Back in Shkoder, Albania

OCTOBER 8, 2012

There are clearly two ways to receive amazing room and board while traveling.  One is pay huge sums of money and stay at the finest five star accommodations where your dollar demands you get what you want.  I’ve experienced this a couple times in my life include The Belagio in Vegas, Sonoma Spa in California and The W in Pentagon City. 

Alternatively, I prefer the second method, which is to seek out small hotels or midsized guesthouses owned and operated by husband and wife teams who realize take immense pride in what they do.  After leaving the wonderful accommodations in Thithe, we were back in Shkoder for a night’s stay at Tradita G & T guesthouse for another night of amazing hospitality from another husband wife team. 

Tradita is a Bavarian-style facility with so much history prior to its conversion to a guesthouse eight years ago, they actually have an ethnocentric history museum on the second floor.  Century old farming implements hang on walls made of white-washed cement and stone.  Meals are cooked on a huge open fire in the dining room.  Were you dropped off blindfolded and made to guess, Albania would be about fifty guesses down on your list, behind Germany, Austria, Holland and other countries where this style of building would seem more possible. 

Here’s one of many examples of the service provided.  During breakfast the owner saw me devouring the homemade fig spread and asked if I liked figs.  Seconds later he was picking them fresh from a tree in the back yard and filling my plate.

Following that great breakfast, the owner packed us up in his car and drove us personally to the bridge that severs as an exit point from Shkoder where he thought it easiest for us to find a ride west.  Sure enough, it took less than ten seconds to secure another private hire to get us across the border and back to Ulcinj, Montenegro. Once I would leave Chris to explore the city I left a week prior, while I headed further up the coast on my way to Croatia.