Albania
In 2021, I spent several months exploring Albania, a stunning country where nearly 80 percent of the interior is covered by rugged mountains, beautifully contrasted by the sandy beaches of its southern coast. The Thethi Mountains in the north are absolutely stunning and a must-see for anyone visiting for more than a few days. The best way to get out there is by taking a bus from the small city of Sköder (pronounced “Shkodra”) in the north. The snowfall gets so bad there that the roads close off for about four or five months, beginning in November, so be sure and plan accordingly if you find yourself there during the colder months of the year.
Sköder was the home of the former King Zog, who served as prime minister from December 1922 until February 1924, then as president from January 1925 until September 1928, when he subsequently transformed the country into a monarchy. The dilapidated concrete ruins of his old residence are available to explore if you are able to access a car. There’s not much to see, but it’s still an intriguing place to check out if you’re a history lover.
In 1926 and 1927, Zog signed the Treaties of Tirana that officially placed Albania within the Italian sphere of influence. The treaties also allowed Italian officers and ranking members to join the police force and military. In 1939, Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini took advantage of this by invading and easily overtook the country during the nascent stages of the Second World War. As Italy’s power was diminishing as the war progressed, the country was annexed by Nazi Germany in September 1943 until communist partisan forces liberated the country in November 1944.
The Albanian partisans were led by Enver Hoxha, a staunch Stalinist autocrat who ruled as prime minister from 1946 until his death in 1985. After Stalin’s death in 1953, he aligned himself with China’s Mao Zedong. Life became unbearably difficult for most Albanians over the next forty years. Hoxha turned the country into a hermit state that was closed off from the rest of the world, banning travel outside of the country in 1968 and completely isolating the country from the outside world after Mao’s death in 1976. There were supposedly only around a hundred cars in the entire country, which were reserved only for political elites and top military brass. Isolationist leaders also tend to be very paranoid, and Hoxha was no different. He was so afraid of outside invasions from the likes of Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, and other Western powers that a salient part of his legacy can still be found today in the form of small, mushroom-shaped concrete bunkers, which can be seen all over the countryside.
Although his paranoia was rather extreme, it may have been galvanized by the CIA’s first known attempt at infiltrating a foreign government with Operation Valuable, which took place in 1946. After his death, the country remained a communist state until 1992, three years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and slowly began introducing more liberal reforms, eventually opening up its borders while transitioning to a parliamentary democracy with a market economy.
Today, Albania is quickly becoming a hotspot for tourism, largely thanks to the rising costs of its neighbors, Croatia, Montenegro, and Greece. The country has been preparing by constructing impressive new buildings around Tirana, the capital city, and other beachside resorts in the north. The country’s entire shoreline in the northern half of the country is receding at a rate of 10 - 20 meters per year, thanks to climate change, meaning that many of those same resorts will be flooded within a couple of decades.
However, there is plenty to do and see in Tirana and as well as many other parts of the country. I highly recommend both Bunk’Art museums and the House of Leaves to get a deeper understanding of the political and totalitarian system that controlled Albania for over four long decades. The Bunk’Art museums are housed in two of the largest bunkers in the country, with one in the middle of town and the other on the outskirts, going northeast, which is accessible by bus. The House of Leaves is also located in the heart of the city, which features all kinds of spy gadgets that look like they are straight out of a James Bond movie. The Grand Park in the southern part of the city is a great place to relax in nature, which makes you forget how close you are to a bustling city with well over half a million people.
