Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Visiting Tirana: Your Local Guide to Albania's Capital City

Episode Date: July 14, 2019

Rachel Berryman owns Tirana Yoga, one of the most successful yoga studios in Albania. But she didn’t move here to become a business owner; Rachel, who is American, first came to this former Communist country with the Peace Corps.    On this episode, Rachel and I talk about the kind of volunteer work Rachel was doing and why she fell in love with Albania and its people. We also talk about the legacy of Albania’s Communist past, and, of course, about her favorite places to eat and the experiences you must have in Tirana, Albania. Plus, you’ll learn about day trips to the best nearby beaches and more.    If you’re a regular listener of the Postcard Academy, it would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to rate and/or review the show in Apple Podcasts. This helps other potential listeners know if the show is worth listening to :)   I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Did you know I host another show called Podcasting Step by Step? Check it out if you’ve been wanting to start a podcast. Every week, I break down ‘how to podcast’ with a little loving motivation to give you the skills and confidence you need to finally launch that show of your dreams.   Ready to travel? Get your free guide to cheap airfare.   Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insurance  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Mikital. And today I have the pleasure of talking to Rachel Berryman, an American who owns Tirana Yoga in Albania's capital city. Yoga was practically unheard of in Albania before Rachel helped expand this practice. But she first went to Albania as a Peace Corps volunteer. In this episode, we will talk about the kind of work that Rachel was doing and why she fell in love with Albania. and its people. And we'll also talk about the legacy of Albania's communist past. Of course, we will talk about Rachel's favorite places to eat and the experiences that you must have in Tirana, plus day trips to the best nearby beaches. But first, are you thinking about starting a podcast or do you know somebody who is? Tell them about podcasting step by step, my other podcast, where I teach you everything you need to know to become a world-class podcaster. On a quick note, there is one swear in this episode because the literal translation of an Albanian food that you should try when you're in Albania is a swear. I hope that doesn't offend you

too much. It's actually kind of funny. Now end of my conversation with Rachel. Welcome, Rachel. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. So you are an American living in Albania. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Virginia, about three hours from Washington, D.C. So how did you end up in Albania? So I actually came.

Most people assume that I came for a boyfriend, which is not true. I came actually for work in the beginning. So I started as a Peace Corps volunteer, which is a volunteer program through the American government. So I came and was assigned here. So I didn't really choose Albania. I was choosing and preferencing a region of the world and then was signed to come to Albania for two and a half years. So my first experience of Albania was actually not in Tirana in the capital. It was in a really small town in the north of Albania.

I would love to hear more about what made you decide to choose to join the Peace Corps. That's a long conversation. So at the time, this was about 11 years ago, I still had that strong desire to be abroad and to experience a different culture. So a lot of my initial interest in joining the Peace Corps was a lot around the cultural exchange. So just getting the experience to live in a different country to interact with people, to feel like I was a local rather than an expat. So that was my sort of driving force in the beginning and a little bit the development side and skills development side as well. And what were you doing exactly in that town? So I was officially, I guess, placed with the municipality. So I was working at what would be comparable to the city hall. And that was not where most of my work was and actually happened.

I was also working with women's NGO that was focused on a little bit of skills. skills training. So it was a vocational school also for for children that lived in rural areas in the countryside that couldn't maybe afford to go to the public schools because they couldn't afford to buy the books. So they would come to the school and they would learn cooking and sewing skills. And then we were also creating events for women in the community, more topic focused or themed around health, social issues and such. Yeah, I think a lot of Americans don't know. know, and I was the same until recently when I visited Albania. A lot of Americans don't know that Albania was actually under communism for quite a few decades.

And so it's just a country that's undergoing so much transition over the last 20 or 30 years. Could you, for people who don't know the history of Albania, could you talk a little bit about the recent history and who Enver Hojo was? Yes. So Albania under communism, they were aligned a little bit in the beginning, very shortly with the USSR at the time. Then that was not an extreme enough form of communism. And then they were aligned with China for a little bit of time. And then that was also not a hardline enough communism for them. So eventually they broke off most ties in the 60s. So you still saw a little bit of Chinese influence some of the infrastructure. that you still see now is still from the Chinese ties that they had under communism. But eventually they isolated themselves. So they closed their borders. I mean, at the time, they were right next to Yugoslavia, what was Yugoslavia? And so they closed the borders to Albania and basically became an isolated independent state. Obviously, under that, there were imports, exports that were happening within the Communist Party. But the borders were closed. And so people

really had no idea what was going on outside. And up until 91, eventually when communism fell, and then development happened really quite quickly. But it was a very, very poor country when they came out of communism, unlike quite a few of the other countries that were in southeastern Europe and were able to maybe recover a little bit easier from the communist regime. And communism fell around 90-91? Yes. So a little bit later, sort of with a little bit later than the rest of Eastern Europe, mostly initiated by student movements, actually. But yeah, 91 was officially when it ended.

