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Traffic death memorials are common in many countries, but in Albania, many of them look like actual graves. On the right is an add for a tire inflator and tow truck service, down the highway.

On this 3-hour-plus trip, I had the worst seat on the minibus, at the very back, in a corner. The windows couldn't be opened, and there was practically no air coming out of the AC vents. Nearly all Albanian buses and vans are bought used from other countries, and this one was a piece of junk.

My arms and hands were tingling, a sure sign of oxygen deprivation, so I had to do my best not to pass out. I could have asked the van to stop, I suppose, but I didn't want to inconvenient anybody. Everybody else was suffering too, but not to my degree. At the end, we looked at each other with grim grins of relief. There was a 20-year-old guy at the back. "Soffocante," I said to him in Italian while shaking my head.


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