Geography - Albania and The Accursed Mountains

[Caius Marcius]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> > bboy_mn:
> > I'm not sure Voldemort really did expect anyone to come and find 
him.
> <snip>
> > Voldemort did claim to hold out hope, but I think deep down he 
knew it
> > was a pretty false hope.
> <snip>
> > I think he chose 'The Accursed Mountains' because, in general, 
Albania
> > is a very isolated country, I don't mean geographically isolated, 
but
> > politically and socially isolated. The terrain is forested, and 
the
> > mountains are incredably rugged and inhospitable. It would have 
been
> > very difficult for any one to find him in such a place.
> <snip>
> 

I took my first European vacation last June, spending two weeks in 
Greece. We flew over Albania on the way to Athens - with, Deo 
Gratias, perfect weather and 100% visibility - and the mountainous 
regions of Albania are incredibly rugged and desolate.  Needless to 
say, as an HP fan, I was glued to my window, binoculars in hand, 
scouting for possible Dark Lord spiderholes.  The awesome Albanian 
mountains look like the Dakota Badlands, only ten times worse. A 
perfect hideout for the Dark Lord!  - not even the most intrepid 
Auror would be eager to pursue him there 

BTW, the best movie I've ever seen about Albania was a 1995 Italian 
movie titled L'America (directed by Gianni Amelio). I just checked 
Amazon and it does not seem to be out on DVD as yet. The film is set 
in 1991 (the year the Marxian regime collapsed), and concerns two 
corrupt Italian businessmen who enter Albania hoping to set up a 
bogus shoe-making plant. But they need a native Albanian to chair 
their corporation, and they select a man who - well, the film opens 
with old 1930s newsreels of Mussolini's troops entering Albania as 
liberators, and.....they select an elderly newly-liberated prisoner 
who turns out to be an Italian soldier first sent by Mussolini but 
then imprisoned for life by Evner Hoxha's Communist regime. The poor 
man, in his 80s, is in an advanced state of senility, and..  well, I 
won't give away any more of the plot (except to say: remember those 
old clothes you gave to the Salvation Army in 1983? - here's your 
chance to see where they wound up), but this is a film I strongly 
recommend once it becomes DVD-available. And why is a movie about 
Italians in Albania titled "L'America"? - you won't know until the 
very end!

   - CMC