I spent 2+ weeks traveling through Albania during March, which felt like the perfect time to visit as the weather was divine and it’s very much in the off-season so I had most of the country’s gorgeous destinations to myself. I learned a lot about this unique country’s history and culture and definitely felt like I was in a very, very far-flung corner of Europe.

Top Photo: Gjipe Canyon, Albanian Riviera

Note: I use the terms “socialism” and “communism” interchangeably as The Soviet Union and other countries like Albania were run by communist parties and referred to themselves as communist, but as communism is defined as complete lack of differentiation of income and social class and no country has ever come close to achieving this, these countries were actually socialist, not communist. If this interests you, read Kristen Ghodsee books–they are fascinating!

The thermal waters in Permet

Destinations

Tirana: Albania’s capital and largest city is tucked under an impressive mountain range and has quirky, colorful architecture.

Theth National Park: A narrow valley below giant mountains that features the far better of Albania’s two “Blue Eyes”–basically, a very bright blue pond with a waterfall.

Durrës & Vlorë: Albania’s 2nd- and 3rd-largest cities sit on the coast and have castle ruins, beautiful beaches, monasteries, and more to explore. The nearby Cape of Rodoni is also worth a visit.

Berat: A historic city that sits below a castle complex that’s been continuously inhabited since the 4th century BCE!

Albanian Riviera: Albania’s stunning coast is often compared to Croatia’s–the water has so many shades of electric blue, there are tons of stunning secret beaches, and the region is peppered with historic towns and villages.

Gjirokaster: Another historic city that has the largest castle I’ve ever seen that’s remarkably well-preserved, as well as some very unique 19th-century Ottoman architecture.

Permet: A small mountain city with delightful thermal waters and an electric blue river running through the city center.

Korçë: A surprisingly cool city in the middle of nowhere with a modern bazaar and a unique cathedral

The main beach on Ksamil on the Albanian Riviera. You can swim to both of these islands!

Some Stats

  • The entire country of Albania has 2.8 million people, about the same as the Austin, Texas, or the San Diego area
    • A whopping 41% of Albanians have moved to other countries like Germany, the US, or the UK to improve their incomes, adding to the pre-existing diaspora of many ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey.
  • Unlike most other Balkan countries, Albania is incredibly ethnically homogeneous, with 98% of the population identifying as ethnic Albanians
  • More than one-third of Albanians still live in villages
  • Albania suffers from an epidemic of corruption which is a primary factor keeping it from being accepted into the EU, but somehow despite this it ranks as one of the lowest countries in the world for income inequality.
  • The country is 57% Muslim, 16% Christian (Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant), and 9% Atheist, but any Albanian will tell you that all Albanians are Albanian First and that religion does not matter here nearly as much as it does in other countries.
    • In fact, Albania was once the world’s only officially atheist country when its dictator banned religion completely in the 1960s, ordering that all mosques and churches be converted into offices, gyms, etc.
    • Today, it’s very difficult to tell what someone’s religion is without asking them–Muslim women don’t hear hijabs, Christians don’t often wear or display crosses, and everyone looks the same.
The Blue Eye in Theth National Park–my favorite of Albania’s two Blue Eyes 😉

Obsessed With Us

I’ve never been to a country where people are so obsessed with all things USA! It’s common to see American flags flying alongside Albanian flags, English speaking is surprisingly high for a Balkan country (this was not at all the case in nearby Bulgaria), and everyone got disproportionately excited when they found out I was American.

Why? When Albania became a democracy in the 90s, the US was the main country that helped it establish its institutions and modernize. When a US ambassador came to visit in the 90s, people were so excited that they tried to carry his car from the airport to the city center! When George W. Bush came, thousands lined up on the streets to see him, some died of happiness (basically ;)) and Albania named a street in the center of the capital after him.

Until now, the most American-obsessed country I’d been to was Saudi Arabia! (I’m not being sarcastic–read here.)

