Greek tourists are discovering Albania

History buffs and the simply curious, heading north to meet the neighbors on their own turf, are pleasantly surprised

The picturesque town of Gjirokastr is the bastion of Christian Orthodoxy and Hellenism in southern Albania, or northern Epirus, as it has always been known to Greeks. (Photos: Pavlos Fysakis)	Tour groups like this one from Thessaloniki are becoming a familar sight in the larger towns of Albania, but raise inquisitive, though friendly stares in smaller villages, where locals are unused to visitors.

By Natassa Siniori - Kathimerini

Every summer Mike Vidas, a 67-year-old Greek-American professor who lives in Ohio, goes back to his family’s village, Variko, in Florina, on Greece’s northern border with Albania. This year he saw an advertisement for holidays in Albania and decided to take the plunge.

“I always wanted to get to know the people because they are neighbors, for reasons of history but also because of the prevailing prejudices,” he said. “In Variko, we speak a Slavic dialect and we used to be called ‘Bulgarian-heads,’ something that always bothered me. Nowadays, village kids who fight each other call each other ‘dirty Albanians.’ I wanted to find out why some Greeks felt and talked like that about Albanians.

“What I did find out,” he continued, “is that they aren’t so different to us.”

Mike was accompanied by his fellow-villager and friend Tassos Papastergiou. There were five more in the group that set out on the coach from Thessaloniki. Andreas Litos and his wife Mimi, and Ilias Petalotis and his wife Maria and son Nikos.

The tour guide was 71-year-old Anastasis Markos, an ethnic Greek from southern Albania, known to Greeks as northern Epirus, and who was a mine of historical information. Anastasis also works as a photo-reporter on a Greek-language newspaper in Albania.

Also with the group was a Greek tour guide, Avraam Kostidis, another walking encyclopedia. Stefanos Hatzimanolis’s travel agency, that has been running these tours for two years, has helped a number of Greeks satisfy their curiosity about their neighbors.

The itinerary took in visits to several northern Epirot towns including Korce, Elbasan, Durres, Tepeleni and Gjirokastr. Albanian roads are hard going for tour buses, but the trip was made easier by listening to Anastasis’s ongoing instructions to the patient driver, Christos.

“It’s 35 kilometers to Korce, so look around you and your eyes will be full of Greece,” said Anastasis, pointing to the surrounding mountains and vegetation which differs very little from that just on the other side of the border.

Nikos Petalotis, a 33-year-old dentist, explains why he had dreamt of making this trip.

“We are in a part of the Hellenic world that I have read about in many books and heard countless stories about. Its archaeological monuments, Byzantine and post-Byzantine, are of great interest to me and I’ve always wanted to visit them,” he said. “For me, a holiday doesn’t mean lying on a beach. I prefer to walk my legs off finding out about things I’ve read about and that are close to my heart.”

The road to Korce is long and arduous. Distances here aren’t measured in kilometers but by the time it takes. Narrow winding roads full of potholes make traveling through Albania seem endless.

In the pretty town of Korce, the architectural landscape is impressive. Italian buildings from the inter-war years stand alongside Soviet-style workers’ apartments and beautiful manor houses. First stop is at the Orthodox cathedral, restored by Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, a cleric who has undoubtedly given a great deal to the country’s Christians, rebuilding a number of churches and having many religious texts translated into Albanian. Alongside the cathedral in a recently restored building is the Museum of Ethnography and Medieval Art, displaying icons and objects made of metal, stone, textiles and paper, all from the Byzantine and post-Byzantine Christian heritage.

Later at the hotel we will be charmed by the polite and helpful staff. Although tourism infrastructure is rudimentary, the rooms are spotlessly clean and the lack of air conditioning was no problem in this mountain region.

The next day on the way to Elbasan, we enjoyed the view of the Mouzakia Plain and Megali Prespa, one of a group of lakes on the border between Albania, Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Dotted about the countryside are countless gun emplacements left over from the previous Communist regime.

At Durres we visited the Roman Agora and the Epidamnos Amphitheater, monuments that have stood the test of time. At the cafes, the elderly sit in groups playing dominoes. Unused to tourists, they stare at us inquisitively and ask where we are from. When we tell them, they smile and go back to their game.

“I didn’t expect to find such lush vegetation here, such beautiful landscapes,” she said. “The large number of churches and the history that links us with Albania make me feel at home.”

Later in the capital, Tirana, we were surprised by the contrasts, the new coexisting with the old, ramshackle workers’ housing stands next to newly built apartment houses in bright colors that show an attempt to modernize the city.

Some children pulled on our sleeves asking for a euro, but nine in 10 cars are the latest models of Mercedes-Benz. We later learned that most of these were stolen from all over Europe and sold at low prices.

As we sit at a cafe in Fieri, Tasos Papastergiou, who is a teacher, tells me about the trips he has taken.

“So far I have visited places that have a historical connection to Greece – Istanbul, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and now Albania. I had so many prejudices before I came, just like most of us, that the Albanians are criminals and uncivilized, but it’s not true. I believe that people everywhere are the same – it is the cultural conditions and living standards that are different. Unfortunately, we Greeks have grown up with the idea that we are the center of the world, and that everyone else is beneath us.”

At Gjirokastr, Albania’s bastion of Orthodoxy and Hellenism and protected by UNESCO as a cultural heritage monument, we expected to see plenty of ethnic Greeks. The town has the largest Greek state school and the only Greek state senior high school; the university has a Greek language and literature faculty. However, that particular day we didn’t come across a single Greek speaker.

Andreas, a cardiologist, and his teacher wife Mimi have both traveled a great deal and chose northern Epirus because Andreas’s family originates from there.

“My parents are from a village near Gjirokastr, but were never able to go back to visit. It moves me to think that they once lived in these parts. The stories they told made me want to come here; many of my relatives suffered here,” he said sadly. His wife added: “I came here to see where my husband’s family came from. Then there is the history that I teach my pupils. Now I have seen the places I tell them about.”

The monument to Greek war heroes in the village of Vouliarates is locked, but Anastasis jumped nimbly over the railing, despite his 71 years, and opened the gate from the inside. He told us: “When Churchill spoke about the battles fought by Greek soldiers in these mountains, he said ‘From now on we won’t say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.’”

This article appeared in the August 19 edition of Kathimerini’s supplement, K.