On the Scene: Without a Visa

AS we came within swimming distance of the Albanian coast, the ferry slowed down and the dozen Albanians on board exchanged furtive glances. Something was wrong. I leaned over the captain’s glass cabin and saw them: three speed-boats, closing on us fast. In the perfect morning light, I could already make out a man in camouflage fatigues sitting in the nearest one. He was holding a Kalashnikov, pointed in our direction.

I had already gotten bad vibes. A couple of hours earlier, in the Greek port of Kerkira, the manager of a duty-free shop who sold me a pack of Camels-which were supposed to work in Albania like Kents in Rumania under Ceausescu, as a substitute currency-parted with me as if he did not expect to see me again. You could not buy a ferry ticket to Albania from any of the little travel offices on the quayside. “You will get the ticket on the boat, if it arrives,” I was told. For the past month, up and down the Albanian coast, armed gangs had been seizing everything that would float for a trip to Italy. Why would they let any boat slip through their grip? We were about to find out.

RS

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Radek Sikorski

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AS we came within swimming distance of the Albanian coast, the ferry slowed down and the dozen Albanians on board exchanged furtive glances. Something was wrong. I leaned over the captain’s glass cabin and saw them: three speed-boats, closing on us fast. In the perfect morning light, I could already make out a man in camouflage fatigues sitting in the nearest one. He was holding a Kalashnikov, pointed in our direction.

I had already gotten bad vibes. A couple of hours earlier, in the Greek port of Kerkira, the manager of a duty-free shop who sold me a pack of Camels-which were supposed to work in Albania like Kents in Rumania under Ceausescu, as a substitute currency-parted with me as if he did not expect to see me again. You could not buy a ferry ticket to Albania from any of the little travel offices on the quayside. “You will get the ticket on the boat, if it arrives,” I was told. For the past month, up and down the Albanian coast, armed gangs had been seizing everything that would float for a trip to Italy. Why would they let any boat slip through their grip? We were about to find out.