Gjirokaster looks even better in the day, except that the city is divided - the old town is nice, European, and of course old, but to the north is the new town - which is in better shape than some other towns in Albania, but still not nearly as inspiring.
I wandered up to the citadel after checking out of the hotel. The gate was locked. But the view of the valley below was great.

I headed back down to the Bar San Markos, where the english speaking bartender was, and met up with him. He is Turkish - apparently he came before the fall of communism, and when capitalism arrived, he was allowed to keep his bar. He said he' s tried emigrating to Canada, but of course they wouldn't let him - I admitted to him that I did not understand my country's immigration laws, and that we seem to be very reluctant to immigrate people from certain countries - as if the government was trying to build a certain ethnic demographic. Still, he seemed quite content with his life in Gjirokaster, and the regulars in his cafe.
I had a cappucino and an espresso and thanked him for his help. I headed back up to the citadel, where I found another entrance, and went in.







Easily more likeable than the castle in Shkodre, and totally free, the northern part is a barracks. The southern part is a sprawl of ruined walls and doorways, with an odd round stage built in the centre and rusting apparatus everywhere. And of course, a cafe. I spent a good deal of time here, mapping out the town (Look at my map!), enjoying the cool mountain air and the stunning views.




The old town is perched on two hills - the one with the citadel, and a smaller town further south across a reveen. Both wander up the side of a large mountain, merge together, and then slowly dissipate. It's a little bit of romantic Europe amongst old communist, as well as recent capitalist, plundering.









I headed back to Tirana on the next bus that came along the highway. The light wasn't as good today on the road back - just overcast skies. Many buses heading south to Saranda; it must be a popular weekend spot for Albanians. As well, Gjirokastra is a tourist town - for Albanian and Greek tourists, that is.
Back in Tirana I had a pizza and decided not the spend the night here, as it was too expensive. I headed over to the bus station - a man near the Kosovo bus stop asked me if I needed a taxi there. Not yet, I said. Once again, I'm a journalist.
In Durres I found a sleazy hotel right near the water for 700 Leke, or about USD4, No washroom, very run down, but cheap. I'll tell you one thing - I'm propping the spare bed up against the door tonight. It's that kind of place - it seemed like an abandoned building when I entered, and a few hours later I found the toilet in a bare room - it wouldn't flush, it had the muslim-style jerry can beside it for you to wash it with, as well as a hose hanging from the wall for you to wash your hands with. The curtains were stained in blood, and in the corner of the room there was a used ashtray as well as several rolled up newspapers. The pieces fell together as I sat writing in my little book, as I heard buzzing around my ears. Mosquitoes were everywhere. My only hope was to sleep with my clothes on and cover myself head to toe with the heavy blankets. Yes - the best experiences in travel are almost always nearly free.
However as for me propping the bed up against the door, in fear of the Albanians - I have, in fact, found little to fear in these people. They are friendly, laid back, and I seem to be able to trust them. Now I hope I can leave tomorrow with those impressions intact.



Albania is truly unique in Europe - a majority muslim country, wedged by its lonesomness between three regional powers for decades - Italy, Greece, and Yugoslavia. And yet, its problems are not due to ethnicity, as the Albanians are a singular ethnic group. Albania, oddly enough, has just never really recovered from its communist years.
It is amazing that such a downtrodden society exists in Europe. You could, possibly, blame the muslim culture - surely the missionaries do, and that is why they are here. Surely if they were catholic, and not muslim, things would be better? I doubt it. You could possibly blame the government, and perhaps therein lies the problem. However I think it is mostly just a communist culture still struggling to integrate itself into the capitalist world.
1990 was the end of the communist era. Many people put their meagre savings into so-called "pyramid schemes", which collapsed in 1996 and left this society, shakily adapting to a capitalist culture, with the extremely bad taste in their mouth of capitalism's worst element - getting severely ripped off from crooked corporations. Most blamed the government, and a period of anarchy ensued. The transition would be a rocky one.

I'm going out on a limb here - the Albanians aren't the best business people in the world. They don't know how to market their country; no one here has the experience or knowledge to drive the economy into the capitalist arena with effectiveness. I think everyone is learning as they go along., and that is why the country looks and feels like it's a banana republic - because it is one. It's a land of perpetual economic and environmental disaster, and must have mountains of red tape behind it, a hangover of its communist years. Why, for example, wouldn't Greece or Italy use Albania as a source for manufacturing, utilizing the cheap labour? Albania could easily become a regional exporter of low quality goods with some investors. Instead, there is nothing; the only businesses who are here in full force are the cell phone companies, the cigarette companies, and of course, the soft drink empires.

Albania, then, is too unstable for real businesses to take a chance. Its resources have been badly managed for decades with the lackadaisical, make-work communist methods of the Russians and Chinese, and now that is the only infrastructure the country has - and most of it is falling apart.
Security must be the main concern; now that the country has been flooded with police roadblocks, the ambiguous declaration of 'safe' may be around the corner. Yet it's still the third world - with such a massive base of poverty, Albania will never really be safe in a rich versus poor capitalist world. The rift will grow larger for at least a generation, and then perhaps a middle class will manage to establish itself and improve the overall quality of life drastically.

That is all speculation, though - right now, Albania is a disconnected third-world mess that is being eaten alive by capitalist tendencies. Tension on the Kosovo border doesn't help much either, and, there is little in Albania that is not better and easier to do in other parts of Europe with little or no risk whatsoever. So why even bother taking a chance on the Albanians?

I was always under the impression that this new era of Europe was about community, the EC, the EEC, the EU. The idea that Europeans should not be letting other Europeans live like scum. That perhaps all countries of Europe could one day be sound enough, politically, economically, and sociologically to join the EU. Instead, it still seems to be bound in old aristocratic tendencies. Albanians are simply a backwards group of farmers living in a large stretch of carpathian coastline - hardly.
Old habits die hard, and the concept of ethnic superiority is far from gone in Europe; it is merely subdued. NATO and UN preaching can go on for years, but it takes even larger elements to change the way a society, or even a whole continent, thinks.
Such are the thoughts I had on my last night in Albania. My first of three trips of the most contentious parts of the Balkans. Is ethnicity all that drives this region to madness, or is there more to it? Are the other unstable regions of the Balkans as poor as Albania?
And once again - how can the super rich western European powers allow this third world to sit at their doorstep, and do nothing about it?


-April 2001 On that note, to Milan.....



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