Albania: Dirty and cheap, just like I like 'em

I wanted to share a few pictures and thoughts from my last trip to my favorite corner of Europe (the Balkans).

I've been wanting to go to Albania ever since I discovered a little about its history, including:

• The economy and government were felled by a Ponzi Scheme in the late 90s.


• It has a set of laws called the Kanun that include honor killings which, if followed, would leave no male of either warring family alive.


• The previous dictator (Hoxha) was friends with Stalin and decided in a moment of clarity that Stalin was kind of crazy, so he cut trade relations with the USSR in favor of China. That didn't work out, leaving mineral-rich Albania cut off from the world. Fearing that some Army might invade to get to the minerals and land, Hoxha had bomb-proof bunkers put up throughout the entire country, even on the beaches. Here's a picture of a few.
  

Generally, it was a good trip that illuminated to me how rich Westerners really are and how infrequently we realize it. Here's the basketball "court" at one of the schools we're renovating. (This is pre-renovation, in case you couldn't tell)

Here are a few novel insights I had while there. It was poor but oddly filled with Mercedeses (is that the right plural?).

It had mountains, but only small, round ones that from a plane probably look like very large, green bubble wrap.

It had a very industrialized and modern capital (as seen in picture above), but incredibly, incredibly poor hinterlands. Here are the roads we drove on.

More (work-related) pictures here: www.flickr.com/europedistrict