Albania (What else do you need to say?)

The suspense is now over; we have finally arrived and tomorrow we depart. As logic normally will tell you, though people rarely listen, is that the hype is usually nothing like the actual experience. It reminds me of the build-up to a GREAT New Year’s Eve party. Every time you have all the hype and all the expectation, it is never what you think it will be. In our case, we heard a lot of negative things about Albania before we finally ventured across the border from Ulcinj, Montenegro: “Don’t go there. It’s nothing but beggars”; “Why would you go to Albania?”, or “Don’t believe a word that any Albanian tells you”. These were just a small sample of what we heard just from our short stay in Montenegro. It’s always useful to inquire about the places to which you will be traveling while you are on the road; however, you have to take every word with a grain of salt, because all the prior quotations were from people that had never actually traveled to Albania. That’s why you go there; you get to see it for yourself. You see the reality, not the second-hand commentary. (So take the following words as you will).

Shkodra:

Shkodra was the first stop for us in Albania. It sits in the northwestern part of Albania, and is one of the oldest cities in Europe with the first known history of the city beginning prior to 500 BCE. For that reason and many others, Shkodra and the rest of Albania have a lot of history that creates the culture as it stands today. Just outside the city sits the Rozafa Fortress which is one of the largest fortresses left in the Balkans. From where it sits at the top of the hill outside the town, it affords great views of the surrounding countryside. In fact, the views make the town and surrounding country look incredibly beautiful and pure. However, viewing the city on your own two feet gives you a drastically different impression. The city itself, is teeming with activity—it appears that people drive and move around for the sake of moving, because as you look around, you realize that the people are not so much doing anything. There are many remnants of the communist days all around; sameness mimicked in sameness. While we were there we walked for probably 20 minutes in one direction after having dinner only to find the same series of people, bars, cafes, markets, and drab looking communist apartments block after block. Throughout this walk we were greeted in each area with a fresh face full of dust, which quickly explained why we saw truck in the afternoon watering the streets. I don’t mean to harp on the negatives of Shkodra, but there exist marked differences there that are unlike any other Western culture I have ever experienced.

I’m sure by now you have heard enough negatives to believe that there is nothing in Shkodra worth seeing; however, the memories that I ultimately take away from there are incredibly positive. For instance, upon arrival the first order of business is finding a place to stay. Now Lonely Planet (what many people consider the travel bible) did not recommend attempting to find a place to stay there as there are not many options, especially if you are on a budget, which we definitely are. I would guess that none of us is spending more the $15 per day with about six dollars of that going towards accommodation. I mean that’s how you have to travel when you are a poor student or recent grad and are trying to stretch your money out for awhile. So, as I was saying, upon arrival we begin our hunt. Sometimes the best place to check is the student dormitories especially during the summer when there aren’t so many students. Well, we arrived only to find that there were a number of older men sitting inside the University. Of course, none of them spoke English. At this point, my Albanian was very, very, very limited. I didn’t even know the proper way to say “thank you”; however, when you cannot communicate, you learn very quickly. Much of this was thanks to the fact that my friend Joao and I spent the morning before leaving Montenegro creating an Albanian cheat sheet of sorts with useful phrases, vocabulary, and numbers on it. Because of that, we had an opportunity to somewhat familiarize ourselves with a language that has no similarities to any other language we’d ever encountered. As a note, you would be incredibly surprised how a small amount of language will stretch the goodwill of the people much farther than you can imagine. For that reason, one of the older gentlemen at the university took me on a wild goose chase of sorts to find—well, actually when I left the university with him I didn’t even know what we were looking for—in a short time though I had succeeded in meeting a number of locals that spoke some English and were eager to help. One even called her friend on the phone who knew more English than her to translate the requests I was making about accommodation. This even resulted in an invitation for myself and my five friends to come out to her house 6 km outside of town where she would then take us around as we looked for accommodation. I couldn’t accept such an invitation as it would have been logistically complicated, but thereafter, a professor at the university gave us his Albania top ten, bought all of us drinks, and arranged for us to stay in a nearby hotel for five Euro per night. By this time, we were all overwhelmed by the kindness the Albanian people were showing us.

Just after that we decided we should become “Happy Albanians” by visiting a traditional Albanian restaurant. Upon arrival, there was not one customer, but the interior was decorated in a rustic, ethnic fashion, in a way that I had never seen before. Soon after our arrival, the chef/architect/owner arrived who explained to us in rough English that his restaurant was one that was meant to preserve the heritage and tastes of the Albanian people. This man, named Sjon, was a very affable and generous man who wanted us to understand and experiences the taste and feel of Shkodra. Needless to say when we all left his restaurant we had big smiles on our faces, full stomachs, and a great appreciation for Albanian food and hospitality. In fact, I think all of us would agree that Albanian food has been the best that we have had throughout ALL of our travels not just on this trip. So, go visit Tradita G&T in Shkodra, Albania next time you pass through; you will not be disappointed.

Note: When traveling in the shoestring, dollar to dollar fashion of backpacking, having a meal like this is truly a godsend, especially since you become acclimated to eating roughly one meal per day, that coming usually from a street stand and then you graze along the way on whatever is available. The fact of the matter is, you can’t really ever know when you will get your next meal nor what it will be. Such is the life.

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