American tourist disappointed that Gjirokastra…doesn’t look like Middle East😂 Thoughts?

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humanistazazagrliti@reddit

They heard that it's a Muslim country and expected Osama selling flying carpets.

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ksaldo@reddit

Actually majority of population don't identify as muslim anymore

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humanistazazagrliti@reddit

I know, but this is from the point of view of many American tourists.

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Unbanable4221@reddit

No joke my old physics teacher is a spitting image of Saddam Hussein.

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Vitis35@reddit

Should cross post in shitamericanssay

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To be fair it was probably a translation error. We call everything ‘pazar’ in Albania, that’s synonymous with grocery. My mom would go to the pazar and it was just a small farmers market where the farmers came down to sell their things. This person was probably thinking it would be like Marakech ..which btw if you’re looking for a true frozen in time bazaar that’s where you need to go it’s unreal

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Exotic_Cantaloupe_96@reddit

Same is greece, 'pazari', just means open market. Its also a verb, 'pazarevo' that means to barter, and 'kano pazari' means conducting a barter.

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greekhop@reddit

Pazarevo means haggling / bargaining / to negotiate the price in Greek. Not bartering.

Bartering means trading goods or services directly without using money.

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MerTheGamer@reddit

Same in Turkey. The verb version is to "pazarlık yapmak".

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Exotic_Cantaloupe_96@reddit

Thats correct, i ll edit my reply. Apparently my english is not as great as i though. I thought barter is a synonym of haggling/bargaining.

Bartering is the exchange (goods or services) for other goods or services without using money.

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greekhop@reddit

Lol well at least you'll keep improving with a good attitude like that. It's an easy mistake to make.

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No-Championship-4632@reddit

That would be "pazarene" in Bulgarian.

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vbd71@reddit

Same in Bulgaria.

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HonestDefinition4309@reddit

Same in Uzeklovakia

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No-Championship-4632@reddit

"Pazar" means "market" in general here. Like "fondov pazar" would be "stock market", "pazara na imoti" would be "real estate market". It could also mean a street market, yes, there is another word for that, "bitak", but with the years it became synonymous for a "flea market". Normally, municipalities would build those spaces with premises for sellers, food/vegetable stands that they rent, etc, those we call "pazar". The unorganized (but still tolerated as long as they are away from the city centers) flea markets wherever they still exist are commonly called "bitak". "Bazar" usually is used for Arab/ME street markets, but it also has another meaning sometimes as an exposition, e.g "bazar na knigata" could be a book publishers expo.

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More_Ad_5142@reddit

Same here in Turkey. Pazar is any open market. The “bazaars” are actually called çarşı, as in Kapalıçarşı “Grand Bazaar”. Incidentally pazar also means Sunday in Turkish because in the old times that was the day of going to shopping.

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EternalPrince54@reddit

their mentality is even 'forcing' countries like Egypt to act more 'middle-eastern-bazaar'-ish all the time for me. They spend uncontrollably dollars to the locals who adopt a specific agenda and mannerism towards every tourist, and I don't blame them. They are selling exactly this that the 'client' desires. Now wanting a more westernised less exotic experience led them to...Gjirokaster and they were dissapointed? I'm laughing

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d2mensions@reddit (OP)

this is how a middle eastern bazaar looks like

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Ok_Detail_1@reddit

Same

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sokolobo@reddit

This looks like the average laiki agora in Greece, what's so special?

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Commercial_Handle418@reddit

Where is that I want to visit that place looks like it has a whole lot of history

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vbd71@reddit

looks like an average bazaar in Turkey.

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Gkbeer@reddit

Tourist wanted Aladdin, got medieval Europe instead. The disappointment is hilarious. Expectations vs reality. Oof. Geography is hard. Classic. Love it.

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No_Calligrapher1190@reddit

He should visit 20 years ago 🤣

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Ok_Detail_1@reddit

Italian place in Greece, not Niddle East.

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Antique_Birthday6380@reddit

Italian place in Greece

Albania, the italian place in Greece? What does this supposed to mean?

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Dear_Wrongdoer7271@reddit

Americans should be banned from Europe.

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geepalik@reddit

When you're far away from an area, all neighboring countries look the same to you.

Imagine if you go to Malaysia and expect it to be exactly like Thailand or Vietnam. Locals will say "of course we're different!", but for you, an outsider who live very far away they look almost the same. And probably you won't care to see the subtle differences, just want to enjoy your time as a tourist.

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giorgio_gabber@reddit

I recently went to Cinque Terre, in italy. I live nearby but I never stayed there overnight to do a trek.

Well, in a place famous for villages built on fucking cliffs the last review of the very nice house I was staying was "too many stairs"

People are dumb

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Atlandios000@reddit

As someone who worked in Tourism. Tourists say lots and lots of batshit things.

An American asked me why Greeks don't live in small parthenon like buildings nowdays.

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nedamisesmisljatime@reddit

There were people who thought Dubrovnik built their walls as a film set for Game of thrones, and there were those who asked if they built them as a military defense in the 90s.

I also used to work in tourism. An average human iq is said to be 100, well, 50% of people have to be below that number and it shows.

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Commercial_Handle418@reddit

Average human iq is benchmarked on the average score

You can guess why the standard is so low these days with many people hitting 120+

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RebootAndPray@reddit

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Atlandios000@reddit

Ah they 90s the favourite era to built medieval castles.

