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Published: January 20th 2024
Dear All
Greetings from Albania! Country number 92, and another one of the remaining few European countries now ticked off my list! Just five more to go now! I arrived in Albania the day after I got back from a wonderful week in Sheffield with my family over Christmas. Gone are the days that I'm away for Christmas, there's certainly no place like home when it comes to this important Christian celebration for me!
I flew to Albania on wonderful WizzAir, a Hungarian-based budget airline which is pretty much the Ryanair of East Europe really, but with good customer service (nice!). I'd kind of gotten used to travel delays with train issues both to and from Sheffield just the week before, and this flight was no exception. Because I felt used to it, the 1.5 hour delay to my flight, arriving in Tirana bang on midnight, and in my hotel accommodation around 1am, didn't really feel like a biggie. It was also rather educational, and perhaps an offbeat introduction to this fascinatingly different country of Albania.
The plane had already been delayed by 45 minutes due to a late incoming flight when we began boarding at London Luton
Airport, which at last has a brand new fast train shuttle between Luton Airport Parkway train station and the airport just over a mile away, to replace the absolutely dreadful bus service that used to operate between the two. I was most certainly the only tourist and non-Albanian on the flight as I observed everyone else boarding. There were definitely more men than women, and I think I can categorise Albanian men into two types - thick, stocky and burly ones you wouldn't want to mess with, and skinny ones with big chins, sunken eyes and a serious crop-trop and trimmed beard combo going on. I understand this is probably a bit of a generalisation, but I just couldn't help noticing these cookie-cutter male types of the Albanian nationality. I also noticed, and I often feel comfortable just saying what's on my mind to be honest, that there seemed to be, shall we say, a fair bit of in-breeding going on... During my journey I very much noted that the Albanians I encountered in Albania were very different from these types who were flying home from England, more educated and family-oriented I felt. I learned from the Albanians I met
in the country, that the ones who travel abroad generally come from the north of the country, around "The Accursed Mountains" area, and have distorted the Albanian "Kanun" of traditional customary laws to do some really quite dodgy, gang-related things. Not particularly pleasant types that I'd like to spend time with, as I believe one of Liam Neeson's characters found out, but thankfully the people I met in the country itself were lovely - charming, hospitable, and very friendly indeed.
As we were sitting down, most people seemed to know others outside of their own travelling group, and the whole journey seemed to be just one massive chit-chat, with a notable amount of seat-swapping happening as they all mingled throughout the journey. I got talking to three really friendly guys in total. The real drama came when a thick burly type decided to sit next to a skinny short-bearded type on the dual emergency seats right in front of me. The flight attendants wouldn't allow this seat swap though, as it was an extra leg room seat that they were charging €20 extra for. Mr Burly was having none of it though, refused to move back to his original
seat (although admittedly by now someone else had already moved there), and was also refusing to put his bag up in the stowage compartment, leaving it on the floor in front of him, which is of course not allowed in such emergency seats. I just couldn't help thinking how uneducated and thick this utter plonker must have been, not to acquiesce, probably as he would lose face in front of his friends, of which he seemed to have many. After around half-an-hour, the airport security staff came on and got him off, despite more protesting on the thick guy's part, and there was a little cheer when he finally exited the plane. I had previously only seen this kind of thing on YouTube videos, mostly from America, of unruly people being escorted off planes, so it was quite interesting to see it with my own eyes.
Unfortunately though, the security protocol in such a situation meant that all other passengers had to get their bags down from the stowage compartments, presumably to ensure that the kicked-off person hasn't left anything dodgy behind. I believe in America this would involve the whole plane being de-planed and boarded again, so I
felt what we had to do wasn't so bad. This bit took a while, as around half the passengers didn't seem to understand the announcement in English, and the other half complained about it. When the plane finally took off it was quite a relief, and the rest of the journey was really smooth.
