Yesterday was my first full day in Tirana Albania. Admittedly, nobody would come here and think this is the most beautiful city in Europe. The city basically has a bunch of low rise buildings and small monuments. Some buildings like the national museum and opera house are built in a brutist communist style, but there's not much for soaring statues, giant Romanesque-built buildings, or awe-inspiring bridges.
On a fascinating walking tour yesterday morning, I learned that Albania, like states in the former Yugoslavia or Soviet controlled countries, was a communist country-but it was never part of Yugoslavia or the Soviet bloc. Albania was under a separate dictatorship-and it was much crueler. Originally Albania was friends with Russia, but when Stalin died and Russia gradually became a little more liberal-Albania severed the friendship claiming that Russia wasn't practicing authentic communism. Then Albania became friendly with China-but as China started opening up it's borders, Albania severed the friendship claiming that China wasn't practicing authentic communism. So Albania didn't have any partners-and it's borders we're closed. The tour guide mentioned that in the 80's, a black and white tv was a precious commodity, and very few families had them (and the programming, for 4 hours per day, was communist propaganda tv). Traffic may be bad here in Tirana, but people have only been driving since the fall of communism in 1992-before that only the very wealthy had cars. Food was limited-sometimes bread with a few drops of water.
On the tour, we saw churches and mosques-which we're ignored/used for other purposes during communism. Priests and other spiritual leaders we're given the death penalty for practicing during communism. We also saw a Military bunker-Military service was mandatory for Albanians-and they we're taught that their Military was stronger then both the US' and USSR's.
We also saw the pyramid, which was designed as a museum for ex communist leader Enver Hoxha. Right now it is used as a broadcasting center for a TV station.
The tour was very interesting-afterwards 4 of us went out with the tour guide for a cup of coffee, he told us more stories, and talked about how he spent a few years in the US, and from tv he thought it would be heaven, and when he made it to where his cousins lived in Plainfield, Connecticut, it was far from it. We also discussed the situation with the Syrian refugees etc. The other three people from the tour we're from the UK, Netherlands, and Germany, so it was interesting hearing their perspective. The tour guide even paid for the coffee-and insisted it would be rude if we denied him.
After the tour, I wandered around for a while, and went back to the hostel to take a nap.
Instead of taking a nap, I sat on the porch and BS'd with others at the hostel,a woman from Italy, a guy from Switzerland, and another guy from Ireland, about Donald Trump and other subjects.
After two hours, I went back on the town. I went looking for an artificial lake-but couldn't find it-a big blue area on the map that I thought was a lake was just houses. I then went back downtown, and watched part of the "Peace is Always an Option" conference, mostly a musical celebration sponsored by world churches, houses of worship, etc. I tried filming the conference, including a dog that started barking wildly, but the dog's owner said the dog doesn't like being flimed. I wandered around more, had some pizza and slovoci, and went back to the hostel and went to bed.
