Most spend their whole life trying to avoid death, but when it starts coming at you head first…
What do you do? How do you react? My time in Albania escalated beyond belief because of the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic.
This is my account of how a small, Mediterranean country in the Balkans dealt with the Coronavirus outbreak.
My time in Albania was definitely challenging. I have asthma which means I’m at risk if I contract COVID.
Plus, I’ve never had to isolate to the extreme that the government was requiring. My mental health took a dive.
Thank goodness for cute Albanian animals in the hostel that kept my spirits up. Both the hostel cat and a baby Herman tortoise was a godsend.
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The Beginning Of My Crazy Time In Shkoder, Albania
On Wednesday the 11th of March, I made it to the border crossing Hani I Hotit – Bozhaj.
This is one of the three borders that Albania shares with Montenegro.
All members of the bus were taken off and checked for corona virus symptoms, but it was treated as a joke more than anything.
Locals and tourists alike were laughing and commenting during the procedures.
I made it to Shkoder, and once off the bus, I walked to Our Way Hostel.
It was a wonderful, sunny day; the city was full of merchants selling their goods and everyone enjoying outdoor cafes.
I ate at Fisi Restaurant, a traditional place which reminded me of how much I loved Albanian cuisine on my last trip.
I had a wonderful baked cheese starter, delicious shish-kebabs and great service. It was a tasty and joyous calm before the storm.
I had spent time traveling in albania before, but I was looking forward to exploring more.
An aura of excitement easily turned to dread as my social media started to ping – the first sign that something was going wrong.
Albania was officially locking down. In a matter of hours while I slept, everything started changing.
The streets were still busy, but you could feel the unease towards outsiders.
It seemed like the locals thought that the outsiders brought the virus here upon them.
With it spreading rapidly, it started to feel like I was in a Stephen King novel.
The reality was that it could be anybody spreading the virus.
In fact, Albania has such strong connections with Italy.
Most Albanians speak Italian, have close relatives there, and it is located a short way across the Adriatic Sea.
This means that there are frequent flights and ferries. The Tirana Times states,
“The country [Albania] has close economic and social links with Italy, the European hotspot for the disease. About 600,000 Albanians live there permanently and thousands more travel each day by plane and ferry.”
Due to the circumstances, I reconnected with my Workaway host to confirm that I would arrive on Saturday.
I was determined to enjoy my few days in Shkoder before my next Workaway experience began.
My continuous and positive attitude drove me forward out into Shkoder for more exploration.
However, I was profiled as a foreigner (I mean they weren’t wrong haha) by local law enforcement while walking on the street.
They approached and warned me to stay indoors and not leave my accommodation.
I was receiving some looks of fear and and even some children made Coronavirus comments as I passed by.
A friend from the hostel told me that when he went to rent a bicycle, the employees made gestures of sickness to him.
They had him to stand outside while they put on masks and made sure to keep distance during the transaction.
Airbnb Fiasco
I checked local hostels for cheap rooms, but all had closed.
I decided to look on Airbnb for accommodation in Shkoder since I figured I might be stuck here long term.
I found what I thought was a great opportunity – a newly built apartment that was offering a huge reduction in price.
I booked the place through Airbnb and felt a huge weight off my shoulders…or so I thought.
Upon contacting the host, he asked me to speak with his brother as he was stuck in Croatia due to the virus.
His brother was ‘helpful’ and explained that the apartment was so new that it didn’t have a washing machine, fridge, freezer or an internet connection.
Still, for the price it was worth it.
I still agreed to stay despite the conditions, he then asked “how long are you intending to stay?”.
This is where I felt a little uneasy. Surely, he would know considering I booked on Airbnb.
The bomb dropped as he said that since it is his home and I needed somewhere to stay, and it was the entire place to myself, he now wanted 15-euro per person/per night.
Needless to say, I canceled on Airbnb and decided to stay at the hostel.
Turns out, it was a good decision because over the new few days things really escalated.
Further Restrictions
Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, took to Facebook and nationwide text messages to do crisis management.
Instead of declaring that Albania was in a state of emergency, Rama decided to use social media to give out his isolation orders.
His weekend ban on driving and public transport turned into full martial law being enforced via his personal Facebook profile. You can read more at Balcanicaucaso about the confusion this caused.
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Edi Rama’s Social Media Orders
Using the local, investigative news agency Exit.al as a source, here’s the following timeline of how quickly things escalated.
Thursday, March 12th – The borders of Montenegro and North Macedonia were put on high alert and some closed temporarily.
Friday, March 13th – Movement prohibited for the weekend. All driving and inter-country travel and all usage of public transportation were banned.
All schools, universities, malls, and leisure center activities were suspended. All borders with Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro closed.
Saturday, March 14th – Movement ban enforced by the police and military. All public areas are closed.
Self isolation for 14 days for anyone who entered the country starting today.
Sunday, March 15th – Movement ban enforced by the police and military.
Monday, March 16th – Most flights in and out of Albania were banned. Only exit availability was through embassy assistance. The police and military continued the movement ban and a 6PM curfew was introduced.
Tuesday, March 17th – The curfew was increased to 18 hours a day. Movement only allowed the hours of 6AM-10AM and 4PM-6PM. Only essential activities allowed, like shopping for food.
No groups of 2 or more people. Violation of this was 10,000 ALL fine each (85 euros). All public places were still banned and any caught face fines and possible arrest.
Wednesday to Friday, March 18th to 20th – Tuesday’s curfew continued. The government put emphasis on only testing elderly and ill people. Pharmacies were given a budget to deliver all medications to each patient’s home.
Saturday, March 21st – New restrictions in place for further prevention of the virus spreading. As of 1PM, a 24 hour curfew is enacted. Military, police and news media will patrol the streets. Anyone caught breaking rules will be put on camera, fined and arrested.
My Response To Albania’s Lockdown
Due to these restrictions, I decided to stick it out long term here in Shkoder.
One of the original reasons for spending time in Albania was because I had scheduled a connecting flight from Tirana to Kansas, USA at the end of April to see my family.
With that seeming unlikely, I figured my only other option would have been to try scramble to Tirana for a flight home right away.
At that point, most countries had closed borders and there were so many canceled flights that I was doubtful about making it back.
During the isolation period, Albania was solely run by military and police.
My only option was to live in the hostel for the foreseeable future until things got better.
Taking all this into consideration, I had the option to see it in two ways.
The first – yes I was trapped and isolated. There were no flights in or out. I was restricted to a 24-hour curfew.
I could only go to the store for 1 hour a day and only was only able to if I got a permit the day before.
There was no way of seeing more of Shkoder since the roads were locked down.
The second – I’m was in a beautiful and historic city surrounded by mountains and a lake.
I had relatively warm, sunny days for March. I was still healthy.
I had the hostel backyard to spend time outdoors even though I needed to isolate.
I was bonding with the cute Albanian animals, my new friends: ‘Domino’ the hostel kitty and ‘Herman’ the baby Herman tortoise.
Things looked grim but I had the chance to really build my travel blog during that time.
The whole world was going through a crazy time, there were a lot of unknowns.
Thankfully I can look back now and appreciate how I grew stronger from this tough time.
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