After a long and refreshing night, I start at 9.45 and
will see where it ends. I will not make it a long and tiresome day, because I
still need to recover from yesterday and the days before.
At around two I arrive at Pukë. The forecasted rain is
a little later and I arrive relatively dry at the hotel in the center. They ask
a high prize and don’t seem particularly interested in me. Before I went in, a
man in a small shop called out “Can I help you”. A first, I ignored this, but
now I go back and realize he speaks good English. I ask him if there is an
alternative for the Hotel. ‘Yes sure’, he answers. He knows a guesthouse, that
he will call and ask for the prize and availability. A typical scene enrolls.
He tries to reach them with his mobile. But apparently the phone-number of the
place has changed. After some shouting over the square, another man walks up
over to us. He greets me in English and it appears he worked two years in the
UK and is now driving a taxi. He therefore has the correct telephone number. A
call is made, a bed is available and I decide to go for it. A young man in a
Landrover appears and waves to me to follow him. In less than a kilometer I
arrive at ‘Hani’, a wonderful pension or guesthouse. However, it’s nowhere to
be found via the Internet, besides a Facebook page. They have WIFI but no web
page, which really is a pity, because they could attract many more tourists.
You can make great hikes here, winter sports are also possible and trips by
mini buses to other places of interest can be organized.
At 4, I eat the local bean soup, a salad and a bowl of
rice. At seven I visit the downstairs’ restaurant again and meet with a
hydroelectric engineer, fluent in English, 29 and married with a young child.
He is an exception here, because he does neither smoke, nor drink. He also
tells me that in Albania some years ago, even before France did, that forbids
smoking in public places, restaurants and bars and is not allowed on the
work-floor. But nowhere this law is respected or enforced. According to him
this was just to make a good impression in Brussels.
 |
| Hani guesthouse |
We exchange many thoughts, for instance about the
development of this society, the need for a strong leadership and living with
and caring for one’s parents. He reveals that Albania with around 3 million
people – one million in Tirana – has many treasures. One is the abundance of
water and the ability and need to increase the hydroelectric production.
However, the relatively strong connection with the economies of Greece and
Italy, are not in favor of current developments in Albania. A loan at the bank
is almost impossible.
About strong leadership, he as a manager knows from
experience, that people almost expect this. You can’t learn democracy by
pushing a button. This reminds me of the other discussion with the army major
some days ago, who was asking me if the politicians in The Netherlands were
very rich. Asking this, revealed his thoughts: “They must be’, because
‘Hollanda’ is looked up to. When I tell him ‘No, if you want to become rich in
the Netherlands, you’d better not become a politician, he laughs, obviously
with unbelief. Nepotism in Albania is a widely spread disease!
I believe that the twinning relationships, many cities
in Western Europe built up in the former Central European states, were and are
a superb vehicle to work on city and community level. They belong to a
set of the strongest methods, next to supporting the NGO-community and
independent journalism and student exchange, to bringing the awareness of
democracy in all its ‘ins and outs’. After this trip that gave me a sniff of the
Balkan states, I am quite convinced that a revival of this policy, EU-wide,
could be of great assistance to unite our European worlds. It’s pitiful that so
many Dutch cities have chosen to make deep cuts in these relative strong and
cost efficient and promising relationships.
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