Tirana Capital of Albania

Tirana - A Young Capital

I did not expect to enjoy Tirana. I thought it would be one of those big, chaotic, dirty, polluted capital cities that you just can’t wait to get out of. I figured one night there would be more than enough. Like many places you have to go through the capital to get to most other places. It turned out to be much more interesting and manageable than I expected.

Olditmers singing and playing music near main square

Before we got here a European couple we met in a restaurant referred to Tirana as a “young” capital and by European standards it is young. It become the capital in 1920. Mostly because of its central location. It feels new and like it is still trying to figure out who it is. In many ways it remained me more of a large city in a less developed country, than a European capital. Except it had some of the aspects of Europe, like low violent crime, pubic transportation that works, cafes every where and clean bathrooms, that I appreciate.

Used books for sale  by the river:

Today you can feel and see the vestiges of Albanian style Communism contrasted with the growth and surge in capitalism since the fall of Communism. Every thing looks modern. The communists did not leave much of the past around. They loved big things, big sculpture, big building, big bold statements. 

This pyramid was going to be in honor of Enver Hoxha the dictator. It has been abandoned, never opened for that purpose. No one had anything good to say about him.

  

These two buildings are painted bright colors because the former mayor of Tirana, now president, was originally a painter/artist. No one had anything good to say about him either.

We went on a “Free” walking tour and got an excellent education on the recent, since WW11 history of Albania as well as the growth of Tirana. We learned that all the communist sculptures were taken down and some destroyed. The photos below are of a few saved behind the art museum, way out of sight unless you know to go there.

Being in Albania and other Eastern European countries and especially meeting and taking with people here has given me a different understanding of communism. It played out very differently from country to country, but there are similarities besides the architecture. People my age often had less opportunities. Spying on each other was a very real experience for many people and led to trauma that these cultures will be dealing with for a very long time. 

The Bunker museum above, in Tirana illustrated the reality of spying on each other and labor camp/prisons, some said to be the equivalent of concentration camps, that existed in Albanian. Much of this we know next to nothing about because the country was so closed off to the rest of the world for so long. How the country deals with these past traumas will probably decide a lot about how it grows and develops in the future.

There is only one older mosque left in Tirana. In the 1976 the party of the dictator, Enver Hoxha, declared Albanian the first atheist country in the world and made all religions illegal, destroying many mosques and churches. Today people are eager to rebuild and practice their right to observe whatever religion they want. There are various forms of both Christianity, the Orthodox Albanian church probably being the largest, and Islam now having a resurgence. That said we did not meet many devout people of any religion in our travels.

One night here did not really feel like enough. If I come back I will take more time to explore the capital. But we went on to a very different city and UNESCO World heritage site, Gyrokaster.

Shkoder Part 2- Markets and Minarets

Shkoder Part 2 - Markets and Minarets

Dear Blog Readers,

I just want people who read this to know how much I appreciate having you for an audience. It makes writing this feel worthwhile and fun. I know there are 5-6 of you who are reading this whenever I post and another 5 or so who read it sometimes. I am enjoying writing it but the program, Blogger, is really frustrating to use on the ipad. Goggle will not let me reply to your comments if you comment on the blog. I can’t figure out why, I have tried. I thought about migrating the whole thing to Wordpress but I am not sure I want to do that from my ipad or if it would even work. SO thank you for reading and commenting. I will do my best to respond to comments via email. Please include your name with your comment so I can do that. Thanks!

Shkoder Part 2 -

Back in Shkoder we spent two nights at a nice hotel as a treat. This cost 50 $ for a suite in contrast to 20$ for a private room in a hostel. I was ready to have a bathroom we did not have to share and just a little more comfort. We got a lot more comfort! Breakfast was included and it went beyond the US style hotel breakfast to include freshly made crepes and poached eggs. It felt luxurious and the people treated us great. 

A corner of our fancy suite:

We explored Shkoder some more including hiking up to the castle ruins and of course I went all over the market. Now lots of photos from the market, including two left over from the Kotor, Montenegro market. I love markets!

We met a woman who makes traditional costumes and heard the amazing story of how she and her American friend, who was visiting, met.

We have had many short interactions and connections with Albanians who usually seem so happy to talk and share their culture and country with you.

I loved hearing the call to prayer in the morning and the evening. Although we did not go inside any mosques I found their presence fascinating,  maybe because they just seems like a normal part of the landscape. And a part we don’t see often at home.

An old man on a bus told us all about his life in a combination of Italian, English and Albanian. His main point was people should not fight but be friends. Many older people here speak Italian and there is Italian influence in the cuisine. During the closed communist years ( post WWII till about 1990) Italian radio was one of the only ties to the outside world. Getting caught listening to it was not good. We learned a lot more about how the culture here was formed and effected by communism in at our next stop, the capital, Tirana.

