Our Albanian adventure continued today with our berth in the largest cargo port of the country in Durres. Once a very important Roman port as the western terminus of the Roman Via Egnatia from Constantinople and the main connection across the 70km stretch of Adriatic Sea to Italy, Durres today is slowly but steadily regaining significance as the principal industrial port of Albania.
Our day included visits to both the historic capital of Kruje under the impressive limestone cliffs of the Dinar Alps, and the modern capital of Tirane, which is expanding and evolving in front of our eyes. We learned about many of Albania’s famous and infamous characters, like the national hero Georgi Kastrioti Skanderbeg with his goat-horn helmet and his reputation as one of the greatest military leaders of all history; 6’7” Paris-educated basketball player, artist, and current prime minister Edi Rama, who sealed his leadership as mayor of Tirane with innovative ideas to clear the transportation and hydraulic arteries of the city and paint the drab buildings in vibrant colors; the enigmatic dictator-turned-monarch of the 1930s, King Zog; and of course the “great national leader” of the isolationist communist regime and former paranoid dictator of Albania for 50 years, the late Enver Hoxha. Even if we could not keep up with the complex history, the millennia of occupations, and the paradoxes of the 21st century, we have to credit the Albanian people for maintaining their culture, language, identity, and spirit through a very turbulent history.
One thing that was very clear to us throughout our visit was the admiration and gratitude that every Albanian has for the United States of America. We were reminded of Woodrow Wilson’s Doctrine of Self-Determination that defined Albania as a 20th century nation, NATO’s intervention in Kosovo in 1999 protecting the Kosovo Albanians from massacre, and nowhere was this admiration more clear than in the agricultural crossroads town of Fush–Kruje where a statue dedicated to George W. Bush marks the intersection where Bush went into the crowds and mixed with the farmers in 2007.
Our Albanian experience concluded with an excellent organic lunch at the restaurant Bujtina e Gjelit (“Home of the Rooster”), showcasing one of Albania’s potentially significant export industries of organic produce and free-range livestock. The grand finale was an outstanding music and folkdance performance on Sea Cloud’s lido deck, with a rousing applause and wish for a bright future from all of us. Go Albania!
