Man, how do I sum up my 5 weeks in Albania? In a nutshell, I lived in hostels, made lots of new friends, and did my best to adjust to my new life of travel and spending money with no income. Overall, I had a memorable time in my first Balkan country.

WHY ALBANIA?

I first heard of this country on my first trip to NYC, back in 2019, when I asked my tour guide where he’s from. When he said Albania, a small country in Eastern Europe, I felt bad for not having heard of this country before. But now I realize this is the norm.

I knew absolutely zero about Albania. I didn’t even look at the map to see where it was located geographically until I booked my flight. I simply chose it because it was easy to enter the country (at the time there were no requirements: no test, no vaccine, and no quarentine) and it was closer to Iceland than Georgia or Armenia *shrugs.*

THE LANGUAGE

I arrived at the airport with the few key words that Jewel taught me days before my arrival. I met her in my dorm in Iceland when I discovered she is nearly fluent in Korean (maybe better than me? *smh*) and studied around 18 languages — impressive much? — one of her top 4 being Albanian.

How random, right?

Albanian is an uncommon and difficult language. My main rotation of Albanian words were përshëndetje (hello), faleminderit (thank you), and mirë (good).

Many people also speak Italian; many having learned from watching TV. Being so close to Italy, there are also a lot of Italian restaurants in Albania.

ABOUT ALBANIA

Albania is a beautiful country with breathtaking mountains and coasts; it shares the same coast as Croatia and Greece so no wonder. The people are generally helpful, the tap water is safe to drink, and the food is good. But you can’t rely on Google Maps here.

There are bunkers everywhere. During the Communist era, the dictator grew increasingly paranoid about getting attacked by the USSR or Yugoslavia, so he ordered 750,000 bunkers to be built — one for every citizen — now you’ll see them all throughout the country and some have been turned into museums.

Despite being one of the poorest countries in Europe, Mercedes is the most popular car in Albania. Mercedes were believed to be the most reliable cars for their bumpy, windy roads, and since broken parts could be replaced with parts from other Mercedes cars (which were easily found) they lasted a long time.

There’s a joke about how Albanians would starve and die in order to afford a Mercedes, illustrating how obsessed they are with having a Mercedes.

People also park their cars wherever they want. What’s the point of sidewalks?

Young and old, everyone rides bikes. I saw kids riding the back of parents’ backs or in the front basket (which you’d never see in the US).

I loved seeing old men in their 80’s+ biking all around town. It’s also common to see horse propelled bicycles.

As an American, I was often asked by locals, why are you here?, surprised I knew of their country at all. I got called “china” a couple times and I got stared at… a lot. I thought the staring was because I hardly saw any Asians but eventually I learned that Albanians just stare in general. They don’t try to be discreet about it, and they don’t care.

When I was shopping for the best watermelon, they cut into one to let me sample before I buying.

Spending July in Albania was hot AF but the best part was the fresh summer produce. I basically lived for honeydew melon, watermelon, and peaches. I had some of the best strawberries I’ve ever had, when I first arrived at the tail end of strawberry season, and that’s saying a lot as an Oregonian; I didn’t think Oregon berries could be beat. And a quart was only $0.97 — compared to $6+ in Portland, that is insane!

So, what did I do in Albania?

Most of my time in Albania was spent volunteering at a hostel in exchange for free stay and two meals a day. The rest of my time was spent enjoying retired life.

Honestly, for spending 5 weeks in this small country I don’t feel like I did/saw much. But at the same time, I do feel like I did a lot. I certainly met a lot of people.

Let me recount some of my favorite memories:

I went down to the Albanian Riviera

After a quiet week at my first hostel I finally met some guests, three of them being really nice and chill dudes: Marco, a Brazilian living in Portugal, Leo, a Brazilian from Canada, and Ilai, from Israel.

Later that evening the four of us decided to rent a car together and spend the weekend at the coast. We quickly rearranged our schedules and moved our departure date earlier and earlier, from Friday, to Thursday, and then to Wednesday, to maximize our time there — so we ended up leaving just one day after bringing up the idea. Talk about spontaneous! We lucked out and got the last rental car available. In true Albanian fashion it was a Mercedes, of course.

We stayed in Himarë, visited Dhermi, then stayed one night in Ksamil.

Himarë

Antoni’s Restaurant

We spent out first day at Restaurant Antoni’s on Livadi beach. This was the best food we had all weekend!

The grilled octapus, the potatoes (so crisp on the outside and soft on the inside), and the fresh fish caught that morning were all freakin’ fantastic. Our waiter was fun and entertaining, and we spent the entire afternoon there eating, drinking wine and rakia (Albanian liquor), taking dips in the beautiful beach, and reading while the boys worked remotely.

