What do albanians think of americans

The guerrillas were getting creamed, and Serbian troops were moving town by town, expelling Kosovars from their homes. A building owned by the former deputy prime minister of Kosovo, Ramiz Kelmendi, who has several properties that mimic American government buildings, in July He lives in New York but his family spends summer holidays in Kosovo. Inside a shooting range on the outskirts of Pristina. It then played a prominent role in rebuilding Kosovo after the war, leading aid efforts and providing 7, troops, more than any other country, to the Kosovo peacekeeping force.

A few hundred U. In fact, was actually the second time Washington helped Albanians get a state. Jashar Jashari, 22, who works as a boxing coach at the Kickbox Rigoro Gym Pristina and competes in national leagues, in June His dream is to be a professional boxer and to move to the states.

Bush visited Tirana. Back then, Tirana's socialist mayor, Edi Rama, famously declared "Albania is for sure the most pro-American country in Europe, maybe even in the world.

America's close ties with Albania have not prevented Washington from speaking honestly to a country still riddled with problems, including entrenched corruption. But the consistency of American behavior, putting action behind its words, has given it a measure of moral authority among the people.

You might think a Muslim-majority country is a poor candidate to be America's cheerleader, but Albania is uniquely suited to emulate the United States. As much as two-thirds or more of the population is estimated to be Muslim, but coexistence, tolerance and patriotism figure much more prominently than religion. Centuries of invasions and foreign conquerors have made the need to unite take precedence over private religious differences.

And Muslims here have some of the most strikingly moderate views of any Muslim-majority country -- about one-fifth are Bektashi, followers of a moderate Sufi sect, while others follow Fethullah Gulen, U. Most others are just as moderate. There are relatively few mosques in town, and I have only seen a handful of women wearing hijab, the veil, much less a burqa.

A member of the tiny Jewish community, meanwhile, told me he has seen no anti-Semitism here. During the Hoxha dictatorship, religion was forbidden and brutally suppressed. Today, the constitution guarantees freedom of religion.

Albanians are proud of their tolerance and coexistence. But extremism is undoubtedly rarer here than in the Middle East or even Western Europe. Two-lane roads cut through a countryside strewn with dome-shaped concrete bunkers left over from the Hoxha years. Locals steer travelers to the Greek and Roman ruins in the ancient city of Butrinti and the nearby beaches in the coastal town of Saranda across from the Greek island of Corfu.

More memorable than any sites, though, were the experiences we had and the people we met while traveling in a country where tourists are few. It was early morning on the Llogara Pass, the highest point on the southern coastline.

The driver stopped at a mountain restaurant, and the waiters brought out bowls of what looked like a thick soup. It was pace, and despite our initial inhibitions, the soup was delicious.

In the town of Gjirokastra, we met Haxhi and Vita Kotoni, owners of the Kotoni House, the first private hotel to open after the communist government fell. Built into a steep hillside below a castle and above a modern university town are Ottoman-era stone houses, some restored, others abandoned and awaiting money for repairs.

The port city of Durres on the Adriatic Sea was our last stop before crossing to Italy on an overnight ferry. Within a few blocks walk in the historic center were the remains of a 2nd-century Roman amphitheater, a shop selling cent scoops of Red Bull-flavored ice cream and a bar in the turret of a Venetian watch tower. I thought about the conversation Theroux had with a man named Fatmir as the writer was preparing to leave on a ferry for Greece.

Italy lies across the Adriatic Sea. Most hotels quote prices in euros. See www. Rates at the Hotel Mangalemi in Berati start at 30 euros with breakfast. Rooms at the Kotoni House kotonihouse. See hotelkalemi.