Tiranë

We set off at the usual 9am start, and drove to Tiranë, as they style it. It’s not a long drive, around two hours, and we did it non-stop. On the way we passed a NATO airfield, which has a MiG-19 on the roundabout outside.

We’d arrived a little after 11:00, well before our check-in time, so we wandered the vicinity of our hotel fairly aimlessly for a bit, found a snack place for a spot of lunch, before checking in properly to the Metro Hotel. All this not doing anything is really tiring, so we had a rest, then reassembled at 4:00pm for our walking tour of Tiranë with the improbably-named Clinteast. Apparently his mother had a crush on Clint Eastwood at the time, so named him after the actor.

Clint, as he enjoined us to call him, had given up working as a programmer to become a tour guide. He took us around the city, regaled us with stories about the history of the country and city; taught us some important Albanian words which we forgot immediately; pointed out features of the new architecture which is springing up everywhere; and generally entertained us. We saw the statue of Stalin (not many remain, as they were all torn down when Enver Hoxha had his famous falling-out with the Soviet leader.) This one was kept in a forgotten storeroom, and rediscovered when communism ended after the revolution in 1991. It’s currently in a park near our hotel.

We also saw Hoxha’s villa in Tiranë, a piece of the Berlin Wall, one of the ubiquitous bunkers - the paranoid Hoxha was convinced that either China or the USA was going to invade, so built bunkers all around the country. We’ve seen quite a few already. There are, by some estimates, around 750,000 of them, although the official records show only 173,000.

Hoxha's villa

Genuine piece of the Berlin Wall. The reverse side is blank.

A two-man bunker. In a park.

We walked by the Tiranë pyramid, which was an old memorial to Hoxha, but has since been recovered and re-purposed. Clint said that climbing the 120 stairs on the outside symbolised walking all over communism. We may do it tomorrow.

We visited St Paul’s Cathedral, the first catholic church gifted to the newly-independent Albania, then walked through the remains of Tiranë castle, and onwards to Skanderbeg Square, where we (once more) heard the story of Gjergj Kastrioti, also known as Skanderbeg, Albania’s national hero. Clint pointed out features of his statue: his horse has one foot off the ground, meaning he didn’t die in battle - that’s two feet off the ground. All four grounded means death by natural causes, old age etc. The horse’s tail points downward, signifying he never lost in battle. And he’s carrying a sword, signifying that he is a warrior.

 

St. Paul's Cathedral. Yes, they really did make the window in that shape!

We also noted the Ethem Bey mosque , significant because it (a) wasn’t pulled down by Hoxha, but used as a store room for animals, and (b) has depictions of Albanian cities on the walls rather than the usual abstract designs.

 One of Clint’s little gems was about the number of times Albania has been invaded by Italians: three – the Romans, the Byzantines, and Mussolini’s fascists. He then said that as revenge, Albanians have taken three things from Italy and now beat the Italians at their own game: Albanian pizza is better than Italian, Albanian coffee is better – and they linger over it, rather than rushing. They also serve cappuccino after 5pm, just to annoy the Italians. And finally, they’ve taken Italy’s bad driving and turned it into an artform – it’s even worse! He said that cars tooting their horns was the second national anthem of Albania!

We finished up in the square, and then Danijela enticed us to Cafe Botanica with promises of beer and truffle fries. We lingered over our drinks, and then retraced our steps back to the hotel, stopping at a restaurant for some traditional Albanian cuisine. I chose…poorly. Think I’ll stick to pizza tomorrow.