From Tirana we headed south down to Dhermi which itself was not as we were hoping but as so often happens the journey is so much more fun the destination. Going down from Tirana we caught more buses and met so many lovely people. Albania has definitely won the prize for most welcoming and lovely people in Eastern Europe. This is against some pretty close competition from Montenegro and Slovenia but Albania has it.
When we got the first mini bus we met lots of people keen to help us on our journey and know all about where we were from and what we were doing. This was often challenged by a lack of a common language but this small obstacle was nearly always resolved with inventive sign language, phrase books and reference to a few known words of either Italian, French or German. The international language of Football remains strong with the only form of communication available with one guy being him reciting all the premiership football results and telling me of his love of the “Minchester Yooonited” (please apply comedy Eastern European access liberally).
From this minibus we then met another Albanian, Idy, who had been studying in Florida. He gave us lots of insight into Albanian life and told us about where we could get a cheap Mercedes. Apparently Germany has the same system as the UK for scrapping old cars to stimulate new car sales. The Albanians have seen this as a good opportunity though and through various connections the cars are sent down to Albania with new papers rather than being scrapped. So if anyone fancies a good second hand Merc this is apparently the place to go.
He also told us all about Albania’s most famous author Ismail Kadare and recommended some of his books which were often well disguised political satire directed at the Communist dictator Hoxha who ruled Albania. Apparently he let the writer carry on writing them as the translated copies of the books sold into foreign countries made him so much money he wanted to keep them going. Idy also recommended the very best of Albanian food for us to try in the region we were heading towards. This list included:
- Pace – cows head soup usually eaten for breakfast, much better than Special K
- Pilaf me kos – yogurt and rice
- Pasqebap me pilaf – beef soup with rice
- Kukurec – lambs or goat kids stomach and internal organs worked into a long rope with the intestines and then steamed or roasted
- Koke keci ose qengji – lamb or goat kid head spit roasted and halved so you can eat the brain which he described as being like a firm yogurt.
We then changed coaches again and were looked after by more Albanian people who literally showed us from bus to bus and helped us to find banks and food and everything we needed. On this bus we met an Albanian guy who lived in Bath, UK. He was great company and helped me improve my basic Albanian of please, thank you, hello etc.
As the bus stopped up in the mountains I shared our list of local delicacies with him and his sister and they agreed wholeheartedly and after buying him a beer he then disappeared off from the bar and invited us to try the goat kids head. We gratefully and somewhat hesitantly agreed and went over to the spit roast to see our lovely goat brain being prepared. The goat’s brain was indeed much like a firm yogurt consistency and didn’t taste too bad. I don’t think it will ever be my favourite but it was OK. The tongue was a bit tough but better than the brain.
Enjoying spit roast goat brains
I was very impressed with Jo for trying it and the pictures tell the story of her reaction. Soon afterwards the bus was ready to go and we left after finishing the goat brains and tongue. As we went to board the bus again two large neckless shaved headed policemen started shouting at us. I was worried that they were annoyed at the goats head carnage we had left behind. It turned out they were sending us back to get the goats head as we had wasted so much of it. We then were given a lesson in goats head eating by the policemen much to the amusement of the other passengers and spent the rest of the journey chewing on large hunks of goats skull until we reached our destination.
Dhermi itself was a fairly basic resort with pizza restaurants and bars playing loud music and showing football matches. We didn’t head out and discover the other beaches nearby as the rooms were pretty expensive and we had foolishly forgotten our tents.
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