Weekend in Tirana

Sunday...

We drove 30 minutes north to Kruje, a town tucked high up on a hillside. On the way we passed this statue....
He couldn't ever visit Vermont BUT he visited Albania!!!! Guess Who?


We stopped in some furniture stores on the way back as we need to get some items. I kid you not, this is for real and it comes in black, silver and this blue.

Weekend in Tirana

Friday...Operetta at U. of Tirana - free and then dinner with bottle of wine $33

Saturday - Visited the National Art Museum with rooms of huge communist paintings of gears, black, red colors and very strong people. These are the hours!
We then did a HASH (planned hike) with 15 folks, half Albanians and half foreigners. Three hours of strenuous hiking but beautiful country. Above is the floor of the hike with blooming plum trees. This is 20 minutes from Tirana.

Below is Claudia with Peter and I as we began the hike. This bunker is just one of the 700,000 that the dictator built during his 40 years as he was paranoid that some country was going to invade from WW II until he died in the early 80's.



                                                                          

Description to go with Holiday #2 photos

So yesterday was Verzun, traditionally a religious holiday although with the communistic dictator, religion was not really condoned for 40 years. It happens to be the 20th anniversary of the Democratic Party so you can see the rally just down the hill from the park where I did yoga for 90 minutes. Great workout and at no charge. The instructor likes to do it for his sense of purity. You gotta love combining politics and religion!
Beside us, in the park was a guy with a b b gun. You could pay 50 cents and shoot at a rickety target, We were saying "namastay" (sp) at the end not to be the recipient of a stray shot!

I spent the afternoon at a local hospital that is pretty basic. When a woman comes to give birth, she needs to bring food, blankets, clothes for the baby, everything except the bed. The doctors are very strict about  anyone going in the birthing room except hospital personnel and the woman. In a wing of the hospital this neat American woman from Wyoming who lived here in the 90's and into 2004, started and supports two rooms with nurses and aids to care for abandoned babies. One had down syndrome and the other four from 2 weeks to 3 months. They stay there up to 3 months and then if not adopted, go to the orphanage in town. Foreigners can adopt but not unusually until the child is a year old. Sweet little infants that are well cared for. She is in town for 3 weeks so we have enjoyed each others company.

Last tid bit for this blog. Do women really exemplify "bling". They love sparkles. On their shoes, tee shirts, hair bands, jewelry, purses, etc. In the sunlight of which we have continually, everyone lights up except me with my sneakers and plain clothes! 

Holiday #2 in Tirana

Weekend in Montenegro

We ventured up the Adriatic coast to a very tidy, colorful and breathtaking area, spending the night in a walled-in city called Kotar. It sits on the only fjord in southern Europe. Elegantly simple.

There are fortresses everywhere. We hiked up to this one above the walled-in city. Buildings range from the 1100s to 1600s. They use the Euro and it is more expensive than Albania but the roads really have continuous asphalt and guard rails! Peter is doing a great job in his jeep with standard shift, potholes, one lane mountain climbs and working his way out of a traffic ticket. We were stopped because we didn't have our lights on and the law requires that you must have them on at all times in Montenegro. They gave us a warning after Peter told them he was kind of a policeman...well he oversaw the police in our town as mayor!!! 

You can see that there is much to appreciate here.
Although at the top of the mountain road we had three feet of snow on either side of the one lane hairpin road!

Seems like Burlington is experiencing a Mediterranean climate this spring. It is delightful, isn't it!

This is the scene from our living room window. Not too shabby, eh?

I think that I figured out how to put up photos. I am so lame that it make myself spent 2 hours per day studying my little Mac Book and learning stuff!

Yesterday was "Summer Day", a national pagan holiday to celebrate re-birth and no coats! Hundreds of thousands of people, families and especially kids thronged the major blvd. Most notable are these 5" big sugar cookies that vendors are selling every 10 feet for 10 blocks. I mean every 10 feet. Bands were rocking and many simple toys made in China were being bought for the little ones. There was an business expo of sorts with little tents. I was able to sample some great olive oil. 

The apt. is coming together. Electrical learnings are steep. There are three prong outlets, two prong outlets, but not for our US products like Ipad, laptops and Kindle. I dusted around this TV where cable guys just installed a huge dish on the veranda and somehow moved a cord and lost the signal. The washing machine has temperatures in centigrade and will do about 6 items at a time. Guess I went from electrical to appliances. Anyway, it is all good, just adjusting from life in America! We are lucky to have this experience.

Peter and I are off to Montenegro this weekend for an overnight on the coast at a town that many say rivals Dubrovnik. It's name is Kotar. Look it up on google. 

Betsy

Two weeks into the Albanian Adventure

Life in Tirana is full of warm sun, friendly people and delicious fresh fruits and vegetables. The first 10 days have been part adjusting to this wild decision to settle in a foreign country for a few years and part acclimating to the city, its sounds, colors and vibrancy.  Of note:

• Watch where you are walking. The sidewalks are holes, missing stones and sometimes only 6 inches of space between you and the cars
• crossing the streets where there are few traffic lights is best to find an Albanian and just skip along with him or her
• how the multitude of stores can survive is beyond me. The typical clothing store is 12 feet by 24 feet with maybe 50 items of poorly made clothing and no one seems to be in them
• mini farmers markets all over the city
• skinned dead (obviously) sheep hanging in the windows of small meat stores
• beautiful mountains surrounding the city and in view from our windows

Challenges:

• electricity is crazy. With all our electronic appliances, we have converters for this, adapters for that, some outlets with 3 holes and some with 2 big holes and a stove that shorts out and blows all of the electricity for the apt.
• finding lamps, rugs and furniture that isn't either really cheap or very expensive. Guess we will have to go to Greece and shop at the Ikea!
• learning Albanian. There are 36 letters and Gj is like chic

Celebrations:

• tomorrow is a national holiday...."Summer Day". Last night the public works dept. took down the white holiday lights that spanned the main street and now have gigantic flower like decorations. Every park has tons of annuals planted by 20 or so women from a government dept. and trees are in bloom.
•  Reuniting with my husband and sharing this adventure together.

I will try to master the skill of putting up photos in the next month!!!
All for now. I hope everyone is doing well.
Betsy