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Commercial_Handle418@reddit

Ignore him, typical AMERICAN

Probably never been outside the states before this

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vulpixvulpes@reddit

Did she know what continent she was on?

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RadGrav@reddit

American, so probably not

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macgruff@reddit

Flippin’ beautiful town, though.

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CountryRegular3411@reddit

It's a city

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Regular_Apartment963@reddit

Why should it look like the Middle East? The Grand Bazaar in Marrakesh is in west Africa. This is a bizarre comment about a bazaar.

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erionei@reddit

Wish I could move to Gjirokastër och Shkodër sometime in my life 😔

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Valetra1415@reddit

Yayaya come to Shkodra zemra

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Glittery_Marshmallow@reddit

Why so sad? It's not like don't speak the language and need a visa. It's probably the easiest smoothest move in the world.

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erionei@reddit

Because I am unfortunately extremely lazy

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_Caligulean_@reddit

If you're lazy to do shit, you may be one of us

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erionei@reddit

Lmfao I mean we’re neighbors after all

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_Caligulean_@reddit

Yeah, my Shqigga

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vbd71@reddit

Eurasia.

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erionei@reddit

What?

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JxEq@reddit

EURASIA

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grzebelus@reddit

Ok, Americans are admittedly not geniuses, but the grammar and word choices in the review indicate that Anna first language is … not English.

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Ujemegaz@reddit

During communism, in Gjirocaster castle, it was displayed to tourists an american jet as a trophy. Maybe we should let the mek members roam around the town for full middle east experience 🤣

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Busy_Housing_7626@reddit

It’s still there

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Ov_Fire@reddit

Amuritard

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Sea_Report_7566@reddit

Lol, half of our population can’t even remember all 50 states. Of course this guy doesn’t know world geography.

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macgruff@reddit

Luckily though, this example is probably an extreme example of the exception not the norm. Most who would travel to a not so well-traveled Albanian town are actually much more worldly (and would know most of our own states). The Luddite, and lethargic are the ones who go to Rome, Paris and London and think it’s exotic.

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Strong_Remove_2976@reddit

When i went to Gjirokastra in 2013 I saw a maybe 12-year old boy reverse park a VW Golf, his head leaning out the window smoking a cigarette like it was the most natural thing in the world

Another local walked past me, saw the look on my face, and said ‘welcome to Albania, bro’ in English

Happy memory from a lovely town and trip

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justaprettyturtle@reddit

It actually looks very nice.

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Krasniqi857@reddit

Imagine going to this dream of a location and having this to write

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IllumiNadi@reddit

American thinks he's visiting a Muslim country and disappointed when it's not Arabania

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caesarj12@reddit

Probably one of those US government NPC's seeing she lives in DC.

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Gold_Combination_520@reddit

Do people just not research where they'll be going...?

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ttylyl@reddit

The little tourist district is pretty but the castle and even further up in the city is the best part. The winding alleys eventually leading to a really pretty canyon was cool.

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ttylyl@reddit

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Substratas@reddit

Oh my god 🥹

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Silver_Photograph_92@reddit

Where is this?

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ttylyl@reddit

Gjirokastra

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RouroniDrifter@reddit

Bro thought he'll dip his feet in a sandbox

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BalkanPower_Bro@reddit

They wanted it to be more "exotic", lol.

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BalkanPower_Bro@reddit

They wanted the jungle experience, I guess…

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whyyousosad@reddit

Omg. I want to apologize as an American. Mostly for everything, and especially for this.

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Prochefv9@reddit

i’m disappointed LA is a absolute shithole, i was expecting it to look like gotham !!

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why_so_sergious@reddit

I should be baffled by this point about people who leave bad reviews based solely on their own stupidity.. they'll go to an auto repair shop and complain they didn't have burgers..

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Coinsworthy@reddit

Where are the camels?

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fk_censors@reddit

In the yoga pants.

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vbd71@reddit

In the caravanserai, of course.

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Martha_Fockers@reddit

No camels or periods no dust or desert no men in robes or woman what is this

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PeaceAlternative4384@reddit

The level of ignorance has reached new peaks

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high-end-regarded@reddit

The fact it says she’s from DC says everything. If you guys spoke with someone from DC you would never want to talk to an American ever again.

A lot of ppl in DC are insanely out of touch with reality and see the world as a giant Marvel movie. It’s like a guy from Dagestan talking to a wealthy Russian from Moscow, totally different plains of reality.

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mala_neveshta@reddit

/ShitAmericansSay

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Signal-Dog9356@reddit

Tourists are tourists, especially the less educated ones. Take their money and let them have their own ideas 😇😂

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Turbulent-Debate7661@reddit

Da fuq do we think we are damascus?

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dicky1977@reddit

Americans and geography

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vaniot2@reddit

Anna was ready to haggle for a handmade carpet with a hairy dark skinned man dressed in 1900 clothing like she sees in the movies. Anna also has access to Google and the internet in general if she ever needs to look up a place. Poor Anna. /s

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Hefty_Jaguar4305@reddit

But what did you expect? What kind of reaction did you think this woman should have? For this woman, with her hamburger or cheeseburger brain, her statement is completely authentic, not at all contrived, totally genuine. You understand what I mean, right?

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