Well, we all saw it. Bush finally elevated to rock star status...Unabashed support for Albanian Kosovar's right for independence despite Russia and the UN Security Councils' potential veto of this mandate (how did I get myself to a place again at the center of the world stage) ...1 stolen watch. Not to mention over $1million USD in Bush tourism generated by his visit, a spotless city (for the first time in history) and more red white and blue then I see in the US.
Well behind this mainstreet stage in the capital city of Tirana, there is a land, a culture and a people that are poorer than Kosovars in many respect but have some of the most generous hospitality I have ever experienced. Apparently an Albanian joke sums it up best when a man to be executed was asked if this exact moment was the worse in his life. He said not by a long shot, every man must die but when I had guests enter my home and I had no food to offer them, that was the worse. Almost without exception upon arrival at our business meetings we were forced to drink something refreshing and on many occasions that were anywhere around meal time, we we taken out to some very nice places by complete strangers and entertained for several hours without any possibility that we could pay for it. Amazingly, we DID talk about business and DID get deals done with our newfound brothers. I am starting to get the hang of how this laid back style actually may work and creates bonds more trusting than any paper contract (are not enforceable in these parts).
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Which leads me to why I was in Albania (and Montenegro) in the first place. Yes, I constructed a 2 week roadtrip with one of my Kosovar staff to visit over 9 cities and conduct 50 meetings to try and sell some of our Kosovar clients products in these new markets. I can now say that I have been a door to door salesman. We had a van full of products from cheese to wood flooring to processed meat to a large, heavy kitchen cart we produced with a local manufacturer to sell to Home Depot. I was the perfect balance between productive and mostly optimistic business calls and some basic site seeing. See, the best part about it was that we were a week before the real summer holiday season which brings ALL the regional tourists to these holiday locations. And we were mostly targeting these resort towns with all sales calls since we were actually targeting stores to sell Kosovar dairy, F&V and even construction equipment to all the Kosovars that spend their summers there (and beyond). So yes, I was able to see the sea from most of my hotel balconies. Yes, we stayed at the almost non-existent nicer business hotels and yes our nice meals (which got very repetitive with the very bland Albanian cuisine) only cost pennies.
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So, the journey began with a lightning speed trip from Pristina to Lake Ohkrid in Macedonia. Without traffic and a smooth border crossing (a miracle since we had a ton of product samples in the truck) it only took over 3 hours verses the usual 5. Just in enough time to grab our first of many waterside beer lunches as the heat soared to the average 90F temperature that we experienced throughout the two weeks (an apparent heat wave out here). With some extra time to kill we took the long scenic route around the lake before crossing the primative border station to be greeted with open arms: my Albanian Kosovar colleague seen as brother of independence and Albanian ideals whereas I an American from the only international nation to give a damn and actually come to visit them (their statement). Mire se vini.
I had been warned by many about the roads and the underdeveloped infrastructure (even compared to Kosovo). And yes, they were pretty bad in certain stretches but with the help of our large Nissan 4x4 and some massive development projects underway, we seemed to make it around the country without too much problem. It has only been 4 years since they place has begun to be rebuild after one of the worst, most exploitative communist dictatorships. The paranoia became immediate apparent as soon as we crossed the border to see a concrete patrol bunker almost every 100 meters, around the entire shoreline, and mountain crossings. Apparently 500,000 liter the countryside and are now used most creatively as feed sheds, flower pots and demolition practice sites. Additionally, at least 1 castle sits perched atop every city. Most of these have been restored but a large number still sit as historical testaments to a land with a deep and troubled history of conquest and destruction.
Our first stop was in beautiful Lake Ohkrid in Macedonia where for the second time I have now only been there for a lunch. I promise myself I will return for a weekend of playing in the water and enjoying a very hip nightlife. We'll see. But for the moment we had a picture perfect fresh fish lunch, beer to wash it down and then continued on to make our first series of meetings in one of Albania's industrial town, Elbisan. The old communist influence is everywhere and the same relative lack of city planning that Kosovo has. Difference is the communists just did it much bigger and uglier. So our first meeting of the trip was with a business association and several influential traders, who of course are know by all in the town as I discovered in our post discussion walk getting a brief tour of the old fort which has been converted into a fantastic outdoor cafe where we had an evening drink. Several elders on the street greeted our entourage and as soon as they knew I was American I hear 'Bush' and then get a big hug. Tell me where else on the planet those two events would happen simultaneously. This was my first taste of a semi productive business encounter showed by overwhelming hospitality.
