Travels of TnT: Finally the traveling part

So we realized that this blog was called the travels of TnT not the travel, so in the interest of informing people about more of the country than the Shkoder region, we made a few trips. Well, we made the trips to see more of the country, but also to let everyone back home know about these places too. When we returned home people in my office as well as other peace corps volunteers asked what our favorites were, so I thought it would be a good idea to give my best and worst of Albania list, and at the end I will share some pictures of the places we have been and let you choose your favorites. The two "peoples choice" categories are best castle, and best view from a castle. Sorry cities without castles, you didn't make the cut. Sorry Elbasan, your castle is nice but I don't have a good picture and the field castle idea just doesn't provide inspiring views. Tiffany has declined to compare anything since she feels that Albanians compare too much and doesn't like my awards idea, but I digress. On to the awards...

Best City... the nominees are Shkoder, Lezhe, Tirana, Gjirokaster and Berat.
Shkoder is a nice city, the hub of the north, it has 3 rivers, a lake and the ocean just to the southwest. It is also the "cultural capital" of Albania, boasting many famous poets and singers. Lezhe is nice, having the big city feel and the beach so close. Tirana is the capital crowded and metropolitan but it is a good place to stop when you need a bit of the Western World feel. Gjirokaster is also a nice city but the hike up the hill is a killer and not one that I would enjoy having to do every time I needed to pick up some imported item. The fact that many of the imports come in the country through Gjirokaster and are sold there does give it some bonus points. Finally Berat, the city of 1000 windows ( I only counted 997, just kidding) Berat is beautiful with the castle and river running through the city, but the water schedule bumps it down because sometimes you just need to shower, do dishes and laundry in the middle of the day. For those of you not familiar with a water schedule it is how many cities distribute water for a few hours during the day generally once in the morning and again in the evening, many residents have storage tanks to provide 24 hour water, but they notice a lack of pressure when not on city water.

And the winner is.... SHKODER!! They say there is no place like home, and I may be a bit biased but I like it the best.

Worst Climb to a Castle (or best place to train to climb Mt. Everest if there were a castle at the top of Mt. Everest)...The nominees are Shkoder, Lezhe, Berat and Gjirokaster...
Shkoder's Rozafa castle sits on a hill on the south end of the city, Shkoder itself is as flat as a day old can of Coke so the castle rises up out of seemingly nowhere. Lezhe's castle also sits above the relatively flat city, the castle is less visited by tourists so the path is more of a goat trail than a road of many others on the list. Berat's castle sits perched between to large mountains the road leading to the castle wraps around the hill providing an easy drive for a car but at points a steep climb. As mentioned before Gjirokaster's castle sits above both the old and new cities providing views of the river valley below. The recent settlers of Gjirokaster built the city at the base of the hill but the old town was built on the side of the mountain with nothing but straight cobblestone roads to get to the castle.

And the winner (or loser) is...Gjirokaster. I know it had to be painful for armies trying to take the castle but someone had to think about tourists centuries later! (To be fair the true loser of this category is Elbasan their castle sits in the middle of the city with nothing even close to a hill anywhere close)

Best Beach...

No idea still have only been to 2 in the north, and I have heard the southern beaches are pretty nice

Best Souvenir Shopping (or best place to spend all of your money on things no one will know what to do with)...The nominees are Shkoder, Tirana, and Kruja.
Shkoder has a number of souvenir shops around town including the tourist information center. Tirana has many souvenir shops selling everything from Albania t-shirts to pens with the Albanian flag, they even have mobile shops around the necks of teenagers that hang out in the center of town where the tourists all pass through. Kruja's "souvenir central" is set up in their old bazaar. The narrow cobblestone street is lined with merchants speaking in English asking you to come in to look at their merchandise.

And the winner is....Kruja. The merchants can be a bit annoying after awhile but there is no beating the setting. If I was looking to buy my set of Albanian leader coffee mugs in the 1700's I'd look in the same place as I do today and it would probably look pretty similar too.

Alright we will take a pause for now from the awards but I want to know your opinion so post your favorite castle pics and view from a castle on the message board or E-mail me.

The nominees for best castle are...