Warnings, warnings, warnings…

“Poorest place in Europe,” Anny, a Belgian woman, said at dinner last night. “Worst kind of Mafioso.”

“Worse than Sicily?” Stuart the photographer asked.

“Much worse.”

I gave her one of my cards during our conversation.

“And you shouldn’t be doing that, either,” Anny continued. “They will know you come from a good family, track down you’re family, kidnap you, hold you ransom.”

“But they won’t get anything from my family,” I said.

“Then they’ll kill you.”

“People will read about it on your blog,” Stuart said.

“I’ll be dead.”

“Oh, right.”

Since making my decision to include Albania as part of Europe On An Alphabet, I’ve received much negativity.

“It’s wrong,” the German woman I met yesterday said.

“Don’t go, stay away,” my friends and family said.

“Aren’t you scared?” a Bulgarian gentleman asked.

Well, I wasn’t, until now.

I think I’ve used this quote before, but it’s one that’s keeping me going, by Eleanor Roosevelt: “You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”

I question myself every day as to whether or not I can do this and wonder if I should just give up. And do what? Sit around for the rest of my days regretting that I didn’t actually complete something for once in my life, and see it through to the end?

I know there are many people who think I’ve been dropped on my head a fair too many times and my fickle nature will lead me to change track and begin a new harebrained project sooner rather than later. But I’m putting my head down and will finish this. I’ve got to.

More than being scared of any problems or dangers that may face me in Albania, I’m scared of stopping and not knowing how this trip will turn out.

God, that sounded like a scene from Dirty Dancing, didn’t it.

On a more positive and uplifiting note, there are plenty of independent travelers who have already visited Albania and lived to tell the tale quite happily. For now I will concentrate on their uplifting stories and make the most of few days I have there.

“Well,” Anny said as we shook hands and said our goodbyes last night, “hopefully that’s not long enough for something serious to happen to you.”

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