Here it is, finally.... a slide show of our entire trip!
Obviously we are back at home now, hard at work, and sadly this fabulous trip seems like a distant memory. Fortunately, we have these photos to reflect on... enjoy!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
June 28 - 29: Lake Ohrid & Skopje, Macedonia
Sniff sniff… our last drive in Albania, and on to our second to last country. We were meeting the rental car rep at the Macedonian border at noon, so had to hit the road pretty early, at least, early for us on this trip. So at 9AM, we were off and running, after a terrible sleep on the crappy old mattress (oh well.. we have not had any complaints about accommodations so far).
This drive was fairly similar as the drive to Berat for the first hour or so, until we reached the town of Elbasani. We really wish we had time to get out and take some photos because Elbasani was a truly amazing site. It is home to an absolutely ENORMOUS, communist era still mill built by the Chinese in 1974 (before then it was supposedly one of the most beautiful Ottoman cities in Albania). In its heydey the mill employed over 8000 people, but now stands empty and crumbling; apparently too costly to bring it up to environmental standards. And while it is in one sense an ugly monstrosity, it is in another way beautifu.
Past Elbasan, we were driving through territory reminiscent to what we had seen in Bosnia and northern Montenegro. This part was much greener and more mountainous, with rich forests lining both sides of a winding river. Then suddenly as we rose up the side of a mountain, we could see Lake Ohrid, our destination in Macedonia. Lake Ohrid is a huge lake, and one of the deepest in Europe, that shares a border with Albania and Macedonia.
We dropped of our car, crossed the border and made our way into Ohrid. Now, I will have to apologize in advance, because this part will be short. There is frankly not all that much to say about Macedonia. To be fair, we were only there for two days, but really, that was more than enough!
Ohrid was actually a very pretty lakeside town with a very active nightlife. We learned this the hard way, as our room, which seemed great during the day since it looked right over the lake, also looked right over the most happening live band venue in town… and let me tell you, the live bands here need a lot of work. All of Macedonia seemed to be congregating in Ohrid for the weekend, as it is the most popular destination in Macedonia, and for good reason. The lake is beautiful, there is always a strong cool breeze coming off the lake, and there just tons of cafes and bars lining the irver and the streets of the town. We spent a lovely afternoon exploring, and realizing that there was not all that much to stay on for. The town was very small, a bit hectic given the crowds and the food was a bit of a let down after the great food we had in Albania
Next day we embarked a not very fresh smelling bus for the 3-hour ride to Skopje, from which we were catching an overnight bus to Belgrade. We decided not to spend the night in Skopje as we learned the hotel prices are ridiculously inflated due to all of the NGO, diplomatic and aid workser that stay there, using Skopje as a base for work in nearby Kosovo.
Now, I apologize in advance to any Skopje-ites, but Skopje was by far the most boring place we have ever been. Now again, to be fair, we spent very little time there, but in the time we did spend there, we struggled to keep ourselves busy for the 7.5 hours till our bus. There was a really interesting Turkish quarter, which reminded Tawfik of the old city in Jerusalem, and where we had some great kebabs. We checked out the local gallery of modern art, which was housed in an old Turkish bath; the building was really spectacular. We ultimately wandered into the new part of town, which is dominated by large square, whose major focal point was an Italian restaurant. It is hard to describe the feeling we had in Skopje, but it was just quite dull. There was very little in the way of nice architecture, everything seemed grey and muted, even the sound, so really there was just very little that struck as dynamic or capable of stimulating the senses in anyway. In fact, we even checked out the two local shopping malls to see if we could at least get excited by some window shopping… but that did not work either. So, we sat in a café, caffeinated ourselves probably more than we should have given we were to sleep on a bus. Skopje gave us the impression of a place where the young people are probably dying to get out to somewhere a bit more dynamic and with more opportunity…. But again, this is our perspective after only an afternoon… so any Macedonians out there, we would love to hear a different perspective.
This drive was fairly similar as the drive to Berat for the first hour or so, until we reached the town of Elbasani. We really wish we had time to get out and take some photos because Elbasani was a truly amazing site. It is home to an absolutely ENORMOUS, communist era still mill built by the Chinese in 1974 (before then it was supposedly one of the most beautiful Ottoman cities in Albania). In its heydey the mill employed over 8000 people, but now stands empty and crumbling; apparently too costly to bring it up to environmental standards. And while it is in one sense an ugly monstrosity, it is in another way beautifu.
Past Elbasan, we were driving through territory reminiscent to what we had seen in Bosnia and northern Montenegro. This part was much greener and more mountainous, with rich forests lining both sides of a winding river. Then suddenly as we rose up the side of a mountain, we could see Lake Ohrid, our destination in Macedonia. Lake Ohrid is a huge lake, and one of the deepest in Europe, that shares a border with Albania and Macedonia.
