Mirupashim Albania!

Time has arrived to say goodbye to Albania. My experience here as UN Fellow has finished; in few hours I will be back home to Italy.
One year is a good time to get to know a country and its people and it is not too long to get bored of it. I am full of good memories and I am sure I will visit again this land.
This blog will not be closed, I will post in the following weeks more material; I have many other photos I would like to share. This last period I was too busy!

Thanks / Faleminderit / Grazie !

Ciao Shqiperia!

Questionable tourism data

In a previous post, Golden tourists in Albania?, I was describing how there are misleading tourism statistics for Albania. Fortunately I had the opportunity to organize a roundtable to discuss about it with the relevant involved institutions. The results were good, as you can read in this article on UNDP website: "Coordination key to reliable tourism data".

Didjeridoo TV performance

On 1 November I was invited by a friend of mine for a didjeridoo performance at a TV program. The didjeridoo (also spelled didgeridoo, didjeridu, etc.) is a musical instrument created by the Australian aboriginal people thousands of years ago. I have been playing it for many years, not in a professional way but in Rome I had my band, the Didje Open Project. As soon as I arrived in Tirana, I created few didjeridoos out of plastic pipes. Even though their sound is not as nice as the ones in wood (aboriginals use eucaliptus and bamboo), they work pretty well.
I was very proud to have had this opportunity to show to the Albanian audience this not so famous but incredible instrument. You can see this short video, unfortunately recorded from the TV with a bad sound quality, but I hope to post a better version soon. As you can see, I played with a local band (the bass guitarist is Angjelin, my friend) and we improvised on the moment.



In internet you can find many information and didjeridoo music. You can start from the link on the right column.

Road safety in Albania

Arriving in Albania you can notice immediately that the driving style is not very respectful of the road code. This feeling has been calculated with statistics and below you can read a sad news appeared around a month ago...

At a conference on road security in Tirana, a representative of PAMECA (Police Assistance Mission of the European Community in Albania) said that one has 20 times more chances to die in a road accident in Albania than in any other country in Europe. Director of Public Security Department in the State Police Rashim Borishi said that the year of 2007 has been the most tragic one compared to previous years when it comes to deaths due to road accidents. The participants in the conference proposed drafting of a strategy aiming at reducing the number of road accidents. According to Borishi, the greatest number of accidents occurs on the fist day of the week.

recycling&reusing

Some months ago in Tirana I saw these advertising posters about the impact of waste and possible ways to recycle it. It is a useful campaign for Albania, but in the current condition of the country it seems to have little sense. I mean there is no differentiated waste disposal and recycling. I have seen only some poor people, mostly Roma, look for aluminium in the waste bins. You can imagine how nice it is to empty trash bags and look for cans in the side of the streets!




Before recycling, we should think to reusing: many things can have multiple functions before being directed to the trash bin. It is usually enough a small manipulation to adapt the object to the new function. In these pictures you can see my personal contribution to the issue.

Here we use bottled water because tap water is not very safe. So I usually buy big 6 liters plastic bottles. From them I created vases for flowers and plants, baskets for fruits and spices, and from smaller bottle a glass for drying forks, knives and spoons...they work very well!

Give a second life! Use your creativity to find out how...I am not very good, but I am sure each one can do his or her part!
Please, if you have any other good ideas, let me know!

UNDP Albania conducts cultural and natural site survey

I return to inform you about one of my activities here in Albania, a visitor survey carried out in four Albanian tourist attractions. You can read a press release just published in the UNDP Albania website.
http://www.undp.org.al/index.php?page=detail&id=68

Albania-Netherlands 0-1

Two days ago, for the first time I went to the stadium. It was exciting to see this football (or soccer...) match. The final result doesn't show the balance during all the match and Albania had even opportunities to win it. The goal arrived at the very last minute, few minutes after one Albanian got the red card. Albania has not ambition to qualify for the Euro Cup, but it would have been a nice satisfaction to beat the Netherlands!

Here you can maybe recognize Marco Van Basten, the Dutch trainer...He is the first one standing near the green...

This crazy guy is Alket Islami and he was flying over Tirana before the beginning of the match with the Albanian flag... and a sponsor, of course...

And a couple of videos...

