Tirana Albania
We rallied ourselves at eight after a delicious breakfast - the Nefeli Hotel was a family-run pansione, beautifully clean, delicious linen on the beds - perfect. It was the family house and has been renovated by funds earned in Italy and poured back into Albania. My new word, which I hadn't previously appreciated the meaning of is 'diaspora', and this country seems to rely heavily on these funds, although from all accounts the flow has become a trickle as immigrants struggle to find employment in the EU countries.
The minivan (yes, back in the minivan, not public transport) backtracked to the passport junction where we stopped to grab a coffee at what is effectively a truckstop. Three things: dogs everywhere, mangy ones; people sifting through rubbish to collect aluminium cans to trade for cash (shame they don't collect all of the rubbish!): and these interesting looking bunkers! They vary in size and sophistication - and are extremely difficult to get rid of if you discover one in your yard!
I need to fill in some background (don't panic, my history in a nutshell is always in the pistachio shell rather than a walnut).
Albania declared independence as a country in 1912, was invaded by Germany and Italy in the second world war, and become a communist regime under Enver Hallil Hoxha in 1944. Between that time and 1991 it was a no-go zone. Friendships were formed with Tito, Mao and Stalin, but friendships fell apart when Hoxha determined that none of these countries where living true communism. In the meantime he and his cronies were living the life of luxury behind a huge compound in the centre of Tirana, scooping the cream off the country. Comrades were encouraged to snitch on their neighbours, and collective punishment was meted out if someone tried to escape the country - anyone related to that person was imprisoned.
Paranoia grew to the extent that Hoxha had people employed to make 700,000 bunkers which are scattered all around the place.
1991 under a new leader, students protested and that was the beginning of the end. I don't think it was a violent ending for what had been a violent and draconian regime. Having wiped out the public practice of any religion by destroying nearly all mosques and churches, these are being rebuilt, mosques with the financial help of muslim countries (always a quid pro quo and this quo for the quid is the ability to teach their religious beliefs).
(This mosque was declared a National Monument and wasnt destroyed by the regime).
(Brand new catholic church and look who's here - claiming Mother Theresa!).
There is a road called George W Bush, and a statue to him, to show gratitude to America for helping Albania to get into Nato.
The Hoxha house still stands empty with weeds growing up was a pretty flash yard with a pool: no one knows exactly what to do with the place, so it stands empty. Opposite the house is the first of a worst incursion - KFC!
(this gets the prize of the world's ugliest building - and no-one knows what to do with it either).
The minivan (yes, back in the minivan, not public transport) backtracked to the passport junction where we stopped to grab a coffee at what is effectively a truckstop. Three things: dogs everywhere, mangy ones; people sifting through rubbish to collect aluminium cans to trade for cash (shame they don't collect all of the rubbish!): and these interesting looking bunkers! They vary in size and sophistication - and are extremely difficult to get rid of if you discover one in your yard!
I need to fill in some background (don't panic, my history in a nutshell is always in the pistachio shell rather than a walnut).
Albania declared independence as a country in 1912, was invaded by Germany and Italy in the second world war, and become a communist regime under Enver Hallil Hoxha in 1944. Between that time and 1991 it was a no-go zone. Friendships were formed with Tito, Mao and Stalin, but friendships fell apart when Hoxha determined that none of these countries where living true communism. In the meantime he and his cronies were living the life of luxury behind a huge compound in the centre of Tirana, scooping the cream off the country. Comrades were encouraged to snitch on their neighbours, and collective punishment was meted out if someone tried to escape the country - anyone related to that person was imprisoned.
Paranoia grew to the extent that Hoxha had people employed to make 700,000 bunkers which are scattered all around the place.
1991 under a new leader, students protested and that was the beginning of the end. I don't think it was a violent ending for what had been a violent and draconian regime. Having wiped out the public practice of any religion by destroying nearly all mosques and churches, these are being rebuilt, mosques with the financial help of muslim countries (always a quid pro quo and this quo for the quid is the ability to teach their religious beliefs).
(This mosque was declared a National Monument and wasnt destroyed by the regime).
(Brand new catholic church and look who's here - claiming Mother Theresa!).
The Hoxha house still stands empty with weeds growing up was a pretty flash yard with a pool: no one knows exactly what to do with the place, so it stands empty. Opposite the house is the first of a worst incursion - KFC!
(this gets the prize of the world's ugliest building - and no-one knows what to do with it either).
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