Deb Travels the World

Final jigsaw of the trip and it was missing two pieces!

The canal near us has really become pretty with the spring blooms

i walked the 55min to BunkArt 1 (which actually took much longer because Google Maps routing really doesn’t work in Albania, I found). The suggested route led me through this gate and I made it inside, but then got kicked out and had to detour around. It looked really nice and all I know it that it appears to be “Bektashi Order Headquarters“.

BunkArt1 and BunkArt2 are museums dedicated to Albanian history, mostly WW2 and Albania’s struggle for independence. BunkArt2 is dedicated specifically to the communist era political police and repression. It is much smaller with only 24 rooms. I didn’t go inside #2, but it’s in the main square and looks like this:

I toured BunkArt1, although less convenient it is much larger (120+ rooms). I’m not much of a war buff, but took a few pics and read more than I can possibly remember.

This afternoon, I did a last amble around. Saw the (apparently) famous Winnie the Pooh cafe (licensing issue?)

The Mosaic of Tirana - it was closed and I’m not sure what it’s about based on what I could see.

I noticed that many streets have sidewalks only wide enough to accommodate the trees and not people

And I saw these metal origami dog and pig in a park, which I thought were cute.

We’ll leave Tirana tomorrow. We’ve enjoyed our time here, but Albania is unlikely to be somewhere a place that we’ll come back to. After our noisy construction experience in Durres, we were worried when this showed up next door

but we were very lucky they haven’t really started the work yet. A tall building is going up in the space and sadly, this apartment will lose a lot of the natural light.

Anyway, that’s it for this trip…

I’ve been doing more walking - no surprise there. There are three lake areas near Tirana. In my last post, I put up pics of my walk to the Grand Park with its lake (45 min south). Since then I’ve walked to Farka (1h to the southeast) and Paskuqan (1h25 min northwest). And today, we took a cable car to the top of Dajti mountain.

Liqeni i Farkës, the largest of the three, is an artificial lake and municipal park about 10km from Tirana.

The lake is quite nice, with paths all the way around and lots of construction everywhere. They appear to be building thousands of apartments.

Liqeni i Paskuqan has a better developed walkway area around the new artificial lake, with over 5km of walking and biking paths. According to our cabbie from today, housing construction around this lake will start when they’re finished with the Farka area. While the walk to the lake was sometimes less than pleasant (google maps trying to route me through a garbage dump), the walking area was really nicely finished. It was apparently transformed from barren land and polluted areas into a “green lung” with thousands of trees newly planted.

Not sure if you can see in this pic, but as I walked down to the lakeside path through a well-trodden path, a group of about 8 dogs ran at me, snarling and barking and generally scaring the crap out of me. I took a different route back.

This afternoon, we cabbed to the Dajti Ekspres cable car station and took the 15 min cable car up Dajti. Built in 2005 by an Austrian company, it’s the longest cableway in the Balkans (4,354 metres) to an altitude of 1,613 metres

Lovely views of Tirana on the way up

You can see Lake Farka

At the top, we took pics of the view; I lost a round of 18-hole mini golf by 14 strokes (yikes!); and we at a nice lunch (the pic has been edited to remove the people sitting at the window tables, which were sadly, full).

There’s also an adventure park, paragliding, and a 24-room hotel available, if we’d needed more time. Based on a map I saw at the bottom, there’s also lots of hiking trails, so you could cable up and hike down.

We have a lovely spacious apartment in Tirana about 20 minutes from Skanderbeg Square, named for Gjergj Katrioti aka Skanderbeg, who is a national hero in Albania for successfully opposing the Ottoman Empire in the 1500’s and preventing their expansion into Western Europe.

We arrived just in time for the “First Day of Summer” festival, which always lands on March 14th. There was music and traditional ballokume, which is a large, sweet cookie made from cornflour, butter, sugar and eggs and is traditionally kneaded in a copper bowl. Apparently, people wear verore (red & white bracelets symbolizing the beginning of summer). Traditionally, these bracelets are then hung on trees for good luck. We saw lots of bracelets for sale but no one buying, wearing or hanging them. The square and surrounding streets were decorated and filled with vendors and loud music.

I find the architecture here very interesting and different, as if they were rebelling against the boring buildings of communist rule. The first pic is meant to resemble Skoderbeg. That was also him on the horse.

I climbed the steps of the nearby Pyramid of Tirana and took in the view

And investigated inside “The Cloud” sculpture

Walked by the Kapllan Pasha Tomb, a cultural monument where the former Ottoman ruler was buried before being relocated to Istanbul.

And the friendship monument, representing friendship and cooperation between Albania and Kuwait

And walk by, but didn’t go in (yet) Bunk’Art 2, which is an underground labyrinth under the Ministry of the Interior buildings. It is a Communist-era nuclear bunker turned into a museum and art space. Bunk’Art 2 is comprised of 24 rooms, while Bunk’Art 1, a few km away has 104 rooms. I’m debating quantity over convenience in deciding which one I’ll visit. This is a small peek through the open entry.

I enjoyed the various sculptures around the area, even if I don’t know much about them

One day I was walking by this restaurant at midday and stopped to peek at the menu outside. The server came out to chat with me and asked me to come inside a try a free sampling of their food. I think because they didn’t have much daytime business due to Ramandan. They gave me a meat and yogurt stew (very traditional) on focaccia type bread. It was very good.

