Gjirokastra, an old Ottoman city in the south of Albania

Gjirokastra's castle at night

Mountains and sea define the borders of Albania.  It’s a small, beautiful country about the size of Sicily, with a contorted history that includes Greeks, Romans and Turks.  Consequently, it has a substantial Muslim population among its 2 ½ million people.  Young people are leaving in large numbers because of the poverty and lack of good jobs, seeking their fortunes in the rest of Europe. 

Gjirokastra in the rain

The Communist era is a dominant part of the recent history of Albania, and a terrible one.  Albania was the North Korea of Europe until 1992, with an unbearably repressive regime that preferred complete isolation from the rest of the world.  One person told us that, as a child, she and her siblings would stand in the long food lines with her parents, each taking a line for a different commodity, such as oil, sugar, milk or bread.  When she reached the front of a line, she would quickly change places with one of her parents so that the parent could buy the food.  She said her father would often get in the milk line at 2 a.m., only to find that by the time he reached the front of the line many hours later, all the milk was gone.  Parts of the city do not have running water 24 hours a day, so most homes have cisterns or water tanks on their roofs.  In Romania, we drove through villages where no one had any running water at all and women lined up at the town fountain with 5 gallon jugs to get their water for the day.

One of our guides told us the Communist regime took everything from his parents and grandparents—home, gold, household goods, clothes—because they were too well-educated and elite.  Shades of what China did under Mao.  He said they could never accumulate any assets now because their family has had nothing since 1946 and jobs are too scarce and wages too low.  His father was forced to leave school in the 4^th grade because the “elites” were denied an education, so became a truck driver.  But, he said, his father is very wise and politically astute and understands how politics work locally, nationally and globally.  

rooftops with mountains in back

Yesterday, we drove from Tirana, the capital, to Gjirokastra, a city in the south of Albania.  One Turkish pasha controlled the area for decades and built a fortress on top of one of the surrounding hills.  He killed one of his fathers-in-law, who had previously saved his life and given him his daughter in marriage, but met a similar fate at the age of 81 when a newer rogue beheaded him.

Ottoman house needing repair

The area below the castle has old Turkish houses, built of stone with slate roofs.  Most are falling down, but some have been renovated into hotels like ours.  If tourism continues to grow, this area of very steep cobblestone streets and dilapidated buildings will become the chic place to be in Gjiroskastra.  The city is even building a parking garage on one of the slopes because the tiny streets and difficult terrain don’t permit parking.  We are driving a Jeep which is way too large for these alleys, but have managed to navigate the sharp turns and steep slopes.  

our hotel, an Ottoman house after restoratioin

We visited one of the former Turkish palaces, which has two large living rooms where the extended family would gather and where important ceremonies, such as marriages, were held.  When the Communists took power in 1946, all the wealthy families were removed from their homes.  Sometimes, they were given a room in their house for their entire family and other families were given other rooms, all sharing the common spaces.  Often, the entire family was murdered instead.

family living room before 1946

Some families have renovated these old homes, turning them into small hotels like the one we stayed in.  But, most of them need someone to buy and restore them.  It’s very expensive, obviously, to do that, particularly in a country with very limited resources.  On Friday nights, the old Ottoman area restaurants thump with music, which made my head thump as well, long into the night.  It has become an enticing area for younger people who have stayed in Gjirokastra.  The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.