Despite my best attempts to convince myself to rest, I couldn’t resist one final day trip to the city that actually most excited me about visiting Albania while researching (before actually experiencing Tirana, of course!). Krujë has one of the best ethnographic museums in the country – a preserved 17th-18th century home with incredible artifacts, set amongst a gorgeous set of castle ruins atop a hill. We honestly have been so busy between touring the country and the New Year’s holiday that I couldn’t commit to a trip in advance (and, until about 4pm yesterday, was strongly considering going up to Kosovo). As a result, it wasn’t quite the experience I hoped for, but it was certainly an authentic Albanian cultural exchange and worth it nonetheless!

Things were already off to a mildly shaky start when I asked the hotel concierge if I could book a driver to take me up to Krujë today (it was sadly too late to book Ilir, my guide for Berat & North Macedonia, or the other driver we used to bring us from Tirana to Durrës – pro tip: use a known driver when transiting Albania and book them a day or two ahead of time!). A taxi was the best she could do – so a taxi it was! The concierge gave me a look when she realized it was just me (my husband didn’t want to go on another long trek), but I loaded into the car and set off on the hour-long journey up the mountains regardless.

The amusement started upon entering the taxi – my driver, Ilir, told me he spoke Albanian, Greek, French, and Italian, to which I responded I speak English and Spanish; we decided to try a lingua franca of me speaking Spanish and him speaking Italian, which worked for the first ~20 or so minutes of idle chatter. As a side note, you may recognize the name “Ilir” from my other Albanian blogs – my guide in Tirana to both North Macedonia and Berat (who I’d highly recommend, check out the Tirana blog for his contact details!) had the same name. Guide Ilir told me on the trip to North Macedonia that Albanians, especially during the ~’70s-’90s, used very ‘nationalistic’ names like Ilir (referencing the Illyrian kingdom Albania draws its heritage from), Albana (“Albania”) and “Bashkin” (“Unity”) are extremely common and that if you threw a stone, you’d hit several Ilirs. From an N=~5, he was right!

Taxi driver Ilir and I made casual conversation: I asked about Greece, since he mentioned speaking Greek and he pointed out a couple cars with Greek license plates – his official answer on Greek-Albanian relations is that they are “not good” with a pointed hand wave. He asked me about California – Albanians seem to really love Americans and he didn’t believe me that California has many mountains (I guess everyone thinks California is LA!).

The crux of our conversation was timing for my walking tour of Krujë – I had asked the hotel to tell the driver to just wait ~1 hour for me to visit when they booked the taxi, during which I was happy to keep the meter running. Through some combination of cultural differences and language barrier, it was clear that Ilir both understood that ask and had no intention of honoring it, as he “needed” to go back to Tirana in between (I also tried the same in Albanian with Google translate, which was ineffective; oddly enough, Google translate seemed to work fine with Albanian later in the day, lol!). Given Krujë has a very limited tourist presence during off season, I figured I’d just wait for Ilir to return from Tirana (he kept promising it would be a 30-minute drive each way, but I know better!). The hotel also convinced me (I don’t know why I bother listening, I knew this was not correct) that Euros would be fine for payment; Ilir walked me to four separate restaurants / shops upon arrival in Krujë to try to find some place to switch a 50 Euro for a 5,000 (or smaller bills) LEK; he finally gave up and accepted it. Amusingly, I tried to get out LEK from an ATM to prepare for the return journey and ended up withdrawing 50,000 LEK (about 500 Euro / $500) – I can’t win! Fortunately, Ilir and I exchanged numbers, so we were able to navigate the (lengthy) return drive negotiations later.

Krujë itself is gorgeous – it refers to itself as the “City beyond the Sky” and I can absolutely see why! The views are spectacular, stretching all the way down past Tirana on a clear day. The “old town” aka “castle” (as with Berat, the castle is also the town) is mostly in ruins today, offering the famous ethnographic museum as well as the Skanderbeg History Museum, which is dedicated to the hero of the same name. The first thing I sought out was the Ethnographic Museum… which was sadly closed. Ilir (the guide, not the taxi driver) had mentioned that much would be closed January 2 as well as January 1 for New Years, so sadly this wasn’t completely surprising, although I was disappointed. I also fully recognize I could have had the hotel call ahead to see if it was open, but where’s the fun in that? However, the views of the old town make up for it!

