Albania, or Shqipëri they call it
7 June 2023 - Tiranë
Our second new country of the week was Albania, which was not as nice as Serbia surprisingly enough. The US state dept warns to be careful of crime in the country, but we were only robbed by the hotel we booked that lied about literally everything and charged us 150% more than we paid to book the hotel for "fees". It was just laughable all the features they offered, e.g. indoor pool, outdoor pool, private beach, swim up bar, private winery, hot springs open 6AM - midnight, etc., that just did not exist. And the lies continued when we arrived. The pool was under repair and the front desk had no idea when it would be fixed. Actually there just was no pool, indoor nor outdoor. Similarly with the hot springs, winery, beach massages, etc. And the "private beach" was actually owned by another company that was having nothing to do with the hotel's scam. We paid for breakfast, but breakfast didn't include the coffee, which cost more than the breakfast. There was "free" parking in a dark, drippy garage that only cost 10 euros per day.
We stayed in the town of Durrës, which has an excellent long beach that once saw a battle between Caesar and Pompey during the Roman Civil War. Unfortunately there was a fair amount of trash on the beach, although not as bad as Napoli. The water was relatively clean and clear and shallow for many hundreds of meters from the shore. The cuisine was fair but cheap, although we did find a place with decent fish. One of the guys working at the hotel confessed that he would quit tomorrow if he could find a better job, but there were none to be had.
For me the highlight was probably the copious ruins in Durrës and to the south on the ancient oppidum of Apollonia. The latter was an important Greek city before it became part of the Roman Empire, and Durrës was the start of the Roman road network into the Balkans. We were able to see buildings and artifacts from the Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian periods. Albania seems to be quite happy to have gotten independence from the Ottoman Empire a little over a century ago, so that period is somewhat neglected. While visting Apollonia yesterday I bought and then last night read Ilir Parangoni's archaeological guide to Durrës and Apollonia, which definitely deepened my understanding of the history of the country.