Still with enough daylight left we bounced down a relatively old road to make it to the infamous Kosovar resort town of Durres, right on the ocean and the closest Albanian beach to Kosovo. For the entire months of July and August it will be packed with approx. 200,000 Kosovars coming there with their entire family, neighbors, pets and kitchen. They will rent a place for 2 weeks and cook most the meals in the apt. but spend the days sandwiched next to friends on the not so impressive beaches but it is water, and sand and not Kosovo. The amazing thing for us was just over a week before the 'season' 95% of the hotels were still closed and solid black. No one was out eating at night even though we did see many people out on the beach during the day. Our hotel was fine but realized that the pool of the hotel was not the hotels so you had to pay to sit there. They charge for everything here even though it never amounts to much. So I was not too impressed and with 35 C heat it made our hoping around to about 8 meetings in 2 days quite exhausting. Poor me right. Beach, sun, sea air and all for work.
Our evenings were pretty low key mostly centered around finding a descent place to eat (not too impressed with Albanian food) but we did have occasion to attend a B2B trade fair sponsored by one of our sister projects in Albania. Unlike our beautiful Grand Pristina, hotel they had to suffer coordinating theirs at a 4 star hotel with all the booths located outside with the ocean in the background and an overzealous DJ cranking out some dance tunes. I enjoyed the free meat and wine samples from the local producers.
Our next hit was Vlores, what should have been a 2 our drive was more like 4 due to road conditions (people don't indicate travel distance in km's but rather in time). We had a wonderful mid day break of meetings in an industrial town called Fier where the local business chamber took us out to lunch at a fish pond to have drinks and several hours of lively conversation and appeared to have closed a potential construction deal. Vlores is an awesome city that you descend into from a neighboring mountain to see the city sprawled out in front of the sea with several large islands off the coast and an old huge castle hulking far atop the city. Much less commercialized than the beaches of Durres and more reasonably sized hotels along the beach. Our hotel was brand new and wonderful. Lucky we were never able to sleep in at any place since every stay had construction on the building or right next to it. I was able to get in my first post workday run just to break up the pattern of eating drinking driving meeting driving drinking eating.
The Balkan business world is fueled by coffee. Unlike anywhere I have been even the meal deals are completed till everyone orders a machiotto (te vogel--baby small version for me). Not being a caffeine drinker this has been particularly challenging. But I have gotten more used to small doses of this. But when you have 4-5 meetings a day it is easy to become so jacked up your not sure what is going on. Decaf, yea right. Doesn't exist here...
Next couple days were spent even further south in a town called Vlores. Also a beach resort town popular with Kosovars but not as large or chaotic as Durres. Our hotel was brand new (floor below ours did not have any walls so you could see through the hotel. But it was very nice and afforded a good view of the harbor and distant beeches. Did a wonderfully rewarding beachside run that night before we did a sunset drive up the mountain to wander about the ruins of an old castle and chat with some shepards. Incredible views, wonderful lighting and so peaceful. It is at this point I must not the incredibly annoying talent my colleague Musli has. He is a 54 year old politician from the 2nd largest city in Kosovo. His family name is well known and quite large. If he does not know a person he knows someone in the family or by some other connection. He will also talk to absolutely everyone, all the time. Taxi driver, old men on the side of the road, shepards. He starts telling his story (Kosovo, the war, etc) which is all great but I guess after the 100th time it gets kind of annoying. But that is my baggage, not his.
Meetings again all went well, hot and dusty but productive. On our way heading out of town and back north on some of the more windy roads, we decided we had time to visited the city of windows, Betch, with another large white-walled castle overseeing the village below. Right on a large river and beautifully fertile valleys we wandered about in the heat of the day while all others closed up shop and slept to avoid the sun. Now why didn't we think of that? Again, a lovely walk through history and another moment that I realized how lucky I am. On the final long-haul drive to make it to a cattle producer meeting outside Tirana before nightfall, I was flagged down by a local police so they could inspect the car, check our papers since we had obvious Kosovo plates. As he walked up to say hello, looked at me and said, Italiano?, I said no, American. He smiled said we love George Bush and waved me on. Thanks George.
So, the cattle meeting. 250 cows eating and shitting in two huge sheds. We were trying to sell him a new kind of feed for the cows. He showed us around the place and described all his expansion plans. Obvioulsy some good money to be made in milk since he was dressed well with a lot of gold, drove a brand new Range Rover, and stopped three times on the dusty road as we headed to and from the ranch for his cousin to jump out, reach in the hatchback and pull out a fistfull of cash to hand to local villagers, truck driver and others I believe who worked for him. Nice way to have pay day...I can only imagine what kind of guns were in the tinted car to make sure the cash didn't leave unwillingly.
