Summer Day 2014 in Tirana

While many of our friends are paying those heating bills and shoveling their way out of the driveways, on March 14th Albania celebrated the national holiday called "Summer Day". This pagan festival celebrates the end of winter, the rebirth of nature and a rejuvenation of spirit.

Below are a few photos from the walk Peter and I took at noon down the main boulevard in town..

Just a few folks showed up for the event!!!!

This is called the pyramid building, built by the dictator's architect daughter and served as a center for all of his accomplishments. Now it is vacant, a place to spray graffiti Thand its best feature is walking up and sliding down the inclines.

 

 

This is equally kid's day and parents come up with all sorts of outfits. With the 75 degree temperatures, those boots are more for design.

Sharing some akullore (aka ice cream)

Artists

Entertainment

 

 

The story goes that a fairy of hunting and nature came out of the woods and her sanctuary, on March 14th in the neighboring city of Elbasan. To celebrate her arrival, the townsfolk baked cookies.

Every 20 feet, these traditional, Ballakume cookies are sold on the streets. 

Some of those 700,000 bunkers built by the dictator to keep evil forces out of his country have now found a new use as playground equipment.

Finally, the clean up crew. There is a lack of garbage cans in town. Albanians throw their waste on the ground around them with ease. During the dictator's time, they had to pick up the garbage on Sunday mornings as their "volunteer" duty. There was a penalty for littering.  Now the attitude is let someone else do it.

A weekend trip to the southern seacoast and ruins in Albania

As the New York Times and USA Today have written, Albania is the new hot spot for travel. Typically they are highlighting the western coastline on the Ionian Sea. The barren mountains cascading down to the shore are impressive. The two lane road to take you over the mountain is not for the faint of heart.

Does the driver look like he is having fun yet?

We headed to the small village of Dhermi. Not much is open until mid July. The summer season is six weeks long! Yes, short season given that the weather is fabulous here for six months. Today, March 14th is a national Albanian holiday called "Summer Day"! Go figure.
We stayed at a brand new hotel, Splendor. Complete with a pool, spa and lovely quick walk, through an old olive grove to this wonderful cove.

www.hotelsplendor.al        355696086069 cell

email: info@hotelsplendor.al

Had to put in this one day old black lamb with mama

Had to include the blue plastic bag in the lower left hand corner...the worst thing to enter Albania!

I'm no geologist but this hardened bunch of rocks is everywhere

Walk to the beach through the olive grove from the hotel. With Peter is Glen Wright, a friend from Kiev.

Nice end to the day!

On Sunday we ventured back up north toward Tirana but stopped outside the city of Fier. Everyone makes the play on words that "I live in Fier!".

As a side bar, for those living in Albania, you might want to take a diversion on the highway between Fier and Lushnja to the tiny town of Ardenica. On top of the hill you will find an 18th century Orthodox Monastery and the Church of St. Mary. There are very good frescoes and an ornate pulpit.

This set of photos shows the ruins of Apollonia that we visited, just outside Fier.
Founded by the Greeks in 588 BC, this was center for Greco-Roman learning. Julius Ceasar and Emperor Augustus visited this city.
 It is relatively untouched. There is much excavation to be done but still amazing to see this city that has remnants of civilization that date back to 12,000 BC. Imagine items from the iron age. Here are a few items from the museum...

7th Century BC

3rd Century BC

3rd Century AD

These are 1st Century BC. You captured your tears for the dead and buried the vessel with the deceased person.

13th Century Monastery and the Shen Meri Church

This city was on the water and items like these pillars came over from Western Europe as adornment 

Apollonia was strategically located over looking a wide fertile plain for growing crops. There was a wide river through the agricultural fields, set back from the sea as protection but a river wide enough to allow large vessels to access the city. Finally there was a bustling trade route at their back door to Turkey and Asia.

Plenty of work to be done to uncover the wealth of remains under the earth

This is Peter with the Mayor of Fier. He is one of the 15 mayors that are part of Peter's project.

