Colorful Tirana

We arrived the port of Durres after a 3.5 hours catamaran journey from Dubrovnik. Durres was the link between Istanbul and Rome and was Albanias capital until 1920, when it was moved to Tirana. A 30 minutes drive took us to Tirana. The city was founded by a Turkish pasha in 1614 and developed into a craft centre. Tirana was severely damaged in the liberation battle in 1944 and the new communist regime knocked down a lot of the remains of the old country town. There has been a new building boom in the last decade, with many new apartment buildings going up. The most curious thing in Tirana is how they with a stoke of paint have turned the boring communist apartment buildings into colorful structures. Covering an ugly tower block with vertical pastel stripes, another with grey and red cubes and planting maple leaves on its neighbor. What a great idea!

If I had to pick one sight in particular in Tirana it would have to be the Et´hem Bey Mosque. Constructed in 1789-1823 AD it is one of the oldest buildings left in the city. Take your shoes off, and ladies cover your shoulders, and you are welcome inside to take a look at the beautiful painted dome.

Albania is a small country in size, only 28.000 sq km and with a population of 3,5 million. It is a country of contrasts. You will see great pink and white villas with poverty around them. The country has 30% unemployment, but cafes and bars are full. One thing that really surprised me in this poor country is how many Mercedes Benz there are. Not even in Hollywood I have seen that many. There was also a large number of Land Rovers. In a country where 10% of the population is rich, 20% middle class and 70% poor I had not expected so many expensive cars.

When it comes to religion, 4 centuries under the Turks has left 70% muslims, the Greek period contributed to 20% Greek Orthodox and the remaining 10% is Roman Catholics.

Another curious thing is the vast number of bunkers they have, or mushrooms as they call them. From 1950-1985 president Enver Hoxha had these small concrete domes constructed. It is a total number of 700.000 of them. They were build to repel the threat of foreign invasion. His goal was that every Albanian family should have one. They are made of concrete and iron and weighs 5 tonnes - and almost impossible to destroy. Today the bunkers are the bane of farmers and builders across the country. They are expensive to remove and very hard to destroy.