by Davidi
When I came to Albania for my pre-move trip in April, I stopped into a café to ask where a certain street was located. The waiter said he didn’t know, but that he would bring the manager to speak with me. The manager, who spoke English very well, looked at the piece of paper where I had written the street name and shook his head. “I don’t know where it might be,” he said. I left the café and immediately looked up at the street sign on the corner. I was standing on the street I was looking for. The Café was on that street!
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| Former Dictator Hoxha's House . . . the only address he needed |
Albanians don’t know their own addresses. (When Gina recently went into a dress shop asking for an address nearby, she asked them for their own shop’s address. No one knew). I guess this shouldn’t be shocking in light of the fact that streets were named only five years ago. For centuries, places have been referred to by local landmarks. Even today, when you ask for directions, no one mentions street names. For example, the Embassy provided me with a list of churches in Tirana. Here are some of the addresses:
“Near Restaurant Stela”
“Across from Iranian Embassy”
“A Villa behind the public television station”
They even use landmarks that changed years ago. I’m not sure how foreigners will know where “the old train station baggage room” is, but that’s what suffices for an address in Tirana.
Perhaps the strangest directions I have gotten are to the Ambassador's residence: "turn left where the bear is caged up." (I swear I am not making this up).
So, we have an apartment, and it is in a real building, but there is no address. Several Albanians have told us to merely refer to our address as “behind the glass front building.” Apparently, the glass front building is long gone. If you come to Albania, you'll find us there.
