Albania – Not so isolated anymore, visit now

The next stop on our Balkan tour was Albania. Getting there was not so easy. Albania cut itself off from the world until 1991. Thirty-five years have passed, but transportation connections still leave a lot to be desired.

Our last stop in Montenegro was Ulcinj, only about 40 kms from Shkodër, Albania. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any bus connection between them. Instead we spent an entire day backtracking to Podgorica, then looping into Albania. Eight hours to go 40 kms.

Shkodër

We had never heard of Shkodër, and wouldn’t have gone there except it was the bus interchange. The city turned out to be a lovely surprise. The old town has been revitalized. There is a large pedestrian-only zone with lots of cafes, bakeries and small shops. We soon learned that hanging out in coffee shops is the national pastime in Albania. No matter the time of day, coffee shops were busy with people chilling out.

From our apartment, we were able to hike through some of the older neighbourhoods up to Rozafa Castle on a hill towering over the city. It was fascinating to see how the neighbourhoods contrasted with the town centre. The castle had commanding views of the countryside and across Lake Skadar to Montenegro.

The Site of Witness and Memory

Shkodër has a long history of religious tolerance. Mosques, Orthodox Churches and Roman Catholic Cathedrals stand side-by-side. During the communist regime, all religion was banned. Religious leaders in Shkodër, and elsewhere, were persecuted, often arrested and tortured or executed, along with intellectuals and dissidents.

The Site of Witness and Memory museum is the first site of remembrance in Albania to commemorate the victims of the communist regime. The descriptions of the torture and abuse and the implements that inflicted terror on victims in the torture room were chilling.

Tirana

After another adventure with buses (Driver: “I know the schedule says there’s an 11:30 bus, but there’s not. I’m not leaving until noon.“) we arrived in the capital Tirana. Tirana is a mish-mash of everything. Old buildings in various stages of decay are mixed in with futuristic new towers. The office tower in the shape of a national hero’s head had to win the prize for imagination.

Traffic in the city was insane. Drivers are good at ignoring rules. Dodging red lights, going down one way streets the wrong way, double parking, abandoning cars, ignoring crosswalks, all contribute to mayhem and blaring horns.

Coffee, coffee everywhere

The first thing we noticed walking the streets was the number of coffee shops. Every alleyway has multiple coffee shops. Tirana has an estimated 8,300 coffee shops for a population of only 600,000. Our apartment building in a quiet residential street had two coffee shops. We had a choice of about ten within a two minute walk. We never had far to go to get our caffeine fix.

Tirana also offers constant reminders of the communist era. Underground bunkers are visible everywhere. There were nearly two-hundred thousand just in Tirana, an estimated 750,000 country-wide. A former hospital that was turned into the secret police surveillance headquarters is now a museum. Albanians seem determined not to forget the hardship wrought by the Hoxha regime.

Berat

Berat is a UNESCO-recognized Ottoman era town. It’s known as the “City of a Thousand Windows” because of its historic houses with numerous large windows. Its 4th century mountain-top castle watches over the town. The Osum River divides the Mangalem Quarter, historically home to Muslims, from Gorica, the historic Christian neighbourhood.

Our host recommended hiking up to the castle via the old alleys of Mangalem. We started out early to beat the tour buses. We climbed up and down the steep, cobble-stoned, maze-like alleys looking for the path to the castle. After half an hour we gave up. Instead, we slogged up the long, boring path around the back of the mountain. At the top we ran into two guys who had climbed up the face. They assured us going down would be no problem. Liars. The steep trail was broken shale with big drop-offs. It was slow-going, but we made it.

Our Favourite Restaurant

Berat has many good, but tourist-oriented and expensive, restaurants. Our apartment was away from the tourist area. We stumbled across a restaurant, Traditional Food Anxhelo, close to our apartment that catered to locals. We liked it so much we went back three times. The food was traditional, homemade, delicious and cheap. Fresh-made soups cost €1.50; stuffed eggplant (our favourite) or peppers cost €2; meat dishes cost around €6. Overflowing glasses of “home” wine, poured from unlabelled clear plastic bottles, cost €1. A big shot of homemade raki was €0.50. There was a catch. To keep costs down, they serve off-cuts of meat – tripe, brains, sweetbreads, frogs legs (a traditional dish), mutton instead of lamb. We stuck to the vegetarian dishes.

Albanian Riviera

Tourism is booming in Albania. Many of those tourists head for the spectacular beaches of the Albanian Riviera. There are miles and miles of beaches bordering the Ionian and Adriatic Seas.

As we worked our way south, we visited several of the beach towns – Durrës (technically too far north to be considered part of the Riviera, but close enough), Vlorë, Sarandë, and Ksamil. From the pictures we saw, the beaches are insanely crowded in summer. In October they were deserted. As George learned the hard way, the water is too cold for swimming in the fall. There are pros and cons to visiting in the off season.

Gjirokastër

Gjirokastër is another UNESCO-recognized historic town. Getting there was another bus adventure. We arrived at the stop early. They actually sold tickets in advance, supposedly with assigned seating. We were dubious, so waited at the curb for the bus. Lucky we did. We were among the first on board, so got seats (not the ones on our tickets but good enough). Within a few minutes the bus was packed. Some people balked at getting on such a crowded bus. The driver just told them to push in. We headed out packed like sardines.

The 54 kms drive was straight up and down a steep mountain range. The ride was made more interesting by the crazy lady who kept pushing to the front of the bus to ask the driver if we were going to Gjirokastër. That annoyed the driver because it distracted him from texting on his phone, which is all he did for the 1-1/2 hour drive, even around tight cliffside switchbacks.

Our guesthouse was a only few blocks from the bus stop, but it was 2-1/2 kms uphill to the Castle and Old Town. We got lots of exercise up and down. George’s morning walk up the hill was made less painful by the shots of raki, strong traditional liquor, our host Vasili served with coffee at breakfast.

Getting out of Albania proved as tough as getting in. We scoured the internet for bus connections to get to Greece. The information was either out-of-date or just plain wrong. After countless emails and Whatsapp messages to supposed bus operators, we gave up. Gjirokastër is only 30 kms from the Greek border. We hoped it would be like everywhere else in Albania – buses exist, but aren’t advertised.

We asked Vasili’s advice. He explained that there is only one bus per day to Greece, leaving at 6 a.m. However, his friend Kosta is a taxi driver and, for a small fee, could drive us across the border to Ioannina whenever we wanted. We’d had it with buses, so happily agreed. On the morning of our departure, Vasili decided to join us for the ride. We got a comfortable ride to Greece, and Vasili and Kosta got a roadtrip.