We dropped of our car, crossed the border and made our way into Ohrid. Now, I will have to apologize in advance, because this part will be short. There is frankly not all that much to say about Macedonia. To be fair, we were only there for two days, but really, that was more than enough!
Ohrid was actually a very pretty lakeside town with a very active nightlife. We learned this the hard way, as our room, which seemed great during the day since it looked right over the lake, also looked right over the most happening live band venue in town… and let me tell you, the live bands here need a lot of work. All of Macedonia seemed to be congregating in Ohrid for the weekend, as it is the most popular destination in Macedonia, and for good reason. The lake is beautiful, there is always a strong cool breeze coming off the lake, and there just tons of cafes and bars lining the irver and the streets of the town. We spent a lovely afternoon exploring, and realizing that there was not all that much to stay on for. The town was very small, a bit hectic given the crowds and the food was a bit of a let down after the great food we had in Albania
Next day we embarked a not very fresh smelling bus for the 3-hour ride to Skopje, from which we were catching an overnight bus to Belgrade. We decided not to spend the night in Skopje as we learned the hotel prices are ridiculously inflated due to all of the NGO, diplomatic and aid workser that stay there, using Skopje as a base for work in nearby Kosovo.
Now, I apologize in advance to any Skopje-ites, but Skopje was by far the most boring place we have ever been. Now again, to be fair, we spent very little time there, but in the time we did spend there, we struggled to keep ourselves busy for the 7.5 hours till our bus. There was a really interesting Turkish quarter, which reminded Tawfik of the old city in Jerusalem, and where we had some great kebabs. We checked out the local gallery of modern art, which was housed in an old Turkish bath; the building was really spectacular. We ultimately wandered into the new part of town, which is dominated by large square, whose major focal point was an Italian restaurant. It is hard to describe the feeling we had in Skopje, but it was just quite dull. There was very little in the way of nice architecture, everything seemed grey and muted, even the sound, so really there was just very little that struck as dynamic or capable of stimulating the senses in anyway. In fact, we even checked out the two local shopping malls to see if we could at least get excited by some window shopping… but that did not work either. So, we sat in a café, caffeinated ourselves probably more than we should have given we were to sleep on a bus. Skopje gave us the impression of a place where the young people are probably dying to get out to somewhere a bit more dynamic and with more opportunity…. But again, this is our perspective after only an afternoon… so any Macedonians out there, we would love to hear a different perspective.
June 27: Berat, Albania
Given the relatively slow going and because we were still a bit unsure of the condition of the roads further south we decided to take a route back up through the center of Albania to head east to the Macedonian border (our next destination). This drive took us through what seemed like the heartland of Albania. There was much less random development, like we saw down the coastline, and instead we were driving through the agricultural areas, mostly dominated by olive groves, vineyards, cornfields various and sundry types of produce and even bee farms (is that what they are called?); we stopped along the way to buy some honey from one of the stands manned by young boys.
Along our drive we also passed through Albania’s oil fields, which was quite odd. All of the sudden there was a completely noxious smell of petrol, at which point we realized what we thought were electrical towers where actually rusted old oil rigs, which must have been leaking oil all over the place. We had no idea that Albania had its own oil resources. As we passed through various towns and villages, we were generally impressed with the state of them, we definitely did not see much of the abject poverty that is said to exist here. This clearly must be concentrated in the north and more remote areas away from the ‘main’ roads). In fact, we were even surprised to see the abundance of relatively nice homes and hotel / restaurants along the way (albeit in pretty random locations). W eeven saw one most impressive house (picture included in the slide show) shaped exactly like a ship… it is odd under any circumstances, but especially in a rural area of one of the poorest countries in the world.
Armed with a good map, and the fact that the roads are pretty well signed, we made it to Berat in only a couple of hours. I suppose it also helps that Albania doesn't have all that many primary or secondary roads, so if you are on a road of any size, you can be fairly certain it is the right one.
In the towns however, it is a different story, the street names are merely rumors, and no one seems to know them if you refer to them. So after circling a couple of times, unable to find out B&B we asked a police officer. Instead of just pointing us the way, he jumped in the back to take us there… which was very kind of him, even if he did not smell so fresh!
Our B&B was a cute restored ottoman home, definitely own of the places with the most chracter that we have stayed in… though unfortunately the plumbing reminded us a bit of China and the mattresses had a few springs sticking out of them… but hey, it was very clean and this is Albania so it was much better than we expected.