George W. Bush Street in the capital

Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy

I read at least one non-fiction book per country I visit and this one was one of the most engaging and intriguing of any country I’ve been to–highly recommend even if you have no plans to come to Albania. Here were some fun (and less fun) facts I learned:

  • Between WWII and the end of socialism in the 90s, Albania was a European North Korea, sealed off from the world. Folks not connected to the Communist party were rarely allowed to travel abroad, media from abroad was strictly banned, and (much like North Korea) many Albanians were brainwashed into believing they lived in a paradise with a benevolent leader (dictator)–when in fact, their leaders were hoarding wealth and condemning the majority of the population to extreme poverty
    • Anyone who criticized the government at all was jailed or murdered and those who tried to flee the country were shot by border guards. One guy was even jailed for singing a Beatles song!
    • Private cars were not even allowed! (With an exception for the ruling class, of course.) When socialism ended in the early 90s, the capital city of over a million people had only one traffic light, and it did not even work!
  • In the 90s, a civil war erupted between supporters of socialist and democratic parties and civilians raided military installments and confiscated weapons and even tanks! After the war ended, reporters saw tanks on the sides of highways with “for sale” signs.
  • Even in the 2000s, elections were egregiously unfair–candidates often paid businessmen in local areas to literally buy votes from people. Someone would enter a polling place with a premarked ballot, take a photo of it with their cell phone camera as proof, and walk out of the polling place with a blank ballot to continue the cycle. WTF?

My full book notes are here.

My Kind of Tradition

Albanians participate in a daily tradition called xhiro that I coincidentally also participate in back home! What is xhiro? A walk on your city’s main promenade or boulevard between golden hour and dusk–always timed to catch the sunset. This is my favorite 2-hour period of the day by far and while I often do these walks alone, it’s a very social thing for Albanians–I saw large families, old couples, awkward (and super cool) teenagers, and single moms doing it together! You wouldn’t believe how crowded streets that are relatively empty during the day get during this time–it’s a lovely thing to experience that should become a tradition everywhere.

Sunset at Berat Castle

How Many Bunkers You Got?

When Albania shed socialism in the 90s and the communal farms that were part of that time, farms were converted to private land and one thing that new landowners took note of was how many bunkers they got on their new property.

Where did these come from? Albania’s dictator was paranoid about his country being invaded by an outside power so he ordered thousands of small round bunkers to be built all over–on hills, in valleys, on the seaside, in cities, everywhere! The funny thing is that he claimed they were strong enough to withstand nuclear blasts but when Albania was (lightly) bombed by Yugoslavia in the 90s, impacted bunkers quickly fell to pieces.

Despite their lack of protection, the (not-bombed) bunkers have proven difficult to demolish and there are still tons of them all over Albania, even near tourist sites. You can walk inside them and some are even used as homes, storage facilities, secret places for lovers to meet and mate, etc.

A bunker next to St. Mary Monastery in Vlorë

The Most Homophobic Country in Europe

I had the privilege of meeting one of Albania’s most prominent queer activists, Alba Ahmetaj, in Tirana for a coffee and she and her lovely wife Edlira shared their stories about being publicly LGBTQ in Albania.

  • Alba and Edlira (their marriage isn’t recognized in Albania) are currently fighting in Albania’s courts for the right to jointly adopt their 3-year-old twins for whom only her wife currently has legal parental status. Albania has no partner or parental rights for same-sex couples.
  • Alba is one of the co-founders of Pro LGBT, an org which began in 2014 with the opening of a shelter for queer youth, who are very often kicked out of their homes if their sexuality is discovered. (This is not a country where people are coming out on purpose often at all.)
    • They currently run:
      • A queer news portal
      • An annual magazine
      • Legal advocacy
      • A “summer school” for queer activists and community members to become better educated on issues
      • Storytelling training and an annual art/poetry contest
  • Albania passed an anti-discrimination law in 2012 (largely because it’s a requirement for EU membership), but it is barely enforced and queer people are still discriminated against in housing, education, the workplace, the judiciary & criminal justice system, etc.
    • This is a country where judges will openly say homophobic slurs in court and receive no punishment for it
    • Politicians also commonly use homophobic rhetoric, which Alba sees as a distraction from the country’s economic woes
  • There are only about 5 publicly out queer people in Albania (including Alba and her wife), and life is not easy for them
    • Alba & her wife recently tried taking a picture with their 3-year-olds and a rainbow flag in the capital and a group of boys aged 8-10 came running up to them and threatened them with violence
    • Alba regularly receives death threats, including one a month before I met her
    • She estimates that more than 80% of Albanians are homophobic, including the vast majority of young people and with no difference between Muslims and Christians
  • Albania’s first Pride was in 2012 and was simply a bicycle ride through the capital with about a dozen people. Youth threw tube bombs at them, but they persisted.
    • Today, Pride has grown to number hundreds of participants but the majority are expats or tourists as Albanians themselves are too scared to attend (very, very few are out).
      • Most Albanians who do attend wear face paint or masks to disguise themselves
    • Unfortunately, anti-trans sentiment persists among many Albanian gays and the trans community here lacks access to gender-affirming treatment (other than self-medicating, which can be life-threatening) or name or gender changes to IDs.

