15 Things You Should Know Before Traveling to Albania
Posted by Larissa On February 28th, 2013 /
in a long time. To say it is unique is not enough and is the place to go if you are looking for a real European adventure.
The seven days that I spent there were full of all kinds of surprises ranging from pleasant to disappointing but combined were ultimately what made it such an exciting country to visit. More than “off the path”, Albania is over the hill and sitting in a mountainous valley of its own. You really never know what you are going to get which should be like music to any modern-day explorers’ ears and why I suggest everyone interested in traveling to less touristed parts of Europe put it at the very top of their list.
1. There are more Albanians outside of Albania than within
If you are doing some traveling through the Balkans, you will probably meet a few Albanians (and see Albanian flags and ) before you even arrive in Albania. Estimates of the number of Albanians residing abroad are anywhere from 7-10 million, mostly in other Balkan countries (Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece), but there are also a significant amount in Turkey, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the United States. The number of Albanians actually living inside Albania? Around 3 million.
An Albanian and his horse in Prizren, Kosovo
2. Albania has an interesting history
In keeping with the aforementioned information, Albania has a pretty interesting history and you would be doing yourself a disservice by not reading up on a bit of it before you go. If not to understand that you are headed to a country that was totally isolated from the rest of the world for the latter half of the 20th Century because of a paranoid android Communist dictator, then to know what people are talking about when they say “” because odds are, you are going to hear it mentioned at some point.
3. You are not going to get there by train and you will be lucky if you get there by bus/furgon
Transportation in and around the country was my biggest complaint with Albania. Everything about it was difficult and is the main reason I ended up staying in Tirana the entire time.
First of all, there are no international rail connections to Albania and the national ones are incredibly limited to say the least. Tirana’s train station is an attraction in itself mostly because it’s so hard to believe it actually functions. Does it even function? I still don’t know even after going to have a look for myself.
Buses or furgons (mini buses) are your best bet if you are lucky enough to 1) figure out their schedule and/or 2) find out where to catch them from. The country’s capital doesn’t even have a proper bus station, stops are scattered everywhere, so I was not surprised in the slightest finding
that gives departure points like “In front of Bumper Cars” or “Fork in main road to the north” in other cities. Patience is not a virtue in Albania, it is a necessity.
Also be warned that many routes, especially in the south, are suspended during the off-season or when buses aren’t full. I had originally planned on taking a bus from Ohrid, Macedonia to Gjirokastra then making my way up to Tirana but found out only after I had arrived that it would be impossible in November. So it became Tirana or bust.
4. Just because there is a schedule, doesn’t mean there is a schedule
I wish I was joking above when I said you might find some scheduled bus routes suspended simply because the buses weren’t full but it’s true and I found out the hard way.
Suspending a route between say Ohrid and Gjirokastra during the winter? Understandable. Suspending the only bus route from the center of Tirana to the airport because there weren’t enough people an hour and half before my flight? NOT COOL. In fact, grounds for giving even the most relaxed traveler a panic attack.
If money isn’t an object then this won’t be an issue because you ca however, if you are on a tight budget and relying on public transportation to get around, this could be problematic. Catastrophic, even. Thankfully an English-speaking Albanian in shiny high tops saved my day by pulling me into a taxi with the 3 other stranded passengers and we made it just in time at a slightly higher price.
5. If you plan to drive around Albania, you are a brave soul
Not that this necessarily affects anything, but you should be aware that only 600 cars existed in Albania prior to 1991 and only Party officials were allowed to drive them. There are definitely countries with worse driving records, but in Albania it’s not only bad drivers that you have to worry about, it’s the actual roads themselves. Even though I heard improvements were being made, many of the ones I saw were in seriously bad condition and not anything you should be going over 40 mph on or navigating after dark.
6. There are some 750,000 concrete bunkers scattered around Albania
Driving through Albania you are probably going to notice quite a few concrete bunkers like the one pictured below. There were over 700,000 of them built during Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship to protect the country from an invasion that never happened so needless to say, many Albanians view them as unpleasant and annoying reminders of the 50 or so years of isolation.
Then there are others who view them as cultural artifacts, , blank canvases, and/or . Regrettably, I wasn’t able to tour any of the creatively converted bunkers on my first visit
Will just have to save that for the next time…rent one out for a party maybe?
7. The Albanian language is an anomaly
Then again I don’t speak Thracian or Illyrian (what are said to be the most closely related), but who does these days? Albanian is an Indo-European language but I could not discern one similarity to anything I’ve heard anywhere else in the world minus a few numbers, “Tuesday” and “Wednesday”.
This was bad news for me because picking up some words and phrases in Albanian would have been very useful considering it was the country where I felt I struggled the most only knowing English, Russian and Swedish. If any other language can get you around here, it’s Italian. In line with language (of the body variation), Albanians nod their head “yes” when they mean “no”, and vice versa, though I never had any misunderstandings. Or noticed, for that matter. Still good to know.
