The Balkan Prince

Every door in the old town wears a doll. Ask why, and no one will answer you.

Come to the Albanian coast for the cheap wine and the gold evenings, and you'll never notice what the locals do - the little grey teddy bears hung by the neck over every doorway, the garlic braided beside them, the way no one who lives here will look up at the ruined house on the hill after dark.

They've kept the same silence for a thousand years, and the same terrible bargain: Feed the hill, and it leaves your ch...