Tirana was great! Despite for the fact that it was spotless, it was full of parks, fountains, large streets, beautiful old communist (french influence) government buildings, statues and some beautiful traditional communist style Albanian murals. The night life was full of the 'catwalks' but very modern bars and restaurants to waste your day and evenings away. The city has the most beautiful sewage canal I have ever seen running thought the middle of it as each side is laid with lush green grass and the water somehow doesn't really smell nor have that sludge brown tint to it.
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It was HOT though with terrible traffic and the most aggressive Rhoma I have every seen basically attacking you if you didn't give them money. I was introduced on-line by a friend of mine in Kosovo to her old buddy in Tirana. So we met up with him and his friends and had a nice night on the town. Ended up partying at a very large outdoor club called 'Mummy' which was on the side of the old rulers tomb turned into convention center featured in my top photo with Bush's photo and the American flag. All rather ironic eh? I also ran into the Kosovo Prime Minister and his entire security detail that were apparently staying at our hotel. We chatted a bit and he was very happy to see USAID out in the field actually promoting export trade for Kosovo. I bet he didn't even know any companies exported...
I also enjoyed a lovely Chinese meal with a T-bird (my graduate school) whom I had never met. Just looked up on-line to see if anyone lived there and he popped up. Very interesting guy working in microfinance and we had a great laugh about all the infastructure basics that even Tirana misses. Power, internet, access to safe meat and dairy. Ironic that some things in Kosovo (such as internet, supermarkets, computers) are more advanced than that of a capital city 4 times its size (well ok 50 years of communism kind of fucked things up...)
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Our hotel was 5 minutes from the central park and a manmade lake which was so perfect for me to rest on for our one day off by the water reading, listening to tunes, and then going for a nice run. Aside from walking like an old man afterwards it was good to stimulate the heart a bit since I am off from yoga due to the arm...
Our last town in Albaian was on the north side called Skoder which lays by a beautiful lake and a river that flow through the rest of the country. The city seemed rather low key and uneventful but again had the streets for your evening walk and tons of cafes to waste your hours away. Our multi million dollar hotel had some issues that I noted before but it stood out like a soar thumb. All glass and steel in an old traditional brick and red roof kind of town. Of course it had the tolken castle we went up to and then spent several hours driving around part of the lake on a nice single paved road that ended in a tiny village with a mosque. We couldn't leave the area without feasting on some of the best fish I have ever had right on the water. Also made a close friend with the local dog. Man, I would love to have one of them...Just wish they traveled better. Oh yea, from the photo of the modern road equipment you see below, now you understand why it will take them quite awhile to develop their road systems.
Ok, yes we did work. Had some productive meetings the best being a meat processor who proceeded to takeus to an old historic Albanian homestyle place where all the tourist must come to experience the local cuisine. And raki, of which we did both. Quite hot but had the mixed grill which was carried direct from the fire to our plate. And as usual we were not able to pay for ourselves again. At some point I think we'll have alot of visitors in Kosovo who we need to repay favors to.
Montenegro: The land of pebble beaches and killer mountains
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Crossing the border was a rather seamless process since we were just continuing up the coast, but immediately one could notice the difference in infastructure and the fact we were entering Tito's old empire and leaving the Albanians behind. Ironic that I was still able to continue with the Albanian though. The next major town for our meetings and 1 night stay was the beautiful town of Ulchin, 98% Albanian. I the city had its very own 2 km beach downtown which I enjoyed for a couple hours after a hot day of meeting but it is now for a 15 km stretch of the last beautiful sandy beaches before they turn to pebble. Hugely popular with the Kosovors as well so we were warmly received and treated to some more nice meals and productive meetings. This town had the best castle I had seen and has been completely restored with cafes and overpriced seafood places for the tourists (See Old Man Entry for my dinner encounter). I also realized that the service and attention we got throughout this trip was for the most part excellent. Keeping in mind that we were 'pre-season'. After the next 2 months if we did this trip most places would be completely dirty and the staff would most likely spit in our face if we asked for anything out of the ordinary.
