Another Fortress

Trip Start Aug 31, 2007

Trip End Apr 19, 2008

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Flag of Albania Gjirokaster, Albania
Monday, November 19, 2007

The road to Gjirokastra was filled with many wonderful people: three men at the Bertai bus station who helped me figure out how to get to Gjirokastra when it became obvious the 9:30 bus was no longer in existence, two university students who translated directions for me and made sure I made the right connections, and two guys who argued with a taxi driver for me and finally got me on a bus for the final stretch instead. The last two guys even paid my bus fare and bought me lunch, all the while trying to talk to me. Unfortunately for them, about the only English they knew was "My name is..." and the word "beautiful." Hence, for our three hours together, everything was beautiful. Most frequently, it was I who was beautiful, but Albania was declared beautiful a number of times, and the rice pilaf for lunch even managed to make it into the beautiful category, too.

Getting off the bus in Gjirokastra, the ticket guy, whom I had also befriended, asks me out for coffee. He's pretty cute (finally in Albania I have hit cute boys!) but, 1. I don't like coffee. 2. It's probably different in his culture, but in mine, that's a first date. 3. He speaks almost no English. What would we do? Stare into each other's eyes lovingly? I decline and quickly find a cab and disappear, leaving heaps of awkwardness behind me. Perhaps that's tacky, but sticking around would have involved a lot more nervous laughter before an ending could be reached. Besides, there are things I want to see in Gjirokastra this afternoon!

Gjirokastra's main attraction (aside from its winding old town) is its stunning fortress, spreading for several hundred meters across a hill above the town.

Mosque and Mountain

It is a solid walk up to the fort, but entirely worth it once I am inside. Half of the fort is in darkness, the definition of gloomy. Huge stone walls arch above me, vines crawling up i the cracks between the masonry. As sporadic drops of water hit my head, it really feels as though no one has been in these dank quarters for several hundred years, except for piles of rubbish in the corners, of course. In addition to alack of appreciation for central heating and shower curtains, Albanians (along with Macedonians, Moldovans, and Ukrainians) have yet to fully grasp the benefit of an entire community using trash cans.

I continue my exploring and eventually find the ticket off (I had been wondering where it might be) and the other half of the fortress, this one outside. Walking past the ticket booth, my breath is taken away. The snow-capped mountains rising opposite me combined with the ruins make a spectacular panorama. I'm going to need to learn some new superlatives for this country if it keeps hitting me with so much splendor every day. For the next half hour, my camera can't stop taking pictures as I absorb the beauty of the hilltop, eventually leaving as it begins to get dark.

As I walk back to the bed and breakfast, I encounter two puppies, begging for food. I dig some bread out of my bag and rip it into small pieces for them, but they are not the brightest dogs and miss a good deal of what I throw them. I'm sure they'll make it through the winter, though. Gjirokastra doesn't seem to have a lot of strays. As I finish feeding the pups, the muezzin's 4:30 call to prayer rings out across town, and I am swept up in the forlorn cry of his lyrics, haunted until I return to my cozy room above the town to stare out at the rising moon.