Tirana

What a brilliant start to our trip. (I won’t mention the breakfast except to say cornflakes would have been a good option!)

We had a coffee on our balcony, watching the cafes getting busy with young mothers meeting with their babies (and one dad), 3 lads who sounded English in fake kilts, numerous older women and one beggar girl. However we only saw 3 adult beggars unlike in cities in UK. The country was one of the poorest in Europe but it’s certainly vibrant now with lots of skyscrapers being built.

We are quite central. Although we walked only around 4.5 miles I felt it hard and hot on the feet despite wearing sandals. I’m not used to flat pavement walking. We started with the House of Leaves as it was going to close first. It was originally a maternity hospital but was used as an interrogation and torture centre under the Hoxha regime which lasted from the end of WWII till his death in 1985. Each room told a story regarding aspects of interrogation and surveillance - the bugging equipment, cameras etc and luckily there was English as well as Italian and French. It cost about £6 each.

We crossed the road to go into the very modern orthodox cathedral built in 2012 and considered to be one of the largest in the Balkans. It was light, airy and full of bling. We sat for a bit watching people come and go - it reminded me of Greek churches with all the noise of chatter and children running around.

After a restorative beer (too laggery for our taste but no doubt more welcome after we’ve had a hot hike) where we did more people watching. People greeted each other with a kiss on both cheeks. We saw several large cake boxes being collected from the bakery. Older men rode bikes with younger ones were on motorcycles or scooters.

We popped back to our room for a freshen up then realised we’d better go out quickly as my guide book was wrong and the museum closed much earlier than we’d expected. We walked back to the large plaza of Sanderberg Square, honouring the nation hero responsible for liberating the country from the Ottomans, where there’s a statue of him on his horse. It is paved with stone from all areas of Albania, completed in 2017. It looks lethal when wet but today was lovely and sunny so we didn’t need to put it to the test. It was funded by a grant from Kuwait.

The mural “The Albanians” above the museum entrance was damaged in the earthquake of 1919 and restored with EU funding. The museum was opened in 1981 and was fantastic. I noticed retirees could go in for half price so when she was about to charge full price I pointed at our grey hair so she relented and charged £4 for us both. The ground floor started with late Paneolithic and went on to Greek and Roman and Illyrian times with some stunning statues and bronzes as well as some Roman mosaics from Durres. The descriptions were also in English but further on, when it came to more recent times there was nothing to help us. I’ll look it up when we get more time. Somehow we missed the Mother Theresa section but given her record on the rights of women I’m not sorry. We did marvel at the iconography although it was very modern (15-18c) compared with what we saw in St Catherine’s monastery on Sinai. I have never seen so many ugly baby Jesus’s - one even had 3 feet and on 2 he had beards. They all had tiny heads.

We met our young guide Tedi and others in the group at 6 and went for a “traditional” meal. I had Fergese which was a plate of cooked cottage cheese with 3 slices of green pepper. Someone else got a whole chicken. I tried the red wine and am happy to report it is nice. A troupe of men with lutes, a clarinet and an accordion came to sing. The group is all very well travelled.