Pro tip: just be careful and review the bill to make sure it adds up; they “accidentally” totaled our bill incorrectly. Had it not been for Ilai doing the math, we would’ve paid an extra 6000+ lek (~$60 USD).

Boho Livadh

Then we migrated over to Boho, maybe my favorite place in the world. This is how I’d want my future living room to look like one day. They also make the best drinks ever, I took sips of the guys’ drinks and I loved them.

Kico Meniko Restaurant Himara (formerly Restaurant Sea View)

A bit difficult to reach but totally worth the views

The next day we went to Restaurant Sea View for lunch, which was probably my favorite restaurant ever. Talk about the most amazing restaurant view? After ordering, we took a quick dip before our food arrived. Talk about dreamy.

Ilai and an Albanian boy trying to help me jump

There was a boy jumping off a “smallish” rock. I wanted to jump, too, despite my fear of heights because I thought the size was manageable even for me. But I was so wrong.

The 10-year-old Albanian boy encouraged me and he held my hand and counted to 3 (numerous times) as I tried to jump with him, but I couldn’t do it. Eventually Ilai came down and held my hand, and made me look at him as he made me jump with him. It was so fun, but I couldn’t get myself to do it again *lol.*

Dhermi

Havana Beach Club

We started the night at Havana Beach Club and we had a nice time chatting with Natasha, Jovana and Vesna from North Macedonia, then went upstairs to the restaurant to eat. When we returned to the bar we met an energetic French-Tunisian guy, Khamil, and his girl, Jackie, from Germany.

Khamil was on a two year bicycling trip from Europe to Australia, cycling through the Balkans, Middle East, South East Asia, and eventually taking a boat to Australia.

He was hilarious and very passionate and enthusiastic about life. I had a lot of fun talking to him. Even with his somewhat-broken English, we were able to connect on a deeper level about life, travel, and human connection. We had great conversations at the bar until we migrated to the beach just steps away. We all hung out on a beach bed under the full moon until sunrise.

Ksamil

Guvat Bar Restorant

Our last day was spent in Ksamil, with another beautiful view for lunch and an even more beautiful view for sunset. We pedaled our way to another island where we could see Corfu, a Greek island right next to the southern tip of Albania.

Our final evening was full of more shenanigens, like stealing a paddle boat to island hop in the middle of the night and staying up until sunrise.

I went up to Krujë & Shkodër

Krujë

Old Bazaar & Krujë Castle

Kruja Bazaar, one of the oldest in Albania

Ethnographic Museum

Shkodër

Rozafa Castle

I made Brazilian friends… and learned some Portuguese

Oi! Tudo bem? Mais ou menos. Obrigada. Muito quente. Gostoso. Fofinho. Muitos Brasileiros.

These were probably my most spoken words in Portuguese. Thanks to my Brazilian besties, Elizama, Geraldo, and Jean, I was what my friends called me: a quasi Brasileira. Despite the language barrier, we were able to communicate a lot through Google Translate and my broken Spanish, and we had a lot of fun together.

I spent a weekend with an Albanian family

I made a friend at my hostel, Alisha, a Pakistani girl from a city near Manchester; and her Albanian friend, Joy, from her city flew to Albania to meet up with her and to visit her family in Kamer and Burrel. When I was invited to join I couldn’t say no to that!

I’m so grateful I got the opportunity to experience amazing Albanian hospitality. Each time we arrived, one by one they brought out a plate of fruit, then byrek, then juice, and more fruit. Dinner was more of the same plus chicken and rice, fries, cheese, vegetables, and trilece (just like tres leches) for dessert. They fed me so well and the food was fantastic.

I danced… a lot

We danced forró in the streets, salsa at Bar Velvet, bachata in the middle of Skanderbeg Square, and all kinds of dance at the hostel. It was always a ton of fun.

One of my favorite nights was when nearly our entire hostel went to Skanderbeg square late in the evening and started having a little Turkish dance party. A random group of Egyptians joined us, then a group of Indians, and a group of Arabs as we took turns dancing to music from everyone’s cultures.

I stayed up all night with strangers we met on the street

We could only get bottled drinks because it was after hours.

We started the night a little late, right as everything was closing up for the night, so with nowhere to go we searched 24 hour cafe’s. According to our Google search, Mazzo Mazzo was open 24 hours so we made our way there only to find it was closed. But the outdoor seating was nice so we sat down anyway, and soon after we noticed people inside so we waved them down.

The manager came out to tell us they’re closed, so Nabil showed him that Google says it’s open 24 hours. The manager went inside and returned with an ash tray and took our order. LOL this is Albania.

