Hello from Tirana!

Summer 2017 was our first summer in three. Although we were already traveling with our little daughter, it was supposed to be our first big holiday lasting longer than a week. I dreamt of some bigger trip and a new exciting place to explore. But this place needed to be relatively close to Brussels (i.e. preferably Europe) and required a minimum level of civilization. 

I strongly rejected an idea of going for an organized trip or staying 2 weeks in a resort. And when I thought of exciting and unexplored places in Europe which I still haven't seen, I immediately thought of Albania. For decades it was one of the most isolated and least accessible countries in the world. A few years ago it was still very wild (my brother was there in 2009 and from his stories I know that the country was quite exotic), I knew it very much developed in recent years, and I expected it to be very interesting. We decided to combine it with Montenegro and Croatia, but Albania was our main destination.

We flew to Tirana with TUI on a Friday afternoon, and three hours after the departure we arrived to the Nene Tereza Airport. Since I was traveling with a little child, I decided to give up on my old habits of sleeping in dodgy places. Moreover I had to compromise with Marijn, who was fan of a rather luxurious accommodation, therefore we decided to stay in the best hotel in the whole of Albania - Plaza Tirana. Sleeping in style, also meant traveling in style thus we ordered a transport to the hotel beforehand ;-)

The hotel was indeed great and our room was located on the 20th floor, so we could admire the city from above.

After a quick refreshment we went out to explore a bit the surroundings of the hotel. It was located in the centre of the centre, just next to the main square of Tirana - Skanderbeg Square.

 There are several interesting places on the Square itself and in its vicinity - a statue of Albanian hero Skanderbeg, Et'hem Bey Mosque, Clock Tower and National Historic Museum with a huge mosaic of working class on its front. We were just admiring all those sites from the outside as we wanted to come back the next day.

We went for a dinner to Oda - a small, family run restaurant nearby. Oda means "room" in Albanian and indeed the place looked like an interior of an old tradional house and the food was like homemade. It was also one of the very little places (what I will find out later on) serving typical Albanian dishes.

Next morning we walked a bit in the neighborhood. Well, Tirana isn't very pretty to say the least. Its communist architecture is ugly and grey. But even in this greyness there are some glimpses of color - such as electricity street boxes with colorful paintings on them :) Moreover it's very visible that Tirana is modernizing and developing - we saw a few construction sites and several new buildings were being built.

We started our sightseeing from the International Centre of Culture rather known as Piramida. It was built in 1987 according to the design of daughter of Enver Hoxha - the isolationist dictator who ruled Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. Originally the Piramida was his museum.Apparently it was also the most expensive building erected under communism, what is difficult to imagine today, as it is completely destroyed. 

While walking around the Piramida we met a group of tourists, and we rightly assumed it was a Free Walking Group. We joined it, but unfortunately quite late, as the group visited already a big part of Tirana. Still we managed to see our first bunker and Hoxha's house. Hundreds of thousands of concrete bunkers were built between 1960's and 80's under Hoxha's government (some say 700,000 bunkers were built, but the government admits only 175,000). They were supposed to serve as a shelter to Albanian people in case of an invasion. It's unknown who would have wanted to invade Albania, but instead of developing the country and building roads or houses, Albanians were building bunkers. 

After the tour was finished, we went to the National Historic Museum, then Et'hem Bey Mosque, followed by a visit into Bunk Art 2.

The Museum was interesting - displaying objects from antiquity through the Ottoman rule till the to the 20th century. There was also a very beautiful gallery of icons. The translations into English were very little or inexistant - still it was quite possible to follow the exhibitions.

Just on the opposite side of the Square there's the Et'hem Bey Mosque - a beautiful 18th century mosque. It was closed during the communist times and reopened in 1991. The building is very small and it is really lovely with its beautiful ornaments.
 

 

Last place on our agenda was the Bunk Art 2. It was the former top secret anti-nuclear bunker belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which gave a glimpse of the communist Albania. In fact it was not only a bunker to visit, but also a museum showing how the communist-era police persecuted the regime's opponents. Very sad place depicting the horrors of the regime and suffer of Albanians living in Hohxa's time. Still, a must-see in order to keep the memory and appreciate that we live in so peaceful Europe nowadays.

We spent our afternoon and evening on walking around Tirana, admiring old buildings and modern installations, and looking for a taxi for the next day:)