A day in Tirana

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Tirana

June 11th

Tirana is not my favorite city in terms of things to do and places to see for the quick traveler . That being said, it reminds me much of my 'hometown' of Cairo Egypt, with the pseudo-third world feel. This city is not one of outstanding beauty and great historical monuments, although there is much history to the region.

We stayed at a little hostel/hotel near the center of the city, and it was by far one of the worst places we've stayed at so far, as well as one of the most expensive at 20€/person per night. For that we got two really, really lumpy uncomfortable beds and a shower situated directly over the toilet (which leaked the dirty bowl water from the base!) making it quite hard to shower. But I didn’t come on this trip for the luxuries, the only reason I was upset was the price. Give me a crap room I don’t care, but don’t make me pay for good money for it!

The day we arrived we were so tired from traveling and still hung-over from the night before (never drinking again!), so once we got the room around noon we just crashed tell about 7 that evening. As the sun was fading we belatedly tried to get some sightseeing in, as we had already decided to leave for Kosovo tomorrow (more on that later). We headed out to the main square that had one of the few mosques left that survived the communist rule. The main sight around here was the old residents of the communist rulers. For me, not having much experience in Eastern Europe or other former communist countries, it was quite exciting for me. The buildings were beautifully lit up at night and stood in stark contrast to the rather drab appearance of the rest of the poorly lit city.

We wondered around the streets pretty much aimlessly some more, as the Lonely Planet didn’t have many recommendations for what to see in the city besides the main square. Many of the side streets south of the square were pretty happening places, with side-walk cafés filled everywhere. It looked like a nice places to hang out, but offered little to the tourist. Not knowing anyone, and not willing to put int he effort to try and seek out a nightlife after our rough night last night, we headed home early after establishing where we could buy our bus tickets for Prishtina, Kosvo tommorrow.

Albania traces much of its culture back to Turkish roots, i believe originating from the ottoman invasion of the Balkans back in maybe the 1400’s (somebody correct me if i’m wrong). It was a shift from the Slavic culture of Bulgaria and Macedonia. It was also a shift back into the Muslim world, but not the Muslim world i was used to. Most people drank as far as I could tell, and their religion was more of a private matter than something discussed with stangers (unlike in Egypt where i would get into religious discussions with everyone from taxi drivers to khan merchants). And everyone was very friendly, especially given our lack of Albanian language skills.

Originally we had planned on heading south to see what were supposed to be amazing beaches near the border with Greece, along with some great mountain scenery, but Claire knew a friend in Kosovo who we were going to stay with. Even though the country's small, the poor infrastructure mixed with mountainous terrain meant that it would take forever to go down south and back up to Tirana, where the only bus to Kosovo left from. With time (and money) running short we decided to head up for Prishtina in Kosovo and forgo the south, leave that for another day (I made a promise to myself that someday I would drag my dad back here for some backpacking through the mountains). I’m really sad that we didnt get to go south, but Kosovo turned out to be an amazing place as well.

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Photos

Communist Captial
The old Communist capital buildings

A day in the park
waiting for the bus to Kosovo in downtown Albania

city center
The square in the center of Tirana