At that time, Inverhoja had already died, but it was still, Communist Party was still intact. I was told from my host family when I lived with a family here, that at least in smaller villages in the countryside that, They didn't believe it, that they didn't believe it had happened. They were getting news and information on the radio. And they didn't believe that, you know, they could take down the picture of Inverhoja from their wall because they thought it was a test to see if they were still aligned with the Communist Party. So many people sort of fled immediately right away to Greece to Italy after the fall of communism.

And that was the first initial wave of immigration out of Albania. and then has more or less continued since that time. Yeah, so I spent some time in Tirana and went to the Propaganda Museum. And I saw a painting that had a little bit of a Picasso influence because I guess most people were not allowed to leave the country, but somehow to leave for work. And this artist, I guess, must have seen a Picasso and came back and created a painting. of Albania, but with some Picasso influences, and whoever the authorities were deemed it too pessimistic. And he was put in jail for 22 years for painting something that they just said, you know, that's not, that's not to our liking. And just shocking at how brutal it was.

And as you said, they were like, you know what? Soviet Union, you're not communist enough. I just found that shocking. And I also, I also would have assumed that the Soviet Union forced communism on them. I didn't realize it was a homegrown thing. Yeah. I mean, still within the rising of it happening in the rest of Europe after World War II, but it was very much quite a strong communist party that existed. And then Inverhjah came to power, got a lot of attention based on his theory of economics. Are there any memories from your host stay when you were in the Peace Corps that stick with you about like that time or changing times? I think the biggest thing. I mean, that's part of when I grew to love Albania.

It's just really how hospitable people are. So, I mean, taking someone into your home and, you know, treating them like a god or goddess, let's say, people are just really friendly and will really accommodate your needs as much as they can. So you're, you know, when you're the guest, you're everything in an Albanian household. So what I remember is just really how. how carrying my host mother, my sister was, as well as, well, I guess, so memorable. There's a little bit of a different culture in a personal, personal space. Tell us more. I remember my host grandmother every time I would come home, she would basically like feel

me up, up and down. Like that's an Albanian grandmother's way of seeing if you're eating enough. So basically I would get groped by my grandmother every afternoon. And if you weren't plump enough, she would say, oh, I want to cook for you. Yes, yes. So like, eat more, eat more, eat more. So there's always, you're either usually too fat or too skinny and there's usually never a really middle ground where it's okay.

You're either eating too little or you're eating too much. So I think after the Peace Corps, did you leave Albania for a while? I did. So I left for a few months, three, four months and traveled to India, where I was, most of my purpose of going was to do yoga teacher training. So I left, traveled in India for a little bit for a few months and then was deciding if I wanted to go back to America to teach yoga or to go back to Albania to teach yoga. And at the time, there was pretty much no yoga in Albania. Albania, there was two people teaching that I knew of. And so I decided to come back and try to increase the interest of that in Albania rather than America where there's a yoga studio on every block, every corner. In addition to the business opportunity, were there other parts of Albania that were pulling you back? I was interested. So at the time that I left, I hadn't lived in Tirana. So I had only had my experience in the north in a small town of about 10,000 people.

I felt that I hadn't gotten the whole experience of Albania. So just moving to Toronto to the capital was also pulling me, just to see if that experience was quite different than the one that I had had. And they are. Living in Toronto is quite different than living anywhere else in Albania. And both of them are part of the culture and part of the politics. but I wanted to sort of round out my experience and see what else was here that I could experience. And so when did you move to Tirana?

I moved to Toronto, I guess, in 2013. About 2013, yeah. And was it difficult to start a business there? Yes. It's the short answer. I mean, starting a business in any country that is not your own, I would imagine, is equally difficult. starting a business in your own country is usually difficult as well. So some of the, just the language barrier, some of the policies are different.

Just outside of starting the business itself, I was starting something that people didn't necessarily know about. So a lot of the beginning was educating people on what yoga was, why they should do it, why they should try it, why they should care. So, so yeah, it was a little bit challenging. in the beginning, but has been growing steadily since then. What did that education look like? So in the beginning, I more or less started the yoga studio with a few other foreign teachers

at the time. So we all had our own networks of people that we knew. So a lot of the growth in the beginning was coming from, I guess, a combination of expats of foreigners living in Albania that were the large. group of people starting to practice yoga. And then that's slowly shifted into, you know, then bringing their friends and their colleagues and transitioning into eventually more and more Albanians trying yoga. And now I would say at least at my studio, it's about 80% Albanians, 80% locals and has shifted away from just being this activity for foreigners and expats.

