Colourful Albania

As soon as we crossed the border from Macedonia to Albania we made a number of startling discoveries.

The Alphabet. I could read Albanian! Unlike Macedonia, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, Albania uses the Roman alphabet. “Oh look”, I said to Sally. “There’s a farmacia”. It was quite comforting since in Macedonia I couldn’t read a thing, and initially had trouble distinguishing the men’s WC from the women’s without going inside.

The bunkers They were everywhere. They were not a complete surprise since the guide book wrote about them. It seems that Enver Hoxha, the first secretary of Albania’s Communist Party decided Albania didn’t need allies as long as the people could be protected from attack. So over a 35 year period, from 1950 to 1985, he constructed over 700,000 ‘air raid shelters’ throughout the country. They were designed as indestructible concrete domes, and they are. Today, no one knows what to do with them, other than try to camouflage them with paint or planting. You find them in the countryside, in the middle of residential areas, even along a main street! (Sally’s was intrigued that the secretary insisted that the engineer prove their indestructibility by sitting inside a bunker while it was attacked by tank. He survived!) The Cars Almost every other car is a Mercedes. Not just the taxis that are often Mercedes throughout the world. The passenger cars are too. In the poorest country in Europe! When asked why they have so many Mercedes, Albanians will tell you they are good, strong, long lasting cars. They will then mutter something about getting them for a good price from other parts of Western Europe or America. I kept looking to see if any bore the names of Vancouver car dealers, but it seems that all vehicle identification is removed from the vehicles by the time they arrive in the country. Colourful Buildings No doubt in response to the era of communist rule, the Albanians paint their buildings with some of the most incredible colour combinations. High rise buildings are chartreuse, with burgundy trim. Or bright yellow. It’s fantastic. I couldn’t stop taking photos.

Durres We came to Durres, a coastal town, rather than Tirana, the capital, since the guide book and other travelers described the latter as very beaten up and dusty, with large potholes that could be tricky to navigate. Sally didn’t want a repeat of Skopje. Rather than experience another dreary bus station, we decided to get off the bus along a strip of beachfront hotels. After walking past a number of colourful, but mundane buildings with our luggage on our backs, we came upon an attractive 5 storey hotel. At 40 euros a night, it came with breakfast, beach chairs and an umbrella. We took it, but were subsequently surprised to discover that it had no elevator. The room was very large, air-conditioned, and there was a bidet in the well appointed bathroom. The view of the beachfront was colourful, to say the least. Changing money Once again, we had no local currency. So we set off on foot, assuming we couldn’t be that far from the centre of the small town and cash machines. We were wrong. After 30 minutes, we still had a long way to go. But amongst the squalor, we came upon a modern shopping mall. There had to be a bank machine inside. After all, there are lots at Oakridge. No such luck. But there was a very nice supermarket and we pick up hors d’oevres. We were surprised to discover this very fancy store would not accept credit cards. But they did agree to change Euros that I didn’t need to bribe the border guards and we had enough lekes to buy champagne, beer, and antipasto. I was surprised at the number of Italian items in the store. But I shouldn’t have been since Italy is just a short boat ride away. We didn’t have enough money left over for a taxi, so we took a bus back to the hotel. We had just enough left over for another bus into town in the morning, where we could get local funds.

Dinner That evening, we checked out the restaurant scene along the beach. We discovered that our hotel was by far the best place along this immediate stretch of beachfront properties. And since none of the hotels would accept a credit card, we returned to our hotel for dinner. The food wasn’t great.

The thief The next morning, we set off for the centre of town by bus. Within seconds, Sally noticed a man trying to steal things out of my bag. She managed to push me away, but there was little else we could do, other than stare him down until he got off the bus. Afterwards, Sally regretted not giving him some money, as a way of letting him know he shouldn’t be trying to steal. I didn’t have the same thoughts.

Downtown Like so much of the world, the centre of Durres was a study in contrasts. Many of the older apartment buildings were amongst the most decrepit I have ever seen. But nearby, colourful new apartment blocks were going up. While most roads were in incredible disrepair, the main street and sidewalks had been refinished with attractive granite pavers. We got some money, and checked out a seafood restaurant recommended in our guidebook. We spent the afternoon on the beach, where I discovered the fellow next to me was a Macedonian now living in Chicago. He said most of the friends he left behind look so much older than him.

Another dinner We had a very nice evening at the restaurant. Although the menu was very good, the food was a bit disappointing,. Our assortment of seafood hors d’oevres included smoked salmon, pickled anchovies and red mullets, a variety of squid and octopus dishes, seafood croquettes and fresh oysters on the shell. (I couldn’t believe I was eating oysters in Albania!) The main course was assorted Albanian fish on coals. Next time, I’ll have something else. We were entertained by a singer who sang only American songs. We initially thought she might be English speaking, but as the evening progressed and she got tired, she started to mispronounce words. It reminded me of the movie ‘Westworld’ in which the robots start off just like human beings until something goes wrong with their wiring, and they start to act up. We subsequently learned our singer was an Albanian from Tirana.

Leaving Durres The next morning, we set off for Montenegro. I wanted to take the train to Tirana and look for more colourful buildings. But a travel agent cautioned us. “Albanian trains are not for people like you” he said. We knew what he meant. (We have subsequently learned that someone managed to steal George Bush’s watch off his arm while he was visiting the country!) From Tirana, it wasn’t quite clear which way we would go. Our guide book was vague on whether a new border crossing would be open, and the internet was full of stories about people being literally taken for a ride by some taxi drivers. My hope was that we would find a direct bus from Tirana to Budva, an acclaimed resort community on the Adriatic coast.

Some final thoughts. Albanian buildings illustrate why we need condominium associations to manage the exterior and ongoing maintenance. In many, many cases, residents paint their portion of the exterior whatever colours they want. The results can be quite interesting. Albanian people are very kind and generous. Other than on the bus, we always had great experiences with everyone we met. People went out of their way to be helpful. And oh yes, if you ever come here, nodding your head up and down means no; shaking your head sideways means yes. Just when we got used to this, we had to leave.