SHKODËR
- Joelle McDonald
- Jul 19, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2023
While the rest of our tour group is off hiking in the mountains, we have one day to explore Shkodër, and we plan to see as much as we can. Our time in Bulgaria this trip taught us to always look for a free walking tour if you want to get to know a city and sure enough, there is one here.
Walking Tour
On our walking tours in Bulgaria there was always a big group and you could just show up with no advanced planning. Clearly the tours here aren’t so popular because we had to request it in advance, and when we arrive, we discover it will just be us. Our guide is friendly and knows so much history, but there are not a ton of sites to see in the city. So, it is a bit of a walking lecture than walking tour. Nevertheless, here are some of the most interesting things we learn.
Shkodër is a politically unique city, which never supported the communist government during is very long and harsh regime.
Anti-communist resurgence was sparked here in 1990 with an enormous march organized by students. The police reacted violently and ultimately the four key student organizers were shot by a sniper who was in what’s a hostel today. The square where the four students were killed hosts a monument with four arrays of columns representing each killed organizer. The square is dedicated to students today.
Albania had completely closed borders into the 90’s thanks to its communist leader. Shkodër is very close to the sea, where people could escape to Italy, and people could easily escape to Montenegro either by crossing Shkodër’s lake or through the mountains. This made Shkodër a difficult place to prevent fleeing the country, so a deep state of fear had to be instilled here.
The women of Shkodër are well respected for their strength and loyalty, particularly during the communist movement. Women here were tortured at a rate three (or so, I don’t remember exactly) times higher than men during the communist era. Any anti-communist activities by men would be punished through the women associated with them, such as their wives, mothers, and daughters. Often, the communists were in pursuit of information, and the women are remembered for never cracking under the pressure, maintaining their familial loyalty. One monument in the city was created just a few years ago in honor of the resilience of a woman who lost all three of her children and her husband to the communist party.
Fruit, vegetables, and fish aren’t sold much in grocery stores. Instead there is an open air market, where people from the area bring their produce for sale (or they just sell them on sidewalks) and fish are sold in storefronts with tanks, where many are kept alive.
Traditional clothing and hairstyles in Albania are very specific to certain communities, so you can tell a lot about where a person comes from by their traditional clothes. It isn’t so common for people to wear traditional clothes casually today, but we did see one old woman wearing a traditional outfit with mountain village elements in the city on our tour. Our guide immediately pegged her as being from the mountains, just by looking at her clothes.
There is a great deal of religious tolerance in Shkodër. Catholicism and Islam both have strong roots here, but Orthodoxy is also very present and there is even an Anglican Church. There are many women here who wear hijabs, clearly revealing the Muslim majority.
Rest
Our tour was long and hot, so we head back to our Airbnb for lunch and AC before we embark on our second tour of the day: biking around Lake Shkodër. On the way, we stop to get postcard stamps, and we encounter our first lick-to-stick stamps! It seems more eco friendly to lick it instead of having a plastic or wax coated backing paper to throw away after use.
Bike Tour
The same company that offered our walking tour earlier today offers a lake tour by bike, and biking is a huge thing here in Shkodër. Since we have arrived, we have seen bikes everywhere being ridden by people of all ages. This is unique to Shkodër, though gradually bike lanes are popping up in other cities around Albania. He have been told you haven’t visited Shkodër until you’ve biked there, so the tour was a no brainer.
We meet our guide and a Dutch family that’s joining us outside of a hostel, where we pick up our bikes. The hostel’s bikes aren’t exactly state-of-the-art. Every one is rickety in one way or another. I am the only one with a basket, so I become the water boy for the group. We take off, first weaving through the pedestrian street, then navigating busy streets. Our guide hasn’t given us any instructions whatsoever. We all just chase her like obedient little ducklings. She stops with no warning or comment to buy a pack of cigarettes. While we are stopped, Hannah and someone from the Dutch family buy water. Apparently the guide doesn’t notice because she leaves all of us behind and only realizes after getting through an extremely busy intersection. So far she doesn’t seem like she is winning any guide of the year awards, but all of us ducklings are humored.
As we go through the city, we end up in a massive roundabout that marks the city’s center. Roundabouts are chaotic for cars (especially ones driven by Albanias) so imagine trying to ride a bike in one full of cars who will get to where they are going at any expense. Out guide goes towards the center of the roundabout and we follow suit, which of course means we have to get across multiple lanes of curvy traffic to get out. That was a little stressful.
We stop on the Buna Bridge just under the Rofaza Fortress to take in the view of the Buna River as it enters the lake. Here, our guide gives a brief history talk but nobody can hear her over the sounds of other bikes rolling over the wooden slats. She doesn’t seem to care that we can’t hear. Fair enough, less for me to blog.
Across the bridge, we begin to make our way around the lake on a one lane paved street with rolling hills and very little traffic. We stop at a popular-looking swimming beach. The beach is rocky and the water shallow close to the shore. Our guide, the Dutch mom, Hannah, and I jump at the opportunity to go for a swim. The water is shockingly warm compared to the Valbonë River we swam in two days ago. The lakebed is slimy with algae, but it’s a perfect swim spot.
Dripping wet but satisfied, we continue biking along the road to about a half mile from the border with Montenegro where we stop to visit a traditional weaving shop. The woman who runs it inherited it from her parents (all her siblings preferred to live in Shkodër rather than way out here). She serves us rose lemonade, something of a speciality of the region. It has a bold and bright, sweet yet bitter flavor that wakes up taste buds I didn’t know I had. I like it, but it’s overwhelming my sense of taste to drink a whole glass so I give a fair bit of mine to Hannah to finish.
After we finish our lemonade, we go downstairs to the room that houses all the looms. Here there are two massive ones, which can take up to four people to work, and a few smaller ones for one person. The woman demonstrates to us how she uses the loom. Her pattern is clearly memorized as her fingers zip across her project without hesitation. The women who work here spin sheep’s wool into yarn and dye the yarn themselves before using it to create beautiful traditional blankets, rugs, placemats, table runners, and more. They work from 9 AM to 4 PM, eating breakfast together in the morning before they begin.
We leave the friendly and kind weaver and go down to the dock on the lake below to see the view. Here, Hannah and I spot a snake swimming. Considering Hannah’s extreme phobia of snakes, she stays shockingly calm, but it’s safe to say she will never be swimming in this lake again.
We bike back to the city center together, rickety bikes constantly threatening to rebel. The street traffic is far worse now than it was on the way out of the city. Perhaps this makes the huge roundabout in the city center safer than it was on the way out because the cars are barely crawling now. The hardest part of the entire ride is just at the end as we go down the pedestrian streets again, only now they are packed with slow walkers as Shkodër’s busy nightlife wakes up. I dismount and walk/run next to my bike. I look ridiculous, but it’s safer for everyone, trust me.
Tomorrow we will head back to the mountains, so after our ride, we make dinner and pack ourselves up so we are ready to catch an early bus in the morning.
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