What's amazing. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. So how are you? you able to live and work in Albania as a foreigner? Do you have a visa or what's that situation? Yes. So for different nationalities, usually I think that the minimum stay is six months. That's not 100% accurate. And for Americans, we can stay up for one year, just on entry. So you arrive, you can stay for one year from the point of entry. I have a residency permit. And after you stay for a certain amount of time, you apply for residency. Mine is for five years. I think that you can apply for one year, three years, or five years. And that comes with just proof of employment, proof of a lease contract, as well as background check,

a permanent background check from your embassy. People from many countries can come for like a maximum of six months at a time, but Americans can come for like a year at a time. Yes, that has shifted from, it used to be six months as well, and then they changed it up to one year. Yes, I had heard that Albanians loved Americans, but I have to say, I was just traveling with my German friend. And when they heard she was from Germany, they were a lot more excited. So I guess it's like shifts to where the work is and where they're allowed to go. Yeah.

It shifts also sort of depending on where you're in Albania. More people, like in the north, even from Toronto, people go to Europe a bit more. Or while I guess in the north, they also go to the United States and Canada. Germany has recently taken a lot of Albanians for employment. So it's become a really big sector for work, especially in healthcare. So like nursing, nursing homes, doctors, a lot of them are leaving. A lot of younger people are going to Germany. They have quite a good work exchange program.

And so, yeah, so yes. Yeah, she was like a celebrity. Yes. Exactly. But they still do love Americans. Just, you know, depends on maybe where there's more opportunity for work. Yeah. And what is that history of Albanians liking Americans?

It stems a little bit from the American support. So mostly under Bill Clinton of recognizing Kosovo. So Kosovo technically is mostly ethnically Albanian. So the ethnicity of most is Albanian. There's still some obviously migration. Kosovo was part of Yugoslavia, whereas Albania was not. So you do have some Croatians as well as some Serbians, mostly in Kosovo. So their sort of initial excitement about America was that America recognized.

to organize Kosovo as an independent country rather than as part of Yugoslavia or as part of Serbia. So there's still a little bit of conflict with that in the region. But really, truly, it has to do with more the American dream. So picking up and moving somewhere and being able to find your own opportunity to make something of yourself to work hard and to have that balance with your income. So they still really love America for this idea of opportunity that is there. You are creating your own little dream, sort of the reverse, doing it in Albania. Could you give us a visual snapshot of Tirana? Where is it geographically?

What does the postcard look like? So Albania itself is just north of Greece and south of Montenegro. So right on the middle of the Adriatic and the Ionian seas. And Tarana itself is basically right in the middle of the country. So it's very central, about 30 minutes driving from the coast. So you mentioned that your host grandmother used to fill you up. What are some other cultural differences between the U.S. and Albania? Yeah.

I mean, it's very much part of the Balkans culture of coffee, of socializing, spending time. The family unit is really very strong. It's the impetus for all decisions and for where you're living, what you're doing in your life. And so there's a really strong family network and really strong sense of support, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. And so that's, I mean, just independence in the sense of, you know, as a woman, if I was Albanian, I probably would not be living on my own. I would either still be living with my parents or I'd be living with my husband. So there's a sense of dependence and interdependence within families.

That is quite different from, you know, the American standpoint of, oh, you're 18, get out of the house. So that's a very big difference just in terms of how you're spending time. It's a little more balance between work and life. So people are, you know, taking an hour in the morning for a coffee from work. can take another hour for lunch, another hour in the afternoon. It's not across the board, obviously, but there's definitely a little bit more sense of leisure. The pace of life isn't quite as fast as you find in America. It's quite nice to sort of balance the work and the life environment. I loved the coffee culture that I saw in Toronto. There were just cafes everywhere. It was good

weather. So people were just outside having, you know, an espresso, smoking a cigarette. Yes. What's the best way to get our bearings in Tirana? Are there any tours you would recommend? So there are, I mean, it's a very small city. So population-wise, it's under one million. And really, most of that lives on the periphery, sort of in the suburbs. So centrally, I mean, if you're staying anywhere near the center,

so anywhere near sort of the main square, Scanderberg Square, within 10 minutes of that walking, you've basically covered. the entire city center in any direction. Within the city center, you can access most things. Yeah. And actually, I'm just remembering now that I did a really fantastic walking tour. It was one of the free walking tour. It's called Tirana Free Walking Tour. And the guy that we did it, his name was E-I. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right in Albania, but E-R-I. And he was fantastic and just had such energy. And yeah, it was great. So funny enough, this is the one that I would recommend because I think it's the only one that's sort of the open walking tour unless you're

