Sarande, Albania

PLEASE NOTE: With Google's Blogspot software environment, which is what I use to maintain our blog, you have the ability to monitor 'followers' by country. To my surprise, we have 9 folks from Albania. As a courtesy to those people, let me mention at the onset here that during some of my research, I found several other personal blogs that do not support my negative observations & comments below. The majority of the other blogs were highly complimentary, though a few of them were in agreement with our impressions and perspective. I apologize if I offend any of you. Our visit was limited to one day - a snapshot in time...but nonetheless, a capsulized review of what we saw, how we felt, and our overall impressions during our brief stay.
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Yet another, very beautiful day with temps in the mid-70's - we've been so fortunate. Since September 1st, we've only had rain on two days and sea conditions have been "uncharacteristically calm", according to the Captain. He says they normally have at least a couple exciting days on these routes, but so far, no luck for us in that regard!

Sarande, Albania - a new destination for us. It was pre-billed as a city on the rise...an "up-and-comer". We weren't quite sure what to expect. I typically try to do at least some research on our destinations before arriving, but Sarande was an exception. With a population of only 42,000 (as of 2015), none of the ship-sponsored tours were appealing to us - we thought we'd just 'wing-it' and figure it out as we went along. That's always fun for us.

I only slept 1 hour last night. I'm not complaining, but the medication regiment they started me on had an adverse reaction on sleep, but I sure started to feel better quickly - so no complaints! We skipped a formal breakfast this morning and instead wanted to get a head start on the crowds, so we were on the first 'tender' to shore. We could see a very long beachfront before leaving the ship and had decided to just start there for the morning. To our surprise, there was also a very long, but fairly deserted boardwalk, and so we began our stroll. I'll share with you now, the photos I'm posting are not truly representative of majority Sarande or Albania. Once we hit the urban decay & abandoned buildings, we stopped shooting. Don't misunderstand - these folks are truly making an effort, evidenced with the many nice hotels, parks, & open-air cafes along the beach. With a smooth horseshoe curve to its waterfront, and with fine palm-lined promenades upon which most visitors frequent, you kinda scratch your head a little and wonder what's going on with the rest. It was actually one of the most pleasant, relaxing walks we've taken in quite some time. The city is promoting itself as a proverbial boomtown, with the population of 42,000 tripling during the summer months. Up until recently, Sarande's been long overlooked because of Albania's political isoilation from the rest of Europe. Strange concrete pillboxes are still visible, but the other vestiges of the communist era seem to be fading away...at least on the waterfront. Like a mini San Francisco, the city is built around a series of stairs that lead from the top of the hill, dominated by a castle, down to the seafront. The higher you get on the stairs, the more evidence you begin to see of the tragic past. Sarande was actually a 'walled city' until 1991. You couldn't enter, you couldn't leave. The residents were literally blocked from communicating with the rest of the world.

I'll digress here for a moment. I've never been real good with history, and think I've mentioned that elsewhere in our blog. What I don't personally research, I try to gather facts either from ship personnel or town locals. Fortunately, our tablemate (Roger) has a Master's in history and is quite knowledgable about this part of the world. He has a wealth of great information...the kind of guy who would do extremely well on Jeopardy. Now me - we watch the popular game show regularly and on a good night with some of the easier questions, I MIGHT get 20% correct - that's it! I'd never make it past stage-one auditions...Alex Trebek would laugh me off the stage! But again, Roger's the guy - very sharp with all the moving pieces in this part of the world. Last night at dinner he helped me fill-in some of the questions we'd been asking ourselves all day, like what happened here and why. More on that.

Yesterday was the first time I've not been able to break the ice with 'locals'. As you know, we've been to every continent & hundreds of countries. I had an easier time with the villagers of Madagascar & natives of the Amazon than these folks. Yesterday, I must have greeted several dozen folks without so much as a return glance. They wore hard faces & seemed genuinely upset that they even had tourists in town investing in their community - quite surprising considering the public or written effort the town's making to promote itself. The citizens sure aren't onboard with the idea yet...at least those with whom we encountered. And their treatment of female tourists is yet another strike. The only other place in the world where small groups of men congregate and visibly undress a lady in public has been Bombay. I was so upset with that element a few years ago, I actually wrote a separate article about it. We found the same thing here yesterday...about halfway 'up the stairs' I mentioned earlier. Not physically aggressive by any means. But visually, they make a lady feel very uncomfortable - and I won't have Cheryl exposed to that kind of jeering...so back down the stairs we went! As a quick point of reference, the vast majority of folks here are Muslims - nearly 60%, followed by Greek Orthodox and then maybe 10% Catholics. That may explain it.

During the Greco-Italian War back in 1940, the city came under the control of the advancing Greek forces. The capture of this strategic port further accelerated the Greek penetration to the north. This made the Greek war effort immeasurably easier, as they now had an overland route. As a result of the Battle of Greece (German invasion in Greece in 1941, the town returned to Italian control. In 1944, the town was captured by a group of British commandos. The involvement of the British troops was considered very problematic, as they considered that they would use the town as their base and install their allies from Greece. However, the British troops soon withdrew from the region, leaving the region to the Albanian communist forces until 1991. As I understand it, life was pretty bleak up to that point.

According to The Guardian, a publication I reference periodically, Sarande has since become an important tourist attraction (since the fall of communism in Albania) because of its coastal access and Mediterranean climate. The article goes on to say that the the rest of the Albanian Riviera is set to become the new 'undiscovered gem' of the overcrowded Med holidays summer 2017's hot new beach destinations. I'm not so sure my friends. So, tourism today is the major economic emphasis, while other resources include services, fisheries and construction. The unemployment rate according to the population census of 2015 was 8.3%. It has been suggested that tourism and seasonal work during the summer period help mitigate the real unemployment rate, estimated to be close to 30%. Recently, the town has experienced an uncontrolled construction boom, but the problem is that a large majority of projects have been abandoned before completion. You can see them from the beach...either high-rise multiple dwelling units or hotels...partially built and now overrun with weeds. The port itself has been undergoing an expansion to accommodate cruise ships since 2012 - still not complete and no visible signs of ongoing construction activity.

There's one photo below of a statue of Hillary Clinton...it was way off the beaten path among some bushes we stumbled into...proably 7' tall. I've had to visit several Google sites to find out why. Apparently, her statue was erected in Sarande following the 2001 NATO bombing of Sebia forces who had been carrying out ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo. Why a statue of Hillary instead of Bill is still something I can't get an answer to.

The present municipality was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities of Ksami and Sarande.

In comparing verbal notes with other passengers last evening, everyone seemed to be in general agreement with my thoughts here. Congrats on the progress - many nice areas along the beach and lots of opportunity for growth, development & prosperity. BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME...is often overused these days...but to keep them coming back is the key to long term success. The people or human element is a huge catalyst - treating folks with garden-variety integrity & respect will go a long way toward building a successful vacation and/or residential base for years to come. That should be your goal in Albania - make it not only eye-appealing, but people pleasing too. Success is the combination of both.

Good luck...