Keep The Awesomeness On The Down Low

Evening chill-out after siesta

Having been in Sarande for around a month now I think we are in a better position to describe what Albania is like, especially now that the 'honeymoon period' is over.

First off, I have to say that it doesn't really feel like Europe despite it only being a 2 or 3 hour flight to London. It is still pretty much a developing country and comes with all the things – some good some bad – that come with a developing country.

Poverty and homelessness is an issue, but to be honest homelessness is an issue pretty much everywhere you go now, especially in the UK.

Here in Sarande it is confined to the promenade down on the beach with a handful of beggars sat down begging for change from tourists until everything shuts around midnight and the police come along to move them. Sometimes you even see them sleeping in the middle of the promenade, perhaps hoping to tug at the heart strings of passers by.

Likewise, trash is an issue in the residential neighbourhood we live in, with a huge lawn in a square where people just dump their plastic bags and other rubbish. But of course, down on the beach it is spotlessly clean, so many backpackers and tourists never realise how big of a problem this is.

I have no idea why some people do this as there are two big bins just a 2 minute walk away that we use. I think maybe it is like India where a lot of people have no idea the damage plastics do, and are probably concerned with making enough money to survive to care. The rampant use of plastic bags for things as minor as one apple confirm this.

However, there are also inevitably good things: Kids actually play all day, which is refreshing coming from a country where the kids are glued to Iphones, tablets and Xboxes for most of the day.
While stray dogs and cats are a major problem, the locals do generally take good care of them by feeding them twice a day.

The same was true in Tbilisi last year. It seems ex-communist countries generally look after strays, or maybe it's nothing to do with the Communist background and more to do with a cultural thing. I honestly couldn't tell you what it is. It's refreshing though, as Asian countries overwhelming treat strays like crap.

Meet the Albanians...

So what about the people? Well, I heard and read some really negative things about scams, pickpockets, general unfriendliness and so forth. But to be honest I have yet to experience any of that. Maybe it is different in other towns or cities but here that is absolutely not the case.

In fact our neighbours have been incredibly friendly and welcoming despite not being able to speak English or Italian (the de facto second languages in Albania, along with Greek as a third language) and us barely stringing 3 words of Albanian together, except for Erin's unexpected learning of how to tell someone to F*ck everyone in their family (not that she's ever used it). We manage to communicate with charades and trying bits and pieces of other languages, primarily Italian.

For example, the elderly couple upstairs stopped us on the stairs a couple of weeks ago and we managed to have some sort of conversation with the words “Leo” who is the owner of the apartment and saying “Prishtina” which is the capital of Kosovo which is where him and his family have gone for autumn, winter and into spring. He then asked where we are from as we recognised the word “Angrit?” meaning English in quite few languages and so Erin said Canada and I said England and he put his thumb up and laughed. He then mimed that he was sorry for the hammering he was doing upstairs and if it was noisy! Every time we have wine with a cork we go across the stairwell and ask the old lady at number 10 who always laughs at us holding a bottle of wine and goes to get her corkscrew since we haven't got one!

The people in the mini-marts and our local restaurant we go to know we are staying here long-term and are really friendly too, though again I'd be friendly to anyone who spent money in my store or restaurant! But this does feel genuine and they are all curious to why we have temporarily moved here for 3 months. Particularly the woman in the shop who we have nicknamed "Monica". We seem to nickname a lot of women Monica for some reason. Her English is remarkably good and she's chatted with Erin about living here and the fact she's renting her apartment out to a Swede, so she knows we're in it for the long haul here.

Hitch-hiking, Anarchists and Adventure Travelling...

I think the friendliness is also reflected in the fact that virtually everyone who is backpacking that we have hosted via Couchsurfing and met on the beach in the evening is hitch-hiking and none of them have had any problems. It seems that hitch-hiking the Balkans is the 'in-thing' you never really hear about, but which loads of people do. The exception being Greece apparently, but given the fact our latest Couchsurfer Matty got a ride from the border to Athens in one fell swoop seems to contradict the negative reports we've had about hitching in Greece.

