This morning the Sea Cloud was tied up alongside a forest of antique yellow and blue cranes in the commercial port of Durres, once an ancient thriving Greek and later Roman port and commercial center. We boarded buses to make our way through town to the relatively new “Via Durres.” Built with assistance from the EU, it links the country’s principle port to the capital 39 km inland and was the first straight road built in modern Albania as during the communist era all the roads, by law, snaked back and forth across the plain so to hamper “invaders.” Now lined with a ribbon of smart new showrooms, light industry, and seemingly hundreds of gas stations—Albania appears to be on the move. The changes in the country since my first visit in 2003 can be likened to switching from black and white TV to high definition Technicolor in the blink of an eye! Roughly half the population now lives in urban centers, the medium age in 28 years old, there are new parks and well-equipped playgrounds in every village along the way, and as they approach the 25th anniversary of the end of communism they have plans for health care improvements, new pipelines, and celebrations.
Within an hour we arrived at the hilltop medieval capital town of Kruja, that was once the stronghold of Geroge Kastrioti, Iskander Bey, now known as Skanderbeg, the country’s folk hero who won many battles against the advancing Ottoman armies in the 14th century. We visited first medieval fortress which now houses the Skanderbeg Museum and an extremely fine ethnographic museum with examples of rural crafts and tools on the lower level and then room of houses of serfs, tradesmen, and the local Beys (rulers) filled with all manner of furniture, crockery, embroideries, and rugs. Below the fortress is a traditional market filled with stores of local products, antiques, carpets and Albanian souvenirs—a visual feast.
All too soon we boarded our buses to make our way down to the valley and across the plain to Tirana for a lunch. Passing endless delectable fruit and vegetable stands along the roadside wetted our appetites for the splendid buffet of local Albanian specialties that was topped off by freshly made baklava! As we were finishing our meal, we were treated to a wonderful folkloric performance of dancing and music. Before heading back to the port we took a drive around the central square past the National History Museum, Opera House, and neo-classical government ministry buildings. The residential sections of the city that bounded the main route out of town are a riot of color thanks to the vision of the former Mayor, now Prime Minister, Edi Rama, an artist and writer. All to soon we were back on the road for the short trip back to the port and the Sea Cloud.
