Durrës: more than beaches and bunkers
- attrillhelen
- Jun 2, 2019
- 4 min read
Having exhausted the 'must sees' of Tirana, travel writers suggest escaping the capital city on day trips to other Albanian towns and cities such as Berat to see pretty houses, Shkodër for the photography museum, or Durres for the beach. Whilst renowned primarily as a port city, Durrës in Albania offers more than beaches. My initial reason for wanting to visit Durrës was mainly to discover some of the 750,000 bunkers that are supposedly littered across this relatively small country rather than exploring the beach. Actually finding out where to see the bunkers however, had proven quite difficult. Unlike other tourist attractions, there seems to be no online map plotting their location; there's a book or interactive website in the making! My online search revealed the possibility of a day tour from Tirana to Durrës, alliteratively titled Beaches and Bunkers; it all sounded perfect until I was quoted the price of 149 Euros (around AUD $250). Up for a challenge, I concluded that, despite the lack of online information about public transport to Durrës, it must exist and I was determined to persevere, despite being alone and having no Albanian language. Whilst some of my friends have attempted to instill fear into me for travelling solo, my mantra for this trip has become 'What's the worst that can happen?'; usually for me, the worst that happens is getting lost, frustration at language barriers, embarrassment at getting something wrong, or walking longer distances than planned, all quite survivable. After comparing various travel blogs and online sites which varied in terms of where and when you could take the bus, I gleaned that at least they all agreed on the following: buses depart every 30 minutes and you can catch either a large bus or a 'furgon' which is a small mini bus. Day of excursion: first stop, a bus stop roughly in the direction the blogs suggested; no signage whatsoever, but as there were people were catching buses every 5 minutes or so I figured I was getting close. I knew I would have to ask someone for more information as there was really no other way to know if I was close, so I approached a handsome young couple and was firmly told that no, I would need to go around the corner and cross the road to get the bus to Durrës. Sound advice this was, and eventually I found what appeared to be a yard full of buses. Instead of traditional visual signage, the drivers imparted their destinations by wailing and chanting the names of the locations; although some of the buses, helpfully did display signs in the window, this was not the case for Durrës; realising I would need to ask for help yet again, I randomly I chose a driver, an older man who, speaking no English, proceeded to indicate and eventually walk me to where the Durrës bus could be caught. The Durrës bus, a furgon, was not displaying a sign (although the driver actually decided to put the sign in the window halfway through the trip)
and I mustn't have heard his Durrës chant. I had read that these mini buses only depart once full, so lucky for me, it was nearly full and I found a seat near the front, affording me a great view along the way. When I politely gestured using body language whether this seat was free or not, the large woman sharing the seat deliberately ignored me and refused to make eye contact; helpfully the woman on the seat opposite indicated that I could indeed take the seat; at this point I doubted that my seat companion and I would be swapping contact details and becoming besties; in fact she even wriggled her large posterior partway over onto my side, affording me barely any space on my seat. Part way along the road, the driver pulled over and climbed into the back to take our money; feeling thankful for being prepared, I procured appropriate lek in change; the cost being only 150 lek, around $2, great value for 40 minutes of travel and entertainment! The bus stopped in the middle of the highway from time to time to pick more people up; there were no formal bus stops and the passengers at times were dropped off in the middle of the highway too, necessitating stepping over the railing to get off the busy road.
Durrës provided an interesting mix of promenade people watching and visiting ancient ruins, peppered with stops along the way for coffee; Albania prefers to keep cafes specific and single subject; coffee shops sell coffee and nothing else; most people drink espresso and it seems to be a way of life to meet people several times during the day and night for the tiny cups of black coffee. Bars sell alcohol and restaurants sell food. In Tirana, this meant sometimes searching somewhat to find a cafe that sells food as most of them do not. So, content to conform with the Albanian way of life I enjoyed multiple coffee stops in various coffee shops with beach views. After yesterday's pasta, risotto and seafood, salad was the preferred lunch and thankfully I found a Mediterranean style 'fast food' cafe; fast simply means you order at the counter rather than table service. My English pronunciation of Caesar salad was corrected by the stoic young server as 'suzza' and so I listened carefully when my 'suzza' salad was announced as ready.
Once back at the bus stop, this time, I alighted a large bus with an obvious Tirane sign; too easy. This time, the cost was only 130 lek - even more of a bargain! Along the return trip along the industrial highway I noticed a familiar pattern: ubiquitous large hotels with mid century sans serif font signage, shells of buildings, either transitioning into decay or left half built, old men on bicycles and cows on median strips. I pondered whether Callum Morton, the architect trained contemporary Melbourne based artist had used Albania for inspiration for his postmodern Hotel 'sculpture' visible along the East Link freeway in Melbourne. After tallying up my daily expenses on xe.com I realised that the AUD $16 total I spent was a huge saving on the AUD$250 I was quoted for a tour, and although I missed out on the bunkers, I caught public transport like a local and wished I could have a few more days to day tour to the many other Albanian towns and cities, all for AUD $16 per day.
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