A Coffee Culture

Albanians love their coffee.  One only has to take a look around any village or city to see the hundreds of cafes that line the streets.  From the capitol city of Tirana to smaller towns throughout the country, cafes are as ubiquitous as car washes in Albania.  Whether we were pressing olive oil at a roadside factory in the seaside village of Orikum or we exploring the mountain village of Theth (which lacked any restaurants or stores), we have been able to find cafes.  There are three things I've learned about Albanian cafes. First,  while there are places that I would readily associate with the word "cafe", rarely are they fancy--any place where a rickety table or two and a few chairs can be set up---is considered a cafe.  If there isn't space inside, an outdoor porch, patio, or even front lawn will do.  Second, the majority of them don't sell any food.  Your menu options are most often limited to coffee, perhaps bottled water and juice, and of course, raki.  No fancy coffee drinks are served here.  The actual coffee itself is most likely to be served in the form of small shots of thick Turkish coffee or as a macchiato-- a small, equally strong cup with a dollop of hot milk.  Two packets of sugar will always be served on the side.  The price is an equally unimpressive equivalent 50 cents to a dollar- depending on the drink and the location.  I can only imagine what Albanians would think about paying four plus dollars for a fancy cappuccino from Starbucks.  A few places might have slightly fancier drinks but those really aren't cafes.  Thirdly, cafes, like the rest of the country, are filled with smoke.  Albania has a national ban on smoking inside of buildings.  While most businesses will have signs posted to this effect, I have only encountered a handful of full fledged restaurants that actually enforce this rule.  Asking someone not to smoke will be met with hostile glares and more often than not, smoke being blown in your face.  Fortunately, the weather is often nice here and just about every cafe has outdoor seating.  If you can manage to grab a table that is upwind of the smokers, you might be able to enjoy your coffee in a relatively smoke free environment.

Drinking coffee is an event; you will never see an Albanian walking down the street holding a giant paper cup of the hot beverage.  (Given the excess trash that fills the streets I suppose we should be grateful for this).  Albanians and internationals alike will invite you to meet for coffee. Whether it is business or personal you will sit in a cafe for hours talking. If you are meeting for business it is unlikely that any business will actually take place during that first meeting; a second meeting for coffee will become necessary.  From sun up to long after sundown, cafes are filled with lounging people nursing small cups of coffee.  At fifty cents a cup it is cheap entertainment.  The cafes are usually filled with men (I speculate that the women are too busy working for such idling) but on occasion you will see groups of women sharing a coffee.  I actually belong to two international coffee groups and we have been known to spend several hours at a time talking and drinking.  In true Albanian form I've learned that the actual drinking of the coffee is only a small part of the event; it is the socializing that is what is most important.

While strong Albanian (and Turkish) coffee has grown on me, I still love my large cups of American style brewed coffee.  At the Embassy we bring our big mugs up to the coffee bar each morning to be filled with milky cappucino (because the coffee bar is inside of the American Embassy, they cater to American tastes).  We buy whole coffee beans by the case from Starbucks and grind them ourselves each morning.  We serve brewed coffee at dinners to our international guests and all but a few ask for second servings.  We even give out bags of the beans to friends who have spent time in the U.S. and now find themselves missing the coffee.  I've learned that there is definitely something to be said about leisurely drinking your coffee instead of gulping it between stop lights during your morning commute.  Some days it really is nice to sit back and enjoy your coffee.  But in the end I'd prefer to sip a Cinnamon Dolce Latte on the go.  That is really more my speed.

American "Culture" Abroad

The depth of America's cultural influence on the rest of the world continues to amaze me.  Here in Albania there seems to be an unhealthy obsession with all things American.  Whether it be our Ambassador, our president, our pop culture, or our foods, people in this country seem to love all things American.  My first real glimpse of this was leaving the airport for the first time and passing by the Albanian Coca-Cola plant.  In a country devoid of western franchises (no McDonalds here although there is a Kolonat that tries to replicate the golden arches), its perch on the side of the autostrada was immediately noticable.   My first visit to a cafe was spent listening to Michael Jackson's Beat It.  Streets honoring Bill Clinton and George W. Bush can be found in most Albanian cities and the town of Fushe-Kruja pays homage to W. with his own statue in the town's main square.  At a minimum most Albanian towns have a least one store, restaurant, or hotel with the word "America" in its name. For the most part I have grown accustomed to Albania's fixation with us over the past year and try to accept it for what it is.  I continue to be surprised, however, with the scope of America's influence in other, more highly developed countries.

We have seen or heard pieces of America in every Eastern European country we have visited over the past year.  Whether it be the Starbucks in Istanbul, an Apple store in Rome, the Hard Rock Cafe in Budapest, or a Sephora shop in Ioannina, we've had the opportunity (if we wanted it) to partake in American consumerism abroad.  Despite all of this, it was during our family vacation to Scandinavia this summer that I further experienced how vast this influence truly is. 

