Adriatic Trip Day 16 – Durrës and Krujë, Albania

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

The Orion was repositioned to the port of Durrës overnight. We found ourselves in the middle of a container port, with cranes loading and unloading freight from adjacent ships and trucks, with containers frequently passing by.

We opted for a trip to Krujë, a city an hour or so inland with a museum about Albanian history depicting an Albanian hero, Skanderbeg, who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. Our local guide gave us more background on Albanian history and the areas we were passing through on our bus trip. Along the way, I noticed that we were passing the George W. Bush Bakery. Soon after, we passed a statue of President Bush and some other businesses named after him. It turned out that he had visited Albania in 2007 and is a bit of a local hero.

The museum did a good job of presenting Skanderbeg, and Albanian history generally. This was a bit of a surprise because it was built during the Communist era. Except for one room at the end of the tour, there was no Communist propaganda evident.

We then shopped our way through the small bazaar in the center of town on our way to lunch, which was held at a nearby restaurant . It was an opportunity to meet some people from our ship that we hadn’t crossed paths with before.

On the bus ride back, our local host handed out small cups and a sample of local raki (an alcohol spirit) that was made by the bus driver’s family. It is traditional for many families in Albania to make their own raki, which involves both a fermentation and a distillation process.

Our tour guide spoke excellent English (including colloquial terms), so I asked him how he had learned it. Had he lived in the US for a while? It turned out that he had learned it through the internet. He is apparently an avid gamer and learned by speaking live with other gamers. I am surprised at how well that worked.

After returning to the ship in Durrës, we noticed that the agenda said we had time to explore the downtown, but we hadn’t heard any more about that. We spoke with the expedition leader, who said that we were welcome to get off the ship and walk around the town. She pointed in a general direction, indicating the way to walk. So Kenna and I walked that direction, among the many trucks moving containers about, and after making a couple of wrong turns, found the gate that led us into town. Once again, no immigration or customs inspection was required; we just showed our ID cards from the Orion.

In the town, we first encountered a Venetian fortification tower, although it was unfortunately closed due to the afternoon siesta period. We walked along a bit further and found a Roman forum and amphitheater. The amphitheater was impressive in size, but had undergone a great deal of decay. Many of its steps and seats had crumbled and were impassable.

We stopped for a quick coffee at one of the outdoor cafes, walked around the business district a bit more, and returned to the ship, again dodging truck traffic at the port.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.