When planning this trip, two countries made it difficult to plan. One was Kosovo; the other Albania. Originally our idea was to go from Turkey to Greece, then on to Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia. Kosovo was difficult because if you entered it first before going to Serbia, Serbia would not let you in; and Albania because transport links from Meteora, Greece to anywhere in Albania looked difficult at best, nigh on impossible at worst. We were struggling to work out how to solve both of these problems and for a while planning came to a standstill.
At this impasse, Sasha suggested we just drop Albania and go straight from Greece to Macedonia, which was a logical ans sensible suggestion - we did need to cut down time from our itinerary to try and make it all fit. But I didn't want to let Albania go - there must be a way. The breakthrough for Albania came when I discovered cheap flights from Istanbul to Tirana, Albania - in fact it was cheaper to fly there instead of flying to Athens. Instead of Turkey, Greece then Albania, what if we go Turkey, Albania then Greece? We knew there were overnight buses between Athens and Tirana, and after Meteora it seemed more logical to go on to Macedonia. The breakthrough in planning was virtually concurrent with the solution for Kosovo - Macedonia to Serbia was straightforward, but to then backtrack to Kosovo made no sense and would cost us time we didn't have. So Kosovo had to go - the one and only country which was ditched from our travel plans.
Our flight from Berlin to Istanbul and from Istanbul to Kayseri were with Turkish budget airline Pegasus - our flight to Tirana was no different! Just as we had when heading to Goreme, we left our hostel, caught the ferry across the Bosphorus, and caught the bus to the same airport as the other two flights. Arriving at the airport, going through screening and check-in was a breeze compared to last time now that we knew what to expect! As we would not get fed on this flight, we had lunch at the airport - McDonalds again, but this time Sasha got a spicy chicken burger called Acili Tavuk, and I got a fish burger called Daba Daba!
I think we flew over Turkey and Greece, not sure about Macedonia but as we got close to Tirana there were a lot if mountains visible - some with snow caps and as we got close and lower the mountains did not disappear, until they did suddenly and we landed shortly after. Disappointingly we did not get a stamp in our passport when we arrived - they checked ours but just handed them back, and we never saw/heard anyone else get stamps either. Someone was supposed to be standing at the arrivals area with our name when we arrived (arranged by our accommodation), but there wasn't anyone - we weren't quite sure what to do but a few minutes later someone showed up with our name. We hopped into his taxi, exited the airport carpark, pulled up beside a roundabout and changed into another taxi! Still not sure what that was about but apparently this new taxi was brand new and we were its first passengers according to the driver. It took us to our accommodation, we checked in - we were there!
We decided to book an apartment for our short stay in Tirana because it was the same price as staying anywhere else, but most importantly it had a washing machine and a dryer - something we needed by this stage in our trip! It was in a secluded street, was very nice and the bed was very comfy! There was also kitchen facilities so we got some supplies and made ourselves scrambled eggs and mushrooms for breakfast the two mornings we were there. The staff here were also super helpful and told us all of what we'd need to know during our visit to the city!
First things first, was doing a walking tour around Tirana. We had a decent group of about 15-16 and our guide was a local from Tirana. We started in the main square, nearing the end of its renovation to be pedestrian-only and were give a quick but good rundown on the history of Albania - basically there was ancient Albania, most of the time they were ruled by someone else, latterly the Ottoman Empire until it became free as a result of the Balkan War of 1912. Albania got a new government led by a guy called Zogu who was first Prime Minister, then President, and then he made himself King - King Zog of Albania. Just before or at the beginning of WW2 Fascist Italy invades Albania, takes it over, armed resistance rises and in 1943 the Italians are effectively out of the war and Germans take over the occupation. That lasts a year, the Germans move out, and the Albanian Communist Party takes over led by Enver Hoxha. Communist Albania cut ties with most countries except a few, then over time cuts those ties too until Albania is completely isolated and closed off from the rest of the world. It stays that way until 1991.
Following this history rundown we moved onto an old Mosque which wasn't pulled down in Communist times. Next is the entrance to Bunker 2, a bunker complex right in the city centre - it has just opened in the last 2 years, and the entrance was built to resemble a domed bunker that was common in Albania. This angered locals who didn't want a reminder of communist times and protested by damaging the dome - it has been repaired in such a way to show the damage still. We were told Bunker 2 was worth visiting but if we had the opportunity, Bunker 1 on the outskirts was better.
