Hiking - The Albanian Way

This past weekend I went on an overnight trip organized by High Albania, a two-year-old company that is trying to promote hiking and enjoyment of the mountains and natural environment among the Albanian people. As the company's founder explained to me, when Albanians think of vacation destinations they think of the beach, not the mountains. He wants to change that. I admire his passion and energy, because to say that Albanian wilderness pursuits are in their infancy is an overstatement.

In any event, a good group of about 30 mostly Albanian adventurers showed up at the prescribed meeting place on 7 am Saturday. We all piled into minibuses and a few private vehicles and headed towards the Kosovo border (same route as to Valbone). Our destination: the gorge of Rugova. The plan was to sightsee at Gjakova and Peja on the way up to a lodge near the gorge, spend the night at the lodge, and take half the day on Sunday to hike from the lodge up to an alpine lake.

Gjakova old town

Cemetery at the Gjakova mosque

Spring-fed waterfall outside of Peja

Equipment controlling the flow from the spring (supplying water to all of Peja)

My first hint that I might be laboring under a cultural misconception about the weekend's activities came when we "hiked" up to a very impressive natural spring outside of Peja. We were told that it was a 20 minute walk; yet after about 5 minutes it appeared that I had arrived at our destination. Hmm, I must have made a wrong turn. I went  down and rejoined the group. But no, that was indeed the destination. Well, the estimate must have included plenty of time to take pictures, and I only took a few pictures.

The route to the lodge ascended on a narrow gravel road and past a series of deep gorges carved by the river through the limestone rock. The lodge and its guest cabins sit at the end of that road. We were happy for the wood stoves in the guest cabins and the back up generator that kicked on when the power went out later that evening.

Dinner was the setting for cultural issue #2,when

Cabin at the lodge

all but 4 of the 30 Albanians lit up cigarettes that quickly filled the room with a thick haze of secondhand smoke. Hmm - Albanian hikers smoke just as much as other Albanians.

By the next morning I was desperate to stretch my legs on the promised two-hour ascent to the alpine lake. However, the group immediately bogged down and progress slowed to a crawl. Cultural issue #3 - Albanians do not necessarily distinguish between hiking and strolling. But no matter, a few of us non-smokers forged ahead to the lake, which was frozen and very pretty except for the mounds of trash left by previous visitors. That led me to muse on cultural issue #4 - littering. Several Albanian friends have explained to me that during communist times there was no littering, and so the Albanians' current habits are a reaction against that type of control. At the same time, though, people also express nostalgia for that cleaner, more orderly, era. It's a complicated sentiment that comes up in many contexts. But more about that in a future post.

To the saddle!

Happy to be at the high point

Arriving at the lake after about 30 minutes (see cultural issue #2), I waited for the Bulgarian non-smokers to arrive, and then cajoled them into continuing up to a nearby saddle. From our sunny vantage point several hundred feet above the lake, we heard the others laughing and shouting to each other as they arrived. Someone had even brought one of those old-fashioned Swiss mountain horns and was sounding it. (Boy are they loud.) Cultural issue #5 - silence and solitude are not necessarily an expected part of the Albanian wilderness experience.

As you can see from the photos, though, it was a beautiful day and a pretty spot. Reflecting on my reactions, I have to admit I was disappointed because I have specific cultural expectations about hiking and wilderness, and those are different than the experience I had. However I also reflected that everyone else had a blast, so if I'm going to hang out with the "hiking" group I'm just going to have to get over myself. Because even though we didn't do much hiking, I did get to meet a group of incredibly nice and interesting people. I think the Albanians would say that the company is the important thing, and the setting is just a bonus.