Kruja Castle and Mount Kruja

This is our last day in Albania.  We stayed at the my favorite of the hotels here - Hotel Panorama.

 View from our hotel window.

 First on the agenda is the Kruja Castle.  As in olden days you first have to go through the bazaar.

 View along the walk to the castle.

 the National Ethnographic Museum.  It shows how life was lived by a wealthy family during the time of Skanderbeg.

 The bride and her dowry.

 Some original paintings on the wall from that time period.

 The men's room.  Women were not allowed in.  They would stay in the room above which had small portals so they could see when the men needed something and would rush to supply it.

 The family room - when they had no visitors the family would all mingle together.  There might be 25 to 30 people living in this house.

 After our visit to the castle we discovered a problem.  Another car had been parked in front of ours - ours is the white one hiding in the rear.  After waiting about 20 minutes some one finally came out of the hotel to move the car - only to discover that the battery was dead.  This must happen often, s they had this super charger ready and started the car in no time.  Migen said later that he was ready to push that car out of the way with our rental car, if they couldn't figure out how to move it.

 Next on to Mount Kruja.  No fence needed for these sheep - just a sharp drop off.

 There is a shrine here to a man called Sarisalltik who was a strong disciple of the Bektashi religion which is an off-shoot of the Dervish religion.

 Place to pray carved into the rocks.  They must have had a service earlier because of all these candles.  There was no one there when we were there.  Just a wet floor in a section many steps above this area where Migen said that they still sacrifice sheep.

While Mike and Migen are talking I got out the fisheye to try to see what I could get.

Some fall color as we drive down the mountain.

Some more of the many half built abandoned buildings we saw everywhere in Albania.  There was a brief spurt of money coming in and so construction begin - but then it stopped and so you are left with many empty buildings.  It is not unusual to see buildings half built - with the second story started but not finished.  The family lives on the first floor and hopes for more money to finish the job.