Berat is actually a Unesco Heritage City, known for its well-preserved ottoman homes both along the banks of its river and within the castle walls on a mountain overlooking the rest of the town. We hiked up to the castle town to explore the old ottoman city. This was a completely different style of architecture and town planning than we had seen before. The homes were built of field stones or some kind of white material with wooden roves and trimmings, much different from the Roman and Austrian influenced old cities we had seen to date. What also struck us about this site was the lack of any toursim whatsoever. This was a completely living city with not even a small stand selling drinks and postcards. Instead there were turkey and chickens and sheep roaming around… and of course, it had its fair share of Mercedes!!
From the old city, there was a fantastic view of the lower town with homes of the same style clinging to the sides of the mountain below and on the sister mountain across the river. From here one could also see the newer part of town, which while buiolt in that ugly cement block style, actually looked nice in the evening sun which lit up the bright colors of the buildings (the bright color mandate was obviously carried out throughout the country).
We then took a long stroll along the river of the lower town, and we really were captivated by the pace of this place. It was about 7PM, the sun was going down, and everyone was done with their work and school for the day. It seemed like all of Berat was out enjoying a stroll along the river and one of the main roads that had been closed to traffic. Families were out walking, having ice cream, teenage girls were out in groups – giggling at the groups of teenage boys. Old men were hanging out on the bridge watching their comrades fishing below. It was really reminiscent of an older pace of life, which we had not seen much along this trip.
We were a bit sad to only have a day to spend in Berat as we could have easily spent one more soaking up the atmosphere. But we enjoyed one long dinner on the roof deck of our B&B overlooking the city below.
Along our drive we also passed through Albania’s oil fields, which was quite odd. All of the sudden there was a completely noxious smell of petrol, at which point we realized what we thought were electrical towers where actually rusted old oil rigs, which must have been leaking oil all over the place. We had no idea that Albania had its own oil resources. As we passed through various towns and villages, we were generally impressed with the state of them, we definitely did not see much of the abject poverty that is said to exist here. This clearly must be concentrated in the north and more remote areas away from the ‘main’ roads). In fact, we were even surprised to see the abundance of relatively nice homes and hotel / restaurants along the way (albeit in pretty random locations). W eeven saw one most impressive house (picture included in the slide show) shaped exactly like a ship… it is odd under any circumstances, but especially in a rural area of one of the poorest countries in the world.
Armed with a good map, and the fact that the roads are pretty well signed, we made it to Berat in only a couple of hours. I suppose it also helps that Albania doesn't have all that many primary or secondary roads, so if you are on a road of any size, you can be fairly certain it is the right one.
In the towns however, it is a different story, the street names are merely rumors, and no one seems to know them if you refer to them. So after circling a couple of times, unable to find out B&B we asked a police officer. Instead of just pointing us the way, he jumped in the back to take us there… which was very kind of him, even if he did not smell so fresh!
Our B&B was a cute restored ottoman home, definitely own of the places with the most chracter that we have stayed in… though unfortunately the plumbing reminded us a bit of China and the mattresses had a few springs sticking out of them… but hey, it was very clean and this is Albania so it was much better than we expected.
Berat is actually a Unesco Heritage City, known for its well-preserved ottoman homes both along the banks of its river and within the castle walls on a mountain overlooking the rest of the town. We hiked up to the castle town to explore the old ottoman city. This was a completely different style of architecture and town planning than we had seen before. The homes were built of field stones or some kind of white material with wooden roves and trimmings, much different from the Roman and Austrian influenced old cities we had seen to date. What also struck us about this site was the lack of any toursim whatsoever. This was a completely living city with not even a small stand selling drinks and postcards. Instead there were turkey and chickens and sheep roaming around… and of course, it had its fair share of Mercedes!!
From the old city, there was a fantastic view of the lower town with homes of the same style clinging to the sides of the mountain below and on the sister mountain across the river. From here one could also see the newer part of town, which while buiolt in that ugly cement block style, actually looked nice in the evening sun which lit up the bright colors of the buildings (the bright color mandate was obviously carried out throughout the country).
We then took a long stroll along the river of the lower town, and we really were captivated by the pace of this place. It was about 7PM, the sun was going down, and everyone was done with their work and school for the day. It seemed like all of Berat was out enjoying a stroll along the river and one of the main roads that had been closed to traffic. Families were out walking, having ice cream, teenage girls were out in groups – giggling at the groups of teenage boys. Old men were hanging out on the bridge watching their comrades fishing below. It was really reminiscent of an older pace of life, which we had not seen much along this trip.
We were a bit sad to only have a day to spend in Berat as we could have easily spent one more soaking up the atmosphere. But we enjoyed one long dinner on the roof deck of our B&B overlooking the city below.
Monday, July 2, 2007
June 25 – 26: Dhermie, Albania
After talking to a few people, and coming to the realization that we did not have enough days left in Albania to spend them on 8-hour bus rides, we decided that renting a car would allow us to see more of the country. We are so glad that we decided to do it. While the going is a bit slow (one lane roads) and the driving a bit hectic at times… it was really not anywhere near as bad as our guidebook made it out to be.
