Like all canny backpackers, I'm sure you know the benefits of cultivating friends living in foreign countries. Leaving aside the cynicism for a moment, though, catching up with people you worked with, went to college with, or met on the road who are now living the expat life in places like Albania is an excellent opportunity to see places from an insider's perspective (and, of course, get a free bed for a couple of nights and a chance to do your laundry).
Recently, as part of a backpacking holiday in Albania and Greece, we spent a long weekend in Tirana. It was a chance to catch up with an old friend from Wellington who had relocated there via Krakow, Warsaw, and Varna and to see Tirana across a weekend of day-tripping, eating, watching ballet, and the Mother Teresa half-marathon.
When I'd told friends in the UK I was off to Albania, eyebrows were raised. Even the well-traveled told me to watch my back. I didn't know anyone who had been to the country before, so I was surprised when my Friday night British Airways flight from Gatwick was full - of Albanians!
A quick Skyscanner check revealed plenty of flights via Italy, and one of the pleasant surprises of our Tirana visit was the brilliant Italian food and coffee. Italy has a large Albanian population, and the Italians have obviously reciprocated, so be prepared for many macchiatos, pizzas, and seafood pasta dishes.
Steve and his family live a classic expat lifestyle. Their children attend an international school, through which they've met most of their friends, primarily other English-speaking families living away from their own countries. They enjoy a European lifestyle in a country with third- or maybe second-world prices and infrastructure.
Steve collected us from the airport and drove us back to his rented home in the dark. We talked till late (lots to catch up with) and then headed out of town the following day to visit a nearby mountain village.
Albania is blessed with three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and Berat is one of them. It's a pretty enough spot with a hilltop castle, but lunch at the Mangalemi was a highlight. The waiting staff skilfully upsold us to byrek (local spinach and cheese pie), plates of grilled meat (the Albanians like to eat sheep), salad, french fries and bread. And the recommended local Birra Tirana.
Food was a theme for our weekend. We ate out often and well—and usually Italian. This was handy for carbo-loading the blokes running the half-marathon on Sunday morning.
Steve had managed to register (or rather, get someone from his office to register him and Max). However, on Sunday morning, Mother Teresa Square was still a reassuringly chaotic scene as people milled about wondering where to collect their race numbers.
The event started 20 minutes late (all athletes reading this will be horrified) and comprised seven loops of cobblestone, hill, and broken pavement (again, not what the runners ordered).
But loops this short made for easy spectating, so we settled on the side of the road to watch a couple of hundred hardy souls hurtle past again and again. I haven't mentioned the weather, but it was to be a feature the whole time we were in Albania: a pattern of torrential rain followed by bright sunshine and rising temperatures.
After our run, we had lunch outside in another excellent Italian restaurant in the Taiwan complex. Then, we drove to the beach at Durres for a paddle to soothe tight calf muscles. We dashed back to Tirana in time to catch the first rainstorm of the evening en route to the Opera House and a ballet performance.
It was all very lovely, and the low price of tickets (300 lek each, around $3) was an insight into how important and accessible cultural activities are in this part of the world. The theatre was full - of families, groups of young people, and those expats again, all enjoying a classy performance at a budget price.
Our last dinner in Tirana was at the lovely Vila Logoreci, where we feasted on seafood, salad, and good house wine. Local expats guided us to great restaurants and advised us on what to order once we were there.
The value of this advice was revealed when, after only a couple of days of taking care of ourselves, I became ill. I'm not sure where or why, but I'd say the local food had something to do with it.
We had a different experience in Tirana when we stayed with friends. It was enlightening to talk with them and their friends about the realities of living and working in Albania and the problems with healthcare and schooling options for their children.
We also got limited insight into the local political situation, especially concerning Kosovo. The woman winner of the half-marathon was a Kosovar, and she took to the stage to collect her prize from the Vatican representative (the event was, after all, in honor of Mother Teresa), proudly wearing a Kosovo T-shirt.
However, one side effect of staying with expats is a certain distance from the locals. As we traveled south through Albania, we got more opportunities to chat with local people, often in a disjointed way, as English is not widely spoken, and neither our Albanian nor Italian (the number 2 language) are up to much.
They were all curious about why we were visiting and where we were from. Sadly, many of them were looking for a future beyond Albanian shores. The country has had a rough ride since the isolationist regime of Envers Hoxha ended with his death in 1985 and the subsequent collapse of the Eastern Bloc, and it is still visibly poverty-stricken.
The population is in decline thanks to both legal and illicit migration to Western Europe, and this made me wonder how smooth our border crossing into Greece would be, accompanied by a busload of Albanians. No problem, as it turned out. It took about an hour to process us out of Albania and into rural Greece's comparative wealth and order.
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About the Author: Deborah O'Kane has 25 years of backpacking experience under her (money) belt. Her longest stint on the road was six months in Africa, the first step in her mid-life relocation from New Zealand to the UK. She now lives in London and visits Europe frequently. Follow her on Twitter @debokane.
Amanda Porsche says
This is slightly ignorant and ill informed. I lived in Albania for two months with real Albanians not expats. I do not understand why this is featured and not a piece by a person with more experience there. If you step away from the expats , you will see a wonderful culture and country. It is not a third world country and the greek border crossing is fine as western tourist are waved to front of the line. The quote about not speaking english is not true. Many in Tirana and other areas frequented by tourist speak fine english. I grow tired of people making Albania look like a shit-hole and spreading mis-information. This was not what how I saw Albania. Albania is one of the most welcoming, friendliest countries. Not the expats but the locals. Expats communities are often people living in a bubble. Go and you can stay in locals homes for 5 euro a night.