Shkodra, Albania
As mentioned in a previous post, we asked our hotel, Xheko, in Tirana to set up a driver to take us the 57 mile drive north to Shkodra. We were staying in the guest house at Camping Legjenda. Camping Legjenda is like a little resort complete with camp site, pool, guest house with private rooms, a cafe/bar, and restaurant at the very edge of Shkodër. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here! It’s hard to compare each place we stay but this may have been our most favorite! The hosts were so beyond friendly! The guest house is similar to getting a shared room in an Airbnb. We had a private room with our own private bath. Nothing fancy, mostly just a comfy crash pad for after our days adventuring.
This little town was our pit stop before and after the best part of our trip, our hike from the village of Theth to the village of Valbona through the Albanian Alps! I had reached out to the owner of the Legjenda Guest House via email prior to our arrival to inquire about setting up our transportation to and from a hike to the Albanian Alps. Once we arrived, the owner reviewed our itinerary for transport including our van pick up, return trip, and ferry ride for the hike from Theth to Valbona. They made it so simple and it was clear they had done this before!
Once we settled into our room, we walked about 1 mile up the street to Rozafa Castle. Legend has it that three brothers set out to build a castle here but it kept falling down. They gleaned that they needed to sacrifice one of their wives to keep the castle from crumbling down. They decided that whichever of the wives brought them lunch the next day would be buried alive in the castle as the sacrifice. The older brothers told their wives not to bring lunch and so the youngest brother’s wife, Rozafa, came with lunch and learned that she would be sacrificed yet, didn’t protest. She graciously accepted her fate with the request that one of her breasts be left exposed to feed her newborn. Because of Rozafa’s strength the castle remains in existence today. The sprawling grounds of the castle are vast and there is much to see and explore. Many of the structures are thousands of years old. We had a great time meandering through. There is a small museum with limited hours onsite. Rozafa Castle was well worth the visit and was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.
We walked back down to the guest house when we finished exploring around dinner time. We considered walking deeper into Shkodër to settle down for a meal, but after much research, I found that the best restaurant in Shkodra was on the grounds of our guest house called Restaurant Legjenda! A picturesque wooden building with stone floors and ornate walls, Restaurant Legjenda was the perfect stop for an Albanian meal. We ordered the house wine, pasta carbonara, a meat dish and some salads. The savory dishes were well prepared and the service was great. We headed back to our guest room to get to bed early as we would be starting our hike from Theth to Valbona the next day!