8. Sometimes Albanians add an extra zero to the end of numbers
Albanians do this sometimes not to be shady but rather out of habit since that is the difference between the “old lek” and “new lek”. For instance, someone might say you owe 1000 lek when they really mean you owe 100 lek.
I found that for the most part that people corrected themselves before they even noticed the shocked expression on my face which is what tells me they don’t do this to try to take advantage of foreigners. Nevertheless, don’t be afraid to ask if a price is being quoted in new or old lek if it seems outrageous because getting conned is a possibility in any country.
9. Mother Teresa was Albanian
Though she was born in Skopje, spent a great deal of her life in India, and was a citizen of the world, Mama T (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) was Albanian by blood.
If that doesn’t impress you enough, then maybe you will appreciate some of these other famous peeps of Albanian descent…
John Belushi
Jim Belushi
Ataturk (maybe)
10. Tirana is a cool and colorful capital city
I really wasn’t expecting much from Tirana but that’s mostly because I had never really heard much about Tirana. I thought it was going to be concrete and grey like , but it’s actually quite green and shockingly colorful. I also found it to be more expensive than Skopje and Pristina, but still cheap compared to western European capitals.
The green and colorful-ness of the city can be attributed mostly to Edi Rama, the painter turned politician who was mayor of Tirana from . He has been heavily criticized for focusing too much on the appearance of the city rather than its functionality (for example, putting tons of money into painting buildings all colors of the rainbow when electricity and water shortages continue to be a problem), but I think what he did was more beneficial than some people realize. Water and electricity are important, of course, but so are the psychological effects of color and nature.
11. Shopping in Tirana is pretty good
Ok, it’s not
or , but Tirana was definitely the city where I found the best shopping in the region. There are a few big malls (Citypark, QTU, Tirana East Gate) outside of the center, some of which you can catch free shuttles to from just beside the big mosque near Skanderberg Square.
There is also some pretty solid thrift shopping if you are up for that kind of hunt. Rruga e Elbasanit, not far from George W. Bush Street (seriously), or near the “train station” you can find some gypsy markets or makeshift shops selling some legit second-hand items such as handbags, shoes, clothes.
12. Don’t look both ways before crossing the street in Tirana, look every way
I don’t know what things are like in other Albanian cities, but in Tirana the streets were not a place for the faint of heart. They were like a free for all where cars and buses fly from every direction and would not stop for Mother Teresa herself if she were crossing the street. Eastern Europe and the Balkans are not very pedestrian friendly in general, but Tirana is in a league of its own so keep that in mind and more importantly, BE CAREFUL.
13. It’s difficult to exchange Macedonian denar there, but not impossible
If you are coming from
beforehand, I’d recommend spending or exchanging as much of your denars as possible before you get to Albania, or at least Tirana. Could be easier in towns closer to the border.
I was told on multiple occasions that no one would exchange the denars that I had but I finally found one place. It’s sort of opposite the new Orthodox church near Skanderberg Square in the direction of the National History Museum. It’s on the second floor and looks shadier than the other exchange offices.
Also, most places only accept cash.
14. One “village” raki equals about three normal ones
Raki, Albania’s national spirit, is like any other rakia/rakija that you may have tasted before if you’ve been in the Balkans or . It’s essentially moonshine made from grapes and is STRONG.
You can order it in most bars and restaurants, just make sure you pay attention to what kind of bottle it’s being poured from if you want to properly monitor how much you are consuming. If it is coming out of anything other than a bottle that has a printed raki label on it (for example, a plastic water bottle, a suspicious glass jug, or Greek wine bottle), it’s most likely a home-brew that is seriously potent, like three times the strength of one that came from an actual distillery. Learned this one the hard way as well but no photos of that…
15. Albanian sweets are addictive
I really don’t have much else to point out about this except that these “amareta me arra” walnut cookies pictured below are perhaps the most addictive of all. Like DRUGS. And speaking of drugs….
*BONUS* Albania is one of the largest exporters of cannabis in Europe
I heard about the village of Lazarat before I even got to Albania. Its reputation as the “cannabis capital of Albania” proceeds itself and happens to be found not far from Gjirokastra, where I was originally headed to in the southern part of the country.
I don’t know how things stand right now, I’ve read all kinds of reports and heard a mix of things, but Lazarat has been for years a lawless place controlled by drug lords and insurmountable by the Albanian police. It’s definitely not the only spot in the country, just the most publicized, and the reason I think it is something you should know is because drug trafficking is one of the major problems Albania has to work harder on combating if it wants to join the EU.
in the Adriatic is clearly not enough.
