Balkans                                          2016

Balkans 2016 Albania Kosovo Macedonia

Balkans - Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia - 2016

 
Our last day in the Balkans was designed as a ‘rain insurance’ day. I had designed our itinerary so that in the event of rain, certain key elements of the itinerary that I needed for research could be pushed back by half a day or so. In the end, we didn’t need to make any adjustments for rain as the weather (mostly) stayed fine for us. So this last day in Tirana was something of a bonus for us. Actually, it was more like half a day, as we need to be at the airport by 3:00am tomorrow morning to begin our return flight home, so we are aiming for an early night to bed this evening. Moreover, the weather forecast for our ‘rain insurance’ paradoxically was for a rainy day. Fortunately, the forecast was inaccurate, and despite some threatening dark purple storm clouds at times, the weather mostly stayed sunny for us. We took the opportunity of having a last (half) day in Tirana to do a three hour walk around the central city area, visiting places that we had not seen yesterday afternoon. We began our walk from the hotel, heading east along a new street that was still under construction until we arrived at a dam wall, which we climbed, to reveal a lovely lake that formed part of Madh Park. We walked through this expansive, green, shady area which was a great place for people watching, with old men playing chess and mah-jong, people exercising on outdoor gym equipment, grannies (or nannies) pushing strollers with young children in them (usually while talking on their mobile phones). We emerged from Madh Park and took the short walk to Mother Teresa Park. This open area is surrounded by the Main University Building to the south, the Adademy of Arts to the west, the Archaeological Museum to the east, and Tirana’s main thoroughfare (Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard) to the north. I was expecting a fairly formal, respectful area, but found instead huge screens set with open air eateries ready to accommodate thousands of people who gather there every evening to watch the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer matches. Mother Teresa square was certainly a popular place, but I wouldn’t have called it respectful. There was no statue of Mother Teresa to be seen. We walked northwards along Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard, past the Congress Building to an interesting array of small monuments called ‘Checkpoint’ in the north-east corner of a park. ‘Checkpoint’ is probably best classified as an artistic installation that recalls Albania’s isolation under Communist rule. There is a piece of the Berlin Wall, a real bunker, and parts of the concrete mineshaft supports from the prison camp at Spaçi. Opposite ‘Checkpoint’ is the Former Central Committee building where the Communist Party’s Central Committee met and where senior ministers, including Enver Hoxha, had their offices. The building still houses government offices, including parliament and the Constitutional Court, as we saw today with a barrage of television cameras waiting outside to record the entrance or departure of someone notable. Across the road from the Former Central Committee building was the Council of Ministers building, with a nicely preserved socialist realist bas-relief on the wall facing Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard. This building also houses Communist government offices, and is now the Prime Minister’s office building. Next door to this was one of Tirana’s most eye-catching buildings, the large structure known as the Pyramid. Designed by Enver Hoxha’s daughter, Pranvera, the Pyramid was designed as a memorial museum to Enver Hoxha. When the Communist regime fell in 1991, the building was used for conferences and trade fairs, with some office space rented out to private companies. The building looked abandoned and neglected, with graffiti covering some of the walls when we saw it today, but I understand that there are plans to renovate and re-use the building. A short walk to the north-east from the Pyramid brought us to the Tanners’ Bridge, described in my guidebook as “a cute little 19th century bridge”. Built from stone, Tanners’ Bridge is still used for pedestrian traffic, and marks the corner of Xhorxh W Bush and Gjergj Fista Boulevards. Walking north from the Tanners’ Bridge, we passed some small excavated archaeological remains of 17th century fortifications, and a lovely Ottoman period house that was, until 2005, the headquarters of the Centre for Geographical Studies. Turning northwards again, we came to one of Tirana’s few remaining examples of socialist realist sculptures, the Monument to the Unknown Partisan. The partisan rises above a small park, the passing traffic and the masses, waving his comrades into battle with one hand while gripping his rifle with the other. We took a short walk eastwards from the Monument to the Unknown Partisan to Sheshi Avni Rustemi Square, where Tirana’s small open air produce market is located. For a city of Tirana’s size, the market was surprisingly low key and fairly sparsely populated, but the quality of the fruit and vegetables looked good, and the large piles of pipe tobacco were especially interesting. With dark grey clouds gathering overhead and heavy rain visible in the near south, we thought this might be a good time to have a look through the National Historical Museum (the building we had seen yesterday with the large triumphal socialist realist mosaic above its front entrance. The museum presented a good display of Albanian victories and triumphs since early times, from the Illyrians, through the middle ages, to the struggle for independence, the anti-fascist struggle of World War II, and the horrors of the communist period. There was also a very impressive display of religious iconography. All sections of the museum had helpful labels in passable English except for the most recent hall (the horrors of the communist period). Interestingly, in the whole museum, there was just one small photo of (a young) Enver Hoxha; I would have expected more recognition of his role in Albanian history, even it was cast in a negative light. However, the museum largely eliminates his role in Albania’s history. Finishing our visit to the museum, we walked south along Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard before turning into Ismail Qemali Street, walking past Enver Hoxha’s house and returning to the hotel where we had left the car parked. It is understood that there is a tunnel linking Enver Hoxha’s house with the Former Central Committee building that is further along Ismail Qemali Street, and of course, this whole area of the city was closed to the general public during the Communist era, when it was known as ‘The Block’ (Blloku). The elite residents of The Block were referred to disparagingly by the general public as ‘Bllok-men’. The bunker at ‘Checkpoint’ came from one of the entrances to The Block. Farewelling our hosts at the LAS Hotel for a final time, we took the half hour drive to the Airport where we are staying in a hotel this evening, ready for our early departure tomorrow morning. Albania’s traffic doesn’t get any easier, even after a couple of weeks of driving here, and the narrow streets, the streets dug up for repairs without warning signs, and the unmarked one-way streets don’t help. Neither do Google Map’s wild inaccuracies, although in Google’s favour, at it shows roads that really exist, unlike Apple Maps’ Albanian information. We returned our rental car — almost miraculously in perfect condition considering the hazards of driving in this part of the world. Our Balkans experience had come to an end, having clocked precisely 2,222 kilometres. Balkans_Travel_Diary_2016_16_files/IMG_7848.jpg

Day 16 - Tirana, Albania

Tuesday 14 June 2016