ALBANIA: THE FORGOTTEN COUNTRY OF SOUTHERN EUROPE

October 27, 2024: Thus began my five-hour Albanian journey. In late October into early November of 2024, my partner and I did our much-delayed Mediterranean cruise through four nations (Which we increased to six through strategic planning). After spending two days touring Athens, we ended up on a cruise ship seeing two of the most popular Greek islands (Santorini and Mykonos with a side trip to fascinating Delos which was more interesting than these tourist traps) followed by stopovers in Zakynthos and Corfu. There will be more on Greece and these five islands that we visited when Greece gets its inevitable turn in this project. But I bring this Greek adventure up because of the final Ionian island that we visited, Corfu. When visiting Southern Europe, which is the historical cradle of the political West, there are a million old towns to visit in the region over many countries. Corfu has a famous Old Town that is the heart of their tourist experience. But knowing that Croatia, Montenegro and Italy were coming up soon on our vacation which had more famous historic and scenic Medieval Old Towns, we decided to try something different. Enter Albania.
Researching the surrounding area, I discovered Finikas Lines which allows you to take a ferry from Corfu to multiple different islands and nations including Albania. Finikas use high speed hydrofoils that can take you across the Adriatic Sea in half an hour. Always wanting to ride a hydrofoill, understanding that Saranda would be in its offseason, and that the ferry takes off 45 minutes after docking in Corfu, I booked a hydrofoil to Albania. Little did I know that this trip would be one of the highlights of our Southern European tour. Upon reaching Albania, we had five hours. Too little time to see the capital of Tirana. But plenty of time to enjoy the Albanian Riviera town of Saranda, experience the town and beaches of Ksamil (Go before it is destroyed by tourists) and the UNESCO heritage site of Butrint Historical Park (A quieter medieval castle experience than Corfu). Upon getting through customs, we were approached by a Russian cab driver who asked for 15 Euro for a cab ride to Butrint. This was the best cab experience of my life. Not only did he drive us down to that site which took about 40 minutes, he gave us a tour of the area including its history with a drive by of St. George’s Monastery in Ksamil, an explanation of Albanian culture, the appeal and problems with Saranda, a deep dive discussion about the mussel farming in the ocean, how to grow the beautiful olive trees that littered the landscape, and every detail that you would pay a tour guide 100 Euros for. He spoke perfect English and even explained his complicated journey from the Soviet Union to becoming an Albanian citizen. The entire five-hour experience was perfect including the self-guided tour of Butrint along the inlet of Lake Butrint with Albanian fisherman fishing the same way that people have in the region for thousands of years. The Butrint ferry across the Lake was a flat wooden boat that could only take two vehicles at a time and dumps you into the outskirts of the Venetian Triangular Castle which you can see from Butrint across the inlet. We also got off the bus to take a picture at the HAND OF KSAMIL on Ksamil Beach which is normally a busy tourist attraction but was DEAD on this day. We finished the day in Saranda walking along the beautiful riviera, taking a photo of a Hillary Clinton statue that existed inside the city square (More on this later), and eating a wonderful seafood lunch at Marini’s with the cook cleaning his grill specifically to cook us his version of calamari. Right after, we had to head back to the port at 2:00 pm (Albania is an hour behind Corfu despite lying east) to make it back to the hydrofoil and dock in Corfu at 3:30 pm, pass through Greek customs (Which required waving my passport in the air and the immigration official acknowledging it while sitting in a chair), and a short walk back to our ship to board by 5:00 pm. When discussing this fantastic day that we had with family members and friends, I often rave about my day in Albania.

“Really, Albania?” is the reply.

But I will die defending this day as one of the best of my middle-aged life so far. So, what is Albania? How does this small, Muslim-majority country exist in this part of Europe? How did it become Muslim? And based on my experience, why is it filled with some of the nicest, sweetest people I met on the entirety of my European adventure?

Albania is the definition of a middle tier country. Size wise, its area is around 11,100 square miles, making it the 140th largest nation in the world and one of the smallest in the region. Its population is a little over 2.4 million with a GDP of around 24,840 Euros placing it 80th in the World economically. The local currency is the Lek and it was exchanged while we were there at a nearly perfect 100 to 1 rate with the Euro (A 200-dollar lek note is about 2 Euros). Compared to Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, and Italy, Albania was the cheapest country that we visited except for tax free San Marino. While Saranda is more diverse, the population of Albania is 97% native with a very small Greek minority that lives in the Southern part of the nation.

Discussing Albania’s history can not be accurately explained without bringing up the people that settled in this region 4000 years ago. The Illyrians were often described as “barbarians” by the more 'civilized' Greeks. They inhabited the land of Illyria which extended into the Southern Slavic lands that used to form Yugoslavia. They were recognized as one of the three ancient tribes of the region along with the Greeks and Thracians. The Macedonians had a love/hate relationship with the Illyrians trading with them openly while also dealing with their chronic piracy. After the Greek era, the history of Illyria gets difficult to track. The region became the hub of empires for the next thousand years. Living in relative isolation as a tribal people, the Illyrians faced invasions from Romans, Greeks, Visigoths, Huns, Bulgars, and Slavs throughout its Middle Age history. Despite all of this, the Illyrians preserved what became the modern-day Albanian language and their unique culture through multiple conquests. The Romans were the first to conquer the Illyrians during the 2nd Century, and the Byzantines took over control of the region in the 4th Century. Eventually, the Ottomans captured the current territory of modern-day Albania in the 15th Century which cut the country off from the “Western” powers for over 400 years. Albania became the first fully European nation to embrace Islam slowly starting in the 14th Century which gradually became the majority religion of the nation. Even though the country is still majority Muslim (Around 51%), the independence of Albania from the Ottoman Empire in 1912 was largely driven by its diverse population of Christians and Orthodox (About 20% of the population) and other individuals not affiliated with any religion at all (Another 20%). About a year later, the empires of Europe took about half of Albania’s land and declared those citizens as part of different nation states including the region known as Kosovo. Albania respects “freedom of religion” and the nation has been secular since being under monarchist rule between the World Wars and a proudly nationalist communist state through the remainder of the 20th Century. Communism ruled the country from 1946 to 1991, which brought about modernization of what was the poorest nation in Europe but also repression along with close ties with the Soviets. Like the Soviet Union, Albanian Communism fell in 1991 and now has a Western style parliamentary republic that rules with an elected president.

Two more facts about Albania. First, a group that was once considered a terrorist organization by the West but has now gotten protection due to its opposition to the current Iranian regime is MEK (Mujaheeden E-Khalq) who have around 3000 members and live on the outskirts of Tirana. Second, why does Albania have a Hillary Clinton statue and apparently a large Bill Clinton statue inside its capital city? Because when Albania was divided up by the European powers in 1913, Kosovo was part of its landmass. Due to the Yugoslav War in the 1990s, support for the Kosovars who have ethnic ties to the Albanian people by the West allowed Kosovo to break off from Serbia and regain national ties with Albania. Because of this, Albanians consider the Clintons as national heroes.

The more you know.
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Next blog, Zambia. Until then.