Exploring the steep slopes

• Xerius's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Gjirokastra

  Gjirokastra, Albania
Friday, June 29, 2007

After a long bus ride across the morning, I've come to the second of two "museum cities" in Albania: the stoic, grey Gjirokastra in the southern mountains bordering Greece. The place clings to the edge of a steep mountainside, with its buildings constructed almost on top of each other. A drab, Communist-era new town sprawls across the bowl-like valley, but from its edge rough, cobblestone streets ascend at a severe degree into an almost uniform townscape of old stone houses and heavy slate roofs. Getting around it makes for some serious cardio-vascular exercise, but it's really among the most fascinatingly picturesque towns I've seen.

The scenery on the way down from Berati was downright majestic. I was kicking myself for having neglected to pull my camera out before stashing my pack in the compartment beneath the bus. At least I was able to enjoy a clear view and crack the window open enough to get a good breeze. The road was pretty good for the first half, then it quickly deteriorated into a real mess. It became quickly apparent why it took an estimated five hours to make the trek. We got in then just short of one o' clock, at a "bus station" that amounted to little more than a gas station and a few minibuses and buses parked along a busy highway. From there I took a taxi up to the hotel I'd dog-eared, watching with wide eyes at the steep grade that the driver had to climb once we got out of the new town. I was understandably glad to find my hotel at the top of town, in easy reach of the castle looking out over the surrounding area.

I made the castle my first priority after getting settled in my room. It's actually a rather neglected place. Upon paying the 200lek entrance fee, you enter through a gloomy, terribly-lit hall punctuated with the ends of numerous artillery stashed away in the darkened flanks. It's really a bit spooky and surreal to walk through, as you expect some diehard, ex-military Hoxha fanatic to pop out and lecture you on the merits of Stalinism. On the surreal note then, it's equally peculiar to find a 1957 U.S. military jet slowly decaying on the edge of a courtyard just beyond. The story goes (according to the Communists) that it was forced down after being caught during a spy mission. Allegedly, the reality was that it was a NATO jet that ran out of fuel and had to pull an emergency landing in Albania; that obviously wouldn't sound as good for the nightly news though.

I probably spent a good hour or more exploring the castle, weaving through its weedy pathways and crumbling walls. The views over the town and surrounding terrain were simply magnificent, so it was easy to lose track of time just sitting there taking it all in. As usual though, hunger eventually got the better of me, so I had to head down and track down some (late) lunch. Along the way I stumbled upon a - surprisingly informative - tourist office that recommended a good restaurant nearby. Thanks to that, I was able to have a lovely feast of traditional Albanian cuisine - qofte me mese (grilled links of minced meat), qifqi (basically herb-spiced rice cakes with egg - a local speciality), a typical Balkan salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and the like, and a Tirana beer. Scrumptious stuff, and both filling and cheap to boot!

I got to talking with the son of the family who owned the restaurant for a good while and then spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering through the backstreets of town. I stopped by a fascinating ethnography museum kept in a beautiful, historic mansion - much like a similar museum that I visited in Berati yesterday. Apparently the building was the childhood home of Enver Hoxha (!), though it burned down around 1920 and had to be painstakingly reconstructed in 1966. It seems odd that such an avid proponent of concrete functionalism and workers' utopia would come from such a gorgeous home, much less make it a point to have a whole town's worth of the architecture preserved for history. I guess it pays to be the hometown of a paranoid dictator.

Gjirokastra is an amazingly scenic place and yet another pleasant surprise in my brief tour through Albania. To some degree, it's almost more fascinating to explore than Berati was yesterday. Again, it's small, so one night is probably all that you need to see it (though it would have been nice to have arrived earlier). There's some tremendous tourism potential in this place though and I certainly hope the number of visitors improve. Apparently the cost of maintaining these austere old homes is pretty significant, so Gjirokastra needs all the foreign tourist dollars it can get - a fair chunk of town is looking pretty worn and neglected. From what I've heard and read though, people are starting to pop over more and more though; the city is a relatively quick jump from the resort town of Saranda across from Corfu. People are starting to hit the Ionian Coast of Albania with more regularity now that things have stabilized here and connections are so close and quick from Corfu town. So perhaps things are looking up. Hopefully so, as this place deserves attention from the world.