The castle itself is beautiful as well – of note was the ruined mosque, which is believed to be from ~1450. Today, the minaret is the primary piece that remains.

Fortunately, I was able to visit the Gjergj Kastrioti National Museum (Skanderbeg), aka the Skanderbeg History Museum. Sadly, nearly all of the commentary is exclusively in Albanian, but there were some interesting relics, including swords and weaponry from the Bronze Age until the modern period, some ecclesiastical art, and lovely heavy wood furniture (following the theme of climbing on statues, Albanians also enjoy touching their relics in many cases!).

Much of the museum was modern paintings reinterpreting the different historic scenes. They were impressively large (probably 30 feet by 6 feet or so), although again there was limited description. I assume they are highlights of Skanderbeg’s reign and/or the medieval period in which he lived in Krujë.

Of course, the old town ruins are nice to wander through as well – it’s clear this was a relatively large city, and I do think if this weren’t the holiday period there would have been a lot more open, including the other museums and the medieval church.

Once outside the “castle” there is a lovely bazaar (Ilir, the taxi driver, translated “bazaar” to “polite trading” when trying to tell me where to meet him, which was amusing) that has gorgeous Ottoman architecture. It’s mostly filled with cheap souvenir stands, but there are some treasures – I personally bought some traditional Albanian felted sheep-wool shoes (for Christmas ornaments) from a side shop that was clearly authentic (the proprietor told me in broken English that she and her family hand make everything, and the shop smelled like fresh sheep, so that was a good sign!).

All told, it took about 45 minutes to explore the key sights of Krujë – given Ilir and I had aligned on an hour total wait time, I made my way back to our pick up point and texted him to let him know I was ready. Unsurprisingly, he responded that he was “30 minutes” away (to be clear, downtown Tirana is ~45 minutes, so I knew he was using Albanian time for his calculation).

I decided to wander through the “newer” part of Krujë, not to be confused with Frushe-Krujë, which is the true “new town” down the mountain. Sadly, not much was open, but there were some nice shops and some good views.

Through a couple garbled Whatsapp voice chats and messages, it became clear that Ilir was more like an hour and a half away, so I sat for coffee and embraced Albanian time.

On the way home, we had some amusing stilted conversation despite the language barriers – he wanted to make sure I ate (I lied and said I’d had a byrek, which made him very happy), he asked if I was married and had kids (I confirmed I have a burrë, to which he requested pictures and was pleased to see my husband eating a byrek from our time in Tirana), and then he shared pictures of his daughters (and one of his daughter’s Instagram account, which I will say is impressive if you need your nails done in Albania!). I also learned that he was a truck driver throughout Europe for 23 years before becoming a taxi driver (which he does not like), and that his wife divorced him about a year ago and has since found a new partner (stated in different words understood the world over, phrased in a strongly worded mix of Albanian, Italian and Spanish!). If the harrowing drive weren’t enough, half of this was communicated via Whatsapp messages typed (so I could translate from Albanian) as we were dodging on-coming traffic around hairpins turns on the one lane mountain road connecting Krujë to the highway below.

If the “Albanian time” and the driving / Whatsapps weren’t enough of a cultural difference, the stops were – Ilir stopped for byrek for himself, then tried to stop for a drink with me (he was less excited once he learned I had a burrë waiting for me at the hotel, especially once he saw my rings and pictures of my husband), and then he stopped for cigarettes. The ~45 minute journey extended to an hour and Albanian time became clear. Fortunately, the byrek stop was a cultural event – amusingly, there is a chain of bakeries here called “George W. Bush” (since the United States was a big supporter for Kosovo and Albania during the Bush administration).

Despite all that, we made it safe and sound back at the hotel (where my burrë was waiting to greet Ilir at the door!) and I had a thoroughly good time on my Krujë adventure. I also have been amused by the sights leading to our hotel in Durrës, including this (scary!) scarecrow wearing a puffer jacket and a bunker on the side of the road (it legitimately looked like the Bunk Art 2 bunker we saw in Tirana, just randomly placed on a residential road).