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Monday 16 April 2018

The Final Countdown. Day 15: Tirana




As we had gone shopping the night before, we had some supplies for breakfast instead of our usual muesli. We bought some eggs, (12lek each), some canned mushroom (because there were no fresh fruits or veggies here), some strange small slices of bread and some cream cheese to use instead of butter. Dan did a great job pulling it all together with our limited utensils, and we topped it off with a juice. This will likely be our standard whenever we stay in an apartment. This way we were also able to make ourselves some sandwiches for lunch.

These were cream cheese, sardines (the actual meat was horribly expensive) and cheese - let's see if this would be really awful! They actually turned out to be ok, thankfully!

I got a bit sidetracked watching Shrek on the tv while getting dressed do we ended up having to rush a bit to the starting point of our walking tour near the opera house.

We found ourselves in a giant open square with the opera house on the far side. A few other tourist looking people were milling about and we found what looked to be a guide.

The walking tour went for a bit over two hours and I have to say it was one of the most interesting tours I have been on. Due to the relatively recent opening up of Albania, our guide, who I think said he was 41 years old, grew up under the strict communist regime and would have been a teenager when it collapsed. His first hand accounts were brilliant and he encouraged questions, always answering with tongue in cheek humour.

He explained how every stone slab in the giant open square came from and represented a different region of Albania. How in the summer, it would flood with water to keep cool, which just made it look like a "giant toilet floor".

I can't go into the history of this incredible country: it's too much to go into. Essentially they felt brief freedom between WWI and WWII, before being plunged into one of the most strict communist regimes of the time, only lifted in 1992. Much of our tour revolved around the communist era and what came after which was truly fascinating. 

"In Albania, cars were forbidden. In 1992, Cars came. Next day everyone was a driver." This explains the driving!

From 1967-1991 it was forbidden to practice religion. Most religious buildings were destroyed - those that remained were kept as "museums". 

Across the years, Hoxha, the communist leader, slowly cut ties with all former allies and countries, closing the country entirely. First it was all non-communist countries. Next, their neighbour Yuogoslavia - wasn't communist enough. So the borders were shut. After the death of Stalin, upon whom the regime took great inspiration, Russia relaxed its communist ways and again - want communist enough for Albania.  Albania had one last ally - China. Until eventually in the 70s it was decided they weren't following communism well enough, and the last ties to the outside world were cut. This caused a devastating blow to the economy which was also struggling but to the people inside - they were being told that they were still better off than anywhere else in the world!

He explained how everyone was brainwashed into thinking the rest of the world was much much worse off than Albania. The limited news they would hear would be carefully selected to show other places in bad light. Strikes. Protests. Disease. 

Other stories he regaled us with included that of his own family. 
"Before," said his father, "there were no car accidents." "There were no cars to have accidents!"
"Tirana used to be so much cleaner!" "That's because we had nothing to throw away!"

Our guide Gazi would constantly refer to his water bottle as a small symbol of what they never had. The convenience, the colours, the freshness. He also told us about how he himself had been brainwashed - for instance, if you saw a man with longer than regulation hair or an unshaven face (as it was illegal to grow a beard), it was his *duty* to tell someone. These days he sports a beard, and his family members still can't quite get used to it. 

We continued walking and came to a Catholic Church with a statue of Mother Teresa and St Paul seemingly taking a selfie. We wondered why we had seen so much of her here considering Macedonia claims her. Apparently she was born in Macedonia but to Albanian parents. While here, Gazi explained that while under communism, Mother Teresa visited Albania. "I'd like to open a house for the poor."
The response? "There are no poor people in Albania!"
After the fall of communist she returned, and discovered EVERYONE was poor!

To try to lift the spirits of the people once it was a democracy, the Prime Minuster started having things painted bright colours. New buildings or buildings that have been renovated are bright oranges or with vibrant patterns. On all electricity meters there's a painting - often of some cartoon character. Our guide told us that there had been a famous illegal artist in Tirana, and he was made the Chief of Decoration! Also, there are painted sunflowers everywhere. I need to look up why this is. 



The walking tour took us in a big loop - as I said we were more interested in his stories! We passed a few churches/mosques, all donated by the respective countries that worship that denomination. We visited George W Bush street, and the famous pyramid of Tirana. It was originally built by the dictators daughter as a museum to her father but was later transformed into a cultural centre. It fell into ruin. Now it's a place for young people to hang out and try to climb it if they dare!

Back through a park where we were shown a series of small rounded bunkers - the country was littered with these and if you look carefully through the country you can see the remains of some of them. Past the dictators residence which is in an area called Blloku - originally only the elite could enter here so the moment it was opened to the public it became a space filled with trendy bars and restaurants and high rise buildings. 

