A chain smoking Knight in his Mercedes

The journey down through Albania highlights the apparent transition that the country seems to find itself in following its venture into capitalism.  Never part of Yugoslavia, despite the overtures made by Tito, Albania led a quite unique quest for survival through the cold war era, initially becoming allied with Stalinist Russia before Khrushchev starting making increasing demands for more military presence in the nation.  During the 1960s Albania became aligned with Maoist China and experienced a cultural revolution, a ban on all religion and an increasingly aggressive secret police who conducted executions and torture on any ‘opponents’ of Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship.  Following Mao’s death in 1976 Albania become isolated, crippling the economy and eventually leading to an overthrow of the regime in 1992.  Nowhere is this recent transition more apparent than in Tirana as the mix of architecture, standard of living and even the wide range of cars showcase the changing times.  The National History Museum in the centre of the city details this journey by telling the story of Albania’s quest for independence from the Illyrian tribes through to present day Albania and is well worth visiting to get a grasp on the turbulent history of the country.

We were fortunate that our hostel owner in Skhoder, Mikel, was en-route to Tirana and kindly offered us a lift to the capital.  He was very informative about the current situation in Albania, telling us about the current government’s efforts to reclaim past tax and utility bill debts owed by almost the whole population, but in one lump sum, leaving small businesses and already poor people in dire circumstances.  He took us for a traditional Albanian breakfast; fried cheese, rice, yoghurt, qofta and a meat soup, before kindly dropping us at our hotel.  The capital itself made us feel like we were back at home in Mexico City; mental driving capped with the incessant sound of honking horns.  An incredible number of these vehicles are the old Mercedes that still rampage across the country following the explosion of smuggling rackets that sprung up after the collapse of communism.  With a nice central area (hosting an International Peace Conference whilst we were there) it made for an interesting stop to get more of a feel for the country.

The neighbourhood within the fortress

From Tirana we headed further south to the UNESCO world heritage site of Berat. The bus ride proved a similar experience to our previous Albanian bus journey with a range of pungent smells, ageing seats and a rattling and ineffectual fan accompanying us for the four hour journey.  One man, sporting a haircut that would have fitted straight into Spandau Ballet continually wafted a huge bouquet of herbs under his nose in a valiant effort to overcome the stench and heat but even he was eventually overcome and fell into a deep coma. We drove past vast agricultural areas (and to my delight water melon fields!) fighting the nausea with increasing desperation but thankfully arriving in Berat with no lasting damage.  Set alongside the winding Osumi River and under the watchful gaze of Mt Tomorri (2415m) Berat is known as ‘the town of a thousand windows’ as white Ottoman houses run up the hill to an old Fortress which contains a small neighbourhood of traditional houses and narrow streets.  Unfortunately for us our luck with the weather finally broke and an almighty thunderstorm broke over our heads!  We sought refuge in a small café overrun with a Hungarian tour group and a strained looking waitress.  After an hour we decided to brave the walk down the steep road back to town, largely due to being told in no uncertain terms that we would not be able to eat lunch by a now dishevelled looking waitress.  The storm had created a river down the road which we were rescued from by a local Albanian man very proud of his old Mercedes that he smugly grunted would survive the storm as we passed an abandoned Renault.  A flash flood had struck the town centre and we watched one women wade knee deep across the torrent running down the high street, grateful for our chain smoking saviour and his magnificent Mercedes.

... and at lunch!!!

The view at breakfast