Before you freak out wondering if this is a tale about a missionary drinking and driving, let me add an “oA” at the end of “DUI” to explain it better—“Driving Under the Influence… of Albania”. (Of course, I guess the “A” could stand for alcohol too, but in this case it doesn’t).
Driving in Albania is crazy. And that is an understatement. I remember back in 1992 during my first visit to this peculiar country, that there were practically no cars on the road. Everyone walked arm in arm or rode their bicycles. In fact, one of the most interesting sights was seeing a whole of family of four on one bicycle riding on the boulevard—a child on the handle bars, the husband on the bike seat—his wife on the back fender, balancing herself trying to keep her skirt out of the tire wheel all the while holding their baby child in her arms. Even more fascinating was seeing this spectacle when it was raining—and the only difference was that the husband would be steering the bike with one hand while gripping a big umbrella which covered his family with the other. Quite an amazing feat!
Back to driving. Even as more and more cars appeared on the scene in the 90’s, traffic lights didn’t appear till much later. Not that it really mattered—there seems to be an unwritten rule of the road in Albania—“Every man for himself”. Very few drivers actually respect the rules of the road. And as thousands of new cars and new drivers are added to the mix each month, this has made driving in Albania quite tricky.
Though I never owned a car in Albania until after I was married a couple years ago, I did have quite a few opportunities to drive our organization’s Land Rovers and vans for various projects.
It was on one of these projects, taking a JESUS Film team back to our base camp, that I experienced my first DUI. I was on a two-lane road and the guy in front of me was moving slower than I wanted him to be, and so, quite out of my normally respectful driving nature, I swerved onto the right shoulder of the road and passed this guy. The Americans with me were taken aback by this unexpected move and illegal passing on the right. I don’t think they knew quite what to say to me. I too, sadly realized that I deserved a “DUI oA”. I was driving under the influence of this insane driving culture.
Driving in Albania has truly become an ‘extreme sport’— and what’s really scary is when I take my “DUI’s of Albania” back to my home culture in the U.S. But we’ll save those stories for another day.
Question: What driving experiences have you had while visiting a foreign land?
