The pit, luxury car and Enver Hoxha, “Die Welt”: In Albania don't trust Google Maps

From Teseo La Marcha, “Die Welt”

Four hours on a pit road that looked like shells craters. The Asphalt was uneven or not. Rocks and branches that were threatened over the car. The temptation to surrender and back up was huge. But then suddenly: a raspberry asphalt, of the latest technology, leveled and perfectly marked. I breathe freely and press gas pedals to the end.

No other driver has ever made it this far; we have the entire highway to ourselves. Is that a gift from heaven? Or was it just the work of a corrupt official who spent some kind of money here for development? After a few minutes, the answer comes: The highway, suddenly and without warning, leads to an unpaved highway path, interrupted by countless small canyons created by the last downpour. I can't stop it right on time.

The pit and a state path marked by mistake on Google Maps: That's what you should expect when you start driving to Albania. Yet, it is worth exploring by car this small Balkan state, no bigger than Brandenburg. A small country that has much to offer, from sandy beaches in the Adriatic to the high alpine mountains, from Orthodox churches to Ottoman mosques.

Renting a car in Albania is easy and relatively cheap. Moreover, many Albanians speak German, Italian, or English in hotels and restaurants. Those who are willing to face the noisy traffic of Tirana or Durres and the inland pit roads will be richly rewarded -- with picturesque villages, frightening rocks and the stunning view of the Albanian Revolution. On the way, there are numerous opportunities to expand your horizons.

Lesson 1: Don't lean on Google Maps

Albania's bad ways did not come out of nowhere entirely. The country has a recent troubled, sometimes tragic, history. When Enver Hoxha's Stalinist dictatorship collapsed in 1990, the Mediterranean country plunged into chaos similar to that of the civil war, from which it was slowly recovered.

Today, Albania is an EU candidate country, where rapid progress and pre-industrial conditions crash without mercy. That's why well paved roads don't even exist on Google Maps, and mosquito paths sometimes mark like highways. However, tourism has risen significantly in recent years. While professional marketing of destinations is still under way, the country has become a less secret destination on vacation, thanks to the zealous spread of oral information. In addition to landscapes, travelers express enthusiasm for affordable prices and seemingly unlimited Albanian hospitality.

So I visited my wife's attractive destination. First we took the ferry from Italy across the Adriatic to Durres, where we would rent a car to explore the country's south. Our first destination is Berat, a city of Ottoman architecture. The road then takes us beyond Vjosa (the last great wildlife of Europe) to thermal springs near Permeti. From there, there are only a few crossings to the rocks of the Albanian Revolution with its long beaches.

To move forward, you must not only rely on digital maps but also listen to local counsel from time to time.

Lesson 2: Expensive cars are a sensitive issue

Our travel tool is a small, red C1 Citroën. You look like a poor man. On the road to Berat, you can almost see the luxurious, smooth furnaces. German brands like Mercedes, BMW and Audi are especially popular. And in the villages there are still a lot of old <x0).

The boss's car provides a strange contrast to the ruined facades of houses scattered across the landscape. Albania, with a gross domestic crop per capita of around $10,000, is among Europe's poorest countries; 4.5% of the population is malnourished, while many houses remain unfinished skeletons for lack of money.

So where does this <x0m2-2-2-2 body come from? Who could know better than those who move in these fancy cars around? From a white BMW X5 in front of us three young men with wide shoulders and strong jaws. The driver doesn't take my somewhat embarrassing question: “Look at the streets. You have to have big hard cars. A convincing argument. And when they saw their stature and their keen looks, other questions had no place.

Lesson 3: Don't pick up people at night

It's evening, we're close to Berat and we realize that there are people whose bad ways might be a priority. The more dark it gets, the more they appear in the light of the lanterns. Bow and lonely walk along the road. Sometimes women, but mostly older men, who have died. Where they come from and where they go, I can't even explain the old man we finally stop by to offer them a seat in the car. At one time I too have been on the road, and I know how good it is when they take a few miles with them.