Though, perhaps it's the New York City driving that prepared us for this phase of our journey!! The drivers are pretty much all over the place, passing left and right with abandon. One valuable lesson we learned about Albanian driving is the magical, invisible middle lane (or in some cases lanes) that apparently exists between each ‘official’ lane of traffic. You can see this is some of the photos… note that it seems like there are four lanes going in one direction (something you would naturally assume upon seeing 4 cars abreast traveling in the same direction), but no, there is just one lane in each direction. Ok – so that sounds bad, but once you get in the groove of it, its actually quite entertaining. Fortunately the roads themselves were actually in really good shape; obviously a relatively new development as our Lonely Planet guide made them out to be really awful. There were a couple of bad stretches, but these were under construction – so all in all, we were really impressed by the roads and driving was a breeze.
Our first destination was the Ionian coast, so our drive took us down the last stretch of Adriatic coastline that we would see on our trip. What was quite shocking about this drive was that for the first few hours of our drive, there was non stop development in the form of buildings in really random places all in various stages of construction. What was particularly odd was that no one seemed to be working on any of them. Though we really only covered about 150 or so km in the first few hours of the drive, it was a surprise to see that there were people and towns virtually the whole way. Further south there was actually a very Florida-like beach resort, complete with pastel colored condos... fortunately we were heading even further south.
We finally broke free of the towns and the traffic when we reached what is known as ‘Thunder Mountain’. Not the ride at Disney World, but the high mountain range that marks the transition from the Adriatic to the Ionian sea. The mountain is also known as an escape from the hot and humid Tirana scene for some fresh mountain air and delicious grilled lamb in one of the many restaurants at the entrance of the mountain. Once through the mountain and the forest, we reached a really windy pass down the backside of the mountain, with absolutely incredible views of the virtually deserted beaches below. After our long hot drive (the AC did not work so well) we were very excited by the sght of the inviting crystal blue water below and rushed down.
Our destination was Dhermie, one of the more ‘developed’ of the beaches on the Ionian sea, which really means there were just a couple of small hotels and restaurants. Some of the other beaches had virtually nothing, and could not even be reached by car. As soon as we found a place to stay, we dropped our things and ran straight out for the water. The Ionian sea can best be described as a swimming pool… the water was crystal clear blue, flat as a mirror, and there was not a single fish or bit of foliage in the water.
So we spent a couple of days floating and swimming in this amazing water, playing on the ubiquitous bunkers and enjoying seafood pasta and cuba libres at a newly opened restaurant and beach-side lounge. While there is definitely development on the Ionian coast, most of it is pretty basic and unimaginative, so we were happy to find these places where the owner and his brother (a couple of local guys who had done some traveling) had a bit more vision and aspirations for decent food and service and a nice environment. Though we did not travel further south, there is clearly a huge amount of untapped potential for some amazing beach vacation destinations just in the few kilometers of coastline that we saw. So... if anyone is looking to invest in some beach property... this is a good spot!!
Though, perhaps it's the New York City driving that prepared us for this phase of our journey!! The drivers are pretty much all over the place, passing left and right with abandon. One valuable lesson we learned about Albanian driving is the magical, invisible middle lane (or in some cases lanes) that apparently exists between each ‘official’ lane of traffic. You can see this is some of the photos… note that it seems like there are four lanes going in one direction (something you would naturally assume upon seeing 4 cars abreast traveling in the same direction), but no, there is just one lane in each direction. Ok – so that sounds bad, but once you get in the groove of it, its actually quite entertaining. Fortunately the roads themselves were actually in really good shape; obviously a relatively new development as our Lonely Planet guide made them out to be really awful. There were a couple of bad stretches, but these were under construction – so all in all, we were really impressed by the roads and driving was a breeze.
Our first destination was the Ionian coast, so our drive took us down the last stretch of Adriatic coastline that we would see on our trip. What was quite shocking about this drive was that for the first few hours of our drive, there was non stop development in the form of buildings in really random places all in various stages of construction. What was particularly odd was that no one seemed to be working on any of them. Though we really only covered about 150 or so km in the first few hours of the drive, it was a surprise to see that there were people and towns virtually the whole way. Further south there was actually a very Florida-like beach resort, complete with pastel colored condos... fortunately we were heading even further south.
We finally broke free of the towns and the traffic when we reached what is known as ‘Thunder Mountain’. Not the ride at Disney World, but the high mountain range that marks the transition from the Adriatic to the Ionian sea. The mountain is also known as an escape from the hot and humid Tirana scene for some fresh mountain air and delicious grilled lamb in one of the many restaurants at the entrance of the mountain. Once through the mountain and the forest, we reached a really windy pass down the backside of the mountain, with absolutely incredible views of the virtually deserted beaches below. After our long hot drive (the AC did not work so well) we were very excited by the sght of the inviting crystal blue water below and rushed down.
