By Neda Zivanovic*
The first time I visited Albania was in summer 2015. I came to Tirana with my peers from Serbia and together with our peers from Albania we participated in the first youth exchange programme supported by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth from Albania and the Ministry of Youth and Sports from Serbia, as well as the OSCE missions to Albania and Serbia. To be quite honest, I didn’t know much about Albania and therefore I had no expectations before I came.
Since I came for work and not for tourism, I didn’t see much of the city itself, but met a lot of people. I remember thinking that we were really similar. At least, coming from Belgrade to Tirana didn’t feel exotic at all. On the contrary, it felt really comfortable and since I had no expectations, this was unexpected as well. I was intrigued by the city and the people and decided to pay Tirana another visit in the beginning of this year. This time, I came as a tourist. Moreover, I was a guest or ‘the guest.’ One can learn very quickly that people here take guests and the Albanian hospitality very seriously. I understand this concept well, since we do the same thing in Serbia.
However, I am not a guest in Serbia, so the perspective was quite different this time. Tirana is a small city, with less than half of million people, which doesn’t prevent it from being quite chaotic, especially when it comes to infrastructure and traffic. This might come as a mild shock, especially to people from Western countries where things work differently. However, soon you discover the charm of the city, because this chaos transforms into a unique vibe that you can feel in crowded restaurants and cafes and creates an amazing atmosphere. The density of places to have a nice drink or a tasty meal in this city shows that people from Tirana are real hedonists. If you like Italian food (and who doesn’t?!) Tirana is the place to be. You can find amazing fresh pasta and seafood here, but to be perfectly honest – you can find anything when it comes to food here and it is going to be superb. So, to conclude about the food (as difficult as that might be), trileà§e, a typical Albanian desert, is something that is one of my personal favorites and something that one should not miss out on.
Going back to the people and Albanian hospitality, I feel that people really appreciate any initiative to get to know Albanian culture and they are more than happy to introduce you to it. I’ve been staying for a while in Tirana now and I cannot seem to have a break from the dynamic and intensive social life here, which I enjoy very much. I am spending most of my time with the locals and we also discuss the tricky topics from time to time (such as the famous football match) and we are learning from each other, both being who we are and were before. That being possible and working in a very nice way makes me really happy and confident that this is the way to go for Serbia and Albania in the future. Also, there are certain ties that have already been established between these two countries that are not advertised to the public. Just this morning I saw that my favorite coffee place in Tirana uses Dukat milk that is being produced in Serbia. You can see many Serbian products in the supermarkets as well. Also, Serbian export to Albania in 2015 went over 110 million USD. Although it could be much bigger, economic ties between these two countries exist and this is very important. Or as James Carville put it for the successful presidential campaign of Bill Clinton in 1992 – It’s the economy stupid. Very simple.
Tourism is one of the things that is a great opportunity not only for the Albanian economy in general, but also for building the connections between the two countries. Coming from a continental country, I took advantage of my first weekend off from work in Tirana to visit Durres, so I could go to the beach. My Albanian friends said: you Serbs are crazy about the sea. And yes, yes we are. We don’t have one. And although nice, beach in Durres only comes after the beaches in the south, like in Sarande or Ksamil, where I spent a part of my summer holiday this year. We have an ironic saying in Serbian: developed as Albanian tourism (used for something that is not developed). When I saw the natural beauties of Albania, I understood why – there is much more potential than is actually being used and it is definitely underdeveloped. The same goes for natural beauties in Serbia (again, something that we have in common). Beautiful coastline at both the Adriatic and the Ionian Sea in Albania is much more affordable than in Montenegro or Greece, where many Serbian tourists usually spend their summer holiday. For those from Albania who enjoy skiing, going to Kopaonik in Serbia to enjoy its beautiful nature would be a perfect choice.
Not to avoid the elephant in the room, the nationalism issue is being raised quite often in the region, especially between Serbs and Albanians. I am who I am and someone else being something different doesn’t make me less of a person that I am. And vice versa. Once I heard an interesting point: being proud of your nationality is very similar to being proud of being born on Thursday, for example – you earned no credit for that. I agree, it is not an accomplishment. Being a good person is and it is about the people and the way they connect to each other. Eventually, it’s the people stupid and I sincerely hope that we will both be much smarter in the future.
(*Neda Zivanovic is on a fellowship as a researcher in Tirana with the Albanian Institute for International Studies (AIIS) as a part of a joint Center for Albania-Serbia Relations established by the European Movement Serbia and the AIIS).
