havecarryonwilltravel

The weather website said it was going to rain. We are to meet at 9am and it’s raining. Not pouring but hard enough. After a short pow wow we, as a group, decide not to start out as planned with the walking part of the day. We spend most of the morning downtown driving in circles looking for a parking space. Not likely in a city that had no cars until 1991 (or there about). The roads are narrow but our guide, C, maneuvers our 10 passenger Ford van in and around the tiny Euro cars in expert fashion. We do part of the walking tour in the van, driving down the main boulevard of Tirana. C explains that there was nothing around the street when it was built and that the city was built around it. It is the backbone of the modern city. The government buildings line the street with all the main cultural and university buildings dispersed in amongst them.

Another group decision points us in the direction of the ‘Nuclear Bunker’, that the dictator commissioned, earlier than planned. There are miles of tunnels, all concrete reinforced, that thread through a mountain in a north Tirana suburb. The entrance is guarded by several massive steel and concrete doors. Beyond is a network of tunnels. living quarters, military operation areas, communication rooms, a decontamination shower, a small theatre for propaganda dispersion and many, many more small rooms that were not defined. We only covered a very small portion of it and it took about an hour.

After a short break for lunch, we were headed back downtown to do the walking tour of the town center. The rain had stopped so reversing the order of the plan worked out quite well. After taking in a bit of the long-ago history of Albania and how it came to be what it is today we were off to visit the House of Leaves. This was the center of operations of the secret service, the Sigurimi, that was operational during the time when Albania was ruled by the dictator Hoxha. The ‘police’ force under the command of the completely mad dictator was ruthless. torturing and killing thousands of people that were thought to be a threat to the all-mighty leader. Paranoia played a big part of it. But as Hoxha had declared religion to be illegal, making Albania the world’s first atheist state, the religious leaders also fell to the sword.

A view of the very shocking conditions under which the Albanians lived for fifty years was somewhat depressing. Their history up till the end of WWII was one of strength and heroism. Even though they had been occupied several times over the last 2000 plus years they always emerged as Albania (or what we know as Albania). Then some nut gets appointed leader and they live in a country from which no one can leave and no one can enter for 50 years. Once again, these proud people of this area are dragging themselves from obscurity and making a country worth living in.

Today we are headed to Parku i Madh i Tiranes (Tirana Lake Park). It was built in 1956/57 using a plan of a Bulgarian designer. The park is 230 hectares, the lake itself is 55 hectares. The park sports 120 different species of trees, including what looks like maple trees!

On the way we walk through the Tirana Castle. An 18^th century castle that has been repurposed as a mall. It is nicely done and not your standard image when you think of a mall. Smaller shops and upscale restaurants.

Arriving at the edge of the park our eyes follow the trail up, up and up. Holy, that is one steep climb. Half way up we find a bench in the shade and rest a bit. Walk up takes its toll and the heat just multiplies the effect. As we sit, a young couple with the same idea walk past to the next shaded bench. I didn’t feel so bad watching people less than ½ our ages doing the same thing. We make it to the apex and the route down is just as steep, but we didn’t need a rest on the way down.

When we reach the lake there is an unoccupied bench that is perfect to watch the world pass by. It’s Sunday and the locals are out strolling. There is a constant stream of people walk by. Most are just strolling and enjoying the weather. It is not so far away from winter so they are making the most of it.

Debbie makes note of a few things. The number of people attached to dogs. Hardly any. Out of the hundreds of people that walk by maybe a dozen have a dog in tow (or visa versa).

The other thing is the number of children. Kids 6 or 8 and younger that are out and about with their parents. The proportion is much higher than North America for sure and I think greater than anywhere we have been in the past few years.

We walked a short distance along the lake shore and looking back we noticed what looked like a way out that did not require the walk up and down the ‘mountain’ we arrived over.

The walk home was a random stroll. We knew the general direction we needed to go so we just walked. Funny, as things go, we managed to walk along 3 of the same roads we traversed yesterday. Hell, we have only been here two days and already we can’t get lost.

Today Tirana, tomorrow Berat.

Note from Debbie – Remember in my first post I mentioned to always watch where I walk? Yeah, I got complacent as the sidewalk looked flat, stepped on something uneven and BOOM down I went. I have a real nice bruise on the inside of my wrist, no broken bones, just injured pride.

We go for our first real walk in Tirana today. Our destinations are a pyramid and a SPAR Market (to buy items more suitable for Debbie’s breakfast).

The sidewalks have rough spots, tippy flag stones and protruding sections that are waiting for an unsuspecting tourist to trip on. I have my eye on the ground constantly watching for these lurking beasts. Many sidewalks are narrow so we walk in single file. Other folks out this morning, walk s..l..o..w, so we scoot around them, although I am not walking fast, too busy looking down.

Tirana is filled with small parks. As there are many apartment blocks here, the children need places to play, so the parks fill that need. The buildings, both residential and commercial are a mix of modern and what looks to be communist era, there are no mid century buildings. It makes sense since Albania ceased to be communist in 1992.

We wander past a large mosque and then climb The Pyramid of Tirana. A steep climb up gives us some height to view Tirana. The pyramid was originally museum and mausoleum for Hoxha, who ruled Albania in an oppressive communist regime for four decades. After communism collapsed, the pyramid fell into disrepair until 2021 when it was refurbished and re imagined.

Our next mission is the SPAR Market, a Dutch company that we discovered on our bike trip through the Netherlands. We have a printed map off Google and some written notes to help us find it. Yeah, yeah, paper, not digital. We are learning that not everyone here speaks English. As we are sitting on a wall along the sidewalk, we are trying to guess which passersby would speak English, so we can confirm what street we are on. Not so obvious!

We finally locate the store, and realize the P.B. is cheaper at the store near our hotel. Between the pyramid and the SPAR, we walk through an area called Blloku, an upscale area full of shops, restaurants and bars. There are not so many people here as near our hotel. Perhaps a lack of tourists. We notice there are always locals sitting in the cafes drinking coffee and chatting. A morning ritual?

Our first day in the heat is taking a toll (on Debbie) so we head back to the hotel to cool off and rest our feet (Debbie’s). We did pretty good for day one. We have scoped out a couple of restaurants for supper, so we will explore the local cuisine tonight.

Years ago, we wrote about stepping through a portal, into a metal tube and then reemerging from the portal in another country. This morning we enter the portal and then numerous tubes and find ourselves in Tirana, Albania. Why Albania? Why not!

Considering Albania is not well know, the airport is very crowded. I think it must be getting popular. Flying along the coast, from Frankfurt, the water and beaches look marvellous. The country side is arid, groves of trees, perhaps olives. 

Entry into the country takes about two seconds as they, similar to Australia, have passport scanners and photo recognition. Since we are travelling carryon, we cruise through the baggage claim to go find the Luna Bus that runs a service between the airport and Tirana for 400 Lek, or about $7 Cdn.

The traffic around the airport is stop and go, mostly stop and a little bit go. Once clear of the airport environs we pick up speed, and then when we get inside Tirana, we revert to mostly go and a lots of stop. We get off the bus at the last stop of the bus, near Skanderbeg Square, and get hit with the 28C heat. 

Tirana is a big city, with traffic and pedestrians and tourists. We are figuring out how to properly cross the streets, who has the right of way. We read menus of all the restaurants we pass, gauging what is expensive and what is not. A couple of small stores get our business as we buy Coca Cola and then water. 

We are going to go for supper soon and then allow ourselves to pass out from severe lack of sleep.Talk tomorrow.