Albania: A country in transition
I Love Tirana
While there is evidence that Albania has had human settlements since the Bronze Age, we will restrict ourselves to the more recent past. Before 1912, Albania was mainly part of the Ottoman Empire and its borders changed frequently with parts going mainly to Macedonia and Montenegro. These decisions were not made as far as we could learn by those inside the country.
Their first ‘Leader’ as they didn’t know what to name his position.
In 1912, this stopped when Albania became independent. This was such a new affair for the people they weren’t sure what to call the head of state so they just called him leader. In 1929-1939 they were a kingdom complete with a king. With the advent of the second world war, the communist party took over the country.
While tens of thousands were starving the communist leader lived here.
The communist leader was very paranoid and closed the borders to all but communist countries and in 1976 these connections were severed too. There were bunkers built everywhere (800,000), a 30 km tunnel from the leaders home to the airport, and the number of people in the military outnumbered the population.
This former communist museum is slated to be destroyed and replaced with new government headquarters.
Those with education, imams, nuns, priests and other religious people were either exiled or put in concentration camps. In 1985 the communist leader died and things began to loosen up. In 1990 a student and professor protest led to a call for freedom and Albania became a democratic republic.
Just one of the 800,000 bunks in Albania.
Every adult regardless of the job they did was trained in the military.
.
In 1998 Albania was rated as the second poorest country in the world. Not sure how much of this was due to a massive Ponzi scheme that wiped out the savings of so many of the people. Things have improved. With the development of an economic plan in 2008 , foreign countries are taking advantage of a 10 year tax free offering, with a requirement to hire Albanians. 51% of the industry is agriculture based (peanuts, tobacco, and medicinal herbs); oil and natural gas, hydropower (mainly in the rainy season when they get 2000-3000 mm of rain). Another big source of money is from those who have immigrated and send up to 70% of their salary home. Tourism has increased dramatically from a a few hundred thousand a few years ago to 6 million last year. Minimum wage is 150 euros/month and the average income is 300 euros. There is a dichotomy …. In the rich areas of the city housing costs are around 3000 Euros/sq m. We also say lots of Mercedes, Audis and BMWs.
Greek Orthodox Church (2008), an under construction mystery building, and yes, that’s a street lamp.
We spent most of the day (after a large buffet breakfast) walking around Mother Theresa Square;
Mother Theresa Square
the area called the Block (where the communist leaders used to live), a large square which often changes in shape depending on the party in power) , and visiting the National museum. An aside – our Albanian guide walks on the grass as opposed to the side-walk in the Block as no one was allowed to do that when the communist party was in power.
The amount of ‘people space’ caught us totally off guard. We walked about 6 kilometers in the core of the city which was all designed for people and not vehicles.
We also stopped into a new larger Greek Orthodox church. Religion was banned under the communists and all churches and mosques were destroyed. There is one old mosque that didn’t get destroyed and it currently is under renovation. Approximately, 70% of the population is Muslim (influence of the ottoman empire), 36% orthodox and 4% RC. We had a free afternoon and after a snooze Greg and I went exploring: lots of parks and greenspace, coffee shops, restaurants, and shops of various kinds. Some construction, a couple of high rises that seem to be more of a shell and our guide said that no one was sure what they will be. The day ended with a welcoming dinner at a local hotel, a shower to wash off the heat of a 30C day.
Molly says hi
A 3 dimensional maze that you can crawl through….if you are a bit smaller than I am.
Good night to all.
More adventures await tomorrow
Wow!
Mutliple the WOW by several thousand and we might get close.
I was heartened to see Molly doing well. we miss her too. Is there truth to the rumor that she has been prowling the gift shops for cheese samples? What a history you have described. I had no idea. Thanks for the eye opening views.
There is so much, its had to keep up to all of it
Thank you very much for sharing with everyone your experience in my country ! I can’t describe the satisfaction i got after reading your extremely detailed articles !
Andi, Thank you for the kind words. We were very moved by the personal stories that you shared with us. Please know that should you decide to visit Canada, you will have a place to stay with us.