This morning we meet our guide/driver for the next two weeks and then pick up our friends L&R from the airport. Stage two of our trip begins.
As we drive towards Berat, south of Tirana, we learn tidbits of information about Albania. Here are some random notes:
Albania is 50% Muslim and 50% Christian. To confuse things, most Muslims have Christian last names.
Albania has 3 million olive trees, whereas Greece has 10 million, Italy has 15 million and Spain has 17 million.
The area of the country is about 28,000 sq km and has a population of 3 million. Vancouver Island, in Canada, is about 31,000 sq km with a population of about 800,000.
Albania has been tied to Greece for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. It is said that the Greeks were the philosophers and the Albanians were the warriors.
There is no auto industry in the country. Vehicles are imported. Lumber is imported from Sweden. Crude oil is exported. Tourism is now one of the major economic drivers.
Our guide was telling us what it was like to be a 13 year old living under the dictator that ruled for 40 years. He said that he had to stand in line for four hours to get a cup of milk. They had no new clothes and no shoes. The dictator bought MIG fighter planes but kept the populace starving. The people were forced to work on the weekends to clear new land for agriculture.
We stop in Durres, a port and tourist city. It is only 4 hrs by ferry across the Adriatic to Italy. We walk the beach to stretch our legs. The beach is a little rough, but there are a couple of folks in the water.
Arriving in Berat is refreshing as, to me anyway, it looks like a Greek town without the blue colour. Tomorrow we will explore the area.