Albania - The Foundling State of Europe#2

The postal officials too in Europe had vague notions as to our whereabouts. A letter plainly addressed "Albania" was once sent to America and returned from Albany N.Y. With the inscription , "Try Europe"
Page 5
Yes, believe it or not that still happens. I had mail come about 4 months later, with "try Albania Europe, but it's not in Albany!'

At both places the ambulance halted for coffee it being clearly the opinion of the escort both officers and men that it is wise to drink coffee when and where you can as you can never tell when you will get it again...the old wagon went bumping, jolting, jingling and rattling over the inequalities of the road and even the waste of time caused by stopping to make coffee gave relief to the feeling that the spine was hopelessly shattered and every tooth loosened which was induced by a mile or two of that real carriage "exercise".
Page 30,31
Yes, just like the old road to Torovice!

The fear of the author that revolution was in the air due to much gun fire as they entered Albania. However it was explained to him that it was only Bajram!
Page 33

The date of its foundation is not known but it claims to have been the capital of the old Illyrian kings about 1000b.C. And Livy is the first Latin author who makes mention of it, in his account of the war against the Illyrian pirates, as the stronghold of their rulers in 230B.C. The city, though for centuries ruled by its native kings and inhabited by the Thrako-Illyrian tribes who are now represented by the Albanians, passed from time to time under the domination of the Gauls, the Bulgarians, the Serbs, the Venetians and finally of the Turks who took possession of it in 1477A.D. For over a hundred years under the Turks it was ruled by its native Scodrali Pashas and i1t was only after the Crimean War that it was ruled from Constantinople direct, though the mountains have always been semi-independent.
Page 35

The Mahometan and Orthodox women wore a more richly embroidered dress than the Latin Catholics and in fact no dress more absolutely unbecoming to women has ever been invented than that of the Latin women of Scodra. But in a few years time It will have no doubt have disappeared entirely.
Page 41
Oh Yes, a lot of truth there! "It will have no doubt have disappeared entirely". If only he was to see how literal his words have become - the dress HAS disappeared almost entirely and the girls wear next to nothing now!