coming with a tour guide and a tour group. Funny enough, one of my former students when I was working in the Peace Corps actually started this as a program. So yeah, I would recommend it. Glad you recommended it before. I recommended it. Yeah. He, and we started in Scanderberg. Oh, gosh, did I say that right? Scanderberg Square. Scanderbegg. Skanderbeg Square. We started in Scanderberg Square. And it was just a really good overview of the history and we saw the main sites that you told us a little bit about like the foods we should try, which we can get into later. Absolutely. Yeah, it was great.

Good. So what experience do you think we should have when we visit Tirana? There are a few different experiences. You can obviously do the walking tour and sort of hit the main sites in the city. There are not too many in terms of cultural sites. There are not so many within Tirana. There are just a few museums. There's maybe two or three museums that you would go to.

One of those is right in the center close to the mosque. It's the bunk art museum. And there's actually two. One is in the city. There's another one that if you do have time to get out of the city, it's where the big bunker was that Inverhoja created, where all of the Communist Party would flee if there was ever an attack. So you can do both of those.

The other one is very close outside of Tirana. Otherwise, I mean, most of the city is about, as you said, the coffee culture. It's about going out, socializing, having a coffee and making it last for three hours. This is really where you get into a lot of the Albanian culture of just really spending time with people, hanging out with your friends, going out. And in the evening, most people are going out into the block area, into Bloqu. So this sort of gets you into what Albanians are doing if you want that experience. What is it, where do you like to go in that area you just mentioned the Raco region?

So I, there's a few, depends on what you're looking for. There's a few bars. I mean, I live, live in that area. My studio is in that area. And so there's a few sort of more trendy bars that you can head out to a couple of the ones that I go to, Nouvelle Vauk is one. radio in English, but radio in Albanian, as well as there's a few different sports bars. If you're into sports, Duff is one.

And otherwise, most of the bars that you find, there's not such a big difference in between them. If I were coming to visit you for a weekend, what hidden gems would you take me to? In Toronto or outside of Toronto. Let's do both. Okay. in Tirana there's actually if you want to kind of get out of the city or even inside the city there is a big park around a manmade artificial lake but it is nice to go hang out in the park as well as I mentioned maybe getting out and doing the bunk art museum that is close to also the other national park which is called Ditey so it's where you can take a cable car up the side of the mountain and you can get up to the top and there's a few hiking trails that you can explore that are very well marked. You don't need to be an expert hiker.

So, yeah, in Toronto, I would say kind of getting into the nature that is here, as well as just going out and having a coffee on the weekend, going out in the evening. This is what most people are doing. There are a few cultural events. There is a national opera still being reconstructed at the moment. So most of the things, most of the performances have shifted to, different locations, but there is some dance, some theater, some opera that's happening. For me, on the weekends, if I can, I usually get out of Toronto.

So there's, I mean, again, the seaside, the coast is 30 minutes away. If you get in the car and head out of the city, it's nice to go to the beach. In the summertime, most people will go to the beach for the weekend, even if it's just during the day, they'll go. The closest city is Douris on the coast. coast. Douris itself is not maybe a place you would want to hang out, but if you go just a little bit north of that, there's a few small beaches that you can go to or just a little bit south of that. Do you have any recommendations for those other beaches? There's a few. If you sort of go north out of Douris, there's a beach called West End or Calm is the area. There's a few different, I guess,

restaurants and places where you can go and swim and they have beach chairs. Also, if you go a little further north, there's a cape. It's called the Cape of Redon. And so this extends out a little bit into the sea. And you can go, there's quite a few small beaches around that aren't populated. So if you go down off the Cape, sort of in any direction, you can find them. This is also within a 40 minutes, 50 minutes drive out of the city. So do we need a car or is there any way to get to these little beaches without one? Little beaches, not so much. You can, at least if you're staying in the north, if you're getting out of Tarana and going south. So all of the Albanian Riviera, the southern coast, there are buses that go and that stop in all of the cities. So if you're headed down to the south, to the me,

or to Chaparro, Cheparo is with a queue, or to Saranda, is almost the most southern city. There's buses that leave from Tarana at least three or four times a day. So if you're going into any medium-sized town into a city, you can find transportation.

