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Published: September 26th 2022
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Plane sentry
At Tirana Airport The journey back over the long and winding road from Theth to the main SH1 highway on Saturday morning was a comparative doddle compared to the drive over on Wednesday. Maybe it was the time of day, who knows.
However, the main highway was as if everyone and their dog had bought their car out for a drive. We had extended sections of driving at barely 40 or 50 km per hour for most of the journey back towards Tirana. You can almost understand the impatience of some drivers and why they overtake in stupid positions. Remember our reference in Albania blog 1 to the number of roadside flowers.
And, along one stretch of road there was a hold up. As we approached we passed a small car stopped in the middle of the road, facing the direction we were travelling. There were people about, particularly on the other side of the road from us. There were also some car parts on the verge - bumper (fender for our American readers) and the like.
And then we saw in the field, about 10 feet or so below road level, a mini-bus lying on its side, facing the opposite
direction. Wonder if the car had overtaken causing the van to avoid? Wonder if anyone was hurt?
So, not the greatest place for driving.
Given the traffic levels we ducked out of taking the hire car into town - we had booked and paid a small fee for this but the given drop-off address was indistinct on Google maps, nor were we sure we would make it before office closing time. So we went back to the airport, dropped it off there, and caught the bus to town.
First impressions of Tirana are of a bustling, "typical" capital city. Heavy traffic, bicycles, modern developments / cranes.
There is a very noticeable coffee (bar and cake) culture here too, and not a Starbucks in sight. We have nothing specific against 'Bucks - it's reliable, you know what you're getting and there's always the free WiFi. But we much prefer to find local shops, and keep 'Bucks for if there is nothing else.
But the main streets here are lined with coffee bars, mostly open to the pavement /street. And a lot sell pastries and patisserie to die for. The only problem, for us, is the actual
What's this monstrosity
Seen on the way in from airport coffee. Very biased towards those small, black, intense Turkish-style coffee and not all to our preference of latte or cappuccino. And, so far, all the lattes have come with a drinking straw - what's that all about??
At the centre of the city is a very large, open, marble paved public square, bounded by some of Tirana's important buildings - old mosque, opera/ballet House, National History Museum and others. The actual paving slabs were brought from every region of the country.
However, at the next "level" out from the square there are already built and still being built a number of out of keeping tower blocks.
In particular, towering over the square, they are building an Intercontinental Hotel. It must be 30 storeys or more. Due to open in 2025 it will have 300+ rooms, conference facilities for 1000+, restaurants, casino, spa, creche, parking...
It's all very well but it totally dominates the skyline. And coming into Tirana from the West, along one of its main arteries, you can see that the high hills that surround Tirana were visible as a backdrop but are now totally blocked from view from that direction.
Our Explore guide
had quite a lot to say about this on Monday but we'll leave that for the next blog.
After a bit of r&r we took an initial look around the city centre.
It turned out that the Tirana International Film Festival started on Saturday evening, and we happened to be passing by the Red Carpet as some people were arriving.
We guess they were "stars" given the way that official cameras and public camera phones were being pushed in their direction. Looked like they had been guided (?) to come in movie-star fancy dress. So a Marilyn Monroe looky-likey in the famous white dress arrived in a Volkswagen beetle and thrust her "assets" through the crowd. There were a couple of Blues Brothers, and someone - blind, with a stick and a guide - who may or may not have been playing a part.
Just up from here was a gentrified castle ruin that had been made over with a double row of restaurants, retail, bars and the like.
Using the "Tirana Free WiFi" - which we are finding in all the city's public spaces, and which is giving us a stronger, more reliable and
much faster service than anything our hotel can provide - we established that an Italian restaurant in there, with a reasonable menu, was number 5 on TripAdvisor. So that did us for Saturday evening.
And very nice it was too, despite Paul not realising until he took the first mouthful of his pasta that the peperoncino referred to in his dish was essentially chilli flakes. Fortunately there was enough tomato and mozzarella salad, and beer to mitigate the effects.
The Albanians we have met and spoken with, the bar and restaurant staff and the like, are all very friendly. A lot of good English spoken. And we have met several who have spent time in or have links to people in England. Several of them drive English-registered cars.
But there are many also of a certain "look". We're sure they would be very pleasant to know too. But, with their work-out bodies, black t-shirt 2 sizes too small, razor cut hair and skinny black jeans or track suit, they have the look of "central casting-school baddy, will die in the first shoot out" and you can't help feeling they would mug you in an instant.
Sunday,
a full day to ourselves before the first Explore trip get together at 6pm, saw us walking around 10 miles return trip to take in one of Tirana's main attractions.
Bunk'Art 1 is a former cold war bunker. Built into a neighbouring hill-side, this 5 level nuclear proof (well, that was the theory) bunker was a personal project of Enzer Hoxha. Started in 1971 - the same year as the Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe book was published - and completed in 1978, Hoxha barely saw the inside of it. By all accounts he only visited it twice.
It is now a museum for Albania history from the invasion by Mussolinni's fascist Italian forces in 1939 through its liberation, conversion into a communist state and on until the death of Hoxha in 1985 and slightly beyond, after which Albania had free elections and a movement to democracy.
You can't imagine what the living conditions would have been like for those who spent any time down there, though of course it wasn't ever used for its ultimate purpose.
106 offices carved out into the hillside, with a couple of multi - room suites for Hoxha and the Prime
Minister. And in its centre a conference hall seating around 120.
And, of course, it would have been for the "ruling elite" rather than anyone useful.
There was a room given over to the building of the bunkers that we referred to in the previous blog.
The idea apparently came after a visit to N Korea in 1964. To quote from the display in that room:-
"In 1971 the 12th Plenum of the Central Committee of the PPSH headed by Enver Hoxha, started with the programme of bunkerisation of Albania, which remained operational from 1971 to 1983. In this period were planned to be built 221143 bunkers but were built *only* 173371. More or less one for every 11 residents. During this period of construction.... with an average of 21000 bunkers built per year, hundreds of soldiers and civils died due to accidents at work. They are among the victims of communism that are still forgotten today."
Not many photos as they were supposedly" not allowed" but we've managed to include a couple here.
We met up with the Explore guide and the rest of the group (well almost - one person missed their flight
Monstrous towdr
A new Intercontinental Hotel being built next to the main square and is joining us in the morning, Monday ). There are 18 of us, which we think is the largest Explore group we have been part of.
All the usual general "what's happening over the next couple of days" stuff, money, tips, water etc before 8 off us went in the direction of the city's market to find somewhere to eat. And successful we were too, managing to get a couple of tables put together at a small key place that was mostly frequented by locals - usually a good sign.
Simple fare - soup, salads, some small grill items, but just what each of us wanted to have. Plus a little alcohol too.
Busy first full Explore day on Monday, so we will do a separate blog for that later.
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