This has had led to Albania and the rest of the Balkans attracting some really interesting travellers who are different to the travellers I have met over the years in Asia, and occasionally even more adventurous.

One thing both Erin and I have noticed is most of the travellers who have passed through either have never travelled outside of Europe but keep coming back to the Balkans year after year, or have been to a huge variety of places all over the world. There seems to be no middle-ground, and many of the travellers here tend to have been to South America, throughout Europe and Africa as opposed to South East Asia as seems to be the norm nowadays for travelling. It's quite refreshing really!

How adventurous are some of the travellers we have hosted and met here? Well, we recently hosted a younger guy from Prague who is an Anarchist and is hitch hiking all over Europe staying entirely in squats or communes in each place he sleeps or failing that he Couchsurfs.

Either way, this is pretty phenomenal and inspirational as it's a lifestyle where you don't pay for transport or a roof over your head, you only have to buy food - or if you drink – alcohol, which is insanely cheap here and all over the Balkans (minus the EU countries).

I never expected to find people like this in Europe, but the reality is Eastern Europe and the Balkans are now some of the cheapest countries in the world to travel. I suppose this makes sense, as even South East Asia is now very expensive in comparison, so I guess younger people for sure are more attracted to places like this as they are priced out in much of Asia. It makes sense. Although I maybe shouldn't sing the praises too loudly, with fear that we could invite the "wrong" types of people here who have managed to ruin the likes of Prague. So... shhh... keep the awesomeness of the Balkans so far on the down low.

In fact, the Balkan nations themselves have a real sense of an identity and culture very different to central and western Europe. This is reflected in the extremely popular music channel “Balkanika”, which plays exclusively Balkan music from all the Balkan nations from Romania, Serbia and Slovenia all the way down to Albania and Greece. And it's actually for the most part pretty original and good!

“Albania makes me laugh and cringe on a daily basis!” 

I cringe at the trash problem, the poverty and some really bad beer (except Korca)! I cringe at how guys race through town at crazy speeds on motorbikes without a helmet.
But I laugh more than not at the rag-tag police force, who have to make do with cheap old Communist era cars and stencil spray 'Policia' on the side if they can be bothered.

I laugh at the corruption where the Policia stop a car at a junction and accept a bribe of cigarettes or chewing gum from someone who was using their phone whilst driving! All in all, it's refreshing having a country that can still completely surprise me...

“The Cambodia of Europe...?”

The beaches around Sarande are beautiful, the water is crystal clear, and pretty much the entire country is mountainous. The real icing on the cake is that only the Italians and a handful of Eastern Bloc nations know about Albania and it's beautiful coastline, and the rest of Europe seems to turn their noses up at it. That's their loss, and I am fine with that as it means as we head now into the low season we have great daily temperatures and the idyllic beaches almost entirely to ourselves!

I was told by a couple of people who Erin and I had met in Tad Loh in southern Laos that Albania was very much like Cambodia – but in Europe - in the way it looked smelt or felt, and I was skeptical at that comparison at first, but now I absolutely agree. The troubled history is virtually identical: Cambodia had Pol Pot, who committed a genocide against his own people, and is loathed in Cambodia. Albania had Hoxha, who was not much better, but loathed in equal amounts. Cambodia has the Angkor ruins, Albania has Greek and Roman ruins so much cheaper to see than in Greece or Italy. Corruption too is rife in Cambodia and Albania, and finally, each have beaches that are largely undiscovered and people tend to gravitate towards neighboring countries and are overlooked.

“Sometimes the best things are right under your nose the whole time...”

After I spent much of my 20's in Asia, it's amazing to have such a beautiful part of the world that I had completely overlooked but right on my doorstep as I get into my 30's.

Now I am excited to discover more of the Balkans and East Europe into next year and possibly beyond. I am desperate to see it before the word gets out and these countries succumb to mass tourism and the inevitable 'stag parties' that come with it. As I said, keep the awesomeness on the down low....