Our destination was Dhermie, one of the more ‘developed’ of the beaches on the Ionian sea, which really means there were just a couple of small hotels and restaurants. Some of the other beaches had virtually nothing, and could not even be reached by car. As soon as we found a place to stay, we dropped our things and ran straight out for the water. The Ionian sea can best be described as a swimming pool… the water was crystal clear blue, flat as a mirror, and there was not a single fish or bit of foliage in the water.
So we spent a couple of days floating and swimming in this amazing water, playing on the ubiquitous bunkers and enjoying seafood pasta and cuba libres at a newly opened restaurant and beach-side lounge. While there is definitely development on the Ionian coast, most of it is pretty basic and unimaginative, so we were happy to find these places where the owner and his brother (a couple of local guys who had done some traveling) had a bit more vision and aspirations for decent food and service and a nice environment. Though we did not travel further south, there is clearly a huge amount of untapped potential for some amazing beach vacation destinations just in the few kilometers of coastline that we saw. So... if anyone is looking to invest in some beach property... this is a good spot!!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
June 22 – 24: Tirana, Albania
For our stay in Tirana we found a really pleasant and comfortable B&B, which as it turns out was established by missionaries, for the missionary community in Tirana. Presumably after the fall of communism, Albania was an open playing field as far as religion was concerned, and the missionaries saw an opportunity. As a result, it appears that a significant number of the expats in Albania are on some kind of missionary work… breakfast on Saturday in the restaurant attached to the B&B looked a little too much like the breakfast crowd at Denny’s and we saw quite a few Mormons cruising the city. However, despite being in a hotbed of missionary activity, we managed to escape unconverted.
All jokes aside, the place was very nice and the people that ran it extremely helpful and kind… in fact, the young guy running the place let us use his washing machine. Also of note, was the free wireless in the rooms, which led to our newfound obsession with ‘The Office’. In the interest of full disclosure, we have to admit that, while totally incongruous with the nature of this trip, we have become ‘Office’ junkies…. And have seen almost the whole third season. We are now jonesing for another internet connection to download the remaining episodes!!
Despite our TV watching, we did manage to get out on the town to take in the sights and flavors of Tirana. To be honest, we were both a bit surprised at the degree of development that has taken placed and is underway in Tirana. One of the main features of Tirana are the brightly colored buildings, old and new. Apparently one of Hoxha’s many restrictions was on art and the use of color. Once he was removed, there was a significant rebellion against his legacy and rules, so in addition to removing virtually all traces of Hoxha from the city, there was a rebellion of color, and a government sponsored initiatives to repaint all of the old cement blocks in an explosion of color. As well, it seems that any new buildings are required to have some element of color to them. All of the new government buildings are festive yellow and pink colors, and even many of the more modern glass towers going up have managed to inject bright colors into their designs. So this blend of new and old, built and half built, bright and drab buildings, against the backdrop of the oversized squares and avenues resulting from the communist city planning makes for a very interesting urban landscape.
Once the heat of the day subsides, Tirana really springs into action and is quite a lively city. The action starts in the main square, under the shadow of an oversized cement building with a revolutionary mosaic. Here the kids of the city let off some steam and begin their early driving lessons in a circuit of mini electric cars. Apparently this is where they learn to swerve around other cars without banging up their Mercedes. Then a nice green park a few streets over, near the river, is full of families and older residents of the city enjoying the cool breeze from the trees. A few streets over the river is the former Blloku area, which was previously forbidden to residents of Tirana as it housed the residences of the party officials. It is a surprisingly green and leafy area, which today is the trendy part of town, where streets lined with Mercedes and the odd hummer buzz with activity in the numerous chi chi bars and cafes.
Also, as it turns out, Tirana is home to what must be one of the world's cheapest and best movie theatres. As it was quite hot and the city was dead on Sunday afternoon, we decided to duck into a theatre that we had passed. The timing was right for us to catch a 3PM showing of shooter (fun movie by the way). We were 2 of 4 people in th emovie theatre, enjoying our comfy stadium seats, fantastic audio and video and yummy popcorn for less that $10 for the two of us!!
All of this was definitely a surprise, as we definitely expected a much poorer and more decrepit city. Not to say that is not still pervasive in Albania.... but at least Tirana seems to be making some improvements. That said, we learned from chatting with a friend of Tawfik's sister, who works for Oxfam in Tirana, that the country is still rife with corruption (evident from all the fancy cars and the obvious disregard the drivers have for any authority) and that the government is extremely slow in putting into place any strategies and policies to really improve the state of the country. So for someone such as herself working in the economic development field, this is an extremely frustrating situation.
