Whan that Hoketober

In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer writes about a group on a pilgrimage. They are taking a long walk to a holy site. I can totally relate. Or partially relate.

Today, I had a similar experience. I can't say it's identical. It was just me, no group of people. We weren't telling stories. My walk, while long, was probably shorter than theirs—from every shire's end of England all the way to Canterbury—given that they had time for each of them to tell two stories on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back, (or would have if Chaucer had lived long enough.) And while my destination was a holy site in the Eastern Orthodox religion, I'm not Eastern Orthodox, and I wasn't requesting the favor of a martyr. But if one ignores all those differences, then everything's the same!

Today I walked from our place in Vlorë to the Monastery of St. Mary. And back. The total walk took me about five hours. I walked a lot. I drank a lot of water. And I saw a lot.

The Narta Lagoon with the island and monastery visible

The monastery is on a small island in the Narta Lagoon. The Lagoon is not an offshoot of Vlorë Bay, but is a different offshoot of the Adriatic Sea. The lagoon and the bay are separated by a peninsula that holds the town of Zvërnec. The island on which the monastery sits is also called Zvërnec Island. It is a small island, almost entirely covered in pine trees. But the Monastery is in a cleared area on the shore of the island. It is connected to the mainland by a long curving wooden boardwalk.

The boardwalk. (I don't know who those women are, they weren't with me.)

The Monastery was built in the thirteenth century. It's full name is the Monastery of Dormition of Theotokos Mary. Dormition refers to the night before Mary was summoned up to heaven, basically her last night on Earth. And theotokos comes from Greek meaning "bearer of god", referring to Mary being the mother of Jesus.

The Monastery of St. Mary

One could buy yellow candles for 10 Leke (which is about $0.11) and burn them just outside the building. I saw several burning and I assume they were in memory of lost loved ones.

The paving stones that led from the boardwalk to the sanctuary are probably original, bumpy and uneven. And the stone of the monastery itself is beautiful.

The monastery and its paving stone path

The trip there and back gave me plenty of sites to see. I saw goats, horses, and chickens. I walked through a bird sanctuary. And there were lots of bunkers.

"Bunkers?" you say, "That's bonkers." Yes, there are bunkers everywhere in Albania, these concrete bunkers. Many are domes, but not all. And you don't have to go too far to find one. Why? The paranoia of a leader.

This house has a bunker in each corner of its yard

Enver Hoxha led Albania after World War II until his death in 1985. He was a hardline communist leader who closed off the country to everyone. Under Hoxha, Albania never declared peace with Greece, but kept the declaration of war going until 1987. Greece did have some desire to annex southern parts of Albania. Hoxha also hated Josef Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia. He believed that Tito had plans to take over Albania and make it another piece of Yugoslavia.

A farm with four bunkers, one hidden behind the tree

So starting in 1967, due to Hoxha's paranoia, Albania built bunkers. Hundreds of thousands of bunkers. They built them in farm fields, in vineyards, in the lawns of hotels, in cemeteries, on beaches, in mountains, in villages and towns and cities. More than 750,000 bunkers were built for over 18 years. Sometime after Hoxha's death, the building of bunkers stopped. Some were used for other purposes, many were destroyed, but many more remain, empty and derelict throughout the country. It is estimated there are still 170,000 bunkers in Albania. The cost was enormous, a huge drain on Albania's economy. And the established Albanian Army thought they were impractical. How long could you realistically hold the enemy off firing from a small concrete bunker? How would you resupply the soldier inside?

Bunker as canvas? At least its good for something

Today, most of those that remain are empty. A few have been turned into museums or even bars. But that is a tiny fraction of them. They are something of a symbol of Albania though, and tourists looking to take a reminder of their Albanian vacation home with them can buy bunker shaped pencil holders. Because what better way to remember your trip to a warm and friendly country than a symbol of isolation and paranoia?

Bunker on a side street, good view of the shooting window

If you ever do want to see one, the good news is they are everywhere. So your pilgrimage need not be as long as mine was.