At the end of this clip, you can see on the left corner the Dutch supporters

Bike and horse tours in Albania

I want to highlight two experiences that deserve all my appreciation.

The first one is a bike tour along Albania that took place last August and was organized by a bike organization from Puglia http://www.cicloamici.it/albania.htm. It is not the first one in Albania, but it was documented very well in this blog http://mammiferobipede.splinder.com/. I invite all the Italian speaking people to go read it. The other ones can enjoy the nice pictures!

The second one is a tour riding horses! A couple of British is documenting their experience in this site http://www.transalbania.com/RideAlbania/Welcome.html and they are going to produce a book and a documentary out of this amazing trip.

Air pollution in Tirana

I already mentioned in one of my first posts that Tirana was declared as one of the most polluted capital in the world. A recent article confirm this news. I paste below the text from our daily press review (it is dated 28 August)

Koha Jonë (an Albanian newspaper) quotes Director of the Environment Protection Civil Office, Sazan Guri, as saying that around 1,400 people die every year in Albania because of pollution. According to Guri, Tirana, and not Kabul, is the most polluted capital city in the world, because in Kabul the air is cleaned in ten minutes because of the terrain, whereas it takes three years to do so in Tirana. The deathly diseases caused by pollution are cancer and lung diseases. Guri added that the life expectancy in Tirana is shortened by 1,5-2 years because of the pollution.

Well, I hope my year here will shorten my life expectancy by only few weeks !

Golden tourists in Albania?

The Albanian Prime Minister, in a recent Council of Ministers meeting, thanked the Minister of Tourism for the excellent results achieved because, according to UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) data, Albania is the first country in the world for the amount of tourism expenditure per single international tourist arrived, as underlined by an article on The Economist website (http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9570468&CFID=16761097&CFTOKEN=45436406). Every foreign tourist during his stay in Albania spend an average of 17,500 USD! A very good performance or wrong data? A political influence in statistics production or a simple mistake? I will answer these legitimate questions that many Albanian people raised recently (http://www.peshkupauje.com/shqiperia-fiton-me-shume-per-turist/2007/08/01/).
Since last February I noticed this strange data, published by UNWTO and the Albanian Institute of Statistics (INSTAT): in 2005, international tourist arrivals were 46,000 while international visitors were 748,000 and the tourism expenditure was 880 millions USD. I briefly explain these concepts in few words. A tourist is a traveller that stays at least one night in Albania, while the category of visitors include the tourists and the same-day visitors (also called excursionists). Tourism expenditure include payment made by all the visitors (tourists and excursionists).
According to these data, Albania receives a big amount of excursionists and very few tourists, but it gets a lot of money from them. Is this can be reasonable? Not really... so I started my investigations and I talked with people from the Ministry of Tourism, INSTAT and the Bank of Albania (responsible for the data on expenditure).
At the end I found a simple explanation: INSTAT gave the wrong number to UNWTO: 46000 were tourists that stayed in registered hotels, but this number was transmitted to UNWTO as number of tourist arrivals, while it is only a small fraction of the tourist population. The real number of tourist arrivals is unknown, even though often it is confused with the number of visitors. There are then other problems more technical, like the criterion of residence to use instead of nationality, so also the number of 748,000 is not correct. Or the mistake done by dividing the tourism expenditure for the number of tourists instead of visitors. But I will not bother you more. I am writing a document about all these issues and I hope the involved institutions will take it in consideration and improve the data production. It was surprising how for years nobody seemed to notice this mistake, and institutions like UNWTO or specialized magazines like The Economist accepted these data!

Llogara' National Park, Southern Albania

This tree is a Cultural Monument because it reminds the shape of the double-headed eagle in the national flag. It is called pisha flamuri, something like pine flag.

Map of the park, located south of Vlora, very close to the sea but with an alpine landscape!

A male roe deer (daino in Italian)





Testudo hermanni


Nice swimming pool in the tourist village where I stayed (http://www.llogora.com/)

Theth National Park, Northern Albania

Wonderful place...now I understand why these mountains are called the Albanian Alps!







There was still snow on the peak!