Next stop was outside the Art Museum which houses Communist-Era propaganda art and it was here our guide talked about life under Albanian Communism. He was old enough to have grown up in the communist environment and was a teenager when it all changed. As a completely isolated country no one had any idea what was going on in the rest of the world or what life was like beyond Albania, save what The Government would tell them - basically they only told the Albanians of the bad things going on in the rest of the world. The Government ran a very heavy-handed and Stalinist-style regime where people were persecuted if they didn't tow the line. They told everyone Albania was the best country in the world and they had the best lives of any country - and in the absence of any other information everyone believed it. Our guide told us everyone was brainwashed into believing the propoganda, even him - he thought it was his moral duty to report someone wearing a beard which was not allowed, or if he saw something else untoward. Hoxha died in 1985, his successor was less oppressive and by 1991 was not only opening the country up but allowing free and fair Democratic Elections - in which 2/3rds of Albanians voted in the incumbent Communist Party as they still believed the Communists had made Albania the best country in the world. A year later another election was held in which the Communists were turfed out - by now the population was wising up to the propaganda and lies. Our guide told us of his excitement about having his first pair of jeans, people putting empty Coca-Cola bottles on display in their houses because it was the most colorful thing they could get their hands on, the introduction of cars which was previously banned ("In 1991 we got cars, the next day everyone in Albania became a driver. This is why we are not good drivers! My father also complains that there never were as many car crashes in the old days as there are now. I point out to him that we didn't have cars to have crashes with!").
He then asked the group if we had any questions about life under communist Albania. There was a great one from an East German lady - she said they had all the same oppression and propaganda in East Germany, but what she didn't understand is why the people didn't stand up and demand change? They had clandestine access to foreign TV in Albania just like the East Germans did so surely they knew things were better on the outside? The guide's reply made perfect sense - they didn't rise up because they actually believed nothing was wrong and didn't know the outside world was better. Unlike East Germany which had Radio Free Europe and many West German TV channels broadcasting into the DDR telling them how it was outside the country, Albania didn't have that - foreign TV was in Italian which they didnt understand so although they could see things they didn't know what was going on, and no one was making any effort to try and tell Albania about the outside world. It was only when Albanians started travelling to Greece and other countries in 1991 and came back telling others what it was like that people started to think maybe what they had been told for 40 years was not correct.
We moved on looking at other things - the old Castle Wall; George W Bush Street (the only US President to visit Albania), the new church for Mother Teresa which has a statue of St Paul atop it with his arm outstretched - which looks like he's taking a selfie. On the note of Mother Teresa, I had been puzzled why so much is named after her in Albania (such as the airport) when she was Macedonian. The answer - she was born in Macedonia but was from an ethnic Albanian family. When Albania was being opened up to the world but still communist the leader invited Mother Teresa to visit, which she did. No one in Albania knew who she was and she asked the Communist leader if she could open up a poor house in Tirana like her one in Calcutta. His answer? "We don't have poor people in Albania". After the fall of communism she did set up a poor house and as our guide put it, "she discovered everyone in Albania was poor!".
Next was the Pyramid building which one housed the museum to Enver Hoxha, its now derelict; and opposite the pyramid was a bell and we learned about Albania and Pyramid schemes. To put it in a nutshell, in 1997 pyramid scheme scams start up in Albania and since the population don't really understand how money and interest works thanks to their communist education, they fall for them. End result - 70% of the population is scammed, lose all their money and they riot, start looting military installations taking the weapons, start shooting each other and Albania descends into anarchy for about 6 months until the Government and Military manage to restore peace and Law & Order. Lots of people died and the bell is made from used bullet shells from this time.
Next we saw some of the street bunkers in a public park. These bunkers were everywhere in Albania - Hoxha was paranoid that Albania was invaded so everybody had to do 17 days of compulsory military training a year and the idea was the citizens would man these bunkers and defend the country against invaders. Then to Enver Hoxha's house which might get demolished, then to a new Greek Orthodox church and the tour ends. Very insightful - definitely one of the more memorable tours we have done.
We wanted to do Bunker 1 (Bunk'Art 1 in Albanian) in the afternoon but by the time the walking tour ended, we'd gotten our bus tickets to Athens, and gone back to the apartment with a stop at a supermarket on the way it became a slight race against the clock to try and get there with enough time to explore before it closed for the day. Getting to the bus stop, there are 3 buses saying the right area but not the rightvword we'd been told - Porcelain. A man in hivis nearby one bus us saw us and said "Bunker?", I said yes, he pointed to the first small bus so we got on - no driver aboard to pay. When the bus took off, the guy in hivis was aboard and started collecting tge money and giving tickets. He told us to get off at one stop and pointed at a side road which had a sign for the bunker - this was not the direct bus but we were close, and a few minutes walk we found the entrance.
