In 1991, after the communist government fell and the country opened up, Albanian refugees fleeing to Corfu were housed at the Hotel Acropol temporarily. I remember that time with mixed feelings: gratitude to have at last arrived in the land of my dreams; sadness at how my mother and small children suffered. When some of the refugees left the hotel they trashed everything, broke furniture, sliced open pillows and mattresses. It was terrible.

Hotel Acropol, Corfu, Greece