Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913
ED004_RAI 400.13125
Albania. Ferry over the Vjosa River near Tepelena (Photo: Edith Durham, 2 April 1904).
“‘The Viosa is a wicked river,’ said the kirijee. ‘From source to mouth it turns no mill, it does no
work, but much destruction every year. It has but one redeeming point: it drowns many Turks.
Perhaps that is what it was made for. Who knows?’… The river, we were told, was a raging torrent;
we could not reach Tepelen that night; no boat could take us over. The han was crowded because
the folk who had tried to reach the bazar to-day had all returned from the ferry, unable to cross. We
must pass the night here. It was a dree hole — dark, chill, foodless, fireless. I wondered why I had
come, and only a belief that it was not my Kismet to die in Albania cheered me up. We asked for a
fire, and drank rakija.” (Edith Durham, The Burden of the Balkans, 1905).