Then on our way back to the hostel, we saw two Spanish people at the crosswalk. They invited us to get beer with them at the 24 hour supermarket down the block.

Of course Jean said yes. We danced the night away in the empty courtyard until the sun came up. A homeless man showed up and after many rejections, he continued to linger and sit next to us, watch us salsa dance, and ask for money. It was so weird.

After sunrise people started showing up to open up their shops and they looked at us like, what’s wrong with you? The owners of the shop we were sitting at kicked us out, then when we realized nothing was open we came back and ordered coffee. We ended up laughing with them and eventually they warmed up to us.

We had a blast with our new friends and I cant wait to visit Ines and Luis in Spain one day.

I made my first crepe

Nutella banana crepe made by yours truly

Victoria, from France, approved my crepe, so that obviously means something *wink*. I even successfully pan-flipped the crepe! Which was also my first pan-flip attempt. I was feeling good!

I tried new things (acro yoga)

We got lost on our hike to Cyclops Eye

It was a hot summer in Tirana so I was very excited to finally go swimming.

It was a beautiful hike… until it wasn’t anymore.

We accidentally went off the path (we never found it to begin with) and then we approached a very steep hill of loose rocks. Fuck. Sliding rocks made it impossible for us to take a step without slipping/falling, so the only way down was to scoot down on our asses. Out of caution, we took turns going downhill one at a time.

We were hopeful we could find another way to the lake.

But we kept running into dead ends. With no where to go, we had to literally rock climb our way across at some points.

And we had to boulder. Bless these two (rock climbers) for helping me along the way.

We walked across a valley of cracked, dried-up mud.

And then I fell in a deceivingly “dry” patch of mud…

It was like quick sand, and the boys had to pull me out. With my heavy weighed-down legs I stepped my way to the closest pond of (dirty still) water to wash off the thick clay-like mud. It was not easy to wash off…

The rest of the “hike” was in my soggy wet socks.

Check out my cut up legs from trekking through fields of thorn bushes.

We see water! Eager to be getting close to the lake.

Then we accidentally crossed military grounds. A policeman started yelling at us in Albanian, and checked our ID’s. Because we couldn’t understand him, he showed us how to get out of there by pointing and motioning with his hands. Can’t be that hard to find our way, right?

We followed his directions but found ourselves in an even worse situation than before. Fighting through more thorn bushes and climbing up (sliding down) unstable terrain, I started to think we were never going to make it out of there. As we were approaching sunset, and with no sign of a way out, I literally thought the only way out was via a helicopter.

Then we heard the policeman yelling at us from way downhill. He realized we went the wrong way and trekked all the way up to look for us and lead us out. After many more cuts and a couple more hours we made it back to civilization. Thank god for the policeman saving us!

I was never so happy to see trash on the ground — signs of life! We walked back so relieved and grateful to be on flat, stable terrain again. We walked in silence most of the way, but in his very broken English he showed us photos of him when he was sick with COVID and photos of his children.

When we got back to our car we offered him a ride back into town, and then he asked if we wanted coffee. We sat at a café, mostly in silence, enjoying a warm cup of espresso and fresh cold water. We were grateful for him saving us from a very scary situation and we felt bad we couldn’t communicate with him properly.

Words cannot explain how difficult this day was, but this certainly was no “hike.” We never made it to the lake and we never swam… but what an adventure it was.

People shared their cultures with me

Samet, my new sweet Turkish friend, making me Turkish Coffee.

A Ghanaian woman shared some of her home-cooked lunch with me 🙂

Soha, the sweetest Egyptian girl shared the most amazing mangoes she brought with her from Egypt. Maybe the best mangoes I’ve ever had! So sweet and juicy.

Literally the best chicken and the best rice ever

Mahmoud, from Egypt, was one of the best cooks in the hostel. He was always cooking up the most amazing food and offered it to everyone. Because of his culture he didn’t like eating alone so he was always offering food or drinks, sharing his love of cooking with us.

Jamil, from Jordan, was one of the other best cooks in the hostel and he was hilarious. He joyfully made some family meals for us and they were fantastic!!

Gülsha brought some sweets with her from Turkey and shared them with us on our last day.

It looked like cotton and tasted very sweet, similar to cotton candy!

I showered with water bottles on my last evening

On our last night in Albania, the water stopped running (no toilets, showers, or faucets). So the dishes piled high, I had to pee really bad (toilets were blocked off), and I was sticky and gross from a hot summer day. We had to wake up around 6am to catch a bus to Montenegro, so around 3:30am we went to a 24 hour supermarket to pick up two water jugs each so we could hydrate and shower the old school way. Talk about going out with a bang.