Near Konispol to Saranda
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2008
1
34
36
Trip End
Sep 23, 2008
Sarande,
Albania
Monday, June 9, 2008
Saranda is turning into a relatively large Albanian beach resort, catering also to some tourist arriving form the neighboring popular island of Corfu. I didn't like the city that much but I was compelled to stay hoping that I would be able to find some spare tubes for my tires, in light of road situation in Albania and since I was down to my last tube. That evening I received a free "bike wash" in one of the city's many car washing stands and the owner later led me to a relatively cheap hotel.
In the evening I went out to look for a local diner to get something to eat. At the diner I was able to order, using my English-Albanian dictionary, a bowl of soup and some bread. Eyed by the surrounding diners I tired to relive the awkward silence by asking one of the people how I should pronounce the Albanian vowels written n my dictionary. As the young guy tried his best to explain the difference between "ci" and Cthi", the waiter shot out of the restaurant pulling in and old disheveled looking man and announced with great pride "Professor! Professor!".
The old man sat beside me at the table and asked in calm, well pronounced and refined English what the question might be. Following his explanation regarding pronunciation while going trough some etymological similarities between different languages, I learned he was a self-taught language enthusiast who also knew much about world history and was probably well educated in many other fields as well. He was, though, very modest and did not feel comfortable showing off his knowledge. Although fluent in Russian, Italian and English and generally well educated he has been doing odd jobs all of his life, working as a simple, hard-labor worker in various places. He seemed quite proud of it too.
He then stormed out as I offered him to join me for a drink "No! No drink! I must go now!" stern yet smiling he walked away, excusing the waiter's bad joke about his small handbag being a bomb with the words: "these are merely the means I use for my work". The man left me with some queer philosophical statements, such as "it is difficult to be with in your own self while being with others", using examples form the Jewish Diaspora.
