Fly Like an Eagle

It's a tale of a hero, a city, a name, and the next step on our adventures. Onward to the Eagle's Land!

I refer to Albania, which Albanians call Shqipëria and they call Albanians Shqiptarët. The name literally means "Eagle's Land." The stretch of the Balkan Mountains in Albania is said to be particularly impassable. Not even the crows could live or travel there. Only the eagles and the bold, superhuman Shqiptarët could possibly manage it.

That being said, there are crows in Albania and the land has been conquered throughout history by several non-superhuman, non-Shqiptarë empires including the Ottomans. That will be important to the story of our hero.

What's crazy is how long the Albanians have been in this land. There are definitive historical records from the second century CE, but older records from the second century BCE that may refer to them. The Albanian language is nothing like the Slavic languages of Albania's Balkan neighbors. That's because the Albanians were in the Balkans long before the Slavs arrived.

Still, the Greeks did conquer this land, and later the Romans, and later the Ottomans, and later the Hungarians, but the Albanians have held on to their culture and language.

Alrica and I are in the city of Vlorë, Albania, but we got to spend a few days in Tirana, the capital. It is a lively city with a very modern city center. But in other parts of the city, the old ways still live on.

In the center of town is Skanderbeg Square. This is named for the great Albanian hero, Gjergj Kastrioti. Wait, Erich, was is it called Skanderbeg Square instead of Kastrioti Quadrilateral? Okay, let me get there.

Look, Skanderbeg's got a sword!

 

Gjergj Kastrioti was a nobleman in a time when the Ottomans ruled the region. He was sent to the Ottoman Empire as a boy as a hostage. He went to Edirme, Turkey. Here the Ottomans converted young Gjergj to Islam and gave him a new name: Iskander (which is their version of Alexander.)

Gjergj/Iskander was sent to military school, literally a school to learn to be in the military. He did very well, and after graduation, the Ottomans appointed him as the bey of the Sanjak of Dibra. This, by the way, is where the name comes from. Iskander the Bey, became Skanderbej, or in some spellings Skanderbeu, or in some spellings Skanderbeg.

So far, so good. Skanderbeg proves himself to be a more than capable military leader. He is sent with other Turkish forces to fight in present day Serbia at Niš. Play the dramatic music!

Here, Skanderbeg abandons the Ottoman Army, joins up with fellow Albanians fighting, rejects Islam, returns to Christianity, and fights against the Empire that educated him. He returns to his homeland, reclaims his principality, forms an alliance with other regional princes, takes command of their combined forces and repels 13 Turkish invasions during his lifetime. He's such a good military leader that Pope Calixtus III (I didn't even know there was one Calixtus, let alone three of them) named Skanderbeg the Captain General of the Holy See. Then after Calixtus III died, the new Pope, who realized Calixtus was a mouthful and so took the name Pius II, proclaimed Skanderbeg would lead the Catholic forces in a new crusade. But Pius II died before they got the armies all gathered, so that crusade never happened.

Still, Skanderbeg is the greatest hero of Albania, and the main square in the capital city is named in his honor. Surrounding the square are the Opera, the International Hotel, the National Library, the museum of culture, and more.

There is the beautiful Et'hem Bej Mosque. Inside men are preparing an enormous tapestry that will one day adorn the Kaaba. The Kaaba is the huge cubic black building in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia that devout Muslims walk around during the Hajj. The Kaaba is decorated with these tapestries which are embroidered with thread that has gold and silver in it. The man working on the tapestry explained to us that when this was done it would have over 500 kilograms of gold and over 600 kilograms of silver in it through the thread. That's a lot of thread! (I'm also impressed with the gold and silver, but can you imagine 1100 kg of thread?) 

Within the mosque

 

We went to the Pyramid of Tirana. Here you can climb the steps to the top and get a lovely panoramic view of the city and the mountains that surround it. In some ways it reminds me of Reno, surrounded by mountains. But the Balkans are greener than the less lush mountains of the Sierra Nevada on the rain shadow side. And the Balkans have these sheer vertical faces where no plant life grows and you just see the black exposed rock face.

We also visited Checkpoint, which is an old bunker from the times when Albania was communist during the Cold War. There is a piece of the Berlin Wall there, a gift from Berlin. And there are several monuments to freedom. The Albanians haven't forgotten what it was to be ruled by autocrats and they don't want to go back.

Alrica emerging from the bunker

 

The Wall formerly known as Berlin

The food in Albania is crazy good. Because of where it is situated, there are Turkish and Greek influences, Italian influences, and Balkan influences. We've enjoyed souvlaki and durum, delicious pasta dishes, and fantastic gelato. I had a traditional Albanian dish called fergesë which is made of bell peppers and a cheese something like cottage cheese. It's very flavorful. And we had some of the best pizza we've ever enjoyed. It has a sausage on it that they call sallam pikant, which translates as spicy sausage. But it isn't spicy meaning full of capsaicin. Rather it had almost a curry like flavor. 

Fergesë pronounced fair-GEH-zuh

The Albanian people are very friendly. They appreciate even the few words of Albanian that I know, and most of them, especially anyone young, speaks pretty good English.

I am sure I will have more to say as we spend more time in Vlorë, but that will have to wait until I fly like an eagle into the future.