After leaving Montenegro and traveling for most of the day over windy rough roads, we arrived in the village of Thethi in the alps of northern Albania. Thethi is a hiker’s paradise, and there is quite a building boom with new hostels and guest houses. The main reason for coming here was to photograph this old Catholic church against the stunning stunning mountains in the Theth Valley during the Blue Hour (roughly half an hour after sunset, when the sky turns a deep blue for about 10 minutes), producing images such as lower-right.

Mehmet was shocked by the physical changes that had been made to the area, so the image of the church that had been shot years earlier has changed drastically. Instead of a church painted by auto headlights, this church had its own harsh wall lighting, with a power pole and fence across the front of the church. Travel to this part of the world has been largely blocked for the past two years due to COVID. Now that travel is starting up again, we are viewing scenery not seen by outsiders for a couple years. It turns out that many locations used that time to “improve” their environment. Of course, adaptability is needed by photographers and travelers. The power lines that were added (upper right and middle left) required careful framing to keep out of the image, or use of photoshop.

Enroute to Theth Valley, we came across a sheep herder Mirac from Serbia, with his flock walking down the road (upper left). He smiled and laughed when we stopped our bus and said we wanted to photograph them. Later we came across an old woman with a small flock of sheep in a field (middle left), where we also stopped for photos. What we love about photo tours vs traditional tours is the willingness to make unplanned stops whenever a Kodak moment presents itself.

The village itself is tiny, and mostly survives by farming and catering to hikers. It is surrounded by high mountains (lower right) that hikers love to explore.

We ate a home-cooked lunch at a small farmhouse. Our group (upper left) enjoyed the lamb, along with copious amounts of rakia and wine, both of which were surprisingly good and home brewed. All the food was cooked by Prenn, the mother (middle left and lower left), while the lamb was raised and butchered by Deda, her son (lower right). The home-brewed rakia was potent, and reminds us of the Turkish brew, Raki, without the anise.

After leaving Thethi, we drove to Shkodra, one of the most important and oldest cities in Albania and known as the center of Albanian Catholicism. One of our first stops there was to photograph the legendary Rozafa Castle.

The Albanian flag flew over the fort ruins (upper right), as we were presented with a stunning view of the city below (middle right, with Arber, our Albanian guide looking over the scene). The other side of the fort shows the winding river. This river made this area strategically significant, and was the main reason this country has been invaded countless times over the centuries.

We spent one afternoon just wandering around town and watching people and architecture. We found one man making clothes on an old pedal tread sewing machine (upper left), while a woman in gold stood on a balcony and lip-synched songs to attract people to the restaurant below (lower left).

One of our favorite “catches” was a group of men playing dominos (center) on the main square. Each man held his cards out of view of his opponents, just as you would commonly see in a game of poker (lower right).

Shkodra was a very busy town, with people always moving. Motorcycles (upper row) were plentiful, but bicycles (middle left, middle, lower right) ruled the streets and plazas. As the evening wore on, numerous young women with strollers (middle right) started showing up on the streets, along with the occasional child on a scooter (lower left).

This was a vibrant part of town, with businesses of all types open and often filled with customers.

And, of course, Mehmet continued to feed us like kings. I was starting to wonder if this was really a photography tour or a gastronomy tour. He makes sure we get both in the package.