The tour was really fascinating and I wish I could remember everything he said. After the tour, Dan and I decided to go try our luck at getting bus tickets for the morrow - as we would already be leaving Tirana for Athens. We managed to find the bus company's office reasonably easily, and got 2 tickets for 3.30pm the next day for €30 each. This was a bit more than I was expecting so it came as a bit of a shock. We will get into Athens at about 6am the following day. 

After the tickets, we passed a supermarket and stocked up on some snacks for tomorrow. We got some cheese and chips and cookies (balanced meal!) and some weird green Fanta and a giant 1.5l plastic bottle of beer. We also grabbed some muesli as our breakie stocks were running low. 

We had promised our apartment manager that we would pop in for home made raki but the day was getting away from us. We returned back to the apartment to drop our things off and discovered our next planned activity would be closing at 4pm and so we had to hurry!

Next up was Bunkart 1. This is a restored giant nuclear bunker that had also been filled with info on the life in Albania as well as some art installations. But it's not so easy to get to. There's also Bunkart 2 in the middle of the city but everyone recommended number 1 so that's what we aimed for. We legged it to the bus station on the other side of the square. All we knew was the bus should be Blue and going to Porcelan. There were two blue buses there, one big and one little, neither saying anything useful. 

A man in a high vis vest came up to bus and said "Bunkart?" and pointed to the little bus. Ok. So we hopped on, even tho I was a bit worried - it said coach and charter on the side. Within minutes the large blue bus left and its sign said Porcelan. Damn. That was the one we needed. Not long after our bus took off and high vis walked around getting everyone's 40lek for the bus ticket. This continues for some time as the bus got more crowded. We stopped for a long time near a stop that said Bunkart 1, and just as the bus was about to leave high vis waves us to get off. Oh. I thought the bus was supposed to stop in front of the bunker?

We ended up having a bit of a walk uphill ahead of us as this bus took us close but not right to the site. A couple of Porcelan buses passed us...
Finally we saw a sign and made our way down a really interesting looking tunnel with cool light and muddy slippery floors. Out we popped on the other side and there was a ticket booth. The time was now about 2.30pm so hopefully we would have enough time. 

We grabbed our tickets and despite the sign, the lady said we could take photos inside. We had to walk up quite a large hill passing old rusty bench chairs and play equipment. 

Bunkart 1 displays the quarters where Hoxha and other officials would have stayed had there been an attack, as well as shows a lot (!) of rooms, most of which have been converted into a museum explaining the modern history of Albania and why they would want or need such an extensive bunker. Paranoia, mostly. 

We skipped over some of this as it went into a great amount of detail and we didn't have all that much time. A lot of this can be wikied later. Inside was also a large assembly hall now turned possible concert or lecture hall. Some of the art was quite thought provoking, one of my favourites being a closed pitch black room with a lantern in the middle - the only light, and the sound of guns and shell fire around you. 


We popped out a little bit before 4pm (it had been freezing down there so I was glad to get out into the 27c air!) near to here was the Dajti Ekspres cable car - the longest in the Balkans. After riding it - i dont doubt that! Tickets only cost €6 return and soon we were in the next car. This is a definite must do it you like beautiful scenery! The ride took about 15 minutes and the cable car swooped low into valleys and then climbed climbed climbed back up into the mountain. Each time you could see a peak you thought this would surely be the end but you'd keep going, into the next valley and up the next mountain. The scenery ahead was beautiful lush green with some ramshackle farms below. To our right was the city of Tirana growing painter and fainter into the distance. It was beautifully peaceful. 

When we reached the top we made our way to the edge to see the view. It was very hazy and while it was a lovely sunny day - the haze made it very hard to make out the city. We sat here for a while and then caught the cable car back down again watching as Tirana became more clear as we approached it. 

This time we caught the Porcelan bus back into the city without any dramas - it really did stop right near the bunkart. No dramas on this bus - we got a seat and it became very squashy later on - two tiny old local ladies squeezed on, were too far away from the ticket man and by the time he came past they squeezed off again - free ride!


We returned to our apartment to do some laundry, try our green Fanta (passionfruit flavour i think) and our giant beer, which was watery, and figure out dinner. We wanted to eat in the blloku area but I was having trouble finding specific places with good reviews. I found one which did local cuisine and so we decided to go there. It was called Restaurant Era. We ordered some wine (twice the price of the previous nights) and the mixed starter platter for two which was made up of a lot of local delicacies. We also order two local dishes, the names escape me. Honestly, the food the night before was A LOT better and A LOT cheaper. The starter platter here was amazing, and I may have found the rest of the food amazing if we hadn't have had similar dishes the night before (unknowingly!). So if you need somewhere to eat in Tirana, definitely go to Tek Zgara Tirones 2!

Almost the end of the night - we returned to our apartment, packed a little, put a load of washing in the dryer and it was soon time for bed. 

Til next time
xx

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