Day 1 Tirana, Albania

 This 10 day trip is with Exodus, a company I haven't used before as I always use G Adventures, so it will be interesting to compare. I met up with M and C at Heathrow to catch an early flight to Tirana, the capital of Albania. 

We were met at the airport by our guide for the week, Edion and our driver who was happy for us to call him Mr D. We had a brief orientation walk with Ed as we all needed to exchange money. Albania has a closed currency, meaning we can only exchange currency from within the country. As opposed to many countries at the moment, Albania uses cash rather than cards.

There was an abundance of fresh local fruit and vegetables in the local bazaar.

There were 16 of us altogether in the group, the majority being British. After we had all checked into the hotel, Ed gave us a brief history of the country and I realised I should have read much more about the country before the trip. Ed was passionate about the history of his country and did go on a bit and I did find it difficult to follow at times. Briefly, the Albanians are descended from the Illyrians, an ancient Indo-European people who lived in central Europe and migrated south by the beginning of the Iron Age. The area was ruled by the Romans by the 1st century BCE and then it became part of the Byzantine Empire in the 4th century. In the 14th century they were ruled by the Ottoman empire. The country did not achieve independence until 1912. In 1939 Albania was invaded by Italy, but when Italy surrendered in 1943 the Germans stepped in and occupied Albania. In Oct 1944 the Germans withdrew from Albania and then in Nov 1944 the communists entered Tirana. After the war a socialist government was formed under Enver Hoxha. Gradually the country cut itself off from the rest of the world and remained isolated until 1992 with the election of a non communist government.

Before we went out for an evening meal we went for a stroll around the centre of town.

Surrounding the town were mountains which became clearer as the day wore on and the haze lifted.

 I didn't expect to see a hot dog seller. In fact I didn't see another one.

There was some interesting lighting around the town.

Some very modern skyscrapers.

Couldn't work this one out until Ed told us that the windows sticking out formed the shape of Albania.

This is the 'Resurrection of Christ' cathedral. The corner stone was laid in 2004 and took 7 years to complete. From 1944 until 1990 every expression of faith was prohibited and the church was disbanded. During this time any religious building was repurposed usually for military purposes. In 1998 the Holy Synod of the Christian Orthodox Church of Albania was formed.  

Inside the cathedral there is a very impressive dome with an enormous chandelier hanging beneath it.

 This is Bunk'Art 2 which was secretly built as a nuclear bunker between 1981 and 1986 and has recently been transformed into a museum. Like many other bunkers of this size, it was built to withstand a potential chemical and nuclear attack. Actually the bunker was never even used for training. The Prime Minister Mehmet Shenu as well as the dictator Enver Hoxha who ordered its construction, never saw it completed as they both died before it was finished. The exit and entrance were only built recently because the original plans would have been for the bunker to only be accessed from the Ministry of Internal Affairs next door. The bunker was hidden from the public eye until its recent unveiling in 2015. The bunker building project started in the early 1970s and led to the building of 175,000 concrete bunkers of various sizes across the country. 

The museum made for some difficult reading about the communist era of Albanian history. Its focus was on the spying, torture and the executions that took place during those years.

One item that was  used for spying was this everyday broom which had a bug hidden in the handle. This was used by a maid in the Italian Embassy in Tirana which was providing refuge for an Albanian family who were being persecuted, The maid had been recruited as a spy and for five years collected information.

The siege of the Italian Embassy lasted until 1990 when Italy with the help of the United Nations finally managed to get on a plane to Rome with the six members of the Popa family. Their escape was an example to thousands of others who several weeks later invaded the Western Embassies in Tirana seeking political asylum, marking the beginning of the end of the communist regime in Albania.

To complete our first day in Albania  we went to the Oda restaurant which was hidden away behind the new bazaar. The meal was cheap compared to European prices but the quality of food was excellent. It was so fresh and tasty as was all the food in Albania. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos which was a real shame. The portions were large and we shared with the others on the table which meant we tried lots of different dishes. Pies made with a type of filo pastry were very popular and had various fillings such as leek or cheese or chicken. There were usually 4 or 5 different kinds of salad on the menu as well as stuffed vegetables and meat dishes.