Cruising Tirana city

So we had a walking tour booked but fortunately were able to cancel it as:

1. We didn’t want an 8 a.m. deadline;
2. We wanted to take things at our own pace.

We were at Skanderbeg Square (a short distance from our hotel) by 8:45 a.m. in any case.

It’s already 27 deg C. (I have brought way too many warm clothes …).

The plaza is named after the national hero, Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, who valiantly defended the country against the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century.

After orienting ourselves, we view the iconic mosaic on the front of the National Museum (it is considered to be one of the finest examples of late Albanian Socialist Realism; installed in 1981, it showcases some of the important milestones of the country’s history, spanning from antiquity to the Communist era); then the Mosque of Et’hem Bey (which was closed under communist rule, then reopened in 1991; it has lovely frescoes); the Clock Tower; Tirana Castle (dates back to 1300 but is only a remnant now); the Opera; the Pyramid (originally a museum dedicated to the communist dictator Enver Hoxha but during the 1999 Kosovo War, it was used as a NATO base; is now a cultural hub and stairs have been added to allow you to climb to the top for views); and Ura e Tabakeve (the Tanner’s Bridge, an 18th-century Ottoman period stone footbridge by which livestock and produce entered the city over the Lanë stream near the area where butcher shops and leather workers were located).

FUN FACT: In 2007 George W. Bush was the first American president to visit Albania and there is a street named after him running by the Parliament.

Several imposing and colourful government buildings surround the square.

We come upon BUNK’ART2 which we had on our to-do list. Oh my goodness. This really did my head in. 

It is one of two underground nuclear bunkers in Tirana hidden from the public eye until 2015. Secretly built from 1981-86, beneath the Ministry of Internal Affairs along the city’s main boulevard, it represents one of the last instalments of Enver Hoxha’s paranoid ‘bunker project’ in Albania during the 1970s which involved the creation of more than 700,000 bunkers across the country.

Each of its 24 rooms recount stories of the political persecutions of approximately 100,000 Albanians from 1945-1991, the creation of Sigurimi (the state security) during Communism, and exhibitions showing the state’s means of persecution during this dark period of history.

Basically this was the Albanian version of the East German Stasi. 

The museum gives an excellent overview of the role of the police during WWII at the time of the invasion by Italian forces under Mussolini (Il Duce) 1939-43; followed by the brief German invasion 1943-44; Albania was ‘liberated’ from Nazi forces by partisans in 1944; but Hoxha became the country's de facto head of state and, adopting Stalinism, he converted Albania into a one-party communist state.

The Bunk’Art 2 exposition shows the extent of the state security Sigurimi under Hoxha 1943-85. Truly awful!

Nietzsche:

“If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you”.

The Bunk’Art 2 would not have been part of a walking tour …

Ghastly. Very heavy going. 

On a lighter note: it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of these:

We found a nice cafe to sit down for a coffee - and recover.

We walked to the Mother Teresa Square (the airport is named after her too: Nënë Tereza): a very forlorn-looking plaza I have to say. She had an ethnic Albanian mother who came from Kosovo.

Then after a couple of hits-and-misses, we finally lucked on a nice place for lunch: fetta cheese with honey oven-baked, an excellent red wine (beer for MF) and yummy pizza.

Back to our hotel for a rest before dinner out (same restaurant we’ve been frequenting since we arrived!) with our Intrepid group who we’ll be travelling with for the next 2 weeks.

Our guide Sando (from Bulgaria, although living in Zagreb in Croatia) has a big appetite! We have oodles of food so even though we’ve eaten here before, we get to try some new foods. MF very happy as he gets heaps to eat 🤪.

Then back to our room to do the dreaded re-pack! We have plenty of stuff we don’t need (especially bike gear!). We’ll travel with one suitcase between the 2 of us from here. What fun.

Walked 9.6 kms