Slowing down time

The fortress is an excellent vantage point from which to take in the understated beauty of Gjirokastër, a lively town in the mountains of Albania. At dusk, the town begins to twinkle as lights turn on one-by-one. Walking back down along the narrow and winding streets below, I take in the old men wearing waistcoats and corduroy chapeaus, sipping on coffee as they gossip. The young men and women chat excitedly over Qifqi, a traditional dish made from rice and egg, and raise glasses of Raki, the anise-flavoured Albanian alcohol of choice.
Surprisingly, they will sell you Raki in the town’s main Mosque. Yes, that’s right - there’s a fully stocked bar in Gjirokastër’s Bazaar Mosque. I order a drink from the friendly bartender (or Imam?) - his eyes sparkling at the chance of conversing with a foreigner, something that does not happen often here - and begin to ruminate about this land of contradictions and idiosyncrasies. Nowhere were the paradoxes better exemplified than from where I now sat.
Albania is a small, Muslim-majority country of just under three million people. It famously erected a 9 foot-tall statue of George W. Bush after he visited the country in 2007. The country’s geographic location in the Western Balkans means that it has always been at the fault-line between competing civilisations and cultures; between East and West. It was part of the Ottoman Empire until its collapse, Communist until after the fall of the Berlin wall, and now NATO counts Albania as a member. The country reflects deep influences from each of the empires that have held sway here, yet it still fiercely preserves its sense of identity and independence.
Sipping on a glass of the milk-white raki-and-water combination in the 257 year-old Mosque, the question that has often crossed my mind in the last few days reappears: How did I end up here, in Albania? Let’s face it; the country has a serious reputation problem. Albanians are best known as Europe’s drug smugglers or those kidnappers in that Liam Neeson film, Taken.
Less well known are the magnificent unspoilt beaches of the Albanian southern Ionian coast; the fresh seafood, smothered in lemon juice and olive oil, that can be found in local restaurants up and down the country; the unique traditions and ways of living that are incomparable to anywhere else in the World. Albania is a country of endless discovery. Make sure to seek out your local Mosque as it might not be what you expect.