One other point to note on our experiences in Tirana, is that Albania has by far the best food we have enjoyed on the trip so far. We had several fantastic meals of Albanian cuisine, which has significant Turkish influences. One especially memorable meal was at a tiny restaurant called Oda. The restaurant had just three small tables, close to the ground, and we felt as though we were literally sitting in someone’s living room. Which we may well have been as the place was run by a husband and wife who did all the cooking and serving, and the dishes were representative of great home cooking. While we enjoyed some good food in Croatia, this is the first time we feel we have really experienced a new national cuisine.
All jokes aside, the place was very nice and the people that ran it extremely helpful and kind… in fact, the young guy running the place let us use his washing machine. Also of note, was the free wireless in the rooms, which led to our newfound obsession with ‘The Office’. In the interest of full disclosure, we have to admit that, while totally incongruous with the nature of this trip, we have become ‘Office’ junkies…. And have seen almost the whole third season. We are now jonesing for another internet connection to download the remaining episodes!!
Despite our TV watching, we did manage to get out on the town to take in the sights and flavors of Tirana. To be honest, we were both a bit surprised at the degree of development that has taken placed and is underway in Tirana. One of the main features of Tirana are the brightly colored buildings, old and new. Apparently one of Hoxha’s many restrictions was on art and the use of color. Once he was removed, there was a significant rebellion against his legacy and rules, so in addition to removing virtually all traces of Hoxha from the city, there was a rebellion of color, and a government sponsored initiatives to repaint all of the old cement blocks in an explosion of color. As well, it seems that any new buildings are required to have some element of color to them. All of the new government buildings are festive yellow and pink colors, and even many of the more modern glass towers going up have managed to inject bright colors into their designs. So this blend of new and old, built and half built, bright and drab buildings, against the backdrop of the oversized squares and avenues resulting from the communist city planning makes for a very interesting urban landscape.
Once the heat of the day subsides, Tirana really springs into action and is quite a lively city. The action starts in the main square, under the shadow of an oversized cement building with a revolutionary mosaic. Here the kids of the city let off some steam and begin their early driving lessons in a circuit of mini electric cars. Apparently this is where they learn to swerve around other cars without banging up their Mercedes. Then a nice green park a few streets over, near the river, is full of families and older residents of the city enjoying the cool breeze from the trees. A few streets over the river is the former Blloku area, which was previously forbidden to residents of Tirana as it housed the residences of the party officials. It is a surprisingly green and leafy area, which today is the trendy part of town, where streets lined with Mercedes and the odd hummer buzz with activity in the numerous chi chi bars and cafes.
Also, as it turns out, Tirana is home to what must be one of the world's cheapest and best movie theatres. As it was quite hot and the city was dead on Sunday afternoon, we decided to duck into a theatre that we had passed. The timing was right for us to catch a 3PM showing of shooter (fun movie by the way). We were 2 of 4 people in th emovie theatre, enjoying our comfy stadium seats, fantastic audio and video and yummy popcorn for less that $10 for the two of us!!
All of this was definitely a surprise, as we definitely expected a much poorer and more decrepit city. Not to say that is not still pervasive in Albania.... but at least Tirana seems to be making some improvements. That said, we learned from chatting with a friend of Tawfik's sister, who works for Oxfam in Tirana, that the country is still rife with corruption (evident from all the fancy cars and the obvious disregard the drivers have for any authority) and that the government is extremely slow in putting into place any strategies and policies to really improve the state of the country. So for someone such as herself working in the economic development field, this is an extremely frustrating situation.
One other point to note on our experiences in Tirana, is that Albania has by far the best food we have enjoyed on the trip so far. We had several fantastic meals of Albanian cuisine, which has significant Turkish influences. One especially memorable meal was at a tiny restaurant called Oda. The restaurant had just three small tables, close to the ground, and we felt as though we were literally sitting in someone’s living room. Which we may well have been as the place was run by a husband and wife who did all the cooking and serving, and the dishes were representative of great home cooking. While we enjoyed some good food in Croatia, this is the first time we feel we have really experienced a new national cuisine.
June 22: Croatia to Albania
To leave Croatia, we took a bus, our first, that would bring us all the way to Ulcinj, the last town in Montenegro, from where there were rumored to be local busses to take you across the border, to another town in Albania, and from there one would take a third bus to get to Tirana, Albania’s capital. After three weeks of freedom and convenience that our little car offered us, we were not too terribly excited to have to switch to public transportation. However, the rental car companies will not allow you to take cars into Albania, where the driving and road conditions are supposed to be awful.