As far as purchasing this crop on the streets for recreational use, I can’t speak from personal experience, but can say I got the sense that it is widely available and pretty popular amongst the younger generation. Stoners, rejoice.
UPDATE: Sorry, stoners…but it appears . Or has it?
Given that I had only spent a week in Albania and was only in Tirana at the time this was written, it’s hardly comprehensive, but I hope at least a good introduction. If you’ve been to Albania or happen to live there, feel free to make any additions or corrections to this list that you would like in the comment section below.
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By far and by large, the most read post on this blog is “15 Things
What an interesting reading! We where in some of the Eastern Europe countries last September and missed Albania, now I wish we went.
It does sound an interesting place that still has to be discovered by the big tourism industry which is a good enough reason to go, plus those sweets do look pretty tempting :)
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>> Life as a Law Student: 7 Things You Really Have to Know
Life as a Law Student: 7 Things You Really Have to Know
About the Author
Samantha Love read Law at Merton College, Oxford, and is currently following the BCL course.
“I’m studying law at university”, or even “I’m applying to study law at university” sounds great, doesn’t it?
You should also read…
However, whilst we have all heard a little about
at university, whether through family, friends or , it is difficult to know what it really does involve – and there’s no shortage of stories out there, from the mostly accurate to the utterly fantastical. This article should debunk a few myths, confirm a few and make sure you know what you are signing up for when you fill in that application form! It also includes a little advice to help you settle into
that bit quicker. Law is a great subject to study at university but it does have its challenges: here’s what you can expect.
1. There is a lot of reading.
Don’t underestimate how much reading law students have to do.
Just to get the scary one out of the way first, it is difficult to explain how much reading a law degree involves other than to say that there are a lot of law books! Law students get a reputation for clocking up the library hours because each week you need to learn what the law actually is and academics’ opinions of it from scratch, and neither of these will be particularly short. There is definitely an art to managing the reading lists and you will get all the advice you need from older students when you first arrive, but it does take a while to get used to the pace of learning. That said, by the end of your first term you won’t believe how quickly you can pick up the key themes of an article or find the important passages from a case. Just be ready for the inevitable long nights when you need to stay up getting through an endless reading list. They do happen but they are (almost) only as common as you are never set more work than it is feasible to do if you manage your time well. Self-imposing a schedule for getting reading done, plus whatever other assignments you have been set, is a
to get into very quickly.
2. There is no single ‘eureka!’ moment, but it does all come together eventually.
Certain areas of law, particularly contract and tort, deal with different types of human action but are so similar in places that they often ‘run out’ just as the other one starts. As you usually learn only a few topics at a time you may not understand one fully until you have covered the next one. It is absolutely normal to feel a little like you’re in the dark to begin with, although universities try to organise the courses so that the first year exams at least can stand on their own. Criminal law, for instance, makes a good first year subject because it is easy to get to grips with the ideas and it doesn’t overlap too much with any other area. It is just important to know that if you study Land law before Trusts/Equity, it is not a problem if you don’t fully understand what a trust is because that will come next.
3. There is a rat race, but you don’t need to join it (straight away).
Don’t let competitive classmates scare you!
The law students aren’t considered the quickest off the mark for getting involved in applications and internships early on in their degree, but it’s a close one! More and more law firms are offering placements and taster days during the first year of university so it is tempting to think that you need to get involved in
right from day one. If you are thinking about becoming a solicitor it is worth applying to these if you want to be ahead of the game, but the big one is the summer vacation schemes at the end of your penultimate year. If you are thinking about the Bar then the more mini-pupillages you have under your belt when you fill in your application form at the beginning of your final year the better, and some chambers will expect a certain number as a minimum. However, most of this kicks off at the beginning of second year so you do have time to settle into legal study before you need to think about applications. Don’t forget that there are other options too — charity work, civil service, interning for a while until you decide on a career path (if you can afford it!) or further study are all worthwhile alternatives. It’s also worth thinking about going to a local or regional firm or chambers if that appeals to you, and for this you may have to send letters asking to go and shadow someone rather than applying to an organised scheme. All these alternatives are no less competitive but require you to look further afield than your Law Society e-mails, which may tend to focus on the big London (and increasingly international) opportunities. Your tutors, personal advisor, careers service or equivalent will give you plenty of advice about careers, and where to start looking for opportunities in a field you’re interested in. Make sure you think seriously about where you want to start off — it is easy to be swept along with the crowd!
It is also just a fact of life that the legal sector, like anywhere at the moment, is
for finding a job. Keep on top of your work, get involved with
and apply to any placements or schemes which may interest you so that your CV looks as good as it possibly can when you get to more serious applications.
4. You need to sweat the small stuff.
There will be a lot of reading to do, and it will require close attention to detail.
