My Long-Time, Long-Distance Love Affair: Where the heck is Albania?

When Xeny told me he was from Albania, I was like, "Nice one! But actually, where are you from?" . . . Awkward.

For those of you who don't know (ie: anyone who isn't a geographer or doesn't happen to know someone from there) Albania is a coastal country on the Adriatic sea. You know what else is on the Adriatic sea? Greece and Italy! Albania is basically right between those two, except Italy is across the sea. But barely. My man told me that once a man and his dog swam across the sea to Italy to escape communist reign.

Oh yeah P.S. - They used to be a communist country. It was abolished in 1990, so before my fiancee was born. But his parents were raised in a communist era! My mind is just completely blown by that. Unfortunately the language barrier between us is pretty huge, I only know around 150 words in Albanian and they only know how to say "goodnight" and "cheese" ... but his dad thinks cheese is the word for cheers so I don't know if that counts. So I can't really ask them what it was like, and I don't know if they want to discuss it any ways.

Well communist history, rampant firearm manufacturing and blood feuding aside, Albania is a beautiful country! (I kid, I don't know if that's as much of an issue as people make it out to be). In all seriousness Albania is a gorgeous country with really diverse scenery: it's mountainous, it's coastal, there are farms, villages, and the capital city has over 1 million citizens. Another difference between Albania and other European countries is how cheap everything is! You can buy a kilogram of tomatoes for $1! I don't know why you would want to, but you can. Naturally, this is a reflection of how poor the country is. There is a lot of poverty that was hard for me to see, coming from such a rich and fortunate country. But it's okay. We need to see those things. I needed to see those things. And as tourism goes, I recommend it! Check out these beautiful pictures I took the last time I was there.