Into the Stamp Catacombs of AlbaniaFeb 26, 2009
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Our first view of Saranda from the ferry
Saranda's waterfront
Christopher posing in front of the catacombs of Saranda's post office
Ronnie serves us our staple food, giro (known as pide here)
2/26/09
Sadly saying goodbye to our beloved Greece, we raced to board a ferry for the port town of Saranda, Albania, under 20 km from the island of Corfu. The day was beautiful and we quickly got settled in. We had an interesting experience at the post office, which Christopher will tell you:
Into the Stamp Catacombs of Albania by Christopher Malinosky
We were walking along in a little town called Saranda on the way to lunch, when we spotted a post office. We had just arrived from Greece, so we had not gotten any stamps yet from this new country. During our trip we have tried to get stamps from every country we have visited. Excitedly we walked into the building but quickly realized that we didn’t know the Albanian word for stamp! We desperately tried miming “stamp” by making little squares with our fingers and pretending to lick our thumbs, but the postal service workers just stared at us like we are crazy. Dad finally pointed to a poster with stamps on it and said the enlarged word at the bottom of it, filatelia. A lady behind the counter gestured for us to follow her into the back of the building. We followed her through a maze of stairs and doors until she walked into an office and told us to wait outside. She began talking to another woman who in turn talked to another woman, and so on, until at least six people were running around yelling in Greek. Twenty minutes and five reassurances of “a few more minutes” later, just as we were beginning to lose hope and think that maybe we had asked for the wrong thing, the first women ushered us into yet another room with bars surrounding the door. Imagine our surprise when a large woman opened a folder full of stamps and former President George W. Bush’s face was staring up at us! Sure enough he had visited the country in 2007, and the government issued a set of stamps to commemorate the event. We bought them all, which included three of former President Bush and one of the Statue of Liberty. We thought that because we are Americans they must have gone through the effort to find these stamps for us. We then asked if we could buy some Albanian stamps as well and the big woman yelled “NO!” making a swiping motion over the stamps. We tried to make ourselves understand and the other woman seemed to catch on, pulling out a few more folders of colorful local stamps. We took our pick and began to leave. As we were almost out of the door the woman asks “So, are you from Holland?”
