Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Tour Guiding in Tirana

Weekend of September 14th-16th 2018

Friday night we went to the mall to eat dinner at Veranda, a patio restaurant that looks out over the city. The food is really delicious and different from most Albanian restaurants (like skewers with cantaloupe, mozzarella and prosciutto) . The beers are good and the margaritas are not so good. The view of the city as the sun sets is incredible.





We enjoyed our evening until the mosquitoes and gnats showed up in swarms; then we knew it was time to leave. On our way out I stopped in the bathroom and much to my surprise it was communal (I've come to learn that these are quite common in Albania) It consists of one male stall and one female stall both in the same room. It definitely threw me for a minute but hey it's nothing I can't get used to. The one thing that I am having a hard time getting used to though is the automatic bathroom lights. They're controlled by sensors and apparently just doing your business isn't enough "sense" for them, so needless to say I've had the lights shut off on me more than my fair share of times. The first time it happened I was really alarmed and worried that the power in the whole restaurant had gone out. I got up off the toilet to grab my phone so I could see and ironically enough the lights turned back on. Now, after some extensive trial and error research, here are a few things I've learned:
1. some bathroom sensors have a larger scope than others, so when in a stall with this type you can wave your hands above your head like a mad woman and the lights will turn back on
2. some sensors are overly sensitive and require you to get up and wander around the dark stall with your pants around your ankles for 20-30 seconds before the lights will go back on
3. and some sensors (the best ones of all) have just stopped working altogether and therefore leave you in the dark no matter how many mad woman waves and Beyonce dance moves you try to seduce them with
Because of this, I am now fairly confident in my abilities to use the bathroom in the dark and will start advertising this as a fun fact about myself when I return home to the states. Until then, here's what we did with the rest of our weekend-
Because Mark is a wonderful husband he agreed to come into school with me on Saturday to help me finish setting up my classroom. Little did he know that because of my broken wrist "helping me set up" quickly turned into "Mark setting up". All things considered, I think it turned out pretty damn great (if I do say so myself).






As a reward for all of Mark's hard work, I treated him to dinner at a local castle. Yes, you heard correctly: a local castle. That's a thing around here. And Mark happens to be obsessed with them so I figured he deserved a little indulgence after all of his hard work. Anyway, this particular castle was unique because it had these big circular balconies jutting out of it. In each balcony was a private table and in order to reach it the waiter had to walk down a long private wooded walkway. It was incredibly delicious and there was more food than we ever could have hoped for. It was definitely a Saturday evening done right.

Sunday's weather was gorgeous so we decided to do some sight seeing around Tirana. As we wandered we came across our first (of many) soviet bunker. I had never been inside a bunker before, and while this one was quite small, I found the idea of entering quite intriguing. After climbing in we found that the gun mounts were still attached (apparently this is something I'm supposed to be excited about).




During our self guided walking tour we also stumbled upon 'the pyramid', a historical landmark here in Tirana. While there's a lot of debate surrounding whether or not it should be demolished, the pyramid does tell an interesting story. It's symbolic of communism because it was built in honor of Enver Hoxha, an Albanian leader who believed wholeheartedly in extending the values and ideologies of Stalinism. It remained a museum for many years, but in 1991 was converted into a convention center because Albanian ideologies and beliefs began to shift away from communism. The pyramid has changed hands several times since which has caused it to come into a state of disrepair, including broken windows and graffiti covered walls. The pyramid is representative of the many times Albania's leadership has changed hands and of the conflicts that has brought the country. However, Albania has withstood the test of time and while some of the old policies aren't beautiful to look at, they have helped shape Albania into the country it is today. I vote for the pyramid to stay, if for no other reason than the fact that it has been turned into the biggest, steepest, most slippery slide in Tirana. I'm so coming back once my wrist isn't broken!




As we continued our journey we came across the famed "I <3 Tirana" sign which even shows up as a pin on google maps (so it must be important, right?).

Scoping out all of these "local hot spots" made our walk to lunch enjoyable, however, a girl's gotta eat at some point, so I stopped our terrifically Tirana tour guide from taking any more detours and instead insisted that he take us directly to lunch. We had a lovely meal with octopus, traditional albanian stuffed peppers, breadsticks in olive dip and albanian meatballs, at SkyHotel, which has a restaurant multiple stories up that provides a gorgeous, sweeping view of the city. On our way home we decided to walk along the river that cuts through the center of the city; it's barely wider than ten feet across in some places, yet there are bridges that span it.




The man made lake with the fountain is much, much larger and always a sight for sore eyes (and sore feet!) after a long walk because it means we are getting very close to home.


1 comment:

  1. I enjoy hearing about your adventures. So setting up your classroom...Great job.....does that mean school is just starting or you are just getting around to setting up. Keep blogging, hugs and love to you both.

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