Tirana, Albania 1

The city is so interesting, I'm making a couple different posts for it.

It was a crazy flight on Wizz Air. At the airport in Athens, a really angry Albanian man was screaming for a half hour before the plane even loaded, probably because the flight was delayed. And they still let him on. A screaming 3-year-old boy wouldn't let his mom buckle him up and the flight attendants let him sit without a belt on while landing and mom put the table down for him to play with to make it even more dangerous! He still cried. When we landed everyone clapped. Haven't seen that since Bangladesh. We're not in Greece anymore.

That was a strange introduction to an amazing city. Albania has had such a long horrible history with the communist dictator Enver Hoxha that it's nice to see it on the way up.

Everyone seems to be raving about Albania as the next "it" place to travel in Europe, and I can see why. There's such a positive energy here. People are very friendly and most speak English. And there's a lot of building going on.

The city is full of ugly communist concrete brutalist architecture but a former mayor a few years ago to tried to brighten things up with paint. It's quirky. And in the last 10 years or so there's a lot of skyscrapers going up with modernist designs. From my balcony apartment., I can see about 10 huge cranes building many 30 to 40 story modernist buildings.

We rented a really nice apartment for four nights. We figured we deserved it after the sailing trip in cramped spaces. I think we're paying about $43 a night and that's a splurge here. There's a great restaurant next door with local cuisine and it's amazing. We had two dishes that had a yogurt sauce with lamb butter mixed in with either chicken or lamb. It was absolutely rich and delicious.

We've been doing a lot of walking and getting the lay of the land. Skandebeg square is the main plaza in the center about a mile from our apartment. Unfortunately, the main history museum just closed for a 4-year renovation! I was so looking forward to it.

But there are several other museums including "The House of Leaves", which tells the depressing story of the 50 years of the police state spying on its own citizens. I've been to several of these museums all over Eastern Europe and the story is the same.

The people are so friendly. I bought peaches from a fruit vendor and he touched his heart when I walked in. His eyes lit up when I said I was from America. You really don't see that too often anymore! His brother lives in Chicago.

The main streets are just full of shops selling anything and everything. I really didn't see that in Greece. There couldn't be a greater contrast. Small towns in Greece were pretty impoverished. I wonder if we'll see that in the countryside here. Most of Greece seems to rely on tourism and people are just kind of settled into that.

After 2 days in Tirana there seems to be such a frenzy of people looking to make money and move ahead. But not in a negative way. It's so refreshingly vibrant. People dress up at night. Everyone is out and about and cafe culture here is big, like in the rest of Europe. One espresso buys you unlimited time in a cafe seat to watch the world go by.

Part of that energy probably has to do with little tourism here compared to the rest of Europe and I can guarantee within 10 years I won't recognize this place because a lot of tourists are going to come.

It has a welcoming culture, mountains and hiking, unique Ottoman villages, amazing beaches on the Adriatic similar to Croatia and Italy, and few crowds. We'll spend 4 days here before we move north to see Shkodra and do a popular hike in the "Accursed Mountains " Who could refuse an invitation like that?

More photos and videos are here!.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fcy1y8uPMpmfD9yT7Read more