If you want to get off the beaten path and explore a few other things, then you need some other form of transportation. So we took more of those Fugonis? The mini buses. The mini buses. They were pretty, it was pretty easy to get around with them and they were really cheap. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like five bucks equivalent to get across the country. Yes. This is still how most Albanians travel. This is also an experience that you should have if you're coming. They've changed a little bit in at least the 10 years that I've been here on and off. So they're a little bit less connected to the cities, but you can still travel almost anywhere that you would go. or one to go. So sometimes you just stand on the side of the road, you know, and wait for one for a little bit of time, but they usually get you where you want to go, very cheaply. At one point,

I actually flagged down a bus. I didn't think it would actually work. I just took my chances. And yeah, and they pulled over. I was like, wow, I've never been in another city where a bus would actually pull over when I waved my hand. If you're outside, I mean, outside of Toronto, yes. So if you're going somewhere and you're standing and you're waiting and you see the sign where the bus is going, you just have to stop them, wave them down and get in. So, yeah, just like a group Uber. It worked. Yeah.

And we couldn't find anywhere about these, the minivans online. No, there's no schedule. So this is, if you want to travel this way, it's absolutely, you can, but there's, you're not going to find a timing of them because they basically leave when they're full, or at the driver's, you know, when he wants to leave or how many coffees he wants to have. So you all find a schedule, but if you know the road that you want to be on, the direction that you're going, then you just wait on the side of the road until one comes along. Yeah, yeah.

It works for us. Yes, it does. It does. You might have to sit on someone or stand in the middle of the aisle for a while, but they totally work as well. I would love to talk a little bit more about like the food and drink that we need to try when we are in Albania. So what is the food culture like in Albania? It's a lot of meat. So I'm not going to be your most reliable resource for food because I'm a vegetarian. So am I. Help us eat in Albania.

So, okay. I mean, if you enjoy lots of meat, for sure, very similar to Greece and the Balkans, you can eat all the lamb, all the goat, all the baby lamb, all the baby goat that you could want. So, I mean, if you're eating out for Albanians, most of the meal will be meat. If you're eating street food, they have soufflache, which is sort of the equivalent of a giro, the Greek style giro. And also kebabs, this kind of, this is all within the meat culture. For me, as a vegetarian, I eat traditional Albanian food. They have the big fava beans. This is mostly in the south.

So if you're in Girocaster, Barat, you might find them. They're called plachi. So fava beans, they're in a tomato sauce. You have the food in Jira Caster. They have these basically rice balls with spinach and some herbs. The name is called chief chi, which literally means when it's translated, it means fuckety fuck. Oh my God.

So for no other reasons, you should try them for that. So you have a few, you know, like vegetable meatballs that are not meat, but you understand. understand. So vegetable meatballs, there's, I mean, in terms of produce, it's very, very fresh. So all of the food, if you're cooking for yourself, when you go to the market, you will find everything in season as many vegetables as you could possibly want. So salads are always fantastic. Greek-style salads, village salads are all great. If you're looking for a bit more protein, if you're a vegetarian, that's a little bit harder to find sometimes, especially when you get out of Tirana.

So in the south, you'll find a lot of pasta, pizza, more Italian-influenced food. Along the coast, you will find a lot of fish. And the north, you'll find a bit more home-style cooking. And this is where sometimes Albanians cook more vegetables, like in the food that they cook at home for the family. So you'll find stews. There's a vegetable stew, which is called T-U-R-L-I. And this is mostly just vegetables. You do have to check as well as just some grilled vegetables.

Cheeses, of course, try all the cheese if your stomach is okay with that. The bread's really good as well, but some bread is really good. I had stuffed eggplant quite a few times. Yes. This is a common dish. So stuffed peppers, stuffed eggplants, or similar to the Turkish version, the musaka. Sometimes it's with meat, so just be careful. Quite frequently, it has ground beef in it, as well as quite frequently the stuffed peppers also have meat in them as well. So just check if you're ordering those things on a menu. They also have the stuffed grape leaves. This is very common, mostly without meat. sometimes with meat, as well as peppers with Jeeves. It's a type of almost like a ricotta cheese. So, yeah, especially with Albanians, they have many different types of like yogurt. There's like five stages of yogurt.

There's like five stages of cheese. And they're all very different. Yeah. What was the ricotta red pepper dish called? This is called peppers with G's in Albanians, Spitzman G's. It's G-J-I-Z. Okay, okay. Yeah, I think, well, we, I guess we ate at places that generally had some English on the menu.

And so we were able to identify. But yeah, we ate better than I thought we were going to and Albania from a vegetarian perspective. It's easier than quite a few other places in the Balkans. So at least you can find some vegetarian things. It's just you might not always have enough protein balance in your diet. Unless you're eating all the cheese. And then in places like Tirana, they've got some other places as well. We actually stayed, we had rented an Airbnb and it was near the big open air marketplace.