Bunker 1 is a Nuclear Fallout shelter for the dictator and the elite politicians - a place to safely live for a while and still operate the functions of government. Its quite extensive, and while some provisions seem sensible or clever others seem less than robust. There was only canisters to create oxygen which would have lasted days at best - no long term supply for instance. Most of the rooms now tell the modern history if Albania and how it became a communist country. We spent at least an hour and a half underground exploring the complex.
Almost Right next to Bunker 1 is the Dajte Express, a gondola going up a mountain that was supposed to have hood views of Tirana. It was cheap enough and we were after a view so we went up.
It is billed as the longest Gondola ride in the Balkans. Its definitely the longest I've ever done and then some. The total ride is about 15 minures in each direction - most of that time is spent slowly climbing over hills and then crossing gulleys or small lakes, with the last 5 minutes being the near-vertical ascent up the mountain face. Wortj doing for the journey alone - perhaps just as well, as a haze meant we couldn't see Tirana almost at all from up there! We did spend a while wandering around the top, where we even saw a fairly young horse foal among other horses which were being used to give people rides. After a decent wander we descended, then caught the bus back into the city.
On our wanders around Tirana the day of our departure we went via the Hoxha pyramid. Apparently people climb the sloped sides up to the top and I was keen for an attempt. I picked my side, one of the gentler slopes, took a bit of a run at it and found I had grip and momentum so kept going. 2/3rds up I had to start using my hands too, and near the top it got a bit slippery with the paint but I made it first go. The view from up there? Not amazing actually, it doesnt have much of a view over the city - too many other tall buildings in the way, but since I'd dragged my camera bag up there I still took a few photos. I always knew getting up was the easy part - getting down would be the hard part. There were steeper slopes and I thought about sliding down but decided a walk/crab-crawl might be better on the same slope I came up. On the slippery but at the top I sat down to get myself together, and found I was sliding at a gentle pace - so I went with it, with a pause 1/3rd the way down so Sasha could get her phone set up to film some of it before continuing down. It wasnt a fast slide but certainly a decent speed that was still controllable and didn't seem in any danger of ruining my pants - the slide down a steeper slope may have been interesting! Below are the two videos of going up and down - Sasha timelapsed the ascent but the descent is in real time!
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We'd been thinking about possibly visiting the National Albanian Museum to fill in time, then went past the Art Museum and remembered our walking guide had said it was full of Communist Propaganda Art, so we had a look. Full of propoganda art it sure was - theres something about such art and what its trying to convey with its messages. Everyone looks staunch or heroic, working in something but almost never looking happy - like they've got a job to do to advance the cause and society, no time to stop, relax and have fun. Quite different to see the general/ordinary art museum filled with this kind of thing - a relic of the communist era that hasn't been changed.Out the back were some Communist statues - Lenin, Stalin, Hoxha with his nose missing, and a soldier girl amongst others.
We ate quite well in Albania I guess! We bought food supplies from the supermarket and made ourselves scrambled eggs and mushroom on toast for breakfast each morning in the apartment (having to get a bit inventive due to lack of utensils and equipment but it worked). Lunch on the first day was cheese and fish sandwiches that Sasha prepared - the fish came from a can in tomato sauce, meat was expensive in Albania (and seemed poor quality) so the fish was cheaper and better! The sandwiches worked well. For lunch the second day we'd also prepared sandwiches but found a "Kolonat" so had the sandwiches later on the overnight bus to Athens. What is Kolonat? Well Albania has only just gotten KFC, but has none of the other chain foods - but has had its own version of McDonalds, Kolonat, for many years (the logo has now changed but it used to be similar in style to McDonalds too). We didnt have much Albanian cash on us by this stage and they didnt take card, but we scraped together enough to get 2 Cheeseburgers. Kolonat has a reputation of having bad McDonalds imitation food but our cheeseburgers were quite tasty - not like McDonalds cheeseburgers but more akin in taste to the ones you might get from a Fish & Chip store.
