Shqipëria

On an overnight ferryboat from Bari to Durres we tried to remember why we had decided to travel to Albania.  By morning we still couldn't think of a reason and when we drove Sophia off the ferry boat to the port's passport control booth we had to stifle a chuckle when the Albanian immigration officer inspected our passports asked with a puzzled expression, "why you come to Albania?". 

The very first Albanian word we learned was Shqiperia - that's Albanian for....Albania!

I guess we thought Shqiperia would be a good place to begin our Balkan adventure.  And it certainly was.  Just three days in the capital Tirana was enough to glimpse a vibrant city full of contrasts, colour, history and progress.  It is said that Albania is the poorest country in Europe, and certainly the poverty is visible - more so in the rural area we drove through - but it has a lively democracy, construction, and growth in the city - it's a very interesting country to visit.

Tirana centre has wide, tree-lined boulevards, shady parks, and a thriving cafe culture. A fascinating aspect of Albanian life we saw during these two days was the fever of electioneering for Albania's upcoming national election.  Seems we arrived in Tirana on the final two days of electioneering - Sunday 23 June is election day.  Every few meters were banners flying above roads, hung on buildings and billboards. On Saturday night the city streets were crowded with noisy, flag-waving party supporters - both for current Prime Minister, Democrat leader Sali Berisha and opposition leader, Edi Rama who leads the Socialist coalition.  This will be only the eighth election since the fall of communism just 23 years ago.  Thousands of people were on the streets, whole families with children walking up the main boulevard that passes the Parliament building and the Presidenca - the presidential palace.  Hundreds more, mostly young people, hanging out of car windows waving banners and flags, cheering, shouting, blaring horns and banging drums as they drove up the boulevards. 

In Europe, summer begins on summer solstice, this year it is 21 June, and summer kicked off in Albania with gusto.  Both days in Tirana were 40 degrees (felt like 45!).  I love a hot day, but this seemed so, so hot!  After arriving in Tirana, we headed out for an orientation walk.  We made it to a nearby café, sat in the air-conditioning and ordered a salad and cold water, then we crossed the road and stood in the park under some shady trees.....then we turned around and retreated to the air conditioned hotel room for a few hours!  It was scorching-ly hot!  Fortunately Tirana has shady parks and cafes...and lovely cafes in those shady parks.  In Tirana we spent  a fair amount of time in one or the other, cooling off between our sight-seeing wanderings.

Driving in Albania is quite something. Not only are we sharing the road with jalopies, tractors and the odd cow or two, there are crater-like potholes to avoid, chaotic roundabouts, a distinct lack of lane markings, and if there are actually road rules, well then it seems it's acceptable to ignore them!

At night we wandered around Blloku, a somewhat stylish residential area of boutiques, bars, more lovely cafes, and young people enjoying the summer nightlife.  Apparently it hasn't always been that way.  During the communist era, the whole area was reserved for Government officials, it was heavily guarded and members of the public were not allowed to enter.  We ate at a popular old restaurant Piceri Era in Blloku and, without exaggeration (and somewhat surprisingly) it was one of the best meals we've had over the past travelling weeks.  Delicious Albanian cuisine, Albanian Kallmet wine, beautiful service, fresh, tender meat dishes, delicious grilled vegetables, pispili and a selection of other traditional Albanian starters.  Albanian coffee is good - strong and thick like Turkish coffee.  The bill came to 3,000 Lek - not even EUR25.00.

Postscript:  The Albanian election result was a landslide for opposition leader, Edi Rama. At the same time as the Albanian Prime Minister Berisha was being overthrown so too was Australia's first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard (though not by the Opposition!).  Seems we found political excitement in Albania just when we thought we were missing it in Australia.  Interestingly, Tony Blair will be adviser to Albania's new Prime Minister. I'll be watching with interest.

Welcome to Albania.....

..which in Albanian is Shqiperia.

11.00am, it's 40 degrees...um, summer's arrived!

Shady Sarajet café, Tirana

Another shady café in a central Tirana park, and the building is
the lovely Millenium Cinema, which if I understood correctly
was previously the residence of Albania's King Zog 1.

National Theatre of Opera and Ballet (and Et'ham Bay Mosque
in the background).  At the far end of the Opera building is a
wonderful bookstore - with a large English language section.

The National Historical Museum...the mosaic is called ...
"The Albanians"!  The museum contains The Beauty of Durres,
a floor mosaic from the 4th century BC.

Early morning Tirana.  It's already hot and locals
gathered in shady parks and gardens for chess, a read of the paper..

Tirana's central square, Skanderbeg Square - and that's their
national hero on his horse.  Skanderbeg defended Albania
against the Ottomans in the mid-1400s.  And in the background,
that Tirana's tallest building (with electioneering banner).

Tirana has a bike hire system (#practicallyfrench)

Fortress of Justinian

Tirana daily markets

It was certainly not a quiet Saturday night in Albania.

The two-headed eagle on a field of red.  Albania's national flag.

Candidate advertising everywhere.  I've never seen so much.

Tirana's newest skyscraper

Façade of Et'ham Bey Mosque.

Et'ham Bey Mosque was closed during the communist era, and
only in 1991 did it reopen after thousands of Albanians entered
it carrying flags in defiance of the regime - the fall of communism
in Albania had begun.

This strange structure is call the Hoxha Pyramid.  It was designed
by the daughter of the communist leader Enver Hoxha after his death,
it's graffiti-ed, partly boarded up and doesn't know if it wants
to be demolished or conserved.

Tirana has many colourfully decorated buildings. 

Street cafes on a warm evening in Tirana

Youth Park

We drove north through rural Albania and had a short coffee stop at
Shengjin beach resort.  We sat in a café on a pier and
as far as the eye could see in both directions the beach was
lined with umbrellas - the grey sand wasn't inviting but it didn't
seems to matter to thousands of families enjoying it.

Falemnderit, Shqiperia!  Thank you Albania!