When I was in school there was a picture of Tirana’s Skandenbeg Square in my geography book and I was fascinated by it, for whatever reason I cannot remember. I knew that I would like to go there one day. Years later in the eighties, when Albania was totally politically isolated I became even more curious about the country. I sent a visa application to the embassy, asking for a visa that would allow me to travel independently. Of course this was pure fantasy and so the ambassy denied to issue me the wanted visa. Politely I was told that the only way to visit Albania was by joining an organised tour. All these tours had a political background and were far too expensive for me so that I had to give up on this idea.

The Balkan war in former Yugoslavia, the conflict in Kosovo and horror stories about the Albanian Mafia created and negative image about a country that is not well known anyway. These prejudices are still there and became even stronger when the country nearly drowned in anarchy after the collapse of a “pyramid investment system” in the mid nineties.

A couple of years later the country was present in the media. Fisher boats overcrowded with Albanians, who had nothing to lose, arrived at the Italian coast. During the following weeks TV teams and journalists went into Albania and documented the poor and desperate situation of the people and came up with stories hard to believe.

Isolated for a long time many Albanians invested their money a pyramid scheme that was promising an astronomical return of the investments. Of course it was too good to be true and a real chance and escape out of living conditions. When it was clear that the money was “burnt” civil demonstrations and protests spread over the whole country and ended in a rebellion against the government. Army and police officers fled, everything connected with the government was ransacked. Looters broke into weapon magazines where more than 500000 Kalashnikows disappeared and only very few showed up again until nowadays. Highway bandits controlled the roads robbing travellers and armed gangs were controlling some town and cities.

Twice in a decade Albania was near to sink in anarchy but fortunately managed to put things back together in a promising way. The highways were cleared of the bandits; the gangs were put into jail. Albania is putting a lot of effort to improve its infrastructure. The economical potential of tourism was recognised and nowadays it’s a travel destination that is (not yet) overcrowded with tourists.

Albania has a nice Mediterranean climate with beautiful mountain and coastal regions and ancient placed worth a visit. Unfortunately I missed most of it due to some problems that didn’t let me travel too much around in the country. I will return to discover what I missed this time.