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Travel Stories >> Albania >> July 26 – 27: The Countryside, Lake Ohrid, and Qoran fish

ALBANIA – Summer 1996
July 26 – 27: The Countryside, Lake Ohrid, and Qoran fish

We get into Tirana at about 2:15, enough time to shower, eat quickly, and get to USAID. Gertie wants to go change money and find water. So we waste time in the middle of the siesta (nothing is open, and although I suggest this, she wants to go anyway and doesn't want to venture out alone). We get back to the hotel by 2:45, in time for a quick shower and to change. I discover in the panic of getting ready for this meeting that all of the pantsuits that I washed at Mark and Susan’s in Elbasan have shrunk to 2/3rds of their original size. They look like knickers on me, never mind how they grab at my crotch when I try to zip them. Goddammit. So I put on the one dress I have, and it's off to the project office and then AID. We meet up with Rich, Mr. Mellow himself, and mosey over to USAID (in his taxi - mind you, USAID is three blocks from the project office). The meeting is brief, pleasant, uneventful. I like Paula as I mentioned, and I remember and really like the mission director who I’d met in the States at a social function, the Ag program officer in attendance was sort of a jerk. Anyway, meeting over, Paula says, hey, it's my last Friday night, come meet us all at the Bunker for a cold beer. Ok, says I... we get directions... it seems that the Bunker is the bar in the basement of the US Embassy….. So back we go to the hotel, quickly change, drop off briefcases, turn around and walk back to the Embassy.

Well, the Bunker really is just a wet smelly basement that has been turned into a little bar. There is an unusual crowd there. Many young Americans (the young ones go to the more remote or unusual posts, and I expect that there aren't many "senior" people in Albania!), couple of Canadians, mix of Albanian staffers, and US government contractor types, like us. I was cornered at one point by a scary fellow who loudly named all the people he knew who worked at DAI, (ALL of whom had been FIRED from the company – "nice friends, big guy"). He was one of these horrible conversationalists who pins you with his discussion. You can't say anything, you can't escape the conversation (because he give no room for pause), and he gives detail, AD NAUSEUM. A nightmare. I finally interrupt him to excuse myself to the bathroom.

As we finish our first beers and are ready to leave for our quiet pizza dinner, we are swept into the jocularity and are bought more drinks. Gertie seems to be enjoying herself, although my peripheral vision tracks her telling the same stories to anyone she can corner (God forbid you have lived in Washington DC, and worse, that you know something about DC-local theater, OR you have an eight-year old). We are talked into a nice meal by "the group" we happen to be drinking with, and you know me, I'm ready to go. I have three of these guys laughing at bad jokes, and asking me about motorcycles, and poker-playing chicks... I'm happy. A couple of them promise Gertie, who is whining (of course), that this is an Italian restaurant (that's all there IS in Albania), and that there’ll be pizza. The restaurant they take us to is a lovely spot. We sit outside in the open air, there are two young men playing the synthesizer and violin who are OUTSTANDING! The food is excellent but Gertie pisses and moans for most of the meal to one of the guys, "all I wanted was a pizza, you lied to me, you knew this place doesn't serve pizza, etc....." Finally Rich looks over the table at her and says, "Hey Gertie, here we are, the food is good, look, I promise you the next time you are in Tirana, I'll buy you a goddamned pizza." She quiets down a little after that, but pulls another of these snits where suddenly at 10:30 she jumps up, throws 2000 lek on the table and loudly announces that she can't take any more of this and is going home.

Everyone protests, not because they want old little Gertie Sunshine to stay, but because Tirana is not particularly safe at night, and although the walk to the hotel isn't very far, she would be foolish to do it alone. Rich insists we wait two minutes, he'll get us a cab. No, no, no, Gertie is already halfway down the block. So, as usual, I apologize, leave money for my food, quickly run around the table saying goodbye to these folks (who I've liked), and chase this embarrassment of a companion down the street. I catch her and she is fuming, "that was such bullshit, I've never met such a bunch of blowhards in my life, and who was that asshole, yahdah, yahdah, yahdah.." I stop listening after the first couple of syllables. Earlier, I had bought a bag of peanut M&Ms at the Embassy, and I was going to scarf them down later, but I think they'll shut her up, or at least lighten her mood a little, so I pull them out and tell her I bought them for her. She doesn't shut up, but her mood certainly lightens. Five more days. Five more days. FIVE MORE MOTHER-LOVIN’ DAYS. Whew, it feels like a lifetime. How does her husband STAND it??

