty (and maybe make a few dollars).

Picnic lunch with wine, fresh produce and bread. Ahhhh.

On the way to the town of Lura, we stopped at a mountain side "hotel/restaurant". Below is a woman cooking this special very rich "pie". For 3 hours she bends over this fire cooking this dish. It starts with a mixture of milk, eggs and butter, then a layer of feta cheese, then repeating layers about 100 times in 3 hours, cooking the pie after each addition.

We were served coffee, raki and I got this amazing "cup" of delicious honey.

As the sun was going down, we drove down the mountain side to the quaint town of Lura. 2500 residents live here. It sits in a highland valley and is inaccessible for 7 snowy months of the year. I would say it is pretty much inaccessible the entire year!

Center of Lura with statues of a few important folks and the mosque

The roofs here are made of wood. Beautiful stone structures.

All too brief, we drove the 7 hours back to Tirana, into the sweltering heat. On the way, this monument to those who fought for Albania's freedom during WWII came into view. Can you see the 5 women in this depiction? Equality of men and women was alive and well during the 45 years of the dictatorship from 1944 to 1990.

I'm sweating back in the city but have great visuals in my head!

Remote towns to explore in Albania and revitalized Korca

For those of you living in Albania, I am going to list some of the places you might want to check out.

Albanik is a rustic "camp" shortly after you leave Elbasan, on the road heading for Lake Ohrid. Look for the small road to the left. Take this road 7 km to your destination.
It is a rugged road, and takes about 1/2 an hour to ascend to the camp. Beautiful scenery surrounds you as you climb up the mountains. A friend of mine with a small car made it up the rocky road.
The camp is very well run. There are cabins, a tepee, badminton, and a lake nearby. It could be good for several families to go there. It seems the gate to get in is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays but otherwise and just to plan ahead, phone them 0698228368.

Views on the drive up the road to Albanik

Now to Korca. This is the most beautiful city in Albania, with many small scale buildings from the 1930s. The city is renovating the old bazaar area. I have included photos of the walking pedestrian street and construction on the bazaar area to entice you to visit.

From the old to the newly renovated

Walking street with new Orthodox Cathedral at one end and the new tower to look out over the city at the other end

Typical of special architecture on the walking street

This is the first school in Albania started in 1841. It was revolutionary in that it had boys and girls together.

Our favorite places to stay in Korca are:

Bujtine Sidheri  0665533165    Older home with 4 bedrooms and a living room. You eat breakfast (included) next door down under with an open fireplace and a real country breakfast.

Bujtine Leon   0694366504 This is an old Ottoman house with a few rooms and traditional breakfast

Life Gallery which is an up scale modern and excellent hotel. There are rooms in the old mansion and a new building with rooms behind. They have several cozy bars, a nice restaurant and cafe.
35582243388

Hotel Vila Sigal  35582400970  Brand new. It is owned by Sigal insurance Company. We really liked our room on the 2nd floor with a nice balcony.

The most beautiful street is Rruga Republika. Life Gallery is on that street and the other 3 are just off the street.

We visited an old monastery in remote town (nice road to it) called Vithkug.

In Kamenice, heading back into Korca on the right is an amazing burial site. These graves date back to 2500 BC during the Iron and Bronze Age. Nice museum.

Across from the burial grounds

Another day we traveled to Voskopoje. This was the largest city in the Balkans in the mid 1700s. There were 27 churches here (8 remain) 30,000 people lived here. The most famous church is St. Nicholas.

Next we kept driving just a bit north to a very remote hamlet called Shitpoke.
This monastery was from the 16th century with gorgeous views to the mountains.

The town had about 4 occupied homes and wonderful photo shots!

This was one resident's kitchen. Below the fireplace and above the sink!

So before you end up like this.....Get in your car and visit some of Albania's beautiful remote spots and the lovely city of Korca!

Most graves have a photograph of the deceased. I find it interesting how the family puts food on the grave. In this case it is two pieces of spaghetti, grapes, 2 crackers and in the white paper is two Turkish jelly candies.