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Donkey drawn carts make their way along streets with pot-holes the size of Liechtenstein. Half-built, but abandoned houses dot the landscape, which is that shade of green that's almost yellow, and sometimes is. Kids play barefoot in dusty lanes, while the muezzin's call to prayer competes with church bells for the attention of the faithful......

Patience......pushed

Conor_purcell
2005-11-18 15:50:12

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Donkey drawn carts make their way along streets with pot-holes the size of Liechtenstein. Half-built, but abandoned houses dot the landscape, which is that shade of green that's almost yellow, and sometimes is. Kids play barefoot in dusty lanes, while the muezzin's call to prayer competes with church bells for the attention of the faithful......

Welcome to Albania, Europe's odd one out! Historically, culturally, and, most obviously to the foreign visitor, economically unique in the region, Albania has much going for it, but with a whole lot more to be done. We experienced its' pros and cons in our four days there.

We were determined to avoid Tirana, and to our delight, caught a bus to Berat, our town of choice, almost immediately after walking across the border and getting a taxi to the first town. Immediately we were struck by the state of the roads. On the map, Berat to Ohrid looks pretty straighforward, but with the bus twisting through beautiful mountains at a snails pace, it was 5 hours before we reached the town. Along the way we saw the signs of Albania's not too distant past.....

Like I said, Albania is unique in the region, particularly for the choice its' communist government made when the USSR and China ceased to have relations. Going against the grain (every other Eastern Block country bar Yuoslavia), Albania looked to China for political guidance, and in the true Maoist spirit ("The Enemy's attack is imminent - we must prepare!"), built hundreds of thousands of bunkers throughout the country. They are everywhere, they are indestructible, and today, they are pretty much usless, except maybe for getting a bit of shelter from the soaring heat.

We passed by many of these bunkers on the way to Berat, where we found the best room of the trip so far, for the smallest amount of cash. Berat boasted nice houses rising up the hills on each side of the river, but we didn't ...