On our last day when we were leaving, we were like, oh, we should have come here and bought all the vegetables and just like had a big cook up at home. If you're cooking, I mean, I will say if you're staying in a place for a few days, it's also really nice just to go to the market because there's so much fresh produce that you can find everything. And it's great to cook as well. Yeah. And that's right in the center of town. What was the name of that market? It's the new bazaar or pizarari re.

Okay. And you can also find there's some fish shops if you want to cook your own fish as well as some restaurants and all of the open-air markets. Okay. Very cool. Well, before I let you go, can we do a lightning round of your favorite places in Tirana? Yes. And it doesn't have to be very lightning and you can have more than one answer. We usually go pretty slow. I just call a lightning round because it's kind of lightning. All right. What is your favorite bakery in Tirana? This isn't going to be very lightning. So Meg. So Meg. What do you get there? And where is it? There are a few around town. So it's a more Turkish-style bakery. There's a few around town. There's a few around town.

They make different breads. They make different pastries, cakes. Yeah. Is there a typical Albanian pastry we should try? Baklava is not, I mean, you know, Greek, Turkish. Other than that, there are not so many. There's a few different ones. They're all very sweet and very sugary.

Okay. So I don't eat a lot of them. What is your favorite coffee shop? I know this will be tough. I would say radio, radio. Radio, okay. I thought this was actually a cocktail bar. Is it both?

It's both. It's both. Okay. Most are always both. What do you usually get there? I prefer macchiados or just espressos. Okay. So they mix it up because I've seen people drinking espresso and then also Turkish-style coffee

left over from Ottoman times, I guess. Often when you're out, it's harder to find the Turkish coffee. There's a few places, another place I didn't mention, actually. Comitati is sort of a communist kitschy bar where they serve different types of Raki. So Raki is the Albanian version of Slevovica or almost like Grappa. So it can be quite potent. usually it's made from grapes or plums but then they have they make them from many different things and under communism people made their own because they weren't allowed to buy it or drink it

theoretically so they would make their own raki and so if you go to comitati it is they serve like 15 i think up to 20 different types of raki and as well they serve the more traditional Turkish-style coffee if you want to try it. Oh, that sounds like a must. So was alcohol banned in Turkish, was alcohol banned in communist times? I don't specifically know if it was officially banned, but just people, I don't think they had any money to buy it. Hard to get your hands on it. Yeah, hard to get your hands on. So there's, most people would make their own raki. They would make their their own wine and they would drink it at home. What is what is today's going out culture or drinking culture in Albania. Do the names like to drink? Some of them do. So it really depends. If you're at,

you know, an event, a wedding, an Albanian wedding is something to experience maybe the most equivalent to, you know, a big Greek wedding. People will eat plates and plates of meat and drink everything. Do they fire up guns as well? I think I heard that. Sometimes. It's part of the festivities. Yeah, lots of dancing, lots of circle dancing. So if you're at a wedding, for sure, if you're at an event, people will be drinking the younger generation maybe he's drinking sort of a bit more than the middle, you know, mid-40s to 50s and then older men are drinking quite a bit, the raki, the very traditional. So when people are going out, it's not necessarily just a drink.

People go out to be seen. So they get really, really dressed up. quite a culture of really, you know, getting dressed up to go out and then people go out and they stand at a table and that's all they do. So if you go out and you're someone that likes to dance, just or just to be, you know, relaxed and chilled out and get, you know, kind of a more chilled out vibe that's a little harder to find. But you can find it in a few places. I was talking to the guy who's taking us on our tour when we were in Tirana because he had mentioned that people love to drive around in Mercedes.

And I was just noticing that some of the houses were absolutely gigantic. And I was just sort of asking him about this bling culture. And he just, he thinks that it's a throwback from, not a throwback, but it's a response to like the harsh communist times. Like they had nothing before and now they just want to have everything. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a little bit of a, yeah, a reaction to that reactionary.

Yeah. That doesn't sound like it's your scene. That's a much. I mean, sometimes, you know, once in a while, but if you're going out on a Tuesday night, you don't really want to wear three-inch heels. Right. Right, right, right. I mean, I don't.

So on a more relaxing day, where do you like to have lunch? There's a few places. So alasante. There's a few restaurants, you know, sometimes pizzerias that are around the park. It's nice to go and be a little closer to nature. There is a restaurant, sometimes it's a little more geared towards expats and tourists, but the food is actually still quite good. It is called ERA, E-R-A, and there are two of them, both of them equally good. But you can try some traditional Albanian food, and you can also get vegetarian food and also meat.

