Advertisement
Published: November 26th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We woke this morning with the intention of getting a croissant from the patisserie on our road however when we got there it was less of a patisserie and more of a bar.
I wanted to see the "Grand Park" which is located right behind our hotel. From reading about it we believed it to be not too dissimilar to the park in Chisinau except we hoped it would better looked after. Inside the park we were confronted with a multitude of directions to go and settled for the grassy path up the hill. At the top was a small graveyard / memorial area and between us and the lake was a open air theatre. The theatre had been built during the concrete era; concrete steps, concrete stage and concrete seats. All the concrete had the tell tale signs of age with graffiti, cracks and visible rusted metal reinforcements.
We continued down to the lake which had a few old fishermen lining its banks. A couple of curious concrete structures, which looked like piers on stilts, stood in the water with seemingly no purpose. Across the tranquil water Tirana seemed to spill out and around the lake; in truth
looking out was more city-like than back towards the centre from where we had come.
Further round the lake a few dilapidated cafés and vendors spotted the park leading up to the dam which created the feature. As we walked across the dam the left side was trees, lake, floating boats and fishermen but the right side was urban wasteland. High-rise flats littered the skyline surrounding a rusty and faded fun fair. Car washing companies sprouted from the bottom of the dam with pipes that actually went up the dam, across the footpath and then down the other side into the lake; draining the lake for small monetary gain.
Halfway along the dam, confronted by a mass of youths walking towards us, we turned around and went to leave the park. Without a pain-aux-raisin to start the day; we were in need of some sustenance and headed to the closest place which claimed to have sandwiches. After perusing a faux English menu (including delights such as swine and hen) we chose two ambiguously titled sandwiches and a salad. The food was not exactly as expected but we reluctantly consumed it anyway.
In the centre we went to,
and I quote, "the tower of clock". Unfortunately this clock tower was only open on certain days and this was certainly not the day as it was locked. Unperturbed we carried on to the central market described by In Your Pocket Guide saying "...captures the spirit of the country in an explosion of colour, people and fresh produce" but I wouldn't exactly say it was 100% accurate. This may be no fault of its own but more that only weeks before we were in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar either way it was somewhat lacking.
Regular power cuts in Tirana mean that traffic lights are not wholly reliable. The wild drivers in their Mercedes throughout Tirana are therefore herded by the worlds finest traffic police; they stand in the middle of everything, with no amour or helmets, blue in the face from whistling and frantically beckoning and halting cars swooshing past them.
Tonight was England's last chance to save face in European football and so we needed to find somewhere to watch it. We opted for the obvious Irish Pub in the guide named 'Irish Bar'. Alas we couldn't find any trace of it so we nipped into an internet
Urban Wasteland
Car Washes and Fun Fair café to see if the net knew of anywhere but it didn't turn up any gems either. Although we did manage to get tickets to see Emilie Autumn in Sheffield again in April! Steph asked the guy working in the café and he pointed to a massive screen and projector across the street. This would have been good if it wasn't freezing at 9 at night as the screen was outside. With a backup secured we soon found several places who claimed to show the game and settled for one with patio heaters inside.
Back in the hotel I wrote another diary entry (Steph's finding them to be a chore every now and then) whilst Steph took a shower and does whatever she does before England games. With two hours until the game we went to Serendipity, a fusion restaurant, for a bit of grub. We had some lovely Mexican food with plenty of sizzling and another salad. Greek salads are pretty much universal so are a great veggie safety net.
On to the game...err...well...enough said. Although we got free crisps with every beer and management bought us free drinks ( I think he took pity on us
), England managed to ruin the experience. After the game we had a discussion as to why on earth the starting line up was so rubbish and what Maclaren was up to before going to bed. Roll on 2010! Night night. Stob.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.232s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 26; qc: 137; dbt: 0.1407s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Brian
non-member comment
Sick as a........
Hi Stob Glad you ate and enjoyed life before the England match, because it was enough to make you sick as a chip, well now McClaren gone and joy of joys Croatia again in the world cup qualifiers ah well life goes on