Back in Albania...

A little side note about my re-entry back into Albania coming back from Turkey. After my stint out of the country, it was only appropriate that I should have a typical Albanian welcome back into the country. As I was headed back to the capital of Macedonia [Skopje], I assumed there would be pretty frequent buses between it and Tirana…seeing as they’re both capital cities and all. However, when I arrived at 7 am to Skopje, the bus to Tirana wasn’t until 7:30 pm that night. So I ended up on a bus headed for another border crossing closer to Lake Ohrid. I ended up getting dropped off close to the border with 2 polish backpackers also trying to cross into Albania. The 3 of us got a taxi to get across the border.

The drive was only 5 km and should have only taken about 5 minutes. About 2 minutes into the trip, our driver hits dead-on a stray dog running towards our car [not even an attempt to swerve as to try and miss it]. Sadly, I’m used to this occurrence…but the 2 Polish guys in the back yelled “ohhhh fuck man!! …what are you doing!?” They were certainly shocked! About 30 seconds after this, our engine starts smoking. The driver pulls over and realizes that his car is overheating. So he proceeds to grab a plastic bottle from his car and fill it with ditch water and dump it inside the steaming engine. We start going again, but about 50 yards down the road he stops again to dump water on the engine. We do this about 4 more times [by now we’ve been in the car 20 minutes], until finally all of us get out on the side of the road and try to stop any car that’s going past us headed to the border. Finally, another taxi returns from the border and our driver gets him to take us there.

After getting there and crossing over to the Albanian side of the border, I used the most disgusting Turkish toilet I have yet to use in this country! Think unmaintained Turkish toilet…upwards of at least 6 months! It was disgusting!!...and smelled like dead babies! Ugh!
After this, we’re pretty much stranded on the Albanian side of the border waiting for anyone to drive by us headed in our direction. The 2 Polish guys were ridiculous (and very funny) and proceeded to try and hitchhike for us with the most ridiculous poses…think cheerleaders…or yogis…but instead 2 Polish guys with beards hoisting out their thumbs. Most Albanians drove past us laughing…and a few gave us thumbs-up for looking like fools! Finally, a mini-bus came by and got us on the right track. I parted with the 2 Polish guys as they were headed a different way and I continued my 7 hour journey down towards Gjirokaster in the south of the country to experience part of the folk festival!

However, I couldn’t help but laugh about my cliché arrival back into the country…broken down cars, awful toilets, wild animals, and a considerable amount of waiting on the side of a road [story of my life in Albania]. Mire se vini ne Shqiperia!!

Reflections on Turkey

It was especially nice to be in a city welcoming of tourists and to not feel awkward wandering around with a huge pack on. In Albania if you’re walking around with a travel pack, people usually stare or say rude things making you feel super self-conscious. It was nice to not feel so ostracized and to just fit in with the loads of foreigners there. I forget what it feels like to be normal…or at least not to stand out so much.
It was interesting being in Istanbul and seeing the parts of Turkish culture that are still prevalent in Albanian culture…and also to realize the huge differences. Some of the vocabulary is similar. Beyond that, some of the mannerisms and body language are also similar. Certainly in the bazaars it was easy to see the Turkish influence on Albanian haggling and bargaining and the aggressiveness of the sellers sometimes. In Turkey, as in Albania, there’s usually a person out in front of the shop/bazaar stall that tries to charm the customers walking by [such slogans as “oh I have missed you long time,” or “hello beautiful girl, where are you from?...”]. It’s almost a competition to see who can be the most charming…in the abrasive sense, of course. They also love yelling prices at you or picking up and showing you everything that you have no interest in.
It was extremely interesting to me that while Turkey would seem to be more conservative…there are at least more people openly practicing Islam…it was socially more liberal. What I mean is this. In Albania, while the country is technically around 80% Muslim, the majority of these people are only culturally so and do not practice the religion. You would think that if they have lost the ties to the religious aspect of Islam, their social standards would also be somewhat different. However, the social code is very conservative…women work at home and stay at home most of the time. The men frequent the bars and go to the cafes and play dominoes. Even if couples are married, they rarely go out together and VERY rarely display public affection. In Istanbul, it was the opposite [not to say that the rest of Turkey is like this…I imagine they would be more conservative not being in such a major metropolitan area]. There were certainly more women covered in long dresses and head scarves practicing Islam…but they would be walking down the street holding hands with their boyfriends or out to dinner or something. It was just SO nice to be back in mixed-gender company and not be the only woman out after 8 pm! It was nice not to be so special for once [I’ll probably get back to America and wonder why I don’t get all the attention any more ;) ]
Lastly, I realized after being in the Peace Corps for a few months, my standards for hostels have gone down the crapper. Pretty much anything seems nice to me! After sleeping on numerous questionable surfaces…visiting Albanians, sleeping over at other PCVs houses, using wool blankets that looked about 100 years old and hadn’t been washed for maybe that long, etc…where sometimes I’d be lucky to have a blanket, pillow, or sleeping surface besides a floor, anything is an upgrade from that! I realized my perceptions had changed when a friend I made came to meet me at my hostel and commented that his was so much better! Oh man! …I thought I was at the 4 Seasons! Sharing a room with 8 people where I actually got my own bed, blanket, and pillow! …and there was running water and electricity all night! ….what can I say, I guess my standards have changed :)

Trip to Turkey!

