July 27-28
Hello everyone!
Ever since 1920, the capital and most important city in Albania
has been Tirana. During its near-century of being an integral part of Albania,
Tirana has experienced many booms and busts. Time to explore.
Nowadays many cities offer free walking tours so you can learn
a little bit more about the buildings you see and hear some insight into life
in the city which the internet often misses. The Tirana edition was very good, detailing
many aspects of the city’s recent past and highlighting random yet interesting places
of note.
The better tour guides are even able to joke and mock
certain aspects of their country. To give an example, our leader took time to
describe Albania’s fascinating flag which shows a two-headed eagle. He said it
symbolises the country because one person argues one thing and someone else
will always argue against it, causing them to turn their heads away in disgust.
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| The symbol of Albania: the two-headed eagle |
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| Our tour leader in action |
So what’s in Tirana? Well, George W Bush Street, for
starters. He came here in 2007 to champion their ultimately successful campaign
to join NATO. He later went to a village and chatted to locals and we were told
that the village actually erected a statue of Bush. As our guide said, some
Americans are more popular in Albania than in their own country…
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| The statue of George W. Bush in Kruja, Albania |
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| American Presidents from a different era are also glorified, such as Woodrow Wilson, in Tirana |
The other famous person glorified in Tirana who isn’t from
Albania is Mother Teresa, known as Nënë Tereza here. If you’ve read my previous
posts you’ll know that Macedonia proudly proclaims Ma Teresa as theirs, yet
Albania do the same based on the fact that her heritage is from northern
Albania or Kosovo (no one is sure). The airport and main hospital for Tirana
bear her name and the main Catholic Church has a statue of her outside and a lovely
mosaic inside. The latter is made out of sea shells.
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| Macedonian, Albanian, Indian: a positive global influence |
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| The mosaic inside the church is made of sea shells |
What interested me most about the Mother Teresa section of
our walk was our guide saying that, until 1991, no one in Albania knew who she
was or what she did. This was because of the country’s self-inflicted period of
isolation under their dictator, Enver Hoxha. I mentioned in my last blog that
he’s now not a revered, popular man. This was hammered home during my time in
Tirana, the fact that you can still buy books written by him notwithstanding.
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| The book title translates as, "20 years new socialist Albania." |
The people of Albania seem keen to forget these years,
knowing now that they weren’t well off and were suffering badly in spite of the
propaganda rammed into their ears (not many people had TVs as you had to apply
to the government for a licence). In spite of this, some communist relics
remain, such as the mosaic of Albanian history visible above the main square
and Hoxha’s house.
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| The mosaic, with communist imagery to the fore |
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| The Hoxha house in Tirana |
One other visible memory of the Hoxha era – and difficult to
miss in spite of their purpose, as there are apparently over 700,000 of them in
the country – are the bunkers. You could call it a defensive tactic, you’re
more likely to call it paranoia, but military pillboxes are dotted around
Albania. I’ve seen them in the mountains and in the city. To test their strength,
a man stood inside one and they fired a tank shell at it. He came out alive, though
he was understandably deaf after the experiment.
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| Bunker in central Tirana |
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| A well-hidden bunker on Mt Dajti |
There’s also a building which was designed by Hoxha’s
daughter which meant to serve as a communist monument: the pyramid. Alas, the authoritarian
regime soon lost their grip and democratic, if corrupt, elections were held in
1992. Now the pyramid is in a state of disrepair as no one knows what to do
with it.
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| The rather run-down pyramid |
Bad times didn’t stop after the fall of communism, a fact
enshrined by the bell across from the pyramid. The bell is made from bullet
shells collected after the anarchy of 1997, when supposedly 70% of Albanians
lost their money from dodgy pyramid schemes.
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| The bell made of bullet shells |
Of course, a walking tour sticks to the main attractions or
areas of importance. What I find just as interesting is walking down side
streets or into less-known districts to see what local life is really like. As
you can imagine, very different from the main square.
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| This woman is scraping a cardboard box along the street to collect leaves |
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| Anyone need a sofa? |
In spite of this, Tirana – indeed, Albania thus far – doesn’t
seem to be that different from places
I’ve been before. It’s a melting pot that stirs memories from a variety of
places. The fruit of the markets reminds me of Uganda; the selling of
appliances on the street evokes images of India; the burek paints pictures of
other eastern European places I’ve visited thus far. People don’t speak much English
but it’s probably not much worse than in the surrounding countries. Some things
are exclusive, such as the language, but it doesn’t strike me as being
particularly unique or backwards due to its period in the naughty corner in the
1980s.
I was able to ponder and discuss these things on a hike up a
mountain overlooking Tirana. The location is part of the justification for
moving the capital here 95 years ago. Getting near the top was an Albanian ordeal
in itself. Finding the cable car took a while as locals, trying to be helpful,
kept pointing us in different directions. One seemed to suggest that we walk
through a tunnel; what we experienced was the sort of tension one would get
from being the star of a real-life horror movie.
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| One of the creepier caves I'll visit on this trip. I hope... |
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| Haven't even bothered to translate this one - the barbed wire is a bit of a giveaway |
After locating and taking the longest cable car in the
Balkans (15 minutes), we set about hiking up to the top of Mt Dajti. Not being
a key tourist attraction, the route up is loosely marked. After quite a few
wrong turnings, we got very close to the top…to be told that we were on private
territory owned by the police or government and that we couldn’t go further. Turns
out they use the peak as a communications base.
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| Mt Dajti from the cable car |
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| 'The Peak' |
Not to worry, however, as we found a gem of a spot: a rock
jutting out of the mountain.
I’ve found Tirana to be a cheap, friendly and cheerful
place. The focal point of the country has clearly been the victim of much
upheaval throughout the 20th century and is trying to find its niche
in the modern world. Its best asset, along with the mountain, is the mixture of
its architecture: medieval, communist and modern live side-by-side, creating a
strange and alluring city to explore.
Love you all
Matt
