The Ionian coast is the Mediterranean the rest of Europe forgot to ruin. Cliffs drop straight into water so clear the boats look like they’re floating on air, and the villages above them still run on a code older than the country itself.
That code is Besa: the sacred Albanian promise of honor and hospitality that decides who is let in, and what is owed to a guest once they are. It cannot be bought, and it cannot be faked. It anchors the entire episode, because in Albania, nothing worth having is open to the public.
It is where the season begins, and where you first meet Liz with the phone put away. By day, she jumps the cliff at Gjipe and forages juniper and mountain herbs with the people who have picked them for generations. By night, the episode moves to Tirana and into Nouvelle Vague, one of the World’s 50 Best Bars, where those same foraged botanicals end up in the glass. The drink is the destination. The person who made it is the story.
