Honest question I find myself asking these days about new places: are you generally safe flashing some wealth in Albania, as a single foreigner? Like for example nice car, camera, phone, mountain bike.. or best to keep a low profile?
https://landgeistdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/europe-r...
This is surprising to most americans, but the Western EU countries are the least safe when it comes to mugging, stealing, and general crime.
Maybe it is family values, or the fact that many people have immigrated to work in the richer countries, countries in the Balkans are really chill and crime free. The only danger is driving, as the drivers are probably not the best and roads can be tight.
lol! yeah balkans has many schumachers, of all ages and genders too :)
This map would also be surprising to Europeans.
This map was generated based on data from Eurostat, "who bases these number on police reports from each country." (sic, cf. https://landgeist.com/2021/10/12/robbery-rate/).
So... the obvious question, then, is how many robberies do not result in a police reports in each country, and how good each country is at reporting all robberies to Eurostat.
I suspect that this map is more of a reflection of the rate of reporting for robberies than the actual rate of robberies, which is why the map is so surprising: it's misleading and does not reflect reality.
FWIW, I cannot imagine anyone in Serbia being robbed without reporting it to police (and since you usually lose your ID document if it's your wallet or purse, you have to go to police to report it stolen/lost and get a new one issued), unless it's something like multiple gangs against each other.
What I can imagine not being reported are attempted-but-failed robberies, but that strikes me as something anyone anywhere would not report to avoid the hassle for no gain.
However, there was also some very nice streets with new bars and restaurants. Like a lot of people had recently been pouring cash into the place which is always a good sign.
The people who I met were always super friendly and outgoing too, some of the most friendly I’ve experienced.
1. scams as tourist (should be easy to avoid: a) know the exchange rate and the local purchasing power, i.e. think if a local paid $500 per month would buy the thing, b) don't take almost anything offered "for free" unless it's from already trusted persons)
2. theft; not robbery, theft (your stuff might get stolen when you're not around; robbery or outright violence is rare, maybe even rarer than Western Europe, but you know, poor people, expensive stuff, it's going to be tempting)
People are very welcoming.
BTW and fwiw, I loved being in Albania, also Macedonia. Bulgaria was cool, and Romania is crazy hilarious.