It wasn't too long ago that travel to the Balkans was only for the brave. And only the craziest among them dared to go to Albania, a small state on the Adriatic Sea that was sealed off from the whole world like North Korea nowadays in the decades after World War II. No one was allowed in, no one was allowed out. That has changed in the meantime. But still the country with its population of not even three million is a piece of mysterious terra incognita in the middle of Europe.
It began in the 1990s, when the first crazy backpackers ventured there, where no one had been for years. Enver Hoxha, a kind of Balkan Stalin, had made more and more enemies for his state after the war: first he broke up with the big communist brother, the Soviet Union, then with neighboring Yugoslavia and finally with China. For the Albanians, years of complete isolation began. Every Albanian had to do forced labor to build thousands of small bunkers, who Hoxha wished because he feared an invasion from abroad every day.
Soon no one knew anything anymore about the beautiful beaches, the fabulous cuisine, the towering mountains and the friendly locals who welcome every traveler with open arms. Only legends of blood feuds, of armed mountain farmers and staggering poverty made the rounds.
If you arrive at the airport of the capital Tirana today, nothing reminds you of those dreary days when people in Albania starved, froze and marched according to the orders of the communists against the whole wide world. Everything at Tirana International Airport, named "Nënë Tereza" after the famous miracle-working nun Mother Theresa, the most famousis daugther of the country, different from airports in the West.
Formerly built by the Soviets as a military airfield, the airport is now half owned by a German company that has modernized and expanded it. The number of passengers has quadrupled in recent years, and like everywhere else, there are cell phone stores, sandwich stands and duty-free stores.
Tirana, the country's capital, where almost one-sixth of Albanians live, has also spruced up. Since 2008, tourist numbers in Albania have nearly doubled. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, almost three million people visited the country before Corona - the equivalent of one tourist for every local. However, the number of Western Europeans or Americans who venture here is still small.
Most of the tourists come from the neighboring states of Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro, but Italians and Greeks also populate the narrow strips of beach during the summer months. In addition, there are Albanians who return from abroad to visit - often they have invested their uproad earned money themselves in hotels, bars discos or something else.
The result is obvious. Almost every inch of the coast between Vlorë and Himarë is now covered with clunky prefabricated buildings. Even in Sarandë in the far south, just a few kilometers from the Greek border, the concrete mixers are rotating around the clock.
Every day, another pastel-colored vacation home made of concrete and Styrofoam seems to be completed. Al, of this happens on places were the romans onced ruled. Every stone is full of history, every piece of earth has drunk blood. every old wall has seen times full of changing rulers. And they're still here - old arenas, old palaces, old roads, made by Caesar's soldiers.
Nothing remains of the tranquil fishing village that Sarandë was in communist times. Today, around 30,000 people live in the small bay, plus easily three times as many tourists in the summer months.
"Many hotels are never fully booked. But we hope some day the tourists will come," says a civil engineer who is just finishing a row of apartments with a pool right on the water. Only a few follow the rules of the game: "Many just build without a permit and without a construction plan."
Albania, famous for its criminal clans, is a state of anarchy, at least compared to the old democracies of the West. The authorities don't get around to stopping illegal construction projects in time; perhaps they don't even want to. Only occasionally does the municipal demolition squad move in when an illegal construction site is discovered.
The consequences are obvious: Like rotten teeth in a healthy set of teeth, countless building ruins disfigure the vacation scenery. Next door, construction continues unimpressed. This works, because those who are sufficiently ticked off can initially get started without a building permit, then pay, and in the end the permit is granted. The power lies in the calm: Many houses with only one or two stories have obviously been under construction for years. Whenever son or brother or father brings money from abroad again, construction continues.
Even in Tirana, reportedly a sleepy nest in earlier times, life is pulsating today. Streets have been renewed and widened, the Albanians' penchant for large, empty squares with gigantic monuments to all kinds of accomplished heroes has been cast in concrete everywhere. The streets are mainly lined with older Mercedes cars, which everyone here swears by.
Except for the mafia, as one man tells us: Their members prefer modern SUVs, often in the 100,000-euro price range.
Poverty and wealth live here separated only by a street. Torn-off children play on desolate playgrounds, but in the city center one nice and new restaurant follows the next. The old men who used to sit in front of their small houses, drinking tea and coffee and smoking like chimneys, are now only occasionally to be seen.
Modern Albania is a place that carries its history with it and wears its future painted on its face. Only a journey into the country reveals what this country, forgotten by the world until now, really looks like, what its people do, what its landscapes are like, and whether there is an undiscovered pearl in the shell.
We have to try it. By feet. All along the forgotten paths of a forgotten country. Follow me to discover Albania.
(to be continued)
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