Ladi, Albanian sculptor

Few weeks ago I was invited to visit an Albanian sculptor. I was welcomed to his home, where he keeps a collection of his works. It was a very nice experience to meet this Albanian artist and talk with him. His name is Vladimir Metani. He has been working in a bronze factory for many years and from the '90s, he started his artistic creations. During the communism it was prohibited to express something not allowed by the regime and this was valid for the art too.
He works mainly the bronze, but can use other materials such as wood and ceramics. In summer when he goes to the beach, he can do huge sand sculptures! He showed me some pictures and he claims to be the only one in Albania to do them!



His main characteristic is to be inspired by the traditional tales and legends from all different parts of Albania. For example, there is the legend of the Shkodra castle, or how was born the “Blue eye” (see post http://fellowofeagles.blogspot.com/2007/03/my-little-trip-through-albania-2.html), or Kostandin and his promise to visit his mother even after death... as all the tales, they are mysterious and sometimes macabre like the habit to bury the corpses of the family members under the floor of the house or to sacrifice a virgin for the construction of a strong castle.



It was very interesting to hear so many stories, completely unknown for a non-Albanian like me. I have to thank my friend Lumturi (by the way, in Albanian it means “happiness”) who had the idea and the kindness to let me meet him. And I thank Vladimir, Ladi as nickname, and his family for their hospitality.
From these pictures you can have an idea, but you can visit this website (in German)
http://www.lifefund.co.at/vladimir_metani.htm where there are more pictures of his works.

"Green" UN building in Montenegro

I report a good news from the neighboring country of Montenegro.
A joint initiative of the Government, the UN system and the Austrian Cooperation are making possible the construction of an ecological building that will host all the UN staff under one roof.
I think is a very positive project, followed by the decision to renovate in a more environmental friendly way the UN Head Quarter in New York.
Here in Tirana the One UN initiative is bringing together, maybe next year, in the same premises some UN agencies, but I doubt they will achieve to have a similar building!

This is a link to the news:
http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/march-2007/environment-un-building-montenegro-20070329.en

Home made soy milk

Last sunday, instead of going to the beach, I decided to make soy milk and I thought it can be interesting to show you how to do it!
First of all you need soy beans. Be sure they are not GMO (genetically modified) and preferably they can be from organic cultivation and/or from fair trade.
Put them in a big bowl with water for 18 hours and you can notice how much they grew up!



Now if you have a mixer you can proceed very fast. In my case, I had to adapt with a low technology equipment and I smashed the beans with that wooden thing you can see in the picture. After many hours of arm gymnastic, I obtained this mass; if you use a mixer, it will be more finely ground and that's better.



At this point you put to boil in a big pot an amount of water equal to 7 times the volume of the soy beans, add few salt and the soy mass. Let boil moderately for one hour and half.



Finally you need to filter the liquid from the mass. You can use a clean cloth or whatever can have this function. So now the water turned into delicious milk that you can use as you like. The remaining mass can be used in soup together with vegetables and cereals, or to make vegetarian burgers. With the soy milk you can even make tofu, that is soy cheese. This time I didn't make it, but all you need is lemon juice to coagulate the milk and obtain the cheese. Simple, isn't it?

Mount Dajti (2)

Two weeks ago I went for the second time to the Mount Dajti, the mountain next to Tirana, but this time I went by myself. I used the local public transportation: bus and cable car. It was more adventurous, but not difficult.
Bus tickets are very cheap: one ride is only 20 lek, around 0.17 euro! While the cable railway is pretty new and with European standards.





It was funny to see girls wearing high heels to go there!
I also saw for the first time a muslim woman with a burqa, i.e. completely covered, only a small opening for the eyes. It is also not so common to see women with the chador, head covered but face not.




I enjoyed a lot the sunny weather and I found a quiet trail in a forest of beeches (faggi) where to hike. I know there is a project for mapping and putting signages of trails but I couldn't find any. It is also annoying that often you find military zones and the path is interrupted.

Tourism Economic Analysis

I take advantage of this blog to spread some information about my work here. I hope it is interesting for you!

In 2006, UNDP Albania has begun a three year program to assist the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports (MoTCYS) in raising Albania’s potential as an internationally recognized destination for cultural and eco-tourism. The program focuses on providing direct technical assistance to the Ministry, and will coordinate large-scale tourism projects in Gjirokaster and Berat, chosen for their current and anticipated UNESCO status.

