Escape to myself

The contrast between Ohrid and here couldn’t be greater. Ohrid: charm, the lake, calm. Tirana: noisy, intense, and impenetrable. A city of crumbling buildings against the modern civic area of Government departments where new high rises go up apace … there is some good modern architecture.

My arrival was not without trauma. My hostel no longer existed. I walked around the exact location and tried to phone several times … the line was dead! I managed to book another hostel and this is friendly and clean with pleasant guests. I had a long talk with Clara, a French woman hitchhiking to Greece. Some of these girls are intrepid travellers. It is more than adequate for a couple of nights before I leave for Durres and Bari.

Today I visited The Pyramid intended to be a monument to the dictator Enver Hoxer and designed, a la Mayan pyramid, by his daughter . After the fall of communism it had several incarnations and is now a rather trendy area of bars and cafes with some playful additional architecture… I liked it.

Then I went into the Nuclear Bunker built for the Ministry of the Interior. A place with a dark history, the museum explaining the police state in which Albanians were virtual prisoners in their own country: chilling stuff.

Then I walked in the Old Bazaar and interesting mix of new covered market with traditional traders; carpets, ceramics, fruit and loose tobacco and older streets.

Some good street art too.

My overall impression is one of a country desperate to move into a new world after years of oppression and isolation… but with that there is also a whiff of corruption… inflated prices if you pay in Euros, gambling casinos and strip clubs. It’s edgy.