Albania has been one of my favorite countries so far! We were in a beautiful village doing awesome ministry and getting to know some amazing people that I continue to keep in touch with! The crazy thing is that I knew almost nothing about Albania before I came. So, if you’re in the same bot, here are a few things you should know about Albania:
- The Albanian culture is VERY male-dominated. It was so weird to go from Asia, where everyone works so hard all day, to Albania, where women work in their homes and gardens or going grocery shopping, and men spend literally ALL day at coffee shops. We’re not entirely sure how they even make money… Men don’t usually talk to women without another male present, and it’s uncommon to see women relaxing during the day because they’re always taking care of their homes. We stuck out like sure thumbs when we went to coffee shops during the day because it was just us and a whole bunch of men.
- Albania is a predominately Muslim country. We LOVED meeting and ministering to the Muslim community. It was different in many ways though. Ministering to these people really requires a relationship, rather than just a quick conversation. Because of this, I now have very dear Muslim friends, and I got to learn to evangelize in a totally different way.
- Albanian villages are beautiful. We did not expect this! We lived in a small village just outside of Tirana on a beautiful hillside with mountains and hills as our view from the house we lived in. So far, it’s been the most beautiful ministry site we’ve been to.
- You’ll never run out of coffee. Coffee is so part of the Eastern European culture. Men spend hours and hours at the coffee shops talking. They usually don’t have menu’s so just order something normal, like an espresso or cappuccino. You won’t find a whole lot of variety.
- Drink salep! Salep is this delicious thick drink that is sweet and healthy! It’s actually made from a root (which, I realize, doesn’t make it sound delicious) and it has cinnamon in it. It’s just so so so good.
- Get a bus pass for the whole month. You’ll save lots of money doing this!
- Along with #6, get used to public transportation! If you’re in or near Tirana (most of our teams were) you’ll use the public bus a lot. We took a 30 minute bus ride to and from the school we did ministry at every morning. We also took it from Farkë into Tirana on all of our off days.
- Get your baklava here! There’s some GOOD baklava here. On our last day, one of our students moms brought us homemade baklava, and it was awesome!
- If you ever want to do a coffee crawl, Tirana is the place to be! Our team did a coffee crawl for a team time where each person picked a coffee shop and bought one or two drinks for us all to share. I believe the Albanian coffee chain Mulliri Vjeter was our personal favorite.
- Check out the Stephen Center in Tirana. It’s a cafe/bed and breakfast/book store that’s owned by missionaries. If you need a little American style food, this is the place to go. They even have apple pie!
- Albanians kiss cheeks as a greeting. Get ready to do a whole lot of double cheek kissing! They’ll usually throw their arm around your neck and kiss each cheek, starting with the right cheek.
- Try suflaqe! Suflaqe is pronounced “soo-flaw-chuh” and it’s like a gyro type thing with fries in it. It’s so good!
- Bakeries are open 24 hours. Because you never know when you’ll need a fresh loaf of bread at 3am.
- While you’re at the bakery, grab a Nutella croissant. You won’t regret it.
- Other great European foods here include: Crepes, gelato, suflaqe, burek and doner.
- Albanians LOVE George W. Bush. They even have streets named after him and a statue of him. Apparently he helped them out a lot in the war, which I did not know. So I was a little surprised one morning when I realized we were driving on George W. Bush Street!