But we got off to not too bad of a start… our bus in Croatia was quite comfy, a big air-conditioned affair… but for some inexplicable reason, about one hour into the 5 hour trip, everyone going to Ulcinj was transferred to a much smaller, much more local bus (and also, much less fresh smelling!!). Despite the change, we did get to our first stop in the time promised, however, the next best for the border crossing was not till 6AM the next morning. Fortunately, we decided to ask how much the taxi drivers would charge to cross the border, and as it turned out, he could take us all the way to Tirana. At the time, the price of 100 euros for the 150km journey seemed quite pricey, but as it turned out it was the best 100 euros we have spent on the trip, as our driver was super nice, and it saved us a ton of time – we probably would not have made it to Tirana in the same day otherwise.
Our first impressions of Albania were quite interesting. While crossing over other borders offered a subtle change in landscape and some subtle changes in visible economic well being… the cross into Albania was quite dramatic, much more so than any other place we have been. As soon as we crossed the border, we were clearly in a much poorer country, in fact, Albania has only recently moved up a spot or two from being the poorest European country. Suddenly the cars shared the roads with horse and donkey carts, humpbacked old ladies taking their cows for a walk, shepherds with their flocks and all sorts of other obstacles. However, despite all the various modes of traffic, the road was much better than expected. We passed through a few rather grim looking towns, with shabby grey cement buildings. Which were a good indication of Tirana’s recent communist past and the current state of the country.
As we drove along a few other somewhat unique elements of Albania really stood out. 1) It turns out the country is covered in cement bunkers, built by the somewhat paranoid Enver Hoxha (dictator of Albania for over 50 years – apparently there are over 700,000 of these bunkers all over the country. Supposedly the designer of the bunker was required to sit in one of his creations while under siege from tank in order to prove it would hold! How is that for having to guarantee your own work? They are solid as can be, and are apparently extremely expensive and time-consuming to remove, so most remain.), 2) virtually every second car on the road is a Mercedes, and they drive as though they own the road, 3) there is a car wash just about every kilometer or so… apparently all those Mercedes need washing, 4) there are half-built buildings every where, 5) literally hundreds of furniture stores line the road, presumably to furnish all those buildings to-be.
In contrast to these oddities, we did observe that while the driving was a bit hectic, the roads were quite good (except for one awful stretch on the outskirts of the city)… so we are starting to wonder whether we should try to rent a car here after all. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time here and the buses are notoriously slow. After a great drive, our nice driver dropped us off to our hotel, and we were happy to arrive in Tirana just in time for dinner!
(sorry, no photos of the drive. see next post for shots of Albania)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
June 18 – 21: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our last stop in Croatia is in the famous town of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is a breathtaking walled city, the biggest of all the walled cities we have seen; it was once, in fact, a city state. Though a truly beautiful place, it was unfortunately packed with tourists (it is obvious why, as it is so nice). This was not necessarily so different from other places where we had been, however, these Dubrovnik seems to exist purely for the tourists, while other cities we have visited had a life of their own… perhaps it was here too, but we just didn’t see it.
That said, we spent an enjoyable and slow 3 days in Dubrovnik, and enjoyed some of the better food we have had so far on the trip. In typical style, we did our requisite exploration of the town, which included a sunset walk around the high city walls, from which we were able to get some great shots of the city. The red tiled roofs of the building in the evening sunlight were such an amazing deep orange color, which was just stunning against the backdrop of the crystal blue sea. We were among the last to go up to the walls, so we were able to enjoy it with few people and also at a much more comfortable temperature. It is amazing to see the hoards of people that go up there under the glaring hot sun… it must not be pleasant at that time.
The walk also gave us a great vantage point of what lay behind the city walls on the sea-side of the city. There were several rocky outcrops where one could find a nice flat rock for some sunbathing. And what was great is that all around the rocky cliff, there are ladders to descend into the water… alternatively, given the depth and lack of rocks in the water, the sea was never more than a jump away… but it was nice to have the ladders to climb back up. So for the next couple of days we enjoyed picnics on the rocks behind the old city, munching on tuna sammiches from our new favorite bakery in the old city. This bakery was also the source of all our baked goods for breakfasts. Breakfast is really not a big thing in the region, nothing more than a coffee usually. Some cafes would offer limited pastries for breakfast… but by the time we get around to breakfast, they are all out. But luckily it is perfectly acceptable to sit at a café for a coffee or cappuccino while munching on a croissant from the local bakery.
