Next guide on Albania comes from “Adventurous Kate,” an US blogger, who travels alone around the world. In a separate article dedicated to her journey through Albania, Kate describes in detail every moment of this adventure. Her feedback as described below is very positive. She describes some very interesting details that even an original writer may miss. You can read her wonderful article below.
“Albania was the country I was most looking forward to visiting this summer. It fit my dreams – home to a fascinating culture and some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe, yet a bit of an underdog. A Balkan country I hadn’t visited yet? Sold! But the biggest factor was meeting two lovely Albanian girls this past spring. Erisa and Bianka joined my second Central America tour. Both of them immigrated from Albania to the US when they were teenagers and both go back to visit often. Soon our tour days were filled with stories and anecdotes from Albania, and learning from Erisa and Bianka allowed me to get to know a culture that most people only know from watching.
So I wanted to enjoy my trip to Albania, but I wanted to make my friends proud, too. I wanted to give Albania a fair chance and get to see the wonderful parts, not just the negative stereotypes”.
Although initially she shows that our country has still some problems with the infrastructure for tourists and clarifies economic level, not forgetting to mention the fact that Albania has spent most of the 20th century in total isolation, heaving consequences even nowadays.
The article kicks off with the first fact that Albania is a Muslim country. “This may surprise you, but about 59% of Albanians are Muslim! About 17% are Christian and the remainder are nonbelievers or followers of other religions. That said, it’s a largely secular Muslim country, and religion does not influence its government. I could count the women I saw wearing a hijab on one hand — and that includes my time in Tirana. The only way you’d know the prominence of Islam is that mosques are everywhere. I also noticed that it was rare to hear the call to prayer blasted out early in the morning, a big change from places like Indonesia and southern Thailand.
The Albanian language is like nothing you’ve ever heard. Don’t think a smattering of Serbo-Croatian will help you out here — Albanian, while technically an Indo-European language, is not related to any other living languages. It’s like Basque that way.
In areas like the more upscale parts of Tirana, the city center of Berat, Saranda, and Ksamil, you can get by with English; sometimes, Albanians speak Greek or Italian as their second language. (A taxi driver in Tirana and I spoke entirely in Italian!).
Click http://www.adventurouskate.com/ to read full article.