Albania describes itself as the “Hidden Pearl of Europe” and for much of the 20th Century, hidden is what the country was!

For several centuries, Albania was a somewhat chaotic and at times rebellious province of the Ottoman Empire. Albania declared itself independent in 1912 as the Ottoman Empire was in its final death throes. But from then until 1920, Balkan wars and the First World War ensured that Albania remained in a state of chaos and uncertainty. Some stability was achieved during the 1920’s and ‘30’s under a warlord from the northern part of the country, Ahmed Bey Zogu who for a short period was Albania’s president but who subsequently decided that the title of king was more fitting. In 1928 he had himself crowned as King Zog I and took a much younger Austro-Hungarian princess, Geraldine as his queen. Things in Albania improved for a while, but Zog essentially hocked the country to the Italians who even ran several of the ministries. In April 1939, Mussolini decided that he might just as well take complete control of Albania - Italian forces invaded and Zog, his queen and young son fled to London. Zog died in Paris in 1961, but Geraldine did eventually return to Albania where she died in 2002

During the Fascist occupation of Albania, the most potent resistance was led by the Communist Party whose founder and only leader was one Enver Hoxa. A passionate, devoted and completely unreconstructed Stalinist, Hoxa ran Albania from the end of WWII until his death in 1985. In succession, he fell out with next door Communist Yugoslavia and its charismatic leader Josep Tito, the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin and China after the death of Mao. Hoxa ran Albania as a completely closed country based on a cult of personality. No dissent of any sort was permitted; he interned, tortured and murdered former colleagues, intellectuals, in fact anyone who opposed him in thought or deed. Albania from 1946 until the final collapse of Communism in Europe in 1991 was quite the equivalent of North Korea today and was by far, the poorest and least developed country in Europe

The end of Communism wasn’t the end of Albania’s problems though. Over night, former Communists became ardent capitalists and continued to run the country. Or rather....run the country into the ground! As in many former Soviet bloc countries, the leadership and their cronies robbed the country blind. But they went one stage further here - and together with what’s described as the “Italian and Albanian mafia”, they ran a true Ponzi scheme in which large numbers of ordinary Albanians lost everything. By the late ‘90’s, Albania was bankrupt and on the verge of anarchy. The EU stepped in to rescue the country and restore some element of stability.

Today, Albania is struggling to bring itself into the 21st Century, having skipped much in the way of “civilized” development of the previous several centuries. 

We make two stops in Albania. The first in the southern city of Sarande just a mile away at the closest point from the Greek island of Corfu in order to visit the ruins of the ancient Greco-Roman-Venetian city of Butrint; the second in Albania’s main port of Durres, where we desert the rest of our group (my request!) and the four of us are collected by a delightful and very colourful character, the self-described Nik the Fixer!

Nik tells us that he was Albania’s sole cycling representative at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and later participated in three world cycling championships, twice as a competitor and once as a trainer. Cycling is now just his hobby - his full time job is that of “fixer”, but he was somewhat vague about quite what he actually fixes! Nevertheless given what he tells us about Albania’s recent history, the many half completed buildings with no sign of activity we see in and around Tirana, the profusion of gas stations (apparently the word got around that gas stations would be a great investment in the new Albania), Nik’s vague occupation seems very much in keeping with a country emerging

Our day with Nik wondering around Tirana learning from him a lot about the city, the country, its people and awful history is one of the highlights of this journey....