As it was significantly hotter in Dubrovnik, we also looked for more inside activities. One in particular was the War Photos Limited Museum, which is an absolutely incredible gallery of photojournalistic work. In particular was an exhibit of a Croatian-Canadian photographer Lana Slezic's photos of Afghani women (here is a link well worth a visit to the website, as it is really incredible work). Apart from being truly incredible photographs, the subject matter and the emotion that she captured was really moving; particularly so, as we have both been reading books dealing with the matter of women in Afghanistan and Iran. It was quite surprising to see a gallery dealing with such a weighty subject matter, in such a pretty, touristy city, a bit incongruent, but we were happy it was there as this is something we really ‘enjoyed’ seeing.
On a lighter note, we spent the better part of one of our days in Dubrovnik kayaking around the city walls and to a nearby island, Lokrum, which had some great beaches and swimming. By now, we are really getting used to the concept of beaches here. The one on this particular island was a huge plateau of nice flat rock with ladders descending into the sea…the landscape of this particular area almost made it feel like being in some lunar landscape… a sort of sea-side holiday on the moon. Our little kayaking trip was a great way to see the walled city from a different perspective, and also to say our goodbyes to the Adriatic. After this we will be moving on the Albania and the Ionian coast. The Adriatic bid its farewell to us by attacking me with a sea urchin… so I now am gimping around with two tiny bits of sea urchin embedded in one of my toes!
After a bit of a drought of good food in Montenegro, we were fortunate to have some great meals in and around Dubrovnik. One place in particular was in a little fishing village about 10km away. Besides having great food, the restaurant actually had its on beach on a quiet cove, so we went out there early to spend our afternoon swimming and reading by the water. After a last dip and a shower… we were able to just mosey on over to a nice table over the water and watch the sun go down over a fantastic seafood meal.
Croatia, we will miss you!
That said, we spent an enjoyable and slow 3 days in Dubrovnik, and enjoyed some of the better food we have had so far on the trip. In typical style, we did our requisite exploration of the town, which included a sunset walk around the high city walls, from which we were able to get some great shots of the city. The red tiled roofs of the building in the evening sunlight were such an amazing deep orange color, which was just stunning against the backdrop of the crystal blue sea. We were among the last to go up to the walls, so we were able to enjoy it with few people and also at a much more comfortable temperature. It is amazing to see the hoards of people that go up there under the glaring hot sun… it must not be pleasant at that time.
The walk also gave us a great vantage point of what lay behind the city walls on the sea-side of the city. There were several rocky outcrops where one could find a nice flat rock for some sunbathing. And what was great is that all around the rocky cliff, there are ladders to descend into the water… alternatively, given the depth and lack of rocks in the water, the sea was never more than a jump away… but it was nice to have the ladders to climb back up. So for the next couple of days we enjoyed picnics on the rocks behind the old city, munching on tuna sammiches from our new favorite bakery in the old city. This bakery was also the source of all our baked goods for breakfasts. Breakfast is really not a big thing in the region, nothing more than a coffee usually. Some cafes would offer limited pastries for breakfast… but by the time we get around to breakfast, they are all out. But luckily it is perfectly acceptable to sit at a café for a coffee or cappuccino while munching on a croissant from the local bakery.
As it was significantly hotter in Dubrovnik, we also looked for more inside activities. One in particular was the War Photos Limited Museum, which is an absolutely incredible gallery of photojournalistic work. In particular was an exhibit of a Croatian-Canadian photographer Lana Slezic's photos of Afghani women (here is a link well worth a visit to the website, as it is really incredible work). Apart from being truly incredible photographs, the subject matter and the emotion that she captured was really moving; particularly so, as we have both been reading books dealing with the matter of women in Afghanistan and Iran. It was quite surprising to see a gallery dealing with such a weighty subject matter, in such a pretty, touristy city, a bit incongruent, but we were happy it was there as this is something we really ‘enjoyed’ seeing.
On a lighter note, we spent the better part of one of our days in Dubrovnik kayaking around the city walls and to a nearby island, Lokrum, which had some great beaches and swimming. By now, we are really getting used to the concept of beaches here. The one on this particular island was a huge plateau of nice flat rock with ladders descending into the sea…the landscape of this particular area almost made it feel like being in some lunar landscape… a sort of sea-side holiday on the moon. Our little kayaking trip was a great way to see the walled city from a different perspective, and also to say our goodbyes to the Adriatic. After this we will be moving on the Albania and the Ionian coast. The Adriatic bid its farewell to us by attacking me with a sea urchin… so I now am gimping around with two tiny bits of sea urchin embedded in one of my toes!
After a bit of a drought of good food in Montenegro, we were fortunate to have some great meals in and around Dubrovnik. One place in particular was in a little fishing village about 10km away. Besides having great food, the restaurant actually had its on beach on a quiet cove, so we went out there early to spend our afternoon swimming and reading by the water. After a last dip and a shower… we were able to just mosey on over to a nice table over the water and watch the sun go down over a fantastic seafood meal.
Croatia, we will miss you!
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