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Seeing me photographing the church, he suggested I should take a picture of him, so I did.

There's a cafe/bar nearby, so I said let's go have a beer. Though we had no common language, he understood beer, since it's close enough to the Albanian birrë. He pointed to his stump, however, to indicate he couldn't drink alcohol. At the cafe, he ordered a Fanta, and didn't even want me to pay for it, but I asked the waiter to translate, "Hey, I invited you here, didn't I?"

Reports that many Albanians understand Italian is exaggerated, because I haven't met one who does. I did manage to ask this man, "Kisha cattolica?" (Kisha is Albanian, cattolica is Italian. I remember kisha since it's close enough to the Italian chiesa. I've also learnt a few Albanian food terms, just to sort of read menus.)

He nodded, "Katolik." He then pulled out a crucifix from his wallet to give me. Instinctively, I said, "No, no, grazie," but then I thought, I hope he didn't interpret it as me having an aversion to his catholicism. Everything was cool, though.



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[Catholic church]


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American Corner is attached to the Public Library. Statue is of Shevqet Musaraj, a writer and partizan.


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Vlore is about a hundred miles south of Tirana. With a few stops, it's nearly three hours each way on a mini bus.


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