#125 In the City of 1,000 Windows

May 12, 2022: Berat, Kuçova, Belsh

F. Berat, the city of a thousand windows, which was officially appointed a museum city in 1961 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008, is a must-see on any trip to Albania. At least that's what the travel guide suggests. And indeed, the old town of Berat is beautiful. It is divided by the river Osumit and the many small, old houses, with their famous large windows, are located on the two slopes on either side of the river banks. Another part of the old town is located on top of the hill inside the Berat Castle. We walked through all three parts of the old town and were convinced of the beauty of this city. As is the case almost everywhere in Albania, a lot of construction and renovation is currently taking place here. But that didn't bother us.

After these incredibly beautiful impressions from Berat, we went in the afternoon to the darker sides of Albania. We drove through Kuçova to Belsh. Kuçova is the center of Albania's oil industry. Oil has been extracted here since the 1930s using very primitive methods. With the end of communism in the 1990s, most of the oil wells were shut down, but many facilities still leak oil from old pipelines. The environmental pollution is devastating. It is quite surreal to see the many drilling towers from the past everywhere and it seems that the environmentally friendly dismantling is progressing very slowly. The smell of oil in the air was sometimes really unpleasant and I wonder how people can still live here.

Day 209 - Total Tour 15,844 km

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