Durrës, the Largest Port of Albania

We visited Durrës this last weekend and several things struck me about the city. Durrës is much less busy and much more quiet a city than Tirana, a city roughly 30 minutes away. Durrës has less than a third of the population of Tirana. As we were walking down the streets of this port city, I noticed the constant lining of palm trees along the streets, a marked difference from Tirana.

We paid a visit to the Durrës amphitheater; it was fantastic. It's only 400 leke per person, which is less than $4 per person, to get in and it was well worth the money. The edifice had the same feeling that parts of Rome did. There were ancient tombs and ancient Christian mosaics. The Byzantine forum, just a few blocks away from the amphitheater, was also beautiful.

It was interesting to see those things with their beautiful ornate columns and grand arches, and then a short while later see the severe, austere architecture of the Communist era just a short distance away. Its hard, concrete edges, unadorned metal, etc., provide a stark contrast to the older items elsewhere in the city. 

Straying away from the topic of architecture, we stayed at a very nice hotel there in Durrës -- one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at, and yet it was cheaper than the average hotel in the U.S. We had a view of the Adratic Sea (as pictured above) and it was only a short bus ride from the center of the city. The people at the hotel were so incredibly nice and hospitable.

We had some delicious food there as well! We had gelato that would have given the stuff in Italy a run for its money; we had amazing pasta and sea food that was to die for! Durrës was a great experience; an experience everyone should have!

Big City; Small Town Feel

The thing that's struck me about Tirana while I've stayed here is that the streets have never felt crowded to me. Even in the middle of the afternoon, you never have to vie for space as you sit at a table in Tirana's central park and share a drink with a friend. Tirana looks like a big city, and by most accounts it is a big city, but it feels smaller than it is. In fact, the only time I've ever felt crowded is on the city's public transportation, which is a relatively nice system, albeit a sometimes overburdened one. 

Also contributing to this feeling is the fact that, by and large, everyone seems to know each other, especially in the neighborhoods and more enclosed streets with the smaller markets and other stores. Kids play around the city constantly, making it feel more like a suburb than anything else. While walking down the main streets, people stop suddenly when they recognize a friend and stop to clap hands and talk for a while. 

Tirana is an amazing city with a friendly air. Add on top of this that the country and the city are not yet inundated with tourists yet—not like Rome or Athens, etc. The people of Tirana aren't fed up with the constant flow of tourists that plague so many other places and so they're much more welcoming to the ones they do happen across. In my time here, I've seen perhaps three or four other tourists. Not many tourists come to Albania; but it's their lost. Albania is a great place with many amazing things to see.

The Generosity of the Albanian People

Since being here in Albania, my family and I have been met with countless acts of kindness and generosity, one after another. We took a taxi from the airport to our apartment—the taxi driver took money off our fare when we got to the apartment and made sure we didn't forget our daughter's sock that had fallen off!

We go to the same bakery every few days to get bread (which is delicious)—and as an aside, mass produced store bought bread that's prepackaged, etc., isn't really a thing here; you buy fresh bread from a local bakery and it tastes great. This will be one of the many things I will undoubtedly miss about Albania. Anyway, the baker frequently gives us an extra pastry for free for our daughter to munch on. 

Other instances of kindness include: people here on buses often stand up and let my wife sit down; breathless, they run out to us after leaving a place, and hand us something we forgot or remind us of something. 

The people of Albania are a kindhearted people and they are extremely receptive to new people; this has been one of many things that has made my family and I's stay here very enjoyable. They are willing to go to lengths to help you, like writing down the prices of things for you or always printing out receipts when you're buying something!

A New Intern; His Perspective on Albanian Food

Since arriving in Albania, I've encountered different food, I've struggled with the language barrier, and I've had to adjust to life in a larger city — but one thing I've not really had to deal with is culture shock. Life here in Albania is not so different from life elsewhere. People always ask me what the weirdest thing here is, ask me how foreign it is here — I always struggle with answering that question or giving them a response that would intrigue. I always settle with the response: "It's not that different in Albania; it's not that strange."

However, that's not to say there aren't differences between Albanian and, say, American culture. Of course there are. We live in a dynamic world with dynamic people after all and Albania and its culture is no exception. But the differences are not instrumentally huge. This first blog post will more or less consist of a list of things that have to do with food!

