i am sparticus: Tirana

Tirana

This is what I thought when I woke up¹: "This is quite a comfortable bed really". Which wasn't that surprising because actually the hotel was really nice. I didn't mention that, or the really nice meal we had with the super-friendly super-lovely couple or the extremely peaceful resolution to the road accident, earlier on because I wanted something of the reality of how I was feeling at the end of the first night to come across. I believe this is a literary effect called creative story telling, which, I think differs from lying by covering up the lying with delusion. But seriously, I really didn't like Albania that first night, it had not sold itself to me well.

Anyway, if this is an account of the amazing Albania adventure then it's not very good. After all, I haven't even got out of bed yet, so I'd better hurry this on. Myself and Phil (for that was whom I was travelling with) where shown around Tirana (that'll be the capital) by three local church going students. The city is situated on a plain surrounded on three sides by mountains and so it's all fairly flat which doesn't really help you as you try to get a picture of the city. You get places by walking or if you really enjoy using first gear you can take your time and take the car.

The transportation system of Tirana is probably best thought of as analogous to the body's circulatory system in reverse. But not the healthy sort of circulatory system as outlined in year 10 biology textbooks, the sort of system that isn't outlined because it would take up too much paper and ink and the only time they did try it they had to give up when the person modelling it didn't turn up because he got stuck in the laboratory doorway. There's high pressure as thousands of cars pile into the heart of Tirana and very low pressure as they all realise that hey, this place is full of all their friends and why should they be the ones who have to leave?

Anyway, Tirana is this big capital city of a country that was under Communist rule for forty-eight years. During that time old buildings were frowned upon and nothing new was allowed to built higher than five floors or to any semi-decent standard of build. Now new buildings are all the rage and so everything is kind of in a state of flux. Lots of new buildings going up, lots of Communist buildings falling apart and every now again a pretty old Italian style building kicking around. The mayor also has it in for multi-colours and so every new build is a mish-mash of often un-matching colours. Odd, but you get used to it.

I'm not sure I have too much to say about the buildings, you either like them or you don't. No vast conclusions here.

¹ After the standard "What? Where am I? Did I really forget to charge my phone?" nonsense.