Molly makes new breakfast friends
As we left the Hotel Rogner on the beautiful Dëshmorët e Kombit Boulevard at 8:30 this morning I could not help but reflect on how fortunate those of us, who by a quirk of fate, were so lucky as to be born in Canada. Our guide, Andy shared with us that his family had owned a 1,020 square meter home that was commandeered during the communist era.
It was chopped into little segments, effectively turned into a ‘school’ (used to teach the communist doctrine?). The entire family was then forced to live in 45 square meters of their former home and his father was ‘directed’ to become a teacher in this school. The family had effectively become prisoners in their own home.
Topping up the water
In 1988 while I was excited to be flying a hot air balloon as part of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Andy’s mother had to get up at 3:00am so that she could stand in line for the supply of food, which was 1 liter of milk for the family for a week, 4 eggs for the family for a week, 1 loaf bread for the family for a week and about 2 kilograms of meat that had to last the family an entire month. In 1990 when I was going to the computer Comdex Show in Las Vegas, students were marching down this very boulevard wanting to stop the starvation, wanting hot water or any water for that matter, and electricity to light and heat their homes. How blessed we are to be Canadian.
Albania, although primarily a Muslim country is also very proud of the Christian part of its history. Mother Theresa Square, Mother Theresa International Airport. A nation that not that many years ago, still followed the arranged marriage doctrine, now embraces Muslim-Christian marriages, Muslim-Islam marriages, Islam-Christian marriages. Marriages are no longer arranged.
With essentially the entire population having military training, the country was overrun with firearms. During one particular hotly contested soccer series, the final game was being played (just like a the 7th game of a Stanley Cup series), the entire country was cheering for one team or the other. When team ‘A’ scored, their supporters across the country fired their guns into the air. When team ‘B’ scored, their supporters also fired their guns into the air. Everybody forgot one little minor detail, all those bullets fired into the air, had to come down some where. By the time the evening ended, over 2,000 people had actually been randomly shot by these bullets falling from the sky. Several hundred died.
Marion and Andy at Kruja Castle
The country realized that something had to be done with all these firearms so they devised a very simple plan. If you turned in your firearms before a certain date, you would be handed a certain colour of rose as a Rose of Peace. Over 98% of the firearms were turned in.
During the communist era, there were only 2 hotels in the city of Tirana. One was for travellers from other communist countries, the other hotel was for the few non-communist people who were successfully granted permits allowing them to enter the country. The majority of the staff of this hotel were spying on virtually everything being done by these guests. The staff were equipped with small cameras and pocket audio recorders.
Although Albania has a history of thousands of years, it is considered a young country as currently the average age of Albanians is 32 years old. What an amazing place! There is so much more to tell about Tirana so if we have inspired you to know more about this city in transition, click here Tirana
Although distances are relatively short, travel is slow so travel time is long. A trip of a 20 kilometers to the Kruja Castle took in excess of an hour. As is always the case with these ancient fortifications, the view of the protected valley below was stunning. Skanderbeg, who owned the castle, is credited with defeating the Ottomans and ending the Ottoman stranglehold of Albania. Click here for more about Kruje Castle.
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Kruja Castle on the hill.
Leaving Kruja Castle we returned down to the plains and continued through the lowlands to Shkoder where it was time for a late lunch. From there, back up into the highlands and on to Montenegro. Arriving at the Muriqan border crossing at 1500hrs, we settled in for the long wait for clearance to enter Montenegro. “Time keeps on ticking,ticking, into the future (recognize the lyrics?). The temperature is into the 30’s and the buses air conditioner is working at full capacity while the bus idles. Another 5 minutes, another 10 minutes, moments slowly pass. At last, we have been cleared and at 1630 hours we are rolling onto the extremely narrow road that is our welcome to Montenegro. The roads are so narrow, that when a bus approaches from the other direction both busses slow to a crawl as the inch past each other. Eventually we drop out of the highlands and onto a better build 2 lane, very smooth highway. There just ahead is our destination city of Budva. Long day, soon. At last, we are in the parking lot of the Budva Hotel. Need to move around, need to stretch. Into the hotel, to the room, change, time for supper. We had expected things to be a little on the crude and somewhat rough as this is another country in transition. Montenegro only just attained their independence in June of 2006. Anyhow we were surprised by what greeted us. But more on that tomorrow.
Our first view at the Adriatic Sea