If you’re interested to learn more, a gripping documentary about Albania’s queer activism is on YouTube. You’ll see that Albania had absolutely no queer activism until not much more than a decade ago and there’s shocking footage of a relatively recent debate on LGBTQ issues in which a man says he would shoot his son dead if he was gay so yeah…

Also, I was shocked by the lack of queer presence when I opened Tinder in Albanian cities. Outside of Tirana (which itself had few gays on Tinder), I would only see <5 men seeking men on Tinder in each new city I entered–far, far less than any other country I’ve been to in the world, including infamously homophobic places like Senegal, Myanmar, & Jordan.

Un-Solving Women’s Issues After Socialism

Under socialism in the mid-late 20th century, Albania’s leaders declared that all gender issues had been solved and that gender equality was fully achieved. Yay! Of course, this was not the case (Most Albanian women’s memories of socialism are quite negative as sexual harassment at work was rampant and domestic violence victims were turned away when they reported it) but this sentiment prevented any women’s organizations from being formed here until the beginnings of democracy in 1995.

I got to have two engaging conversations with feminist groups in Tirana–Albanian Women Empowerment Network (AWEN) and Gender Alliance for Development Center (GADC)–and was inspired by the impressive initiatives they’re working on.

GADC

I met GADC’s Project Coordinator Esmeralda Hoxha for a coffee. Here’s a quick summary of our chat:

  • GADC’s main priority at the moment is, randomly enough, gender-based budgeting for municipalities (cities and towns).
    • Along with pushing for the construction of more shelters and hiring of counselors to help survivors of gender-based violence, they’re advocating for funding to install more streetlights–which allow women to do shift work without worrying about their safety walking home in the dark. In smaller cities and towns here, streetlights are not as widespread as they should be.
  • GADC has also worked with female factory workers–running “know your rights” campaigns that encourage them to report labor violations and have resulted in a great increase in the number of women coming forward with issues. They’ve pushed for the minimum wage to increase–it’s tripled from $1.80 to $3.80 in the last eight years.
  • Only 7 out of 61 mayors in Albania are female, but there is strong female representation in Parliament due to a 30% quota requirement
    • GADC hosts town halls for candidates and records their promises on video, which has resulted in 74% of residents’ concerns being addressed–seems quite high to me
  • A bright spot here is that childcare is very affordable–only $20-$80/month (compared to $1,500/month in the US).

AWEN

I stopped by AWEN’s office in Tirana and met with feminist leaders Ines Leskaj, Briekna Puka, and Anita Lushi to learn about their work.

  • 90% of social services in Albania are provided by feminist orgs as the government does not budget for or prioritize gender and social issues. AWEN itself is an umbrella org that supports 10 smaller member orgs.
  • One of AWEN’s most important roles is to provide shelter, psychological & legal support, and job training for victims of domestic violence
  • AWEN also goes to rural high schools to talk to students about gender-based issues and often find that students have absolutely no knowledge of issues like domestic violence or historical patriarchy
  • The US Embassy is a major supporter of AWEN and partnering with them on projects makes it much easier to get funding for and pull off initiatives
  • The women shared that divorce is often still not accepted by families–even when the husband is abusive, parents sometimes see their daughter as her husband’s property and do not allow her back in their home after she leaves him.
    • Newly-married women are sometimes forced by their husbands into sex work and human trafficking continues to be an issue in Albania
  • Albania has about 22,000 fewer women than it demographically should have due to sexually-selective abortion (the first European country I’ve heard about this being an issue in)
  • AWEN has noticed a clear uptick in the number of women coming forward to report gender-based violence in the last decade and sees this as a positive sign of increasing awareness and empowerment
  • An issue they’re keeping an eye on is revenge porn–already in the first 3 months of 2024, two Albanian women have committed suicide after falling victim to this horrific form of cyberbullying.
At the AWEN office