Life in Tirana: 2013

Peter and I spent a long Thanksgiving weekend in Berlin. It was fun to eat turkey with our niece and nephew and their respective families. Small world to have two relatives living there.

Berlin is a contrast to Tirana. Duh! The weather for starters was gray, drizzle and cold....but the abundant Christmas lights, the colorful graffiti and hearty German meals, warmed us right up.

The following are just a few photos of the city.

This is the wall surrounding an old cemetary


Corner store


You tell me how anyone could do this graffiti!


Elementary school


Can you see the graffiti on this building?


These pink pipes decorate the entire city. They carry water out of the city as Berlin was built on a swamp.

Typical Berlin, rather than bury them underground, paint them bright pink and turn them into a visual!

There were huge Christmas lit displays at every major plaza (platz) in the city.

Being someone who loves how countries depict the nativity scene, this is the German version 10x large. There are 4 candles on the bottom, one for each Sunday in advent and when you light the candles, the heat turns the fan at the top and the nativity scenes revolve as a merry-go-round. Of course I bought a smaller version for my collection.

Modern architecture is everywhere as are multiple cranes ready to build the next structure. It has a quality of elegance.

Food of Distinction...
Get ready for potatoes, schnitzel
and heavy food for a hearty party!

Our son, Will says these are the best kabobs in the world!

This was a fast food restaurant with 20 of these baskets of fresh herbs as decoration.

Wonderful middle eastern food, displayed in a classy style

Finally the past, the dark years
      from 1933 to 1945

     This was a photo of the union workers, their union broken, joining the Nazi party salute except for one lone member.

                                             This was in the photo exhibit.
                                             These were the various badges
                                             you wore depending on your
                                             "crime" such as labelled gay,
                                             gypsy or any number of other
   flimsy distinctions.

The wall

This is a short commentary on Berlin but may give you a slice of the city. We would recommend a visit.

On a spur of the moment, I decided (with Peter's blessing) to go to Myanmar for 2 1/2 weeks. I had an Albanian/American friend who is doing a project there for 4 months. With her God daughter and three friends, I was welcomed to join the group and see this hidden country.

The first stop was to fly to Bangkok and try to get a visa. My friend, Claudia had to let the government know that she would be hosting guests during our stay. I decided to hire a "handler", Frankie to assist in getting me my visa. He said he offered candy to the visa folks and "greased the wheels".

While is Bangkok, I visited the elaborate, ornate and very organized "Royal Palace".


Amazing mosaics, tiled roofs and gold leaf

Lunch in the local "cafes" for $1.50

The dishwasher

Delicious Pad Thai!

This is a "give thanks" shrine at a large car dealership on the highway


Amazing floral bouquet, with bamboo stalks at my hotel

Bangkok airport women's bathroom. Nice touch with a real plant.

Sitting in reclining seats among the orchids in Bangkok.

So I leave Thailand. It is a country with mass transit, good infrastructure, upscale shopping and night time bargain markets and women in clubs pole dancing and prostitutes hanging around outside.

On to Yangon (formally Rangoon) Myanmar. There is quite the contrast.

A little history....There are135 ethnic groups in Myanmar with the largest group being the Bamar or Ahnyarthar. The British changed the name to Burma (Bamar) for ease of pronunciation but in defiance, the Communist regime changed it back to Myanmar (pronounced Meeanmar).

This is the apartment where I stayed. This is the system to deliver the newspaper to the woman on the 4ht floor. The bigger apartments are expensive, partly because the generals from the previous regime took land, built larger apartments and now, can charge a lot. Most apartments don't have an oven but do include a hot plate. One of our guides moved to China with her husband and for two years worked in a casino. They bought an apartment in Yangon for $250,000 last year and 6 months later it is worth $500,000. There are no mortgages so cash is king.

If you want to make a call and don't have a phone...here is your street side option. There are no I Phones for sale. You can only get them on the black market. The sim card cost $2,000 last year. Now that is down to $200.


With the hot humid climate in Myanmar, their apartment houses are covered in mold.

Central Market

Dragon fruit

This woman sells beetle pouches She takes a leaf, coats it in lye, yes lye, and puts in a few beetle seeds. Then she wraps it in the leaf. Men and women put them in their cheek, like chewing tobacco, and get a mild high. I kept wondering why there was all this ketchup spatter on the sidewalk. Leaves ones teeth a bright red.

So the street side tea cafes or restaurants often have these chairs built for pre-schoolers.

In this hot climate, there are these free water stands. You just take the cup, dunk it in the water vessel and replace for the next person.

Street side chefs cook on one or two woks, feeding the fire with small wood pieces.

When you go to a tea cafe, you take one of these cups from this bowl with about 1 inch of water in the bottom. After drinking your tea, you inverted and replace the cup for the next person....

Rice store


This is the wealthier part of Yangon that the British built. They came in 1824 and were in some process of establishing a democratic government with General Aung Suu when in 1948, a pre-war socialist general assassinated Aung Suu. His daughter, Daw Aung Suu Kyi is the Nobel Peace Prize woman who returned to her homeland and helped to defeat the Communists in 2010. She still lives there and is an activist.

Aung Suu Kyi's house on the lake and a photo of her assassinated father over her front gate.


The infrastructure is needing attention. Sidewalks are hazardous, the open water system runs next to the sidewalk and, in the last two years, traffic is heavy. There are no pedestrian lights to cross. You just run. With traffic delays in some of the main intersections, up to 30 minutes, the drivers remain calm, no honking of horns. Electricity comes and goes. Two of the four nights I was at my friend's house in Yangon, we lost power from 6 to 10 pm on two nights. During rush hour these mini vans have people hanging off them in all directions.

Entering a monastery in a downpour

So three of us were taking a walk around the lake when the rains came. We took shelter under a doorway only to peek in the room and see a wedding going on. Drenched and bedraggled, a wedding guest saw us and ushered us in. Before we knew what was happening, we were in the photos with the bride and groom, seated at a table and given lunch, surrounded by the children and women starring at us and frequently the ones being photographed by the camera men!

A story about mailing a post card to my mother-in-law. Our guide took me into this high ceiling room with about 50 workers. They were sitting at desks, mostly starring into space. It took 5 stops to complete the act. First stop was to see who you had to visit. Then to buy the stamp from someone. Off to have another glue the stamp to the postcard. Third to have someone stamp the card as paid. Fourth to hand the card to someone who put it in the box of outgoing mail!

I will leave this part 1 of my blog with some photos of the wonderful people in this country.....