Travelogue 3 - Tirana to Saranda

One of the most significant events in recent Albanian history was the student protests of 1990 that lead to greater political and economic freedoms. Our guide, Enea, was in the student vanguard, and enthralled us with a gripping account of how demand for better lighting escalated to demand for democracy. Albania began to recover from fifty years under the Communist dictatorship and the intervening anarchy. The country experienced a real estate boom that transformed small seaside villages into vacation-home cities. Today, apartment houses and small hotels line the waterfront in numbers that make Miami look unpopulated.

Leaving Tirana, we drove about 25 miles west to the city of Durrës, the second most populous in the country and once its capital. Our first stop was the Archeological Museum which houses exhibits from the Ancient Greek, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Enea gave us a case-by-case commentary of the collection, significantly deepening our understanding of the rich fabric of Albanian history.

We visited the Durrës Archeological Museum.

While the ancient tools, coins, Illyrian and Greek pottery, and sculptures were fascinating, the crude massive storage vessels were among the most impressive items; imagine the strength required to move and use them!

This centuries-old storage vessel in the Archeological Museum was huge.

Durrës was founded by Greek colonists around the 7th century BC and became an integral part of the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires. Our next stop was the city’s Roman amphitheater dating from the time of Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD. The amphitheater, which could seat 20,000 citizens, was discovered relatively recently when a plumbing leak developed in an encroaching house.

Surrounding houses were removed to reveal the Roman Amphitheater of Durrës.

While recognized as a World Heritage Site, we found its subterranean galleries to be even more impressive than the crumbling ruins above ground.

This Roman building technique achieved earthquake resistance by layering materials.

After tasty lunch in a very nice outdoor restaurant overlooking the rural countryside, we headed south through Llogara National Park, where the tallest mountains still had snow, and continued along the Ionian Riviera. We passed the small mountainside village of Dhërmi, where Enea grew up and his mother still lives, and continued to the seaside resort of Saranda.

This is the village of Dhërmi where Enea grew up.

Albanian roadways were well-maintained and little trafficked outside the cities.