Dusty Tirana

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Hi Everybody!
We enjoyed our stay in Durres. Part of the blog that I wrote there did not print. While we were there, we saw a mosque and a Greek Orthodox Church. I don't know how much of the population is Muslim. We have seen a few women with modest scarves - no black burkas. Many of the older women are dressed completely in black with an occasional white head scarf. They must be Greek Orthodox. Late in the afternoon, they close the main street in Durres to automobile traffic. Families stroll up and down the street together.
This morning, we walked to the bus terminal and got on a bus for Tirana. When it was about three fourths full, it left (30 min. early.) Another bus pulled into its place for the same destination. The bus had AC, was very comfortable, and the ride took about 1 hour. We passed fields of grape vines and corn. We saw sheep, cows, and tall haystacks - the old fashioned kind. As we were boarding the bus, a man walked by me carrying a plastic bag of okra. Another guy tried to sell us some bananas. He had a bathroom scale for weighing them. We have expected to see tall gray Soviet apartment buildings like we have seen in Estonia and Slovakia. We have seen only old apartments that have been painted on the side by the street. The other sides have big splotches where plaster has fallen off of them. As we passed through small towns, I noticed women selling clothing. The clothing would be piled on a long piece of cloth . It would be piled as high as your waist. I noticed jackets, jeans, bras, etc. I saw people trying on the outer garments - no bras!!! A man across the aisle from me had something strange in his hand. It looked like a fuzzy caterpillar on a small piece of white tissue. I asked him - using my hands - "What is it?" He showed me that he was rolling cigarettes. He couldn't smoke on the bus but was using his time to make cigs. He thought it was funny that I didn't recognize the finely chopped tobacco. The bus let us off at an intersection of the highway and the main street of the capital city of Tirana. We immediately saw a billboard welcoming President Bush of the U.S.A. to Tirana for a visit on June 10, 2007. The main street was in pretty good condition, but every side road looked like someone had taken a jackhammer to it. The pavement would be sparse and mostly dirt and gravel. This problem creates lots of dust! We purchased bus tickets to Thessalonika, Greece for tomorrow morning. We found a reasonable hotel, had lunch, and visited the market. There seems to be very little handicrafted products for sale. One shop owner told me he got most of his merchandise from Turkey and China. I would suspect it will take Albania a few more years to recover from Communist rule and internal strife. The people are friendly and seem to like America.
We are hoping that once we get to Greece, we will be able to use the train system to get to Macedonia and Bulgaria. In Albania, buses are the only transportation that we have found for getting to Greece.
Take care,
E

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