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have all the hallmarks of truly developed western societies.  Citizens here are highly educated and have some of the highest standards of living, salaries, and corresponding costs of living, of any countries in the world.  Their capital cities are amongst the world's greatest offering impressive arrays of cultural, historical, and gastronomical delights.  Yet so many of these offerings are American.  Although a local boutique hotel, the television in our Stockholm hotel offered more American program options than anything else.  CNN was the primary news channel and American mainstays such as Law and Order, CSI Miami, and a Europeanize Biggest Loser (which unfortunately revealed a lot more than its American counterpart) filled the primetime viewing hours.  Even the movies came out of Hollywood and like their small screen counterparts were aired in English with Swedish subtitles.  On the streets we were equally inundated with Americana.  7-11s dotted every street corner in Bergen (although these stores only vaguely resembled their inner city American sisters) and the TGI Fridays on Oslo's main street was the local biker hangout.  New York style pizza and San Diego style hotdogs were hawked from storefronts in all the cities we visited. (I have no idea what the later is but people were consuming them with gusto).

Because we were in Scandinavia Volvos and Saabs were the cars of choice along the interstates, but then again Ford now owns Volvo.  We were able to listen, without understanding, to local radio shows being broadcast in Danish, Swedish, or Norwegian but more often than not, the talk was interspersed with American pop music that brought us back in time to our high school proms.  From Bruce Springsteen to Madonna and every other 1980s pop music icon, there just wasn't any escaping American music.  Instead of making me homesick, however, all of this just made me want to turn off the radio and run and hide.

We're gearing up for another foreign adventure this weekend.  This time we're headed to Italy where, in a country that despite its rich heritage, culture, and cuisine, we'll pass by our share of McDonald's and Burger King restaurants, hear American pop music on the radio, and share the road with Fords and Chevrolets.  America's influence is indeed so far reaching that it makes me wonder where I have to go to escape it.

An Istanbul Mini-Moon

We finally did it.  This past weekend Glenn and I left Sidney in the very capable hands of the best nanny in Albania and flew off to Istanbul, Turkey.  We went under the auspices of an early anniversary gift to ourselves but in reality it was so much more.  This was the first time we both left Sidney and took a mini-vacation for just the two of us. (OK, for full disclosure, when he was just over a year we did leave him with my parents for a week while we went to a mandatory training.  I don't count that as a true get away since spending a week in the western Pennsylvania woods in December is not my idea of a good time).  So after 2 1/2 years we took the plunge and went on our first couples vacation since our Kauai baby-moon back in 2009.

Playing tourist in Istanbul

We chose Istanbul since it is one of the few places that is close by, we wanted to visit, and more importantly, we could fly to directly.  Packing for the trip was heaven since I didn't need to count out diapers, snacks, and travel toys.  Not having to carry matchbox cars, wet wipes and crayons with me, I was able to downsize to a cute purse of non-mommy-size proportions.  Away went my mommy clothes and out came my slightly more fashionable pre-pregnancy clothes that surprisingly enough, still fit.

So what did we do?  We had no schedule and it was heaven.  We stayed at an amazing boutique hotel that shared a wall with the Ayasofya.  We slept in, ate our meals when we wanted to, and strolled at a leisurely pace.  We chose restaurants based on their interesting cuisine rather than their child-friendly atmosphere.  We went to dinner late and my only responsibility during dinner was to feed myself.  We had that extra glass of wine after dinner since we didn't have a babysitter waiting up for us.  We were able to be a part of the vibrant city after dark instead of looking out at it from our dark hotel room window.  We visited many of Istanbul's top sights- the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and the Galata Tower. We partook in a traditional Turkish hamam, discovered just how cool the Yerebatan Cistern is, and browsed the Grand Bazaar.  I had my first cup of Starbucks coffee in ten months.

Most importantly, Glenn and I were able to reconnect.  We could carry on entire conversations without being interrupted.  (OK, there was the occasional call on Glenn's Blackberry but even those were kept to a minimum). There wasn't any talk of dinner menus, to-do lists or impending receptions.  We were silly and spontaneous and remembered why we had fallen in love in the first place. We were reminded that before we became three we were two.  Unfortunately, these are the simple things in life that so often escape us when we are caught up in the day-to-day activity of living our lives.

I'm now back in my Albanian reality.  I missed Sidney terribly while I was away but realize that taking the trip was the best thing we could have done.  Glenn and I have reconnected and I returned home to Sidney feeling refreshed.  Our next few trips will definitely be geared towards family time but Glenn and I must do more, non work related things as a couple.  In fact, we're already planning a Paris trip for our next anniversary.