Crossroads to the Adriatic - Tirana - 2nd day, 17 Apr 2023

 

Crossroads to the Adriatic - Tirana, Albania

Walking tour, Cable Car, Dinner - 

17 Apr 2023

Downstairs breakfast about 8am.  Other were there, so joined them.  Started the morning off having to fight for American coffee!  There wasn't a pot of it on the table, so asked for some at the bar.  They gave me a little expresso version that I choked down.  When I asked for another, she said there was a charge.  What???  Elizabeth came to the rescue & got me another cup.  Erion will have to sort it out.  They have several types of eggs out, but they are just place out on table & cold.  Have quite a few sweet choices & man are they sweet!!  After breakfast we had a short meeting with Erion to summurize our plan for our days in Albania.  Sounds awesome!

Full picture of the mosque downloaded from internet

First stop of our walk was Et'hem Bey Mosque.  It was built in the early 1800's, but was closed during communist rule.  It opened again for worship in 1991.  10,000 entered the mosque shortly after the communist regime folded and it's been in active use ever since.  It is beautifully decorated inside. I was irritated with myself because I had specifically brought my own head scarf to wear when we entered the mosques, but I'd forgotten to put it in my backpack, so I had to use one of the ones in the box as you entered.  Oh well!  Had to remove our shoes too, but that was no big deal.

Skanderbeg Square

Cathedral of Christ's Resurrection Orthodox Church

We continued through Standerbeg Square with a dry look at the statute & the beautiful tiles.  And on with a stop at the biggest Orthodox Church in the Balkas, Christ's Resurrection Church.  It was only finished in 2014.  It's really quite beautiful.  There are regular services here.  Just as an aside, the majority of Albania is Muslim, but according to our 2 guides (Ari yesterday and Erion today) only about 2% are actually practicing.  We would hear the calls to prayer, but never saw anyone going in or out of the temples.

Interesting office building archeticture

We took a group picture at the cloud sculpture.  I thought I had several of them, but couldn't find them.  I stole this one from Jan's Facebook page!  He had us make "angel" wings to pose!  It is a contemporary work of art positioned outside of the National Gallery of the Arts.  It is known as a meeting place in the central city.  Notice the interesting broom the worker was using!  

We made a stop at a small creek running through the city to through our beautiful red eggs!  Before we threw them in, we saw one bobbing along & laughingly decided it was Erion's that he had thrown in yesterday on his way home from the hotel!!

We walked past the "pyramid", a monument designed by the communist leader, Enver Hoxha's daughter & son in law as his mausoleum.  We couldn't actually see it, it's behind high walls showing designs for it's renovation.  It was designed to look like the double headed eagle that is Albania's symbol.  Along the way, we noted lots of really innovative architecture.   

We continued our walk through the communist neighborhood, Erion pointed out the home where Enver Hoxha lived & died.  There were underground bunkers all throughout the area.  Towards the end of his communist rule, he became quite paranoid (is is paranoid if you are worried everyone is out to get you when many are?) and started building underground bunkers.  Some just for weapons and/or ammo, but many large enough to protect either the soldiers or the elite & their families.  Yes, I mean a lot!  At least 173,000!!!!  Erion said that many suspected that towards the end of his rule, his wife was actually pulling the strings because he had dementia.

We then hopped on our bus (which by the way, there were 5 of us, right & for our entire visit to Albania, we were assigned a regular 60 seat bus!!  We were all spread out & allowed to bounce from side to side for pictures.  Pretty cool!).  We toured Bunk'Art 2, a communist nuclear bomb shelter that has been turned into a museum about the communist era basically from 1946 - 1991.  They were never really a part of Yugoslavia, but a satellite of it.  They were considered the first Atheist country in 1946 and many of the religious buildings & sites were destroyed or remodeled for other uses.  It was sorta spooky to be underground knowing you were in a place built to survive a nuclear holocost for months, maybe years.  We saw Hoxha's bedroom & the theater.  There were tanks set up throughout for oxygen.  There are over 100 rooms & it is 5 levels, but we just saw the main level.  There is another bunker near the square in town, but we elected to this one - the largest & first.

One of the most interesting stories depicted in the museum was about an American plane that had crashed in Albania during WWII with 17 American women on board.  It was winter & in a remote area.  Local farmers had rescued the women & they were led through the woods & mountains to escape on the Adriatic coast.

Next stop was for me the highlight of the day.  We took the cable car to the top of Dajti Mountain.  It is about 2500'.  We managed to be between rain storms.  The views were really nice.  It took about 15 minutes to reach the top where there was a nice restaurant & viewing area.

First of our HUGE meals throughout this tour!  Started with appetizers - corn bread with yogurt sauce & several types of their "pies".  They are made with fila dough like baclava and are yogurt, cheese, spinach, and or meat.  Then the main course was lamb dish baked in a cream sauce in a porcelain crock.  Delicious, but so very very rich!  Thank goodness there was a salad to balance it out a little!

We got to enjoy the views throughout the meal.  Lovely!!  Well designed place & I'm really happy that OAT had it on our list of things to do!

We wandered around outside for a bit, getting pictures & enjoying the scenery.  Rain was holding off, but wanting to drizzle a little.    There are out  buildings around for groups to come from various activities.  Wish we had had time for a longer hike, but the weather was not cooperating either.

Last stop of the very full day was to the Headquarters of World Order of the Bektashi.  This is an order of the Islam religion that is prevalent in Albania.  20% of the muslims in Albania are Bektashi.  Our guide, Erion is Bektashi.  It came to Albania during the Ottoman rule.  They adhere to the line "Be master of your hands, your tongue, and your loins" which essentially means do not steal, do not lie or speak idly, and do not commit adultery.  In general, they are tolerant of all religions according to Erion.  

The museum had tons of exhibits.  Many did not have English translations, we're not much on museums anyway, so I just wandered through, taking pictures.  It was beautiful inside.

They were preparing for a meeting, but they allowed us into the huge meeting hall to look around.  Really gorgeous.  Since the defeat of the communist party, religion has flourished, but as I mentioned before, people are happy to support the facilities, but most are not actively practicing any particular faith.

We wandered around the huge grounds, taking pictures & just looking.  We saw one of the religious leaders coming over to visit one of the "congregation" that had come to worship.  It's a shame that it was drizzling, but the wet tiles were absolutely stunning.  Amazing color everywhere we looked.  It's obvious that things have recently been restored since religious freedom was returned to the country in 1991.

After returning to the hotel, we had about an hour to "rest" up and then we took a short walk to the Oda Restaurant for dinner.  There was a bit of a kerfuffle because of some cigarette smoke that was drifting in from an open doorway.  Made Rich very angry.  He was still griping at Erion when we got back to the hotel, but George & I didn't get involved. We went to get our wine to relax a little bit before calling it a day.  The owner was having an end of Ramadan party & when we walked in asking for wine, he started insisting that we join the party.  They were all obviously drunk (especially him!!! - but very happy drunk!).  We begged off, but he insisted on paying for our wine.  Too funny!   Long day & absolutely lovely!  Played a bit on computers & off to bed!