From the wonderful place we finally headed inland for our last city visit of the trip in the capital of this newly formed country, Podgorica. I have driven from what used to be known at Titograd and though it was a sad excuse for a capital with all the old rundown communist apartment blocks and dusty poor streets with stray dogs everywhere. Apparently this is the outside of the city that all the traffic bypasses the more historic and beautiful areas of the old town, where we stayed. Catwalks here to the nth degree but nice quiet streets. Hustle and bustle of a bigger town but still with charm. I went for a run in the city to discover a beautiful cannon type river run through the city with some kayakers below. I started to miss Rock Creek Park which cuts through Washington DC with a small creek but tons of trees, paths and a great place to get away (ok so this wasn't that developed). Our couldn't stop laughing at the size of the business suite I was given with two huge rooms, all pink but affording me a nice reward for the several weeks on the road.
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Before parting the central region on our last afternoon when the meetings were finished we head a couple hours north of the capital to check out the picture perfect monestary carved into the mountainside. We were able to drive up to the base of it which in itself was a feat. Upon arrival we realized that our shorts would not allow us access to this holy place. Darn. Well, we drive back still in high spirit where I treated Musli to a final celebration dinner and bottle of local wine at a homestyle restaurant again on another pond with our own little treehouse deck looking over the fishes. I have learned by now that if you really want to eat well in this region your best bet to find the better eating establishments is in the countryside usually on the main roads since the locals love to get out of the city for a long peaceful family dinner...kind of their mini vacations.
With business meetings wrapped up by Friday I had decided in advance to let my colleague head back to Pristina while I bused to the coast to enjoy a nice holiday weekend in Budva, where I was some 8 months back. Much different now since it was full on into season with tons of people, music, drinks and packed beaches for all the families. Tons of games for the kids and food everywhere. Quite an expensive place for most locals but it has a walled fortress old town like almost all coastal towns in Montenegro.
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Unfortunately my plans didn't come together as expected. Two hours after arrival a stomach bug hit me from our celebration dinner which kept me in close proximatey to the toilet for most the weekend. In a town where all people do is lay in the sun, eat and drink, I wanted none of that. Luckily on Sat night I was feeling a bit better to just go to on of the famous outdoor beach clubs and dance away with the 21 year olds for about half hour (you could hear the booming base beat from where I was staying till late into the night. Which by the way was an interesting arrangement. Most locals rent out rooms to the thousands of tourist so it is much better deal than the hotels. The first well located house I saw with a Sobe sign (room) I approached the nice lady to inquire. She said she was full. Then asked for how many, I said me, she said she has a study with a bed and nice balcony if I want. 10 euro/night? Done deal. Other rooms in the other houses in that location were 60 euros. Not only did she love to chat with me but I had a shared kitchen with several nice older Serbian women and we sat several times on my (communal) balcony having a tea just trying to hide from the sun. Also was very unusual that the only dity she had ever visited in the sates was my home town, St. Louis. Her daughter had studied there. She love the midwest and thought we were just the nicest people.
So another random occurance was on the Sat night I was walking the ocean strip and ran into 2 of my yoga students from Kosovo. We chatted and they invited me to join them for dinner which was wonderful. They also told me the UN bus (weekend trips) was also there and low and behold ran into several others I knew as the evening progressed. BUT, the key issue about the bus was it was leaving the next day at 2:30 direct to Pristina arriving by 10pm. Verses my 6pm bus to Podgorica, wait, and an overnight bus arriving at 5am (with people smoking on it). So I had to get on this thing. Next day I arrived at the hotel with luggage in hand to beg my way on the bus. But NO. UN protocal requires me to get pre-authorization since I was not UN. They said I could try and call home office and have them fax approval, but was a no go. So, as I held my head low and wondered what to do for the next 4 hours waiting for a very long and painful night of travel with still a bad stomach, I has one last thought as the bus started to pull away. I had noticed another UN car driving around the city that morning and knew it had to drive back to Pristina. So I stopped the bus to ask the organizer if he know this person. He said yes and was about to give me his cell phone number when the guys boss stepped off the bus and said, 'There is a time for protocall and there is a time for being reasonable.' He said if I had wrote this entire insurance waiver, the two of them would sign to witness and autorize my travel. YES. I hoped on the bus, sat next to my friend, wrote out the form and cruised all the way home in the comfort of a non-smoking AC bus with movie. Oh, and no border wait since it is run by the UN.
What a perfect way to end a perfect two weeks exploring the last remaining countries that I had not yet toured in the Balkans (and to have 15 potential export contracts). I believe now my passport looks like a novel and I have officially passed the 70 country mark...