We only landed 1.5 hours late, despite all the problems. It was bang on midnight, and after whizzing through passport control, with unfortunately and unusually no Albanian stamp in my passport (yet they stamp my passport when I visit the EU...!), I easily took a taxi from the airport to my accommodation in coastal Durrës, for the start of my Albanian adventure. It's always intriguing arriving in a country at night, not really knowing anything about a place and seeing the dark deserted streets, wondering what secrets they hide.
As mentioned, I arrived in my hotel at 1am, and surprisingly had a really good night's sleep that night. I failed to mention that I also had last-minute accommodation issues, when my booked self-catering apartment in Durrës cancelled on me that very afternoon. I was fortunately able, through the amazing customer service of the fantastic
booking dot com, to find another accommodation for around the same price, also including breakfast, very quickly. And a great hotel it was too! The night man checked me in to my very spacious accommodation with two balconies - one overlooking the sea just on the other side of the road, and the other looking towards a villa-topped hill behind (more on that below). I soon settled in for the evening with a miniature bottle of whisky I'd bought on the plane with the intention of soothing my nerves before bed, after such an eventful first day of my trip!
As mentioned, I slept really well that night (the whisky probably helped!), despite being woken a couple of times by stray dogs barking, and what I thought were gunshots but were probably instead early New Year's fireworks being set off. I thought that with this first day and night's experiences of travelling in Albania, I probably already had a good taster of what this country is like. The guy on the plane seems to represent a certain uneducated type, common apparently for the ones who emigrate to other countries but not so common for the ones who stay behind.
One of the guys I got talking to on the flight mentioned that there is always something similar happening on his flights to and from Albania. I felt sorry for the flight attendants, who despite handling the situation extremely well, probably dread being signed up for the Tirana flights! The dogs barking and fireworks (gunshots?) also made more sense as I explored Durrës the next day, with a fair number of stray dogs sharing the pavements with pedestrians, and the wooded hill behind my accommodation sporting two youths setting off fireworks as I walked up the hill the next day. When I was researching this trip, I'd read a tourism slogan saying "Albania is like Europe, but just without the rules". This made so much more sense now - I wouldn't say it's a lawless place, just somewhere where rules are more flexible, and people probably live more by neighbourly- rather than state-protection. I was certainly intrigued by this country, and fascinated to explore more while getting my thoughts and experiences also down in my blogs. I could safely say, even on only day two in the country, that Albania is not like anywhere else I've been to.
Breakfast
the next morning was yummy, including the deeply traditional Balkan delicacy I'd encountered just a couple of months previously in Croatia, burek - cheese or meat filled pastries. Despite my words on how different Albania is, pretty much everyone I encountered in the country were super-friendly and welcoming, with either excellent English or Italian to be able to communicate with. While I did touch upon the Albanian language before my visit, I concluded it was just far too difficult to proceed learning and resorted to English or Italian during my week there. As well as a country that's known to buck trends, it is also famous for its hospitality, which I certainly found very much to be true. I set out to explore the port city of Durrës at midday, after a well-needed and relaxing morning in.
Durrës is Albania's second largest city at nearly 200,000 inhabitants, and is pretty much an extension of Tirana which lies only 20 miles to the east along a well-travelled and built-up highway. It serves as the country's principal port as well as a seaside destination, with extensive beaches, but is not particularly attractive. It was founded as Epidamnos in the 7th century
BC by the Greeks, and became an important urban centre in Roman times which they called Dyrrachium. It also became Albania's capital city for six years from 1914 to 1920, when Albania had a very short experience as a constitutional monarchy called the Principality of Albania, until this was abruptly ended when Yugoslavia invaded the country in 1921, followed shortly after by Italy in 1939. The country experienced a bitter struggle for self-governance during World War Two and the immediate aftermath, until in 1946 Enver Hoxha, the country's notorious and rather paranoid communist dictator, took power and formed the People's Socialist Republic of Albania until the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1991. This is what Albania, to my mind, is mostly famous for - when the form of communism known as Hoxhaism was unleashed on the people, a supposedly very pure form of Marxism-Leninism. Initially allied to the Soviet Union and China, it broke relations with the former in 1961 and the latter in 1978, in both cases as Hoxha believed these two countries were turning away from their original communist ideals. When I was growing up, Albania figured in my consciousness as being completely isolationist and unvisitable, rather
Durrës
My hotel building is the tall one to the right of and behind the small rooved building saying "hotel".like today's North Korea I believe. It was an enigma and a mystery, and I did not imagine during the 1980s that one day I'd be able to visit the place. But here I was, about to explore the city of Durrës on my first day there - I was really very excited!