The restaurants here are amazing and really convenient. A lot of them have outdoor seating too, so it makes it quite simple to just pause while you're walk, decide you're hungry, and plop yourself down. There's usually someone watching the outside seating, so a server comes to you and gives you a menu fairly quickly. A common thing that people eat at these more casual restaurants is something called "qofte" (pronounced chofta), which are these nicely sized sausages, along with fries and a few other things. You can order a really good sized meal for two people for less than 10 dollars many times, making it actually cheaper a lot of the time to dine out! A dream come true!

Many of these restaurants have at least one person who speaks fairly good English, so ordering food has never been too much of a hassle. The times where they don't have someone who speaks English, we just shoot from the hip and point at a few things on the menu and hope they taste good! We haven't been disappointed yet with the food, even when we're not sure what we're ordering.

The baked goods in Tirana, Albania, are to die for! Truly, they're delicious. There's bakeries everywhere you go in Tirana and everywhere there's the smell coming from them. There's cakes, donuts, scones filled with every filling imaginable, and a lot more. In addition to the baked good being tasty, they're also inexplicably cheap, making them an affordable thing to snack on from time to time.

Lastly, there's these tiny markets that are no bigger than a smaller bedroom — they're just as, if not more, numerous as the bakeries. These are the places you should go to get your everyday groceries. Unlike in the U.S., these smaller places are cheaper and more convenient than the huge supermarkets. It's the opposite in Albanian, really, with the supermarkets being the more expensive out of the pairing. Although the markets do accept credit and debit cards, which is something the tinier markets do not do. 

Albania has been a fantastic experience thus far, with the amazing food being only a part of it! I'll continue this blog focusing on other parts of this great place, its culture, and any other aspect of this country I can think of. Thanks.

Youth Promote Albanian Culture

We have had the opportunity to do some traveling this past week and experience the culture even more. There were a few things that really stuck out. First, we saw people joining together doing their traditional dances. Now that might seem normal for some and maybe not even special, however,  what made this special was the fact that those dancing were all between the ages of 18 to 24. We were amazed to see the younger generation get together and outwardly show their appreciation for their culture. What made this even more memorable was that before the traditional dancing started there was modern music playing in an attempt to get everyone dancing and having a good time. However, it wasn’t until the traditional Albanian music started when everyone got up and started dancing.

If someone were to start playing traditional music back home we wouldn’t know what to do. Most would probably just wait to see what everyone else did, and odds are no one would know how to do the traditional dance. Even if there was one person that knew how to do the dance I doubt they would start dancing because it wouldn’t be the “cool” thing to do. It is sad to see parts of one’s culture die off; however, it is unlikely that the Albanians will ever let their culture die off. That is proven in the way the youth promote their own culture. 

Quality Food and Service in Tirane

In our time living in Tirane, we've had the wonderful opportunity to visit numerous restaurants, bakeries, and markets, each of which sport a wide range of freshly prepared, and very affordable, food. One universal feature here is the fact that no matter where you go to get food, you will always be treated with kindness and very efficient service.  Even at fast food restaurants, your food will be served to you directly by a waiter who will go out of his way to make sure you are treated properly. 

The food itself is some of  the finest we've ever had. There is a wide array of food types to choose from. Anything ranging from Italian to Arabic can be found in copious amounts throughout the city (there are even a few Mexican restaurants near the U.S. Embassy). No matter where you go, the food you order will almost always be prepared from materials fresh from the local markets.   

In the time we've spent out and about, neither of us have yet to go to a restaurant that has had poor food or service. We have always been treated with extreme kindness by the locals, and the language barrier has hardly been an issue. It's been very surprising for us to have such high quality food  so widely available and for very affordable prices. In the U.S., the same quality of food would cost a great deal more and would certainly not be as fresh nor as widely available as it is here in Tirane. We're definitely going to miss it when we return home. 

Act of Kindness

These past few weeks we have been able to go around getting to know the area. We don't take any buses or taxis because we enjoy walking outside here. Spring has begun and all of the trees and flowers are blossoming as everything starts to get greener. Looking up at the mountains that surround Tirana allow us not to feel overwhelmed in a city, but rather comfortable and relaxed. Not only is it absolutely beautiful here this time of the year, the people are very kind and easygoing. Just last week we went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants and as we were about to leave the owner comes over to us and expresses his gratitude for our business and then goes on to say that the check was on the house. Personally, no one has ever done that for me, I was shocked and very grateful at the same time. We will definitely be returning to give them more business, not to mention their food is amazing.