Then followed yet another scenic mountain road to Kukes.
After a Birra (Albanian and hebrew for beer) and espresso in a cafe bar just above the lake ( Fierza reservoir of the Drin river)
we joined one of the few Albanian highways and were quite impressed with the "double lane in each direction" idea...
The highway continues through a very long and modern tunnel and when it ended we continued north to Shkoder (second largest city after Tirana).
Florian guest house is situated on the city's outskirts , surrounded by fields. A large gated yard full of grape vines, vegetables and roaming chickens. The Accommodations reminded us of places we slept in 30 years ago in our "Big Trips", which made Eldad become very poetic as we tried to fall asleep with an open window and a noisy ventilator...
Despite this fact, it was interesting to meet this very hospitable Albanian family, eat dinner from what they grow in their garden and drink the wine they make from their grapes.
We listened attentively to Florian's stories about Hoxha, the terrible communist dictator, who held Albania in complete seclusion for over 40 years, and how difficult it is for a very young democracy who just got "acquainted" with the rest of the world (1991!!), to become a real democracy which can provide work and healthcare to all its citizens...
Just before dinner we were able to return the blue Landrover to Edmund and still had time for A sunset climb to the beautiful castle in Shkoder with panoramic views of the city and its surroundings.
After the walk we had another encounter with Albanian hospitality. We saw a pharmacist closing the pharmacy for the day with his wife and daughter waiting for him in the car and asked him where we could get a taxi. They immediately made room for us in their car and were willing to drive us to the hotel. We insisted on a ride only to the taxi station, where we met s very nice (and knowledgable) taxi driver who took us back to the hotel.
We learnt today that 1 in every 4 Albanians lives abroad and sends money back home, most Albanians speak italian and the average monthly salary is 150 euros...
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