The pomegranate, as a fruit, is as ancient as human history itself. It is even said the very famous apple of Adam in the Eden's garden, must have originally been a pomegranate, and later has been confused with an apple. But then again, I believe that's just a rumour, lol.
Given its numerous seeds (belived to be in an exact number of 613)  in different countries, religious and throughout different ages it has always been considered as a symbol of prosperity and fertility.

Lately, I've been doing researches for well-known paintings where they integrate this fruit as an element.
I was very intrigued by the painting of Dali "Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before waking up", and then it hit me, it can't be the only one. And I was right!

Starting from ancient times, or even earlier, the pomegranate has never again stopped being used in art. Sometimes in still life kind of paintings, sometimes associated to people or events.
I've selected some of them, those who I found more interesting and I'm sharing them with you :)

It's safe to say that the Northern Albania is highly underrated. People don't even know what they're missing out, all because they're too scared to drive a mountain or too lazy to climb one.

If you were close to my mother, you would probably desperately want to cross the border line of Shkoder, visit the Albanian Alps and so. She had never been there too, until this year, but the way she would describe those places, only by refering to the books she had read and the stories she had heard, would make you day dream and long for fresh air and waterfall sounds too.

Since my father is a patriot of Southern Albania, it took them 20years of marriage to reach an agreement and finally settle for a trip to Theth (small village of Shkodra).

Without doubt, I would describe this experience as the best one of my life so far.

I could feel the adrenaline while we were driving a rocky one way road next to a who-knows-how-deep valley, I could feel the freshness while breathing the clean air of a 1000m above sea level mountain and I could pinch myself after bathing in the extremely cold waters of the waterfalls and not feel a thing. You don't get that everywhere !

For what it's worth, we had to climb craggy mountains for like hours, we had to put up with the heat, which was very tiring and frustrating, but in the end, it was all worth the fatigue.

So, if you still haven't been there, why wait? Why not spend a weekend on a budget, visit places and taste traditional dishes? And don't forget the hospitality! It has characterized the albanian people ever since noone can remeber and it's surely well preserved by the people of the area too.  

I could post a thousand photos and still, you wouldn't understand the honesty of my « wow »s everytime I would reach a tourist attraction, parce que en vrai ça rend beaucoup mieux.