We originally intended to spend one night in Albania en route to Croatia. However somebody left our Euro credit card in Meteora so we hung out in Tirana for a few days while we waited for it to catch up with us.
There weren’t any ‘you must see it before you die’ tourist attractions, or any tourist attractions at all really. So we walked the streets, drank lots of espresso, ate many foods with dipping sauces and people watched. It was nice feeling free of the responsibility to learn about things and appreciate them ‘properly’.
Here are the five things that I thought were most interesting:
Our taxi ride covering the length of Albania set us back about a tiny $25, in a Mercedes no less... entering Tirana we discovered colourful buildings, wild wires and fried chicken that almost reminded us of home.
The food was a shot in the dark mostly... sometimes it had teeth!
See the army guy? I didn't... he wasn't too happy about me taking pictures here. Don't even know what the complex was, I just wanted a picture of the clock tower.... honest
Crazy pyramid in the city, designed by the president's daughter or something. Not used for much any more but had heaps of cool graffiti all over.
There weren’t any ‘you must see it before you die’ tourist attractions, or any tourist attractions at all really. So we walked the streets, drank lots of espresso, ate many foods with dipping sauces and people watched. It was nice feeling free of the responsibility to learn about things and appreciate them ‘properly’.
Here are the five things that I thought were most interesting:
- Albanians are super super super friendly and helpful. Speaking different languages does not prevent them from having a 20 minute conversation with you in the pouring rain. They are just so excited that someone has made the effort to visit their country.
- Many of the bleak communist apartment buildings are painted in bright colours and patterns due to a policy of former mayor Edi Rama who is also an artist. The buildings look really neat, and are definitely no longer bleak.
- The western clothes from the 1990s are now living in Albania. (The western clothes from the 1970s now live in India, so where are the clothes from the 1980s?).
- Despite every Albanian of historical importance having a moustache (except perhaps for Mother Theresa) mysteriously nowadays only about 5 people in the whole country have one. Their absence is curious...
- Albania is about to get its first multiplex cinema. This shows how far Albania is behind most developed nations, but I don’t think that it will be for long. It has enormous tourism potential and evidence of significant manufacturing abilities... watch out world!
Our taxi ride covering the length of Albania set us back about a tiny $25, in a Mercedes no less... entering Tirana we discovered colourful buildings, wild wires and fried chicken that almost reminded us of home.
The food was a shot in the dark mostly... sometimes it had teeth!
See the army guy? I didn't... he wasn't too happy about me taking pictures here. Don't even know what the complex was, I just wanted a picture of the clock tower.... honest
Crazy pyramid in the city, designed by the president's daughter or something. Not used for much any more but had heaps of cool graffiti all over.
And then our credit card arrived safely. So we once again flagged a Mercedes and hit the dusty, bumpy road to Montenegro.
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