Albania-America

Cheryl and I are finally back in America now experiencing a bit of culture shock after 5 1/2 months in Europe. But after a jarring first few days where I felt both dizzy from the jet lag and the immersion into abundance, everything is feeling familiar again. There is a nice sense of relief that comes from being in a culture we understand. Well, mostly understand.

And coming to America directly after a month in Albania has given us a real sense of contrast and the imbalance of opportunity. The GDP per capita of America is over 10x Albania’s. After 45 years of a repressive and closed dictatorship, no one takes their opportunity for granted in Albania. Young Albanians are globally aware with media and the internet, and emigration is still seen as the primary path to success, whether it be legal emigration to the US, UK, France, or Germany or a more desperate journey to Italy across the Adriatic. 10% of Albania’s GDP is in the form or remittances from abroad, a very high number for what now is technically considered a middle income country.

But as always, I digress and obsess about geo and socio-economic issues. It’s one of the main reasons I love to travel…a fuller understanding of the world. A chance to talk to people at the source. Read, learn, and experience at the same time.

So when we have an opportunity to stop at a small city off the tourist track, especially if it’s on the way to another destination, we almost always say yes. Sometimes these hidden gems are some of your favorite places. Untouristed cities offer the opportunity to get off the guidebook and instagram track. Elbasan, Albania is the fourth largest city in Albania and only about 45 minutes south of Tirana. A few people had mentioned Elbasan, but I didn’t really have a “recommendation”. I figured out that the one international bus from Lake Ohrid to Tirana went right through Elbasan on the way. The challenge was that Elbasan wasn’t an official stop and this was a large coach bus run by the international Bus company, Eurobus. It would also save us going back into busy Tirana to transfer to Berat later.

So we decided we’d buy bus tickets online to Tirana (as this was the only option) and then hope the bus could drop us on the way. I held off booking any accommodation until we confirmed on the bus. We asked the driver as we boarded and they put our luggage in a separate compartment underneath. Cool, we’re doing this. As it turned out, we were the only two getting off anywhere else on this run. Hmm, why isn’t anyone else getting off in Elbasan?

The bus was a complete mix of passengers from other Balkan countries and further afield, so the border crossing between North Macedonia and Albania was slow. We all handed our passports to a young (unmarked) guy who walked down the aisle of the bus and then disappeared. He finally returned 45 minutes later and then tried to make his way down the aisle with 50 passports. He tried to call out many challenging names as the bus swerved and swayed in sweeping corners descending over a thousand feet from the pass that separates North Macedonia from Albania. As he balanced all the passports in two hands, a particularly sharp corner sent dozens of them scattered across the floor of the bus. Oh great. And then it happened again a few minutes later. It was simultaneously comical and concerning (our passports!), but we mostly felt for the guy as we figured it must be his first day on passport duty.

As it turns out, he was just a random college student sitting up front who was selected/volunteered. I chatted with him at the rest break 20 minutes east of Elbasan. He was ethnic Albanian, but living just over the border in North Macedonia, and attending medical school in Tirana. He said the region near Lake Ohrid was mostly ethnic Albanian. He was likely headed abroad after training as Germany and other countries with staffing shortages are recruiting educated Albanians aggressively.

I hope he got a free bus fare or something for his effort. By the way, we did all get our passports back eventually as the travel gods made it all work out just fine.

Elbasan itself has a nice Main Street lined with buzzy cafes, wide sidewalks, and ending at a large car free promenade space in front of its historic castle walls. It’s a busy market city too and has lots of young people and a university. The castle is unique as it’s on the flats of a valley, and is integrated into the fabric of the city with a few cafes and lodging options, mixed with regular city residents. It’s not the most picturesque castle or old town, and there are not really any other major sities of interest in Elbasan, but it does have a pleasant park, and we enjoyed our 24 hours there. People were friendly and genuinely pleased to see us tourists, and we were happy to see them. We did spot a cycle tourist from Germany at a cafe, but it turns out he was going to camp in the nice river valley west of town, so it did seem to be just Cheryl and I as far as tourists in this small city of 140,000. Our reward was really friendly locals at lunch and dinner, with a clear excitement to have Americans visiting. Albanians really are nice once you get through their guarded facade. The old adage that the fewer tourists a place gets, the more friendly and genuine the engagements resonated here.

But our real goal after Ohrid was the historic city of Berat, so we took another stab at minibus roulette and had a hotel taxi take us to the bus station of Elbasan. It was both a lively and grungy spot, and once again, we were the ONLY obvious foreign tourists hanging out there. And thanks to the random minibus schedules, we were there for almost two hours. There is a decent cafe with a rustic bathroom (squat loos) on its edge, so it was ok. And as always, people were super friendly and leave you be as desired. Albania is chill.

The nice thing about our minibus from Elbasan to Berat (besides the cool music) was that it dropped us near the center of Berat and we could walk to our first nights’ lodging at a popular hostel in Gorica. (Double room, no bunks for these 50 somethings -:) The buses from Tirana to Berat generally only stop at the bus station outside of town, so you need to taxi or take the public bus.

Berat is in located in an atmospheric location the Osum River valley and is a fascinating place to explore with rapidly developing tourism. It’s been a tourist star for a long time, but civic improvements and more restorations of crumbling buildings and ancient sites is making it even more appealing. After our night in the friendly (but young) Maya Hostel, we found a nice apartment in the center of town to settle into for three days. A number of apartments in older (non historic) buildings have surprisingly nice interiors in a rough shell and exterior. I had to block my inner civil engineer concerns as lightly reinforced concrete buildings with clay blocks are the standard construction style. Most would probably ok in a smaller earthquakes but would be no match for a big one. A moderate earthquake in Northern Albania in 2019 did kill and injure a lot of people, so hopefully more investment will bring more modern buildings and retrofits.

We then caught our final minibus back to Tirana, with half hourly departures posted everywhere online…. but our (small bus/large minibus) still left randomly off of any schedule. We were excited to head back to Tirana for our final 5 nights, as we found it so surprisingly pleasant and green in our first touch down.

Plus, we knew we could now explore Tirana knowing a lot more about Albania after going full circle for nearly a month. Wow, a month in Albania. It was not even on our travel radar until this summer. It’s geographically diverse, but has less than three million people. But our slower tour of the country rewarded us with perspective. Pieces of history and cultural knowledge layered in our minds and gave us a clear understanding of how the complex and recent past has deeply influenced the character of the people. Oh, and the swimming on the coast was divine.

Most Albanians in the world now live outside of Albania. They live all over Europe and the energetic youth clearly have their sights on opportunities abroad, especially Germany, France, and America. But it felt like we were experiencing a tipping point in the fall of 2023. More new and exciting things were happening in Tirana and that energy and prosperity seems to be starting to radiate out. But the reality is much more complex than our optimistic lens from two enthusiastic visitors.

The brain drain is continuing as the youth don’t have the time to wait around for their country to to triple their GDP. (Such as fellow Balkan Croatia) or an order of magnitude of economic opportunity as in Germany. But time and time again, our conversations with locals brought out their pride for their country, but a much more negative view of many aspects of daily life (drivers, corruption, pollution, etc).

But this was one of my favorite places to experience now, because of the innocence of the people, and complex and overwhelming history. This innocence will (and is) changing as Albania integrates into the world fully, but for now, you can still experience a bit of the past overlaid by hope for a brighter future.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends and peace to all!