We had 2 meals out - the first night we went to Tek Zgara Tirones 2, a place Sasha had looked up with a great reputation. We ordered chicken wings (something Albanians love now that they can get hold of a lot if chicken meat), a traditional Albanian dish which was like a cheesy soup with lamb chunks in it and ut was extremely tasty; a plate of veges and some Albanian red wine. I thought it might be a bit bland in taste but none of it was at all! Super cheap too which is what prompted us to go to a fancier place the next night which also had a good reputation and made a deal out of its traditional food. After a great starter selection plate, we got the same lamb dish as the night previous and another which was egg and yoghurt based with beef chunks in it. Both dishes tasty but they didn't hold a candle to the other place - fancier doesn't mean tastier I guess!
As for drink, we tried the local red and white wine, a green "exotic" flavoured Fanta which I hadn't seen before (tasted like passionfruit), a 1.5L plastic bottle of Tirana beer bought from the supermarket (was malty in taste, we only drank half of it - ran out of time but it was about the same price as buying 2 cans!). We bought water here, as we had in Turkey as tap water was not potable and lastly we tried some Albanian Rakia (similar to Raki or Ouzo) - home-made stuff at that, at the office of our accomm when we went to pick up our bags!
Never had long enough in Albania to make any sense of the local language so everything remained a bit of a mystery in that regard. I felt like a lot of the Albanian people, particularly women all had a particular look about them - seemed reasonably distinctive.
Power Cables - as a kid, I recall Dad saying that power cables between buildings in Turkey were a mess of cables on the outsides of buildings and across the streets. They were, but I feel like Albania has taken it to another level. There are cables everywhere and they don't run along the sides of buildings - every cable takes the most direct line between the building and wherever it needs to come from. The airspace above streets is therefore a 3D spiderweb of cables - hard to photograph but quite a sight to see!
While our trip was Tirana based out of necessity of time, we did get to see some of the countryside when we went on the overnight bus to Athens. There's a bit to tell about that but it will feature in the next post! As for trains - Albania does have some, not many because it never had any need for cross-border trade and there was very little demand for internal travel nor internal freight movements. I saw one, at Durres the port city from the bus as we passed through - a green Russian-style diesel and a bunch of 70-80s style German Deutsche Bahn coaches still in DB red looking extremely tired, heavily faded, part graffitied and with broken-but-patched up windows - with every indication that they are still used!
Something I meant to include in the last post - stuff is going to break along the way. A lot of our bags are packed fairly full and tight, and our technology is older and should have been replaced by now. Some of the casualties will be minor, but there's potential for major or even catastrophic breakages. So far there has been some, but its minimal - a zip handle on the bottom compartment of the big purple backpack broke off while I was trying to zip it up in Istanbul (I whacked myself in the nose as a result). The zip now has a keyring loop and we try not to use that compartment for day to day things as its difficult to open at the best of times. The only other thing to note in this topic so far is my iPhone 5 battery has appeared to swell up and push the top of my screen out of the frame. This happened once before, the phone worked fine for 6 months (though apparently this is dangerous) with tape holding the top in place until I used a spare parts phone to replace the battery myself. This time we have a spare parts iPhone 5 which has a spare battery in it, but we don't have the tools with which to effect a replacement on the road. The last thing we need is to spend money on new phones but wait and see what happens - will keep my phone going as long as I can.
Summing Up
My overall sense of the country is its at the cusp of an economic revolution as such. Anything new has seemingly been built in the last 2-3 years and there's more to come. Money is being injected as property titles get formalized (a hangover from communism, when the state owned all) with foreign investment evident. I feel like given 15-20 years, Albania could become the new Croatia in terms of a tourist destination - it may not have pretty walled cities but it does have the coastline and if the beachside tourism develops in a big way, well it will change a lot. Joining the EU would also transform the economy - it would create a demand for cheaply-made Albanian goods, Albanians could easily live elsewhere in the EU, earn Euros and send money home, not to mention access to the EU funding pool for infrastructure and economic projects aside from the stimulation of tourism that will happen, as being in the EU will make thr country seem "safe" to many - not that it is unsafe now, but thats the perception many people have (and I once had). I feel like the Albania I go and visit in the future will be different from the one I saw - but I am glad to have seen it as the new starts to creep in, but the old is still very evident for now and very easy to see how it might have been when it was a closed country. Makes me wonder what its like to visit Cuba now while its still so raw, accessible to tourists but still under the same regime - or what North Korea would be like to visit if it ever opened up fully.
My only regret - not getting any kind of entry or exit stamp in my passport for Albania. Not something that was in my control though - they didn't seem to do anyone's. They may not even have stamps to stamp with.
It will be interesting to compare Albania with the other former communist Balkan countries we will visit, but there's another country to go before we get to them - Greece!