Eco- and cultural tourism provides unique ways to protect environmental and cultural assets, promote and preserve the heritage and traditions of a country, while at the same time providing economic and job growth opportunities.

In this framework, for the year 2007 a Tourism Economic Analysis will be undertaken in order to better understand the current dimension of tourism in Albania. A lack of and a poor quality of the existing data, convinced UNDP Albania to implement the following activities.
· One-year survey at the international airport in Tirana addressed to the exit passengers. It has started in April and foresees a mid-term report with preliminary results in October. It is part of the “Image of Albania” project.
· Seasonal survey in selected natural and cultural sites. It will cover non-residents in Albania visitors in sites such as Butrint, Berat, Gjirokaster and Theth National Park, from May to September.
· Seasonal survey for sun, sand & sea tourism. It will cover Durres beach from June to September, interviewing Albanian ethnic tourists.
· Situation Paper on Eco- and Cultural Tourism Market. This study wants to describe the positioning of culture and nature based tourism in Albania in the international tourism market. It also gives a diagnosis, i.e. suggestions to policy makers to better address investments or to take decisions to better profit from this sector, avoiding predictable mistakes.
· Strategy for Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA). The TSA methodology was developed by the United Nations to measure the economic size of the tourism sector within a country, according to international standards. The aim is to design a simplified model to assess the impact of tourism in the economy, avoiding to use input/output accounts, currently not available.

The seasonal surveys will provide precious data on tourist demographic profile, accommodations and activities attended, degree of satisfaction, expenditure pattern, and sensitivity to changes in prices. Altogether, these activities can help Albania in cost effectively targeting its tourism marketing campaign and guide its investment in cultural and nature-based tourism.

To help support and assist the Tourism Program team in their efforts to implement these activities, UNDP Albania is seeking for partnerships and contributions for the collection and exchanging of information. Any institutions involved in this sector and willing to collaborate, can contact us.

For all inquiries and questions about the Tourism Economic Analysis, please contact Marco Bordoni (e-mail: marco.bordoni at undp.org)

Montenegro

At the end of March I had the opportunity to go for a weekend in Montenegro. It was the first time for me to go there and I really liked a lot. We spent the nights in Budva, on the coast, and during the day we visited other places too.



Budva is a summer tourist attraction, with a very nice historic centre. To be there during off season, with bad wheater (we weren't lucky), it was strange but with a charm.





Kotor is a wonderful place: the town is located at the end of a fjord, a narrow and long gulf surrounded by mountains! The old town is well kept and has this triangular shape.



I climbed along the ruins of the walls that defended the city in the past and the view was fantastic! there were some goats to accompany me, no other tourists...





Perast is a village along the fjord and seemed to be under big renovation works. The tourist season is coming soon and they must be ready.
Just in front of Perast, there are two small islands in which were built two monasteries, one catholic and one orthodox...a good example of par condicio!





Cetinje was the old capital of Montenegro and is located in the mountains. We visited the monastery, where one priest showed us the museum. I discovered that the Italian Queen Elena, wife of King Vittorio Emanuele III, was the daughter of the king of Montenegro, Nicola. We also saw a special relic kept in the church, the hand of S. Marco the evangelist! It was also strange that was without two fingers, because they are in other places...to believe or not?

Scutari/Shkodra

Time is passing fast and I am cumulating photos to show! Fortunately I had opportunity to travel during the weekends and now you can find pictures from Shkodra and surroundings (North of Albania, close to the border with Montenegro).


In these two pictures you can have a view from the castle of Shkodra over three rivers and over the city and part of the lake.

These kids are very lively inhabitants of the castle...they tried to ask for money to us, so I guess they are used to meet foreign tourists. Anyway, it was nice to see them playing and "fighting". When they saw my camera they went crazy! They all wanted to be in the first position, so I then decided to shoot short videos to best catch their vitality.

This is an old ottoman bridge quite well kept. But you can see in the background the garbage flowing down from the slope...


By the way, this morning at 9.35 an earthquake hit part of Albania. Not strong and serious, but I felt it! I was in the office and for few seconds the floor started shaking a bit. There was no panic in my office.
The earthquake caused no victims, but damaged many houses and schools in the region of Elbasan.

