Gornji Stoj Travel Guide

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Restautant Ponte is also a very nice restaurant. There were several cooks in the kitchen.

On the second photo, the waiter presents the fishes that they will cook for us, once we have made our choice : gilt head sea bream (orada in Serbian, kocë in Albanian), sea bass (brancin in Albanian). However, they did not weight our choice in front of usr (which they did at Durante's)…

Favorite Dish: The photo third shows ''čorba'' which is a very thick fish soup, very tasty. It hangs on a wrought iron stand. Amazingly, the word ''chorba'' (almost the same pronunciation) is also used in Northern Africa and in the Sahara to name a thick soup.

As usually, lignje na žaru, shown on the fourth photo, were excellent

The last photo shows the grilled orada (kocë) that we had for dinner. It was excellent !

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Favorite thing: In the middle of Štoj, about half way between Donji Štoj and Gornji Štoj, a new church is building. In 2005, the shell was almost finished. It has a strange style, half modern, half neo-Greco-Roman. I am not a specialist in churches nut I would not be surprised if it was a Roman Catholic church (shape of the cross ?) though there are few catholics in this area.

In 2006, the church was finished and was inaugurated at the begining of August with a great audience. Besides the day of inauguration, it remained closed and I was unable to visit the inside.

Favorite thing: The Chardonnay (often written ''šardone'') wine was excellent. It is very different from the Chardonnay wine that can be grown elsewhere, in France, for example. The vine has a lot of heat and of sun to grow? That gives a wine which is not sweet but very fruity, though rather dy. We enjoyed it a lot !

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Favorite thing: Most houses have a kalimerre hanging over the water by mean of ropes to a wooden or to a metal structure. This kind of fishing is used from Ulcinj to Saranda, in the south of Albania. The name of this device is in Albanian and sounds almost like the Greek salute ''kalimera'' (kali = good, kalimera = good day and/or good luck. However, it has nothing to do with Greek and comes from the Albanian '' në kalim merre", to take (the fish) when it passes.

The device is made with a square net that remains most of the time in the air. When it is the season when school of fishes swim either up or down the river (mostly in Winter), the ropes are loosen to let the device drop at the bottom of the river. When the fisherman sees that there is such a school, swimming over the net, it is drawn up as fast as possible in order to imprison the fishes.

Favorite thing: Along Milena canal, the houses were more cabins than actual houses and are mostly reached with small wooden fishing boats. On the contrary, along the western arm of Bojana river, houses are more elaborate like this one and often the boats moored to the private pier are modern speed boats.

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Favorite thing: The fish restaurants are seen here from the bridge : restaurant Barracuda, restaurant Durante, restaurant Ponte, restaurant Rio, etc… As they are so close, I suppose they watch each other and offer almost the same thing for the same prices. We have checked only two of them (see my restaurant tips)

Favorite thing: The northern arm of the Bojana river is lined by houses, exactly as is Milena canal but the river is much wider than the canal and its bank are better marked (Along Milena, the soil is very marshy). Thus it is easier to build houses half on the land, half on wooden poles and there are more of these houses.