And so both of those are quite nice as well for lunchtime or for evening times as well. How about dinner? Is there any place in particular that you like? The same, the one that I just mentioned, Alessante is quite nice, maybe nicer for lunch and dinner. Teduktu is another one. Also, if you enjoy vegetarian, slightly more healthy food. Also, just for drinks, if you're going just for drinks. Are there any rooftop bars that you like? Or places that have a nice view? There are. So there is on top of Sky Tower, which is one of the taller buildings. There's a rooftop bar that you can go to.

The name escapes me right now. And then also there's a building. It's a little bit of a shopping center. It's called the Coin Building. And there is a restaurant on the very top floor, but it's very quite high-end, like a steak restaurant, if you're going for quite a high-end expensive meal. otherwise on the fifth floor there's a bar called Aba Fifth and it has a nice view of the square

sort of from the Skanderbeg Square to Mother Teresa Square you can see quite all of the all of the boulevard what is the food hall or like food market that we have to have to visit in Toronto yeah if you're going the one we mentioned before pizarri the new bazaar you can find all fresh vegetables, but really in the city, there's vegetable markets everywhere. They don't have a location, but there's certain streets where you have a village market. One is between, I mean, the one that I go to where literally you have a grandmas coming from the village and they're selling onion, like two things, onions and dill. And then the next one is selling flowers and mint.

So some of those you can find throughout all of Tarana. but the one that I go to doesn't have a specific name. It's just called the village market. It's between, I think the road is Islamala, and it's between Duras Road and Kavayas Road. And so if we are visiting Albania and we wanted to buy a typical product to sort of remember our trip by, what souvenir would you recommend that we get?

I like to go for food. So any olive oil, they produce quite a bit of olive oil and it's really fantastic, as well as possibly some rocky, if you can stomach it. Are there any designer markets where local artists sell their product? You can find some handicrafts more like local artisan work. If you go outside of Tirana, there is very close to the city about 30 months. minutes outside 40 minutes. There's a small town called Kruya. This is also where they have selling a lot of more traditional Albanian style, like the winter socks that people wear, the ones that are woven by the grandmothers that are wool, made from wool and very warm. They also

have some of the woven carpets, some of the woven rugs, more from the Turkish influence as well. And they do some other handiwork with a little bit with silver, a little bit with wood, sometimes with olive wood. And you can find it there. There are a few shops in Toronto where you can also find them, but they're all quite small, nothing quite big. Sometimes you can also find them at the open-air market, the one that is the vegetable market, the one in the new bazaar. You can also find sometimes artisans that are selling stuff as well. Where do you go when you're in the mood for some culture? I do enjoy going.

There's a few venues, smaller venues that sometimes have concerts. There's a few bars that offer different things. One of them is a workshop space. They bring in artists, different exhibitions. It's also a hostel. It is distil. D-E-S-T-I-L. And they often have music concerts.

They bring in some bands, some DJs, and different activities also related to information and workshops on different topics. What means, is it in English? Some of them are in English. It depends. So if they're in English, they'll be advertised in English, sometimes in Albanian.

What museum should we go to? The House of Leaves is the one on surveillance and propaganda. The other one is the Bunkart Museum that's right in the center right beside the mosque in Scanderbeck Square. And then there is also, there's more of a historical museum,

the one with the socialist painting or the socialist mosaic right on the outside that's also in Scanderberg, maybe worth a visit if you have time. And the art gallery is also quite nice. And if you get into the back of the art gallery, they have all these really weird, I won't say weird,

very interesting. interesting socialist sculptures and statues that you can kind of get into the sculpture garden if you can. What culture tips should we know about Albania before we go? Just, I mean, people are very helpful. And mostly if you meet anyone who's under 40, they will speak English. So if you're in a taxi, your taxi driver probably won't speak English. They're usually been in their 50s and 60s. But either way, people are very helpful and friendly.

I think people sometimes get scared. Albanians don't have the best reputation always in Europe. So they think it's a very dangerous, you know, tough place and people ready to be like pickpocketed. And of course, watch out for those things. But really, people are very friendly. They will be curious. So, you know, if you're going out and especially in some of the smaller places, people will stare a lot.

So you mentioned the taxi. How much should we be tipping at a taxi or a restaurant or a bar? At a taxi you don't tip. So the rate that you agree on, you can agree on a rate before you get in. Sometimes the taxi meters have different standards. But really, if you're in this city, you should never spend more than $5 or $6 in a taxi. At restaurants, just rounding up. is usually the standard.

If it's a place that has good service and is somewhere that I go, maybe sometimes up to 10%, but usually still just rounding the bill up a bit. If you're going for coffee, then people don't really expect if you're just out for drinks or out for coffees, there's not so much of a tipping culture in that sense. And what neighborhood should we stay in if we're visiting Toronto?

