Shengjin June 1

Westralia
Steve Coughlan
Sat 1 Jun 2019 10:00

Organised car and driver, Arben, who picked us up at 10am to go to the town of Shkoder, near Lake Skadar. Had a coffee in the very active town, lot of pushbike riders, mosques and churches. Visited the Rozafa Castle and had a 360 degree panoramic view of the lake, town and surrounds.

Then visited lake Vau i Dejes before having an incredible banquet lunch at the Hylli i Drites restaurant where, with a bottle of good red, cost only 50 Euro for the three of us. Returned to Shengjin around 1645. I took the Brompton into town and bought an electrical switch, new bike lock, got a haircut and bought two spray containers of shower cleaner, all for less than Euro 20!

Returned to the boat and replaced faulty light switch on the dinghy battery case. The head Port police officer, Bash, and his associate police officer, Alexo, came over to Westralia and invited Zimi and I over for a coffee. General discussion about life in Kosovo, relativity to Australia etc. Zimi is a legend as interpreter and pretty much treated like a rock star!

Around 8pm Zimi and I decided to go to a music festival, 1.8km north of the port. We caught a taxi there and paid the Euro 90 each for a ticket! It was a noisy doof doof international DJ event on the beach. Unfortunately the Rolling Stones were not there so we ended up being the oldest guests. After two beers and watching young ladies snorting cocaine we cut our losses and returned to town to have dinner. The Albanian music the taxi driver had on was a lot better!

 

 

Arben and Zimi in Shkoder

 

 

 

Mosques, Orthodox and Catholic churchs aplenty

 

 

Many locals commute on bicycles

 

 

Old Albanian harpsicord player near Rozafa  Castle

 

 

View from Rozafa castle wall to Lake Skadar

 

 

 

Akben, Zimmi, Steve at Rozafa Castle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Vau I Dejes

 

 

Stone masons at work paving roadway

 

 

Hylli I Drites restaurant