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 18th 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.