I took a brief trip to Istanbul towards the end of September, and while I had been planning on doing the trip for a while, it ended up being perfect timing for me taking a little breather from Albanian culture. I spent about 5 days there but even with the short amount of time, I love the city! I met up with another volunteer friend for the first few days and then flew solo for the last few days meeting new people and making new friends.
After finally making my way out of Albania (after 2 mini-buses, a taxi, another bus and getting to a city where the info I had found on-line about a bus to Istanbul was incorrect…so I had to get another bus to Skopje—the capital of Macedonia—where there was actually a bus!), it was about a 13 hour bus ride from Skopje to Istanbul. Unfortunately, I confused many members of the Macedonian Muslim community because I was traveling on Big Bajram (end of Ramadan)…and since I was speaking Albanian with them, they couldn’t understand why I was by myself on such a big holiday and kept asking if my mom and dad where back in Macedonia because everyone spends Big Bajram with family. Nope! They are definitely back in America!...
I got into Istanbul at about 6 am and wasn’t meeting up with my friend until 3 pm that day. So I went to the touristy area (by the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya) and watched the city wake up. I always love seeing cities as they come to life. I will admit that my first official stop after getting in on the bus was a Starbucks! No shame! But after 6 months of mediocre coffee with no variety in Albania, I was ready for my hazelnut soy latte! And crazily enough…in the Starbucks I frequented I found 2 other Peace Corps volunteers serving in Azerbaijan. They actually are serving with one of my dance friends from college—Evan! Small world!
My first day in Istanbul I spent wandering around the city. Istanbul is HUGE and gorgeous! I spent quite a bit of time in the Taksim area which is probably the most westernized part of the city with its more youthful population and its excess of western stores. It was nice to go shopping after 7 months! It’s also the place for nightlife! Somehow we ended up going out 3 nights in a row until at least 4 am! Every night I said I was going to get to sleep early…but somehow I ended up out dancing […once I get dancing, you all know I can’t stop]. However, it was nice to be able to go OUT again…since at my site in Albania everything is closed by 9 pm now. And I certainly can’t go out dancing! Dancing highlights included a Prince tribute (requested by myself) and I got into a dance-off with a 45 year-old man! He’d been dancing up on the stage all night like he was hot shit…dressed all in black, mustachioed, and wearing …none other than a doo-rag! It was slightly amazing! [in the ridiculous sense, o f course!].
Otherwise I did most of the touristy things—I went to the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, the Aya Sofya, shared a hookah with friends, ate fish sandwiches by the river, drank Turkish coffee with Turkish delight, drank apple tea, and ate some FABulous mezes! (like tapas, but Turkish style) I also ended up taking a cruise up the Bosporus to the Black Sea. I did not take a Turkish Bath nor did I see the Asian side of the city…but like I say…always leave something to go back for. I think my favorite things I did were the spice bazaar (shocker of the year…I could have probably spent 3 days there), and the Aya Sofya. The Aya Sofya was originally built as a church but then was turned into a mosque and now stands as a museum. It was just crazy walking into a place that was juxtaposed with so much religious imagery it almost brought me to tears. Scripts in Arabic juxtaposed next to a mosaic of the Angel Gabriel, etc. It was awesome!
My other favorite thing I did was the last meal I ate. A newly-made American friend and I went to an area that’s full of outdoor restaurants strung with lights. We determined that we were not going to go to a restaurant if the waiter accosted us to eat there [frequent occurrence in Turkey is for the waiters to compete to get customers by basically charming you and grabbing you and seating you and forcing you to hear the menu]. So we ended up at one where no one had said anything to us, and they didn’t even have a menu outside and it was full of a bunch of older Turkish m en. It ended up being the perfect meal with amazing food! We even received a free round of raki and grapes from the table beside us because one of the men heard me say something in Albanian and he had spent some time there. We ended up going back to our hostel area and met up with people and went to a hookah bar and I learned how to play backgammon! And then we went out dancing!! A PERFECT last night out of the country if you ask me!
Overall, it was a great trip out of the country. I had forgotten how much I love travelling and exploring new things and running into other people and making travel buddies!