From a distance, the Alps look like a row of stone teeth poking up from the green valleys. Up close, they are full of pine forests, fast cold rivers, lakes the colour of swimming pools, and tiny stone villages where people have lived for hundreds of years.
One of the best-known walks in Europe goes from a village called Valbona over a high pass and down to another village called Theth. It takes most of a day. At the top of the pass, walkers can see green valleys falling away on both sides. Children in some Albanian families do the walk every summer.
The villages in these mountains often have stone houses with very steep wooden roofs, built like that so the snow slides off in winter. Bread is baked in outdoor ovens. Sheep and goats graze on the slopes. Many homes have a vegetable garden, a few chickens, and a friendly dog at the door.
Because the Alps are hard to reach, lots of wild animals still live here that have disappeared from other parts of Europe - brown bears, wolves, the rare Balkan lynx, and golden eagles. People hike here from all over the world just to feel how quiet a really wild place can be.