12.28.22
As Kathleen and I have traveled to almost 30 countries in the last four years, many times we get asked, “Is (country name) safe?” or “Are you afraid?” Those came up when we lived in Mexico and Turkey, and Mexico mostly felt safe, but I DID feel uncomfortable with some aspects of what I call the “bandido mindset,” and that stopped us from renting a motorcycle down there.
The US embassy puts out safety warnings of every country and the potential safety issues. They tend to take a VERY cautious approach and err on the side of safety, and there’s some places you just DON’T go, and some places you just shouldn’t or can’t go, but most of the world is open and very safe. When we went to Tunisia several years ago the embassy gave a level IV warning, and they cautioned us to stay away from the border of Libya, which only makes sense. We had an amazing time in Tunisia and the people were lovely. It was our first Muslim country so there was some culture shock, and Kathleen felt a little bit awkward because men were looking at her, mostly because they just aren’t used to seeing Americans, and most women over there are not dressed like she is, ie quite fashionable! Now we are in Albania.
Three years ago Kathleen was going to stay here in Sarande on her own for a month while I went to the United States, but we did some research and neither of us felt comfortable with that. There were rumors of drug traffic, gangsters, and a host of other things right out of an espionage movie. After a month here we feel more safe than the majority of cities in the United States. When I went to San Antonio Texas for business 2 years ago, I felt very uncomfortable walking down the streets with homeless people all over and tweakers asking me for money.
The media, TV, and movies certainly skew our views of the world. How many movies have you seen where there is a footrace along the rooftops and fruit markets in the streets of Istanbul and Morocco? International intrigue is entertaining, but I have never seen anyone racing through the markets in the streets where we were!
I was curious how many “mass shootings” there were in the US this year, and even though there are several definitions of what those entails, the number is over 600 and the final tally may exceed the record from 2019, when it was almost 700. THAT is scary and we have met several Europeans who do NOT want to go to the US because of numbers like that.
The other morning I had breakfast with another American expat who has been here in Sarande for 4 years. He said that the city and country caters to tourists and they encourage their citizens to be cordial and certainly not cause us any harm. He shared a story of a restaurant owner that was rude to a customer a few years ago as he followed the patron outside, jumped on their car, and broke their windshield! That’s what I call a violent temper. A few days later the city bulldozed and leveled his business. The city made a big deal out of it and made it known they wouldn’t tolerate that from their people. Here’s the story:
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/albania-bulldozes-restaurant-after-owner-attacks-tourists.730258
Can you imagine that happening in America or most of the world??
Is it safe?
If we use common sense we can avoid most areas prone to crime against tourists, the most likely being pickpocketing. For anyone who clubs until 0300, well, that’s just not a smart idea. Especially for female/ solo travelers. Again, common sense. The answer is yes, overall we feel very safe. We have left credit cards, money clips, telephones and even my passport behind somewhere and each time they were returned. Just before we left Turkey I left my wallet and credit cards at a nut shop and realized a few minutes later while walking away. Before I had the chance to return, a young man ran out with it, fully intact, and when we tried to give him a thank you reward he declined.
After so many countries and meeting so many different people, we are firmly convinced that most people everywhere are good and try to DO good. It’s the few bad seeds that muck it up for the rest of us.