Northern Albania - Beautiful Nature, Beautiful Spirit

Northern Albania-

Shkoder- The Accursed Mountains - Shkoder Again

Dave kept asking me why we were going to Albania. He seemed to imply we should rush through and get to Corfu, Greece, which is where we fly out o to get back to Northern Europe. And them we got to Albania and all that changed. This country is the best surprise so far, full of natural beauty, a complex and unique history and people with pure spirit.

Our first stop was Shkoder the largest city in the north. We spent two nights in a simple apartment that is part of a hostel. The town has several wide pedestrian streets where everyone moves out at night to stroll or stop in one of the many cafes for coffee or a beer, to get a gelato or just watch the people go by. Why Santa Cruz can’t get it together to have a pedestrian street is something we wonder every time we experience one, which is often because it seems every town in Europe has one.

Part of the Pedestrian Street

Old Men Playing Dominos, A common scene thought Albania

Old Men riding bikes - Dave did a whole series on this. Shkoder is a bike town, everyone seems to get round on bikes.

We took an excellent “Free” walking tour the next day. “Free” because you give a tip/donation at the end. This one was done by a young American woman who came to Albania with the Peace Corp and ended up marrying an Albanian and staying. She knew the history of the town and Albanian very well. We visited sites around the downtown area and learned how the town had changed over time. This part of Albania never supported the communist regime and so suffered a lot during that time, which lasted from the end of WW ll till the early 90s. It is one of the oldest towns in Europe because it is on a lake and river that flow into the sea and put it on all the trade routes. We loved the feel of this town, big enough for there to be things to do, not very touristy and not too rush rush.

This is a traditional Ottoman style house. There are now very few in Northern Albania as the communists knocked most of them down. This one is a museum.

We also visited the Photography museum here which chronicles the history of how photography came to Albania. An amazing archive of photos illustrate the history of the country and help you better understand through visuals the feeling and lives of the people.

Dave acting Albanian

One of the main reasons we came here was to organize a trip into the “Accursed Mountains”, also know as the Albanian alps, to do a well know hike. The hostel organized the transport and first night lodging. We went with a group of about 24 via mini vans to the ferry boat. This boat ride is touted as one of the most beautiful in Europe. It is three hours to cross a lake that is man made by dams that create hydro electric power. The boat was way over crowded and it was very windy and cold. Nice enough scenery but it did not live up to its reputation for us and we were glad to get off the boat and into the next mini van. So after about 8 hours of travel we arrived at a house and lodge (under construction Iike many things here) in the middle of no where, with towering mountains on all sides. 

We arrived in Valbona which is not really a town but some farms, homes and lodges for hikers strewn across a valley surrounded by high mountains. Our hostess Faride was amazing.

 Shortly after we arrived on one big outdoor table she served lunch to everyone; home made bean soup, home made pasta, salad, bread, yogurts with bell peppers, goat cheese, olives. SO much food! Most of our group were 20-30 year olds. We all stuffed ourselves. Dave and I took a walk in the nearby area after, admiring the views and the crystal clean water in the stream. I helped when dinner was being served and enjoyed talking with Faride who speaks English and German as well as Albanian. I got the recipe for the dessert she made which Dave and I both loved. I hope I can recreate it at home. She had the most wonderful manner, one of those people you want to hang around and learn more about. It was cold so after dinner we all went to bed pretty much. And we had a big day ahead.

 Below is a video of Faride’s  home and lodge :

In the morning it was really cold. We had a huge breakfast before we headed off. I exchanged contact information with Faride. I really hope to stay in touch. Then the hike began.

Start of the Hike to Theth

It was maybe the most difficult hike I have ever done. You go up and up and up. Its gets really steep and the rocky parts are very loose rock so you have to really pay attention. I kept thinking of my friend Jasmin who broke her ankle hiking the Alps and had to be rescued. In Albania there is no rescue team. So I was being very careful.  In the most civilized way there are several cafes along the hike. Here you are on the side of a mountain and suddenly you come apron a cafe with a clean bathroom and hot and cold drinks, some snacks all nicely laid out. We stopped at one on the way up and on the way down.

 Below Cafe Kitchen wiht BAthroom in Backgrouond

Getting to the top was a lot of work but I felt like I had accomplished something for sure. Getting down was even harder because of the loose rocks and how focused you had to be. But we came for the hike and we did it! Only took us a couple hours longer than the young-uns!

The village you arrive in on the other side is called Theth. This side of the mountains and this valley in particular is more developed than where we started out.  We stayed at the first of the many lodges we came to after coming off the trail. We slept really well!

We considered staying in Theth longer because there are more short hikes but the weather turned and it started raining so we went back to Shkoder. 

More in Shkoder Part 2- This program is so hard to work with on my ipad I need to take a break! If you write a comment I can’t respond on the blog for some reason. But I do read them!

View at sunset from our hotel in Shkoder . Minarets of a mosque on the right.