It becomes increasingly obvious that this is a country with a terrifically sweet, soft center, albeit cased in a shell that is hard as nails, like some exotic fruit piled high on the beautiful market stalls.
Like frog’s eyes warily peering out of a pond, Albania’s 750 000 Cold War concrete bunkers evoke a bygone era of Stalinist control. Intended to both repel invaders and remind locals that Big Brother was always watching them, the bunkers have instead come into their own as a favorite place for a bit of covert hanky-panky. WELCOME TO ALBANIA.
Visit now Albania and you see a country in the bright, gurgling throes of adolescence. Capital Tirana is petulant and precocious, wants to wear make-up and stay up late at night. The übercool Bllok district is now a grid of bars, restaurants and clubs but 20 years ago it used to be a sealed zone for party bosses only.
It is a fierce and proud place with the right landscape for starters: heart-breakingly beautiful waves of jagged mountains, massive, languid rivers, waterfalls, lakes and a coastline that rivals with any in Europe. Furthermore, the flip side of the visceral approach to life is a tradition of extravagant hospitality to visitors that is scored deep into the soul of every Albanian.
You have to remind yourself that you are in a country that is center stage on our small continent-not, as many people seem to think, somewhere obscure way out east. Greece sits below, Italy just across the water. Only a couple of hours from Gatwick and you can be bouncing along rutted roads, leaving donkey-carts and farmers on horseback in your dusty wake. It is out of the big cities that Albania really surprises, where you see ways of life, and methods of agriculture, that vanished in western Europe generations ago. And no-one objects if you stop, take a good look, a few snaps and ask questions. Visitors have novelty value here: the world weary cynicism of mass tourism is yet to take hold.
Welcome to the Tirana’s Guesthouse in Tirana, Albania. Brought to you by TripAdvisor, powered by TripWow!™
Courtesy of Mike Parker for the text and Roderick Field for some of the pictures
