Theth, a road to peace

By Dorina,

My boyfriend and I at the end of august went in Theth, the last village in the north of Albania. We had decided this a month ago and I had never been there before although I was curious to see this village. I must say that initially the most important reason to do this journey was the fact that we would be together. We wanted this trip together since a long time. We started our way from Tirana at 9.30 o’clock due to my delay and we got stuck in the traffic jam. My bf (as all men :) said that if I wouldn’t be late we would not stuck in the traffic jam.
Theth is nearly 90 km from Tirana and from and from these 60 km till Boga village are constructed and the rest 30 km are still not constructed which we did for 3 hours not only because they were not constructed but because they were on the mountains. Theth was the first village united with a road in Albania in 1923. Theth village has been a tourist center since the communism era and there was constructed a holiday center for the workers who used to come here for mountain holidays.
On our way to Theth I was waiting to see a traditional Albanian village with a bar in the center of it with men having a drink there. I was enjoying my trip to Theth (of course, I was not driving :), the panoramic view when we finally at 4 o clock in the afternoon we saw the notice board saying “Theth”. We previously had phoned to a villager of Theth to ask him for a room and I thought it would be a sort of hotel. When we arrived we wanted phone him again but it was useless since we found his house immediately. “The hotel” I excepted was a guest house and I had never been in one so I was not quite understanding what it was but my bf said that was the only choice we had to stay there. We meet the Harusha family, our hosts and they guided us to the room which was a four bedded. For our surprise the bathroom was very well equipped for that “poor” house”. The house and its smell remembered me my grandmother and her house in the village.
Since the beginning our hosts thought we were married cause we choose to sleep in the same room, (in some villages of north Albania people still cannot understand the fact of showing your affection in public without getting married), and so from that moment we started calling ourselves husband and wife when talking to our hosts :).
Theth was a real surprise to me. I have been used to the sea and I had never had mountain holidays but this trip made me change idea.
There were nearly 25 families living in Theth permanently but during summer they were a lot more because many families who had left Theth to live in urban areas would turn to work the land there and to wait tourists.
In the center of Theth (there were not the bar in the center) there was river with the cleanest and freshest water I had ever seen and the mountains were so near that I had the impression they were falling down.
The sensation of peace and relax was everywhere.
During our stay there were 5 Czech tourists who were sleeping in tends and had come to Theth by foot for 6 hours from the Valbona valley. On our way to Theth we say some other tourists in bicycles and motorbikes. And not by surprise they were mostly foreigners. Albanians still need to appreciate these pasrts of their country.
Our hosts told us that they had had a lot of tourists this year and that was an important part of their economy. The visitor’s book of the Harusha family was full of memories of the people who had passed in Theth and had a good time there.
After arriving there we wanted to find a bar to have a drink and the only bar in the village we were told was 20 minutes from our guest house so we started walking to find it but we only arrived tomorrow with our host guide. Theth is wonderful place to have a minute of peace, relax and staying in the middle of nature. You can have long walks into the nature and by surprise not getting tired. You are surrounded by the green grass, trees and mountains making it unique way to get into the nature and yourself.
The next morning even tired from the road I woke up at 7 without the help of the clock and was so relaxed. My boyfriend said it was cause of the fresh air.
The food was another thing to be remembered. We ate so much of the home made bread. All the food was home made from the bread to the honey, jam, butter, yogurt, potatoes etc and it tasted like greatly. And the surprising fact is that all this costs 30 euros.
On our way back I was very grateful to my boyfriend who persuaded me to come to Theth.
Dorina