The Balkan's Continued - Albania - Tirana, Day 1.

I always wanted to go to Sarajevo in Bosnia, don’t know since when, but I had the calling. So when the opportunity finally presented itself in the end of summer, which is the end of my touring season as well, I got on a bus from Zagreb and onto the other part of the Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Croatia and Slovenia were still the Balkans, but I would like to call them the European Balkans. It is only when you step on the soil in BiH (short for Bosnia Herzeg) do you really step in the Balkans, I believe. The reason for this intro being that in that travel time of summer, I never thought I would end up in the far east of the Balkans, in the middle of winter, that too in the same year. 

I dropped my first Scandinavia winter group and took a flight to Tirana. Albania, the name had no reaction from me a couple of years back. Then this year, it just became a part of the whole Balkan circuit, which contained Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia as well, after doing Montenegro and Bosnia. This is a part of the ongoing research I am doing on planning an Ex Yugoslavia itinerary. It however became clear in the first 24 hours in Albania that it is a rightful choice over Serbia and therefore the name, Ex Yugoslavia had to be changed, to just ‘The Balkans’. The name is not important in planning an itinerary, the choice of places is all that matters. 

Today as I write, I realise that the planning of a tour of the Balkans, might be even more difficult than South America. The scale is not as huge as South America, but the distances are a lot if you consider traveling from Slovenia in the west to Macedonia in the east. This is what is challenging and makes the whole process of getting people here a responsible one. Responsible towards the Balkans and to promote the region in the Indian mind set where the most famous places can and will take a back seat and countries like Albania or Kosovo will come to the forefront. 

It feels good to plan an itinerary, knowing that nothing like this has been done before, not only from India but also by European or American tour companies, which mostly are stuck with familiar places like Dubrovnik in Croatia and Mostar in Bosnia. 

Very often in movies and in general, the image of Albania is very mafia like. Crime on the streets, poverty, is what I had heard loosely off. Since Albania was never on my to visit list, i did not even bother talking about it to my Balkan friends, which were mostly tour guides and drivers who themselves had never been this far east. Once, when I saw a tourist van with Japanese guests being checked at the SLO - CRO border, I asked my driver casually, “why are they being checked. they look like Japanese”, “Albania”, he said. “Albanian number plate”. 

Oh ya, I thought, the land of Mafias. 

The Central Sq. showing the communist painting

 In my first few hours in Tirana on a  + 2 deg night, wandering in the hip cafe district, I felt like laughing at my own oblivion about the country I was in. It felt like Zagreb on a weeknight (the weekends felt like Ibiza, in Zagreb). I kind of walked the whole of the Tirana centre in 2 hours and I noticed for the first time, an orthodox cathedral and a mosque being done up in the same christmas fervour. Its important to note here that none celebrate christmas. The orthodox celebrate it on the 7th Jan and the muslims, well!. In one view, the entire impression of Albania changed. Of course it also helped to hear “we in Albania, have only one problem, Economy, religion is open”.

The Church and the Mosque in the same light.

I was quiet pleased at the open ness of people. No women had a head scarf, even in the countryside. This was Albania, the land like any other in Europe and yet it felt different. 

I felt like traveling more in this country, but I was here on a job, the job to give 2 or 3 days maximum out of the 12, I had thought of giving the Balkans to Albania, having made the decision of actually including it in the tour. Albania didn't make my job any easier, as I had made up my mind in the next 24 hours that I need to give Albania more time. Berat, a town 120 kms to the south of Tirana, was greatly responsible for making me want to see more in Albania. To show the fellow Indians, what felt like being in the Balkans.