First up, I headed towards the city's Adriatic coastline just across from my hotel, for lovely views from a fascinating concrete pyramid-like structure called "Sfinksi", walking from here around a mile eastwards up to the closed-off Port of Durrës. I then explored the tourist sights of town. Firstly, the imposing 15th century Venetian Tower built as part of a larger fortress complex designed to protect the city from attack. From here, I headed on to the Great Mosque of Durrës, for a good amount of peace and prayer time. Although I'm Christian, I've always enjoyed visiting mosques, as well as other places of worship - I find them very conducive to prayer and the people often very welcoming. Nextdoor, I explored the city's most famous attraction, the Amphitheatre of Durrës, and had the whole place to myself for my entire visit - yay! Built in the
2nd century AD to hold a crowd of up to 15,000 spectators, it is the largest such structure in the Balkan region. Despite this, the site was only discovered and excavated in 1966! Such is the recent history of Albania I think, being forceably closed off from the rest of the world for so long. Finally, I headed up the afore-mentioned hill overlooking my hotel from behind, towards the Royal Villa of Durrës at the top, built originally in 1927 as a summer residence of the founding member of Albania's brief Royal Family, the fantastically-named King Zog I, formerly the President of the country before he proclaimed it a Kingdom with himself as King. It was subsequently used as a government reception building during the communist period, welcoming even former US President Jimmy Carter in the 1990s. During a brief period of civil unrest in Albania during 1997, the building was vandalised, and it has never been restored since, although talk has been made regarding its restoration.
The views from up there were incredible, not only down upon coastal Durrës and the Adriatic Sea, but also inland over the city's urban expanse and onto two mountain ranges climbing up
in the far distance, Tirana being situated between the two. However, I did feel a little disconnected from civilisation up there, and although there were a few ordinary folk walking around here and there, there were also a few too many stray dogs for my liking, homeless-looking vagrants, and the afore-mentioned youths setting off fireworks. The villa itself was also fenced off with barbed wire, and was rundown, with all windows having been broken and graffiti everywhere, adding to the rather menacing atmosphere I felt. I was glad to return back down the hill and onto the main shopping strip again towards my hotel. On the way I passed the Durrës Archaeological Museum, housing many artefacts from the nearby Amphitheatre and other ancient remains, and apparently the country's best archaeological museum, but unfortunately it was closed for repairs for the winter. Ah well, I was happy to have at least been inside the Amphitheatre itself.
I picked up a beer from a local supermarket, and along with a takeaway from a nearby Italian restaurant with a very friendly Italian owner, I wrapped up the day back in my hotel room appreciating the views from my balcony.
I felt
so intrigued by this country and my first taster of it. On the one hand, it is European, with European-looking and -sounding people. On the other, it does seem to play by its own rules, which I feel would take much longer than just a week's visit to figure out. Still, I felt I was going to try to make a good go of it, and that evening I felt excited to be travelling there and to have the honour to be able to write up about my experiences in my travel blog. The next day I was heading to Berat in the south of the country, and I will write up about my adventures there in my next one.
Until then, thanks for reading, and all the best for now!
Alex
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John Miranda
John & Miranda
Durres
Brings back memories.