Visiting Albania

25.07.2014, heguli

Well hello again! My eight week in Kosovo is ending today and now I only got two more weeks here. Aaaaah! 🙂 I have only nine more work days since next Monday is a public holiday thanks to Ramadan.

Last weekend I went to Albania from Friday to Monday morning. We went to Shëngjin which is a city next to the beach. The city has the second largest port in Albania. The port itself is not so updated, but I was surprised how many boats were going back and forth. Our hotel was not in the city, because there they have the worst tourist beaches with not so clean water. We went to rera e hedhme which is part of a very long sand beach going all the way to Velipojë. There is an old army base after the port. Some old ships and cars were still parked there and the buildings in the area are not in the best condition. It is a bit spooky to drive through the base, but that is the only way to get to the quieter and cleaner (the water is cleaner) beaches.

The beach was great, however, we were not so lucky with the hotel. The hotel itself was in a great location and it could be so nice, BUT. When we got to the hotel they informed us that we had not booked a room. We got some help from my mother’s assistant who speaks Albanian and she had booked us a room a week in advance by phone. At first the receptionist accused us for calling a wrong number. Well, we checked the number and it was not wrong. Then the receptionist was telling us that they don’t have any rooms available for three nights. At this point she was being so rude to us and raising her voice. But then out of nowhere she found us an apartment in their hotel with two bedrooms. The room was big and everything, but the showers did not function very well and we ended up having a little flood in one of the bathrooms. The shower was not the only thing that didn’t work… haha I have never experienced such a bad hotel in Albania, nor have I ever met such a mean receptionist.

It felt interesting to be in my boyfriend’s home country without him. It depends what parts of the country you visit, because people speak more English in Tirana and in some of the tourist cities. In Shëngjin only a handful speak English so I had to use Albanian, which I’m not the best at. I can only say some really basic stuff. Anyhow, somehow I managed to get us good food in the restaurants etc. People are very happy that foreigners are at least trying to speak their language, because they know it is a difficult language.

Waking up next to the beach felt like a nice change. I got up early every morning without an alarm. The first morning I went to the beach at 7:30am. I found this little quiet beach close to the hotel. I was the only person there for almost two hours. Very relaxing and a beautiful place. Even during the day the beach did not get crowded. I was on the beach for about 8 hours. It is still a mystery how I managed to be there for so long, because before I have found it challenging to just lie on the beach and swim every now and then. At the end of the day I got sunburned just a little bit. Ok, my behind was burned and I looked like one of those monkeys with red behinds…

The second day we drove to Shkodra, my boyfriend’s hometown. Shkodra is a very nice city with a castle on top of a high hill. The city lies next to the Shkodra Lake which separates Albania and Montenegro. This time we went only briefly to the city and then drove along the lake to a little village where we had dinner. The lake is absolutely stunning and the water is clear blue. When I go to Albania after two weeks I definitely want to explore the lake more. It is definitely worth a visit.

So all in all, the trip was alright. Albania is an interesting and unique country. The nature is so beautiful and the people (expect for our receptionist :D) are great. It will be interesting to see how the country will develop; also how Kosovo will develop. There are lots of things that needs improving. It feels like people do not preserve the nature in the way that they should. I have a great example of a dump that was behind our hotel. Hotel employees threw loads of garbage there and just let it decompose itself. It will take hundreds of years for that garbage to be decomposed, but ok…

No but really, Albania has improved a lot since the collapse of communism. The country was closed for years and has been open for foreigners and its own people for just about two decades. For many years after the fall of communism the country was a mess; schools did not work, many people left the country, Albania took many refugees from Kosovo during the Kosovar war even though they were so poor and could barely handle themselves, etc… I think the last mentioned case shows what a hospitable nation Albania is. I have experienced this first hand when I have visited my boyfriend’s family. During my whole lifetime I have not got so many compliments as I got in Albania, and I was in Albania only for two weeks.

After the trip I returned to Prishtina and have been working from home. On Wednesday I went briefly to Gjakova, because the Ambassadors from The Netherlands, Albania and Norway visited our office. They were surprised to find a Finnish girl amongst the office employees. On Thursday and today on Friday I have been home in Prishtina writing on a project. My two last weeks I will spend in Gjakova. But for now I will head out to Ohrid, Macedonia, and spend a long weekend there thanks to the public holiday on Monday. I will go with a group of three women from Finland who are all working in Prishtina. Next week I will write about my experiences in Ohrid. We have had a minor setback so far. The car that we were supposed to rent had a little accident yesterday and it is in service now. There were no more cars available so we will take a taxi to Macedonia instead. The price will be somewhat the same as if we had our own car.

In the end I have some pictures again just like in my previous entries. Have a great weekend and thanks for reading my blog! 🙂