We need some time until we find a place that sounds like the word that the old man, with his jacket torn, keeps repeating. A high finger, a smile, is how communication works in such cases. That the old man doesn't talk much, it's not bad, because he smells terrible alcohol.

On arrival, the elder thanks. Again a cloud of breath mixing beer and wine. Then he pulls the handle hard, tries to open it in vain. Only when something dances, I remember that protection for children must be activated. I go out and open the door to the old man. He thanks again, then leaves quickly by limping. On the sole of his feet, he left behind the broken handle of the door. Goodbye, rental car guarantee.

Lesson 4: Enver Hoxha good man?

Tommy, our host in Berat, has an explanation. “Those are all the poor who still walk from village to village,” he tells us, “older people like me, retired about 200 euros a month.” His fate is that he has a lovely home in the historic center of Berat. Today he rents rooms for tourists. With that money he bought a bicycle and financed his son's studies in Tirana.

And I'd like to travel in my lifetime,” says Tomori from his terrace with a view of Berat's center. Because of the typical white houses with many symmetrically placed windows, Berat is also named “The city of 1000 windows. ”

Tomori would have wanted to see Italy, or the United States, he adds. But because of the costs it was impossible. Once, under Enver Hoxha's dictatorship, it was the radio that nurtured his curiosity about the great world. In secret, in his room, he listened to Italian stations; he loved the songs of Adriano Clentano and Caterina Caselli.

He speaks fluent Italian. But then I was afraid no one would understand,” Tomory shows. Had the wrong people learned that he heard Italian radio, they would have arrested him as a spy.

However, Enver Hoxha, the paranoid dictator of the time, still calls “a good man”. In socialism, at least each had a secure life; his son wouldn't have to leave. There was neither drugs nor crime back then.

Today, these are them. So for Tomor, even the job with the bosses' cars is clear: Everybody sleeps under the pillow gun.” For him, the bike remains my favorite.

Lesson 5: Old cars also apply as status symbols

From Berat the journey continues toward the wild mountains of Permeti, where tired feet from the long journey relax again in thermal water of the bean's resources, with a temperature of 25 to 30 degrees. In the background lies the X - century stone bridge with the bows of the Catin Bridge V III, which gives you a sense of time travel.

The harsh mountains are quickly replaced by the bucolic hills. The road from Permeti to the Adriatic passes by flocks of sheep and old stone walls. Interestingly, the deeper you enter the Albanian province, the less the fuoristrada is seen. And yet, they should be more needed here. Instead, there are people on donkeys or on old tractors that feed and smoke.

If you ask the common people here, everyone has their own theory about the origin of luxury cars. Some, like Tomory, associate it with the drug trade; others talk about corruption. And he, they say, is central to the capital.
The only question is that cars in Albanian society have extraordinary importance. Even the one running an old Mercedes-Benz scratch is always keeping it bright. Almost every yard is found in every parking lot.

A owner of such a wash thus explains Albanians' love for the car: “A car is for many Albanians the most important asset. They work out, they live here, sometimes there. The house remains secondary, the car becomes more important.” And that's understandable: Albania is a typical immigration country, the remittances of Albanians to the diaspora are irreplaceable for the economy. In a country where good life has depended for decades on how mobile you are, the automobile inevitably gets a special meaning.

Lesson 6: Trust Hospitality

At the end of our trip by car, however, we face police control. It's late afternoon and our lights weren't on. “Youour driving license”, says the policeman from the open window, when you understand I don't speak Albanian. I get anxious. I had lost my Italian license just before this trip, so I only have a temporary Italian flight permit, which here has no validity. The cop looks at me carefully. “Tourist?” Ask. I nod. “You can go.”

Here again was that legendary Albanian hospitality. Once again he saved us. For him, the underestimated Albanian cuisine has no doubt been worth the trip.

However, police do not spare only tourists. Despite frequent street raids, we did not see any banned four - wheel - drive vehicles; they were always small like ours. And it's not about getting worse. I, as an ignorant tourist, could ask naive questions and still owners of the four - wheel - drive vehicles to leave me alone. But it would not be so easy for local police to come out without consequences. / fit in Albanian post.al/ Periscopi/