When getting lost here among the maze towering mountains and deep valleys, you would never imagine that you’re just a stones throw away from the coast.
I was very grateful to have gotten to explore for a few weeks with my first visitor! My good friend Houda from Morocco.
Albania has a number of fresh water springs, this one is aptly named the blue eye
We really loved exploring the village of Gjirokaster. Historically these mountains were lawless and wild lands filled with bandits, war, and blood feuds. This created a unique architecture style where houses were also designed to be mini fortresses.
Many had secret rooms and places for people to hide during raids
The windows actually were designed to be a place to wash your hands.
During the communist era, they also decided to put a downed American spy plane on top of the castle…
Who can say no to a natural hot spring next to a stone bridge overlooking a river canyon?
I really love the traditional wooden saddles the horses are usually fashioning
Got caught in the middle of professing my love for Albania…
It was around this time that we discovered an amazing old aqueduct
We decided to go for the fun and slightly unnerving walk across
Once to the other side I realized that the structure was not quite as sound as I had imagined. When taking a closer look at the ground, I noticed that I had just walked over a number of fairly large cracks in the foundation… Due to further damage on the other side we were then forced to walk back across, I may have been spotted nervously tip toeing back to safety! Here is the view from below.
Once I saw the professional Albanian repair job though I felt right at ease…
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