This Roman gravestone lists the wife and husband married for many years and then it says that they were so in love that they never had an argument!

Unbelievable 4 hour fish lunch with Fier government officials in our own little room. Every time the large plate of grilled fish was running low, another full plate arrived. This restaurant is at the end of the road to the beach from Apollonia.

Just playing the good Albanian wife for all those men!

This was another wonderful weekend of beauty, comfort, antiquity and friendship!

The Culture of Northern Albania, City of Shkodra and Beyond

The Albanian city of Shkodra lies practically on the border with Montenegro in the north. Originally this city, was as contemporary as Rome and for awhile, the capital of Kingdom of Illyria.  In the mid 1850's it was the center of trade and business, being the biggest city in the Balkans. However in the early 1900s, some of the territory surrounding the city was ceded to Montenegro, there was a Cholera epidemic, huge earthquake occurred and finally the Ottoman's held the city under siege for 60 days. This led to its drastically diminished power in the region. 
The northern part of Albania is known to be more renegade in nature than other parts. It has remote mountain towns snowed in for the winter.
The Dictator Enver Hoxha burned down 3500 of the businesses in the old Bazaar area at one point during the 45 years of his reign. He felt threatened by the independent spirit of the Shkodra residents.

But this is 2014 and this friendly city is more low keyed that the capital. Because it has flat terrain, people of all ages and genders are riding their bikes. LocalMotion would be proud!!

Some of the highlights:

Dominoes anyone?

Shkodra has a pleasant pedestrian street, markets all over the city, mosques and churches, fancy tiled sidewalks and kid friendly playgrounds! Unique in that the majority of the population is Catholic.

This is typical. A woman selling really fresh unpasteurized milk in old soda bottles.

Restaurants go all out to provide play areas for kids. Below, mothers arrive on bikes with a kid in the front and one in the back to drink a cup of coffee for $1 and spend 2 hours while the kids play.

Activities in town include a mask factory. The registered name is "Made in Venice" and most masks are sent to Venice. Yup!  There is a wonderful photo studio displaying photos by an Italian, Pjeter Marubi and soon to be, a Communist Museum with artifacts from the 45 years of fascism.

Italian Pjeter Marubi came to Albania in the mid 1850s as he was escaping trouble with his government. Only 10 years after the first photographic process were invented, he began to capture the people of this Balkan land. It was amazing as the Ottomans ruled the region and pictorial representations of men was prohibited. Using natural light and gaining the trust of people, he photographed wealthy families, dignitaries, soldiers, prostitutes and farmers.

 Hotel Tradita Geg & Tosk is situated right in the heart of the city and originated from an old Ottoman house. The owner and gracious host, Jan, was welcoming and our hotel room was 350 years old, swimming in antiques.

Our host, Jan

Hallway to our room 109 and entry below

350 years of history, complete with the original stove/fireplace

Dinner in the dining room was exceptional...cozy, aromatic and with music. We sat for 3 hours eating a variety of rustic cheeses, olives, pumpkin and spinach tapas and salads. Meanwhile our lamb was finishing its roasting on the spit in the big fireplace at one end of the living room. Best lamb we have ever had in Albania!

Delicious!

The musicians played instruments that are seen in photos from the 1880s...They sat up above the fireplace on that platform. (See third photo above)

After a wonderful 24 hours (and a $15 hour massage) we took the long way home. Previously we had toured the castle and Roman Bridge so I will include those photos.

We decided to take a loop into the mountains on our way to Tirana and skip the boring highway. These are "main roads" marked on the map. The largest town on our route was Puke (pronounced Puka)

Right...there are NO guard rails on this official road

This trip on state run roads was about 110 kilometers and took Peter 4 hours. He is fearless now!

As usual, the mountain peaks and valleys, the rivers way below us and the occasional hamlet with two houses, is always interesting.  The trip finishes with a shepard with HER goats in a desolate stretch of the road.