Organised crime very evident. As I say every third car is a Merc. This isn't over exaggerating. They are everywhere. And it's very obvious from the standard of living that there's no way that many people could afford these cars legitimately.
At times it was more reminiscent of North Africa than Europe in terms of poverty. Just stuff like markets selling second hand clothes in huge piles and people searching through for the good stuff.
We stayed in a hotel the first night at the airport and then a couple of holiday lets. Finding those was interesting. Beware for Albania and North Macedonia the rooms you pay for by the hour...we booked through a booking site which we have in the UK. I don't recall which but think Airbnb or booking.com and went for middle of the range options - not cheap.
The hotel was odd. Enormous room which was nice but was clearly cobbled together. And the electrical appliances and how they were plugged in and were visible for breakfast would give you nightmares. This was an ongoing theme. I think Albania is the world's biggest consumer of gaffer tape. So much cobbled together rather than our much more disposable society (much to reflect on here and actually it was a good life lesson for DS). Health and safety is an alien concept. The whole experience explained to me why theres so many economic migrants from Albania in the UK and their general attitude to authority and rules in the UK (culturally everyone puts two fingers up at it). I have a much better understanding of why and cultural attitudes and where they come from.
The first holiday let place we stayed at was nice enough. (As long as you don't think about the electrics). It was definitely passable. One of the bedrooms was windowless and was probably part of the living room just repurposed as a second bedroom. It had three walls and a curtain. We were there for a night so it was fine.
The property in Tirana however.
Well.
I've stayed in Eastern Europe so know not to judge somewhere by it's communist dictator exterior (complete with broken windows). By and large the second you open the door the interior is lovely.
First of all we had trouble finding the apartment. In the midst of buildings thrown up you lose accurate Google maps location. Then on finding the really rather grim building which looks like a bad council estate in the UK for more than a few reasons we went in the building. Old mattresses in the stairwell are never a good sign anywhere. It was really really badly run down. Until you reached the floor we were staying. Which had all the flooring and walls done up in stark contrast. The owner was in the flat next door and seems really proud of the flat - it was like they regarded it as super luxurious. However the industrial reinforced door was slightly ominous looking about why you would need something so heavy duty...
On going into the flat - the windows were all open. It soon became apparent why. The smell of drains. It was horrendous. You could taste it. Now Tirana just smells. We have forgotten what pollution from cars is like in the UK. But this was other worldly.
The flat itself was otherwise ok. Apart from the really odd kitchen layout. The cooker was on the balcony. Not in the flat. On the balcony. Strangely enough we decided to eat out. Thankfully again only there for one night.
My general impression of Tirana is you don't want to be there for when they have their next big earthquake - which they've had a few really bad ones. Planning regulations? What planning? Everything is thrown up, often too close together and rather shoddily done.
Now we were off the tourist trail largely. There's a huge amount of building going on along the coast. And yeah there's clearly lots of corner cutting going on though these are very much more up to UK expectations. Having said this I think there's going to a lot of stories in the DM over the next few years about tourist horror stories about their beach side accommodation and horror show transfers from the Airport either by mental coach drivers or taxi drivers. (Hiring a car is an interesting concept as Albania haven't worked out what a car park is yet and just dump their cars anywhere and everywhere!). And yes gaffertape isn't going to go down well.
We learn very quickly not to buy Western brands nor to buy near tourist areas as omg they were rip offs - more than you would pay in the UK (no not a special rate for tourists either). Anything from the EU, UK or US is expensive even by British standards - it costs more than the UK for certain things. Like bottled water (and you really don't want to drink anything but bottled water). I think that was coming in at £2-3 for a 2l bottle of generic water. We had a good look around for cheap supermarkets but still expensive there.
Kosovo and North Macedonia are not remotely like this. They are well, like being in other European countries just with the Ottoman influence. The difference between Albania and everywhere else in Europe is just enormous. The second you cross the border the difference is immediate - just the pregnant wild dogs roaming around and the state of the roads in Albania. Neither is Bosnia like this. Albania remains about 30 years behind where Bosnia was when we first went in 2010 in terms of tourist development. We were quite surprised by this especially given how much it's being pushed as a tourist destination ATM.
Tbh Albania wasn't really where we wanted to go anyway so it was something of a means to an end. DH saw the cheap Ryanair flights to Tirana and got over enthusiastic...
Personally I can't see me going back anytime soon. It's being sold as somewhere amazing for adventurous travellers. Now I am more adventurous than many but this was well out of my comfort zone. It has some years to go on being what it's selling itself as. The odd litter pick at beauty spots wouldn't go amiss for starters. (The whole place looks fly tipped - it's much much worse than the UK) They also don't tell you about the sheer amount of open cast mining that ruins the view in the opposite direction. The instaperfect publicity shots are mad compared to the reality. Don't get me wrong there's some absolutely stunning places we saw on our journey through but yeah. I'm glad we elected to spend the majority of our time not in Albania.
We went to the airport four hour early (six hours before our flight back) because we'd had enough by this point. DHs nerves were shot to pieces from the driving and he decided he wanted to go back home alive. I was well on board with this decision.
Oh did I mention the flight outbound. Jesus. Let's just say the crew were very blunt and direct to the point of what we'd call rude because the behaviour of others on the plane was so bad (frankly I think it's merely a cultural difference rather than being rude). That was the warning sign. Not a pleasant flight and thankfully I didn't need to go to the toilet during it. There were some really lovely people we encountered who couldn't help us enough though.
The lesson here is theres an enormous amount you can hide in photos and guest house listings... And there's definitely a culture of being economical with the truth in Albania.
It was definitely an experience. Not one I would particularly recommend. Give it a few years of unwitting tourists flocking to the coast and it will improve massively and rapidly I'm sure as the money will be there. But for now it remains the Land of Gaffertape.
There is however an amazing craft ale bar in Tirana which was amazing and saved us from the rest of the madness.
Yeah. Don't go there.