Your article about how Albania has become a tourist destination struck a chord with me (Beaches, mountains, ancient towns and low prices? Albania has it all, 6 August). My parents went on one of the very first package holidays to Albania in the late 1980s. Considering that their usual holidays were taken in the UK in their caravan, with the odd foray to Madeira, this was quite a departure.
In those days you couldn’t fly into Albania, so they flew to the nearest airport and were put on a coach to cross the border. I remember my mother telling me that she had her She magazine confiscated at the border, as it was regarded as pornographic; it was returned to her when they left the country.
One day she couldn’t face another boiled egg for breakfast and left it, only to be chased down the road by the hotel proprietor, who wanted to give her her egg, as he thought she had forgotten to take it with her.
Somehow, my mother got talking to a group of Albanians in the square in a small town and found herself and my father whisked away to a family wedding for the evening. Although my parents didn’t speak Albanian and none of the wedding guests spoke English, apparently they had a marvellous time. My mother always spoke very fondly of that holiday and the Albanian people.
Carole Gray
Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex
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