We had an English speaking driver who took us north up through Montenegro often along the Adriatic Coast, and into Croatia. And back again!
After 50 year of total isolation under the communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, Albania re-emerged into the international community in 1991.
I spent some time in Yugoslavia during the Tito period and first tried to visit Albania in the 1970s only to have a machine gun waved in my face. Rather like trying to get to North Korea currently.
Because I was somewhat familiar with the Balkan area I was particularly interested to visit this place still in transition.
As Lonely Planet put it "So backward was Albania when it emerged, blinking into the bright light of freedom, that it needed two decades just to catch up with the rest of eastern Europe."
The double headed eagle on the red field has been emblematic of Albania since medieval times and was adopted by the new nation in 1912. Two fasces were added during the Italian occupation and after World War II, the communist regime added a five-pointed golden star, which was removed on 7 April 1992 after the communist government in Albania collapsed.
We flew into the Mother Teresa airport, Tirana from Athens on a small Olympic DC8- the token tourists on the flight. Although Mother Teresa was actually born in Skopje, she was baptized as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu and was of Albanian descent and is widely celebrated in Albania.
This was confirmed in daylight- Tirana is a small capital- approximately 500,000 population and a rather rambling mix of old style European, Communist bloc concrete and modern commercial buildings grafted onto old Balkan rural roots.
National museum built in the communist period- a must see for anyone visiting Tirana.
Albania's tumultuous story from 4 century BC right up to the end of communist rule in 1991. Even a large philatelic display.
On our first day we drove through the former capital and coastal city of Durres - favoured holiday location of people from Kosovo, Albania's 'cousin' state. Then onto Berat, a UNESCO world heritage site on the river Osum.
The story of Berat reflects the story of Albania as a whole experiencing successive waves of conquest over centuries- all layers visible in the remains of the magnificent Berat Castle.
The earliest recorded inhabitants of the city (6th century BC) were Greek tribes. In 200 BC it was captured by the Romans, who razed the walls and massacred the male population of the city.
The town became part of the unstable frontier of the Byzantine Empire following the fall of the Roman Empire and, along with much of the rest of the Balkan peninsula, it suffered from repeated invasions by Slavs and was ruled by Bulgaria for 2 centuries then came under Byzantine rule again and later became part of the Ottoman empire notwithstanding attacks by the Sicilians, Serbs etc
During the 19th century, Berat played an important part in the Albanian national revival. Italy and Germany occupied it during World War II.
Albania is now approximately 70% Muslim, 20% Orthodox, and 10% Catholic. The peaceful coexistence of religious and cultural communities has been a fact of life for centuries - it is common to see an orthodox church and mosque cheek by jowl.
Under dictator Enver Hoxha many churches and mosques were destroyed or re-purposed - 24 years later religious adherence seems fairly relaxed, for example Raki (local firewater) is consumed regularly everywhere notwithstanding the Muslim majority.
Berat bride
And onlookers
During the Communist period many people in rural areas rescued icons from Orthodox churches and hid them to prevent their destruction. Some examples are on display in one of the surviving churches, the Church of St. Mary of Blachernae dating from the 13th century, which has 16th century mural paintings by Nikollë Onufri, son of the most important post-medieval Albanian painter, Onufri.
The next day we went to the ancient Illyrian mountain fortress of Krujë visiting George W Bush enroute.
A tiny Albanian village, Fushe Krujë , that President George W. Bush visited in 2007 commemorated the visit with a shirt-sleeved statue of him, in a square named for him. Bush was the first U.S. president to visit post-communist Albania. The locals were so enamored that they wanted to rename their village to 'Bushtown'.
One of the major claims to fame of Krujë is that in 1190 it became the capital of the first autonomous Albanian state. It was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, but then recaptured in 1443 by Albanian hero, Skanderbeg who kept the Turks at bay until his death in 1478.
It was later a central battlefield in the establishment of independent Albania in 1914. During WWII it was the centre of the activities of resistance leader Abaz Kupi.
Skanderbeg museum
Skanderbeg was the common name of nobelman, Gjergj Kastrioti. As a child he was taken hostage by Sultan Murad II and he served the Ottoman Empire during the next twenty years until he deserted to spearhead Albanian resistance to the Ottomans. Many in Europe saw his resistance as the first line of defence against the expansion of the Ottomans across Europe.
We also visited beautiful Shkroda located on one of the largest lakes in the Balkans.
The hotel in Shkodra was well-located downtown with the bars, shops and main area for locals to do their evening passeggiata. It was also very close to the major town mosque ..... any closer and we would have been inside it - indeed when the 5am call to prayer boomed into the room for a moment I thought I might have been.
The signs of the dictatorship are still everywhere no more poignantly than in the 700,000 bunkers Hoxha built to 'protect' the population from attack. Such was Hoxha's paranoia that he envisaged attack from the US and from Russia, however, he particularly feared attack from within leading to the execution of thousands of Albanians during his rule.
This descent from national war hero to detested dictator spanned 40 years. In this time he turned the country from a peasant backwater with almost no industry, no railways, no universities and no town with a population of more than 20,000 to a relatively modern economy and eliminating illiteracy. However this came at an enormous cost.
Initially Hoxha was assisted by Tito and was inspired by Stalin but broke with Russia when Khrushchev took power(seen as too soft). He then followed a Maoist agenda but broke with China when Nixon visited Beijing. After this he totally isolated the country.
The bunkers are a potent symbol of this period. Many have been destroyed or overgrown .... apparently they are mainly now used for the conception of more Albanians
Two other symbols of Hoxha remain- his personal bunker on the outskirts of Tirana. Only opened to the public in November 2014 it was closed again a day or so before our visit. His mausoleum, the pyramid designed by his architect daughter can still be seen. He was never buried there and it remains in the centre of Tirana, a vandalised white elephant.
These two structures encapsulate the ambivalence of modern Albanians towards Hoxha ...... many just want to forget while others want to keep the relics as a reminder for the future.
And a couple of final quirky things:
Apparently all English speakers visiting Albania like us are struck by the many signs around the place proclaiming in bright colour paint "SH!TET". Disappointingly, this is Albanian for "For Sale".
The other alarming sign we saw everywhere was for Kastrati ...... this is a common Albanian family name including the owners of a major petrol station chain. Nothing to do with anyone's manhood we were assured.
And indeed - there was a photograph of her old Sydney school friend, Queen Susan, there in the Albanian National Museum.
The first King of Albania was the self-proclaimed King Zog. He was President from 1925 to 1928 then decided to install himself as king but fled when Mussolini attacked Albania in 1939.
He lived in exile the rest of his life and his son Leka continued to claim the title King Leka of the Albanians despite the abolition of the monarchy by the Communist regime. Leka roamed the world too, marrying Susan Cullen-Ward a grazier's daughter from Cumnock, NSW. They lived mostly in exile but did return to Albania in the 1990s and both died there.
King Zog on the left and Leka, Susan and son.