Or is there a certain part of the city we should go to? I mean, as I mentioned before, around within 10 minutes of Skanderbeg Square is all considered the center. So in in Blokou, if you want to go out, there's a few more bars and cafes in Blakou in the block area. This is also close to where Inverhosha's house is, the house where he had. If you want to stay a little closer to Skanderbeg Square, where the museums are, you can stay close. closer to the new bazaar or also in the opposite direction around Doris Road. Do you have any other stories from people you've met about what times were like back then? I mean, I have a few friends who some of them lived in the work camps.

They were born in work camps. A lot of families that were part of the supporters of the king. So I guess we would call them royalists. A lot of them were persecuted by the communist regime. just for being associated with, you know, maybe having money even if they didn't. So a few friends that were born and grew up in work camps. Otherwise, I mean, outside of Toronto, inside of Toronto, we're also very different. The few of the prisons that were in some of the smaller towns, the town I was working in with Peace Corps,

we had one of the, like, three prisons that were the toughest under communism. So people would get sent there. Their families wouldn't know where they are. Often they would send people to different regions of the country so that their families wouldn't know. And so then there were a few, you know, once you leave the prison and you've lost touch with your family and don't know where they are, some of them went a little bit crazy from, you know, whatever happened in terms of persecution.

And so upon release, didn't know where their families were. And maybe their families couldn't find them anymore. When I was on my tour, the guide was just saying that, and he was in his late 20s, so he didn't personally live through a lot of this, but his parents did. And they were very mistrustful of some new things like bananas coming through when the world started to open up to them again. And he was saying that his grandfather, and eventually they started to be. try these things and like completely fell in love with fruit like bananas and so and he was saying

that his grandfather whenever he wanted anything new he would call it a banana so he would just like ask for a banana and then our tour guide's father would go out and get it for him and then the grandfather would be like I didn't want that I wanted the red banana and he meant like Coca-Cola because apparently coke was like one of the first brands to go in there when Albanya opened up and people would decorate their sort of bleak communist homes with these red cans. Interesting. I have heard the story that with the bananas that they had to make posters on how to eat a banana because people when they first started eating them would eat the skin, would eat the peel.

Wow. And so they had to because they didn't know how to eat a fruit. They've never eaten before. So I've heard this story as well of like, you know, you ate the banana. You tried it with the whole peel. And then finally they started. you know, putting out flyers on how to eat bananas. Well, and I, you know, I guess I don't know enough about banana history,

but I would have thought they would have been around before the 40s, but maybe not. Maybe that's something that came later. I assume when they're coming from, you know, India, Africa, and, well, at least here in Europe, that's mostly where they come from rather than Central America. But if you, you know, at that time, I don't think they were being exported to Albania, which was still a very poor country in the Balkans even before communism. Yeah, I feel like one of those kids these days who doesn't understand a life before cell phones. But we didn't all have cell phones.

The world didn't all have bananas at one point. But anyways, thank you so much for talking to me today, Rachel, where can people find out more about you? You can find more about me if you're online at the yoga studio website. So the studio is tyranny yoga.com. Same on Instagram. And often I'm traveling around teaching on yoga trainings and yoga retreats as well. And you can follow me personally. Also from website and Instagram at Momentum Yoga Flow.

Thank you so much, Rachel. Thank you. Fantastic. Bananas, bananas. Do you have easy access to fruit? Count your blessings. be grateful that we live in a society where we can listen to whatever podcast we want and have access to the outside world. These are freedoms that we should never take for granted because

they can be taken away more often than we think. Companies are watching everything we're doing. There is even a saying that data is the new oil and governments have their eyes on us as well, of course. And when I hear people say, that's okay, I don't have anything to hide. I shake my head because we might think we're not doing anything wrong, but what we think doesn't matter if the wrong people get into power. If the people with the guns and the tanks think you're on the wrong side of things, whether that's your religion or a political party or race or sexuality, or you're associated with people who are your opinion on whether you're doing something wrong or not.

not isn't going to save you. We should think more seriously about privacy and who has access to our lives. Whoa, I got a little heavy there, but I've seen a lot of things on my travels and I'm sure you have as well. And my heart just breaks thinking about the Albanian people languishing in their own borders for decades. True independence means the freedom to choose where, when, and how you spend your time, and I want that for everyone. Okay, if you are enjoying this podcast, please tell a friend about it. That's the best way to grow the show. I look forward to talking to you again soon.

Thank you so much for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahygotele.com slash blank no more.