Another day, I walked to the military cemetery to see the Mother Albania statue, which overlooks Tirana. The gate was closed, but a friendly cab driver showed me how to go around the fence.

And from there, I walked to the Grand Park which surrounds an artificial lake. Very nice walking area, which I’ve returned to since.

Near one of the park exits there’s a Woodrow Wilson school and nearby, George W Bush library. The latter is actually a coffee shop with no affiliation to the former president. And there’s no library, although apparently “it’s in the works”

Yesterday, I joined a hiking tour to Bovilla Lake and Gamti Mountain. It was a cheap tour, but very enjoyable and worth the <$20 I paid for it. There were lots of people from various tours making it difficult to pass on the sometimes narrow rocky path.

Great views.

Leaving Durres early, we taxied to Berat (no trains here in Albania) and thoroughly enjoyed the UNESCO tourist town.

It's known as the city with a thousand windows

Staying in the heart of the old town, I hiked to the Berat castle on the Mangalem side of the Osham riverthe first day. There's the road route

Or the "short cut" that I took (quite a hike between these two pictures)

Lots of castle remnants (can you tell I like arches?)

Ruins of the red mosque and the white mosque (based on the brick colour)

The castle is a vast area, home to a small village of shops, homes, churches, restaurants, bars and hotels inside the castle walls.

Beautiful views from the top

On the way down, I stopped to look at Holy Trinity Church aka Castle Church
and continued down the other side of the hill.

On the second day, I first hiked up to St Michael’s church on the hill below the Berat castle. You can see it in the middle of the first picture on the hillside, taken from the street below.

Walking through the city streets on the way to the switchback trail...

I passed the former Sarays (palaces) of Ahmet Kurt Pasha (late 1700's)

And signs explaining the roles of some Albanian historical figures, including Alexander the Great, an Albanian, who apparently, was not allowed to compete in the Olympics because he was a foreigner.

I finally arrived at the entrance to the church

Took a couple of pictures inside

The gentleman who looks after the church (and collects donations) was happy to meet me and, upon learning I was Canadian asked me to wait while he played songs on his phone. He would play the song and see if I could guess the artist (not knowing that I have zero ear for music and don't know many songs or artists, Canadian or not). He then triumphantly announced the artist when I guessed Celine Dion every time He played Brian Adams, Celine (so I got one right) and Justin Timberlake, who I understand is not Canadian. Anyway, he was very sweet and didn't want me to leave, so he took down the barrier to another chapel and a view platform, where I dutifully took more pictures.

With smiles and thanks, I said goodbye and headed back down the hill. I saw a very steep and narrow trail that I assume led up to the castle from this side.

Then I explored a bit outside the old town tourist area. The very wide and very long pedestrian-only promenade

The Hotel Colombo overlooking the park at the end of the promenade

Tomori football (soccer) stadium, with a small peek inside

And the church of St Demetrius, which was completed in 2010, built on the same space as its predecessor which was destroyed under the communist regime.

Loved Berat!

We’ll be leaving Durres a few days earlier than originally planned. The building is undergoing some sort of construction. We’ve never seen the actual construction taking place, but OMG we have heard it. The grinding sound has been so loud we’re almost in tears, even with earplugs and headphones. We’d hoped that it would be done by the time we returned from the Balkan tour, but no such luck. We then rented a “day” apartment to have somewhere to get away from it. The apt had a nice water view and I loved sitting in the “sunroom”. Some of the noise seemed to follow us because they are working on the waterfront promenade and it’s sometimes pretty noisy, although being on the 11th floor.
View from the 11th floor

Although the view from the hairdresser (while waiting for the colour to set) was better

I like these statues on the waterfront listed as “the Rolling Stones”

Durres street at night

Yesterday I walked up to the villa of King Zog, this is what the plaque says:
“The Royal Residence in Durrés was initially conceived as a Presidential Residence in 1925, intended to serve as the state's
ceremonial villa. To meet the standards required for such a representative structure, it was decided that the residence would be
built atop the hill, offering one of the most impressive views of-the Bay of Durrës.
Following the proclamation of the Albanian Monarchy and the coronation of Ahmet Zogu as King of the Albanians in 1928, the
building was renamed the "'Royal Summer Residence." Construction began in 1926 and was completed in 1937, just a few months before King Zog's marriage to Queen Géraldine de Nagyappony on April 27, 1938.
Before the final version of the building, designed by architect Florestano di Fausto, three alternative designs had been proposed by Armando Brasini, Hans Köhler, and Kristo Sotiri.
According to some sources, the residence was a gift to the King from the business community of Durrës; other accounts suggest it was a contribution from the Italian government, aimed at strengthening diplomatic relations between Albania and Italy.”

It’s easy to see that it was one a beautiful mansion; sadly, abandoned and crumbling.

And beautiful views through the various windows and from numerous terraces. There’s a terrace off almost every room on every floor.

I couldn’t find out why it was abandoned other than references to communist rule.

On the way back I snapped a few pics of the concrete bunkers, relics from the communist era

Today, I took a nice walk to the reservoir

In my usual effort to take a different route back, I walked all the way around the reservoir and, then took the ugly mind-numbing garbage-ridden way home.