A Tree or Not a Tree?

They go by mules (enjoy the thistles, buddy!)

The mules go by packs

The stronger ones carry the logs

And no tree can resist a chainsaw

But can a sign "Holy Forest" do the trick? (As it did for this oak grove.)

Welcome to Mashkullore

Mashkullore in Albanian - masculine

The town on the road to a UNESCO heritage city of Gjirokaster tells more about the Albanian culture than you can imagine! Literary descriptions aside, let me share a few observations. Some weeks ago, passing by a posh new outdoors cafe in down-town Korce, I counted the customers. Roughly 50. Not a single woman. Not an uncommon view. (Korca has only one waitress.)

Woman at home, man at a club. A friend talks about the flat that her son (4 years old) is to inherit. Her 14 year old daughter didn't make it to the list of the heirs. 

Since the toddler years, the girls are being taught to serve; the boys are being taught to be served. 

A pregnant unmarried girl risks to be kicked out of the house and never accepted into the family again. Who would think there was also an impregnator involved? 

Never in my entire life had I seen such crowds of guys going for walks down the boulevard! They certainly outnumber the girls. 

Teenage girls don't go for an ice-cream without their parents' permission. Teenage boys are safe to wander out and about as they please. 

Abused wives are not welcomed to return to their parent's homes - divorce is a shame and the wife is always the guilty one.

Welcome to Mashkullore!

(I am not a feminist. And certainly there are many exceptions! But if you try to tell me my observations are untrue, you'll risk to achieve the opposite effect.)

In & Out

The other day, coming back from a day trip to Greece, we gave a ride to an Albanian policeman working at the border. During Enver Hoxha's (the communist dictator's) times he was a bee-keeper. Re-education followed the advance of democracy. From his lips we found out some interesting facts about immigration. Every time we go to Greece, we see big blue buses rushing towards the border, where they are being emptied. Apparently, illegal immigrants are kept in jail in Greece only until a bus fills up. And back in Albania, one is being brought to court only after three deportations. (The prisons would be overflowing, smirked the policeman.) So if you are to cross the border at night over the mountains, you should only worry about the possible bad mood of the Greek police - in case you do get caught, that is.