Mirupafshim (Farewell) Elbasan

Next Thursday is the ceremony for completion of Pre-Service Training. The US ambassador to Albania is attending and the host families are invited. It is being held at the Skampa Theater, just outside the castle wall in Elbasan. I hope it is air conditioned because it has become incredibly hot and humid in the past 2 weeks, and, of course, it is scheduled for mid day and I am supposed to wear a suit.

Elbasan is not known as a tourist destination and, in fact, is the butt of much Albanian humor (eg. “How many Elbasani does it take to change a furgon tire?”). However, I have not met better, harder working, more honest and generous people. I plan to return to visit my host family later this summer or early autumn.

Yesterday, I took a break from studying to visit the ethnographic museum in Elbasan. It is housed in a two hundred year old Ottoman house and shows the crafts of the many guilds that were in Elbasan at that time. Wool production and weaving, silk and felt production, wood carving, pottery, tobacco and pipe making, gun, copper and silver-smithing were all active in Elbasan and the exhibits at the museum were instructive. The house itself has a sturdy elegance that even though it is in need of some restoration gives a sense of the rich life of the middle class of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.

Nearby are the castle wall and the clock tower. The wide cobbled street to the west is closed to traffic and is popular for the early evening “xhiro” (pronounced “geerow”), a slow promenade of the citizenry for socialization and a bit of exercise as the heat of the day gives way to the cooler Mediterranean evening. The Skampa Theater is at the south end of the street, a modern building which houses a hotel and an auditorium that shows intermittent movies, plays and travelling productions.

Inside the castle walls, which are more than a ½ mile square, are numerous buildings, including churches, a mosque, homes, schools, businesses. There are also ruins that go back to Roman times. There is an elegant restaurant, the Real Skampa. It is set on a tiered deck that overlooks a grass courtyard and a small amphitheater. This space is popular for weddings and is used by some of the local schools for class productions of songs and dances in traditional dress and dramatic readings of Albanian poetry. I had the chance to see some of the younger children, who were especially entertaining. It reminded me of my own grammar school pageants long ago.

Albania, in general, is a hiker’s paradise. The hills and mountains have myriad dirt roads and paths that lead to incredible vistas and small villages. Most of the “traffic” on them is cows or sheep being walked to pasture or the occasional donkey cart. One of the prior volunteers is working on a “Bunker to Bunker” trail project of hikes between the some 750,000 concrete bunkers that dot the countryside (constructed under the 40 year communist dictatorship to protect from foreign invaders). I walk up behind Thane most evenings. It’s hard to imaging better hiking than in the hills around Elbasan. Volunteers at other sites in the area all say the same.

About 10 miles outside of Elbasan on a road that turns off from the road to Thane is the village of Llixha (pronounced “leejah”). There are regular buses from the center of Elbasan. They are clearly marked LLIXHA on the sides and the ride cost about 50 cents. “Llixha” is Albanian for “spa”. The town smells mildly of sulfur from the hot springs. There are several hotels along the creek that will rent rooms with small soaking pools. I was told there were natural pools further up the creek. I hiked up a ways but my curiosity dissipated in the heat of the day. For those of you familiar with Idaho’s hot springs, it’s not as fancy Lava but it’s not as dilapidated as Murphy. They are working on the town, paving streets and putting in colored concrete paver sidewalks. It has potential. Some of the hotels have gardens and I sat on a bench among the roses and ate my lunch of fresh olive bread and fruit that I had bought in Elbasan. I looked across the creek to the rolling, orchard covered hills and the mountains beyond that still have a bit of snow on the summits.

That’s my short tourist guide to Elbasan. I am sure there is more; however I have been kind of occupied during my 10 weeks here. If you’re not the type that is enamored of disco bars and hotels on the beach, Elbasan has something to offer. It’s not the typical buffed up European tourist destination, but it has an honest, exotic feel that I appreciate. It may be a bit tattered, frayed around the edges and a little worse for the wear, but if those were reasons not to like something, I wouldn’t have any friends.