European Rally passing in Albania

I am sorry that in the last period I wasn't able to post... and in the next days I won't be too...so I just paste this interesting news about one Rally passing through Albania in which UNDP is also involved.

From China Post (I don't know why is published in this newspage from Taiwan...):

The Gumball 3000 Rally -- the celebrity-packed, high-speed dash across Europe in a variety of souped-up vehicles -- will include Albania in its route this year, as organizers attempt to help the tiny Balkan country promote tourism.
Racers have seven days from April 29 to cover 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) through 17 countries.
The 120 cars to participate include several Bugatti Veyrons, Ferrari Enzos, Lamborghinis, customized Rolls Royces, The A-Team van and even a Turkish Taxi, organizer Jonny Dodge said by telephone from London, where Gumball is headquartered.

Albania was added to this year's ninth annual race by request from the United Nations.
"We always try to go to smaller countries, unheard off, bringing celebrities, socialites and business executives to attract the world attention," Dodge said.
With U.N. agencies working to support Albania's development and integration into the European Union, the international rally was seen as a way to bring attention to the country's potential as an eco- and cultural-tourism destination, U.N. Resident Coordinator Gulden Turkoz-Cosslett wrote in a letter to Gumball.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha said he was "delighted" to support "such an interesting event, which fits perfectly with our strategy to encourage international events and foreign visitors."
Berisha also planned to host a dinner for celebrities, likely to include American actress Pamela Anderson, British singer Robbie Williams and others, Dodge said.

The race route begins this year with a party and car show in London. Drivers head first for Amsterdam, then wind their way through a series of checkpoints in countries including Germany, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Croatia and Slovakia before returning to London.


To read all the article go to this link http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/art/200744/106304.htm

Albania to assess country perceptions and tourism experience

In this post I inform you about one activity I am directly involved in my job and that is interesting in my opinion. UNDP is launching a survey about exit passengers at the international airport of Tirana. Below you find part of the article taken from the UNDP website.


"Albania will launch a one-year tourism survey this month in its first systematic attempt to assess foreign visitors’ experience in the country and to inform marketing and investment in Albania’s tourism sector.

The initiative is a joint effort of the Ministry of Tourism and the UNDP Image of Albania Project in partnership with the University of Tirana and with expertise provided by the Central American Institute for Business Administration (INCAE) in Costa Rica.

While Albania has great potential as an eco and cultural tourism destination, it lacks data on the socio-economic profile of its current visitors, their degree of satisfaction, their expenditures, activities and expectations. The tourism survey aims to fill this information gap by providing a comprehensive analysis and generating data that will be useful in the country’s marketing campaigns and its investment in eco and cultural tourism."


So, if you are not resident in Albania and you are leaving the country from the airport and you meet one interviewer asking to fill in a questionnaire, don't say no!

To read all the article go to this link:
http://www.undp.org.al/index.php?page=detail&id=43

Martisor / Dita e Veres

Today is the Spring Day here in Albania and it is holiday (unfortunately not for the people working at international agencies...).

I found a good description of this festivity in this blog:
Orange Bakery: Martisor / Dita e Veres

And on 22 March there will be another holiday, the Norouz, celebrated by the islamic sect of the Bektashi.

My little trip through Albania (3)

Our next stop was Butrint, a place of an extraordinary beauty.
The ancient city of Butrint is half an hour drive from Saranda, passing through the village Ksamili. Butrint occupies a small peninsula between the Straits of Corfu and Lake Butrint. Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Venetian monuments. By the legend Butrint was founded by exiles fleeing the fall of Troy.
As said it the leaflet of the National Park – Butrint is a microcosm of Mediterranean history, representing in its all phases of development, the rise and fall of all the great empires that dominated the region. Therefore it's possible to see monuments in a span of over 2000 years, from the Hellenistic temples dating from 4th century BC to the Ottoman defences from the 19th century.



The site is in good state, surrounded by forest which gives enough shade and makes the walk through Butrint the more enjoyable and more dreamlike.
Our timing for visiting was excellent as the nice weather created a spring atmosphere and awakened the vegetation, so most of the place was covered by hundreds of little, white flowers.
Having seen a lot of archaeological sites both in Italy and Greece I can claim that Butrint is among the most magical ones.

To be continued...