The ‘sharp mind’ you need for university study comes in different varieties, and each degree demands a particular mix of certain skills. Law requires both absolute command of the details of legislation and
and a wider view of how different areas interlock and what they (aim to) achieve. This is shown most clearly in the two main types of examination question. Problem questions require you to apply the law to very specific (and sometimes outright preposterous) factual patterns and explain why in this specific set of circumstances a piece of legislation or principle of law would/could be applied in a certain way. You need to know the legislation and the case law, because although you may be given a copy of the legislation it wastes time if you’re using it to do anything other than check minor points. Equally if you don’t know part of the case law in an area that can lose you marks or narrow down the number of questions you could potentially answer.
questions require you to make a broad point using specific examples, so you need to have a whole arsenal of examples to hand.
Basically, you need to remember a lot of things! And you need to be prepared to sit down and learn cases, and at the very least the structure and key clauses of the relevant legislation so that you can find it in the statute book during the exam. It is absolutely normal to have legislation and case summaries stuck up round your wall during exam season (rent agreements permitting!). But because all this knowledge also needs to be grounded in the wider picture for the purposes of essay questions this isn’t just an exercise in memorising names, which makes the process a lot easier. An Oxford examiners’ report commented a few years ago (in light of students forgetting the names of key cases) that if you have done the work properly then remembering case names should be no more difficult than learning the names of breakfast cereals. I may not know hundreds of breakfast cereals, but it’s true that you learn a lot of small details without thinking about it.
5. Everyone is going to ask you for legal advice. And you won’t want to give it.
Computer science students get just as sick of being asked to repair everyone’s laptops.
Somewhat ironically, the more law you know the less confident you become definitively stating what the legal position in a certain area is. You are, after all, focusing on the more controversial and uncertain areas of law so it is easy to forget that some are actually quite simple and clear-cut. There also comes a week where you learn about liability for giving advice and accepting responsibility for it being correct. It’s fairly well-accepted that casual remarks in social situations don’t come within this category but as soon as law students learn these cases they immediately stop wanting to give any form of legal advice!
All this of course assumes that you know the area of law your friends are asking about in practical detail in the first place, which usually isn’t the case because law degrees are more theoretical than practical. No matter how many times you try to explain this to your friends however, you will still be asked. It’s something you will find frustrating, but it won’t stop you from asking the
about your twinging knee so it’s just something to resign yourself to I’m afraid.
6. It can be absolutely fascinating — especially when you think it won’t be.
Land law is less glamorous than human rights.
Perhaps the really big thing to know about an English law degree is that there are subjects which (i) you have to study (ii) you expect you won’t enjoy. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the fact that law degrees are at heart vocational and so you study certain areas which are crucial to the smooth functioning of society but aren’t considered too glamorous. It’s worth noting that some people do come to university with a professed love for commercial law and that’s great, but it does seem to be the norm to start university dead set on being a
barrister. However, because you have to learn these topics in significant depth you do find yourself getting far more interested than you ever plan to. What can seem like a fairly technical subject such as land registration is actually vitally important to individual people when you think about it — many cases on the topic end up with someone being evicted from their family home, or allowed to stay despite the aspiring purchaser having no idea that they had a legal interest in the house as it was not entered in the register.
There is a frame of mind to adopt here, and it’s absolutely central to ensuring that you enjoy studying law. Find the interesting element of something which doesn’t originally appeal to you — there will always be one, often the
or political angle. Make as much of it as is possible as interesting to you as is possible. And resign yourself to the fact that you’ll just have to learn the rest!
7. Being a law student is what you want it to be.
The flexible hours of a law student give you opportunity to get involved in student societies. Here, students at the University of Pennsylvania celebrate Hey Day.
Perhaps I’m giving the impression that law students spend their whole lives in the library learning statutes back to front, and that when they do emerge it’s to go to networking events, apply to careers or to sit exams. This just isn’t true. As with any other subject,
is exactly what you make of it and that will invariably (and should!) involve meeting some of your best friends and many of your future colleagues,
and having the odd quiet night in. There is a core amount of work which has to be done, but as a
you’re in the enviable position of being able to manage your own timetable to a certain extent. Make the most of it! Specifically for law students, there are also plenty of extra-curricular activities which can be really rewarding for yourself and others. If you’d like to get involved in pro bono work then most law schools have a scheme running, really do make sure you try some mooting (mock appeal trial, where you pretend to be a barrister) because even though it’s quite scary it does wonders for your public speaking, and make the most of any opportunity to get the sort of legal experience you’re interested in during the holidays. There is no single ‘law degree experience’, much as there’s no single ‘university experience’; choose what you want to make your priorities over the three year period, as long as you always make time for your work.
Like any subject at university, studying law has its ups and downs. However, if you’re interested in the subject and able to motivate yourself to work sensible hours then there are definitely more positives and it is a fantastic subject to study for three (or four) years.
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