TIRANA/ELBASAN/KORÇA - Saturday, July 27, 1996

We are up at a reasonable hour, showered, ready, eat breakfast, change money, and we are off again in the direction of Elbasan. Our final destination is Korça, but we are stopping in Elbasan to pick up John - thank GOD. Four and a half hours in a hot, windy Mercedes on these roads with dear ol' Gertie...I'd rather have a head wound. The best part is that Gertie, who gets carsick - supposedly, needs the front seat so I'll have good company in the back with John.

The road to Elbasan is getting pretty familiar, especially after my little trip with Susan the other day. It is very mountainous, and the switchbacks and hairpins make for occasional excitement when someone passes a little too close for comfort. I spent most of this particular trip with this computer on my lap, typing. Gertie exclaimed that she could not believe I was not getting sick from this. I found it a productive use of my time, actually! Although the muscles along the outsides of my thighs became sore from keeping the laptop propped level.

We retrieved John in Elbasan, and got out on the road to Korça. This is, without a doubt, the most beautiful, scenic route I've been on this whole trip. The trip to Korça is just magnificent. The mountain flora here is more deciduous, and therefore somewhat more familiar. The gaps, rivers, mountain passes, and views are just spectacular... the roads are full of trucks and horses and carts... the villages we pass look relatively clean and quaint, almost. I would LOVE to spend a month in this country just hiking. Some of the trails look magnificent, and it would be so much fun to stumble onto the various communist caves and larger mountain bunkers. They tell stories about caves built of a size to sustain an entire town, with living quarters for everyone, sanitation facilities, even bakeries!.... all this in case those horrible Imperialist invaders should appear (US!).

The road from Elbasan to Korça is about 3-4 hours, and we are traveling mostly southeast until we come upon Lake Ohrid at the little city of Pogradec. Across this tremendous body of water is Macedonia, where Mark and Susan buy things like ripoff CDs, sour cream, and certain other foods they can't get in Albania, etc. They like Macedonia, and say when they have the time, they travel from Pogradec to the Macedonian side of the Lake, to the town of Ohrid.

It is a breathtaking view, as we come over the mountain, and this ENORMOUS body of water suddenly comes into view, and stretches as far as the eye can see. We are at about 700 meters above sea level, and the air is clean, crisp, and wonderful. The Lake is a beautiful teal color, and along the pebbly shores, families, and groups of young boys take out the big old row boats for a fish, a swim, a row, or just to soak up sun on the water. Apparently this is one more place where Albanians were killed trying to swim or boat to safety or escape in Macedonia across the Lake.

We have been told ALL week by everyone who discovers that we are going to Pogradec and Lake Ohrid, that we MUST eat Qoran, a fish found only in this lake. So we make our stop at a place John says has been recommended to him. We sit with Lahti, our taxi driver (and one John uses regularly in Elbasan - and likes) and watch the boats, sip a cold beer, and wait for our fresh grilled Qoran. At one point, we stop to watch a group of 7-8 boys who are out horsing around in an old rowboat (spending as much time bailing it as rowing the damn thing).

So our fish is delivered, and it is just delicious. And although it is everything is has been measured up to be - it can't even touch that magnificent eel we had up at the Shkodra castle. But, of course, the experience is the whole picture, and sitting there on the terrace under the awning, watching that splendid lake - well, it was pretty fine. Once we've eaten, we are on the road again, and after Pogradec, are traveling almost directly due south.

We get into Korça in the mid afternoon, and Mark and Susan are there waiting for us. What delightful human beings.... and they are so, so kind, not only to take us in, but to feed us, tour around town with us, and generally babysit us. What exceptional people! We hang around the Korça house, and it is evident that this is their favorite. They were posted here first, and it really is a much, much nicer city than Elbasan.

We all do a little walking around the town (which helps to sort of orient me) and we hook up with Paul - a very nice young Peace Corps type from North Carolina (and boy, is he North Carolina!), and we head out for dinner at one of the finer restaurants in the city. It is a nice meal, but I have to sort of restrain myself from letting Gertie ruin it for me. It would be so, so nice if she were not here. The rest of us are all sort of the same age, from the same backgrounds, and have been raised with social skills, and manners. She is bossy, loudmouthed, and rude. She will interrupt others incessantly, sometimes to the tune of hollering loud enough until we HAVE to stop and listen to her. She gets stuck into the DC theater, her kid, her friends in Tirana, her MANY years as a banker, her clients at the bank, etc. ad nauseum... I think she has told Mark and Susan about Gary's dog 6 times. John and I hover behind the crowd walking home - Me, because I just cannot bear, after so many hours, to hear her chatter any more, and John because I think he's a nice guy and figured I'd probably get into trouble if he didn't keep me company. He actually worked for her at the bank, and he is so tolerant - he describes how he learned to just tune her out. I tell him that that's because she has such a crush on him that it's a little easier for him. I also explained that it isn't that I can't stand her all the time, just at the end of a long day.

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