Dajti National Park

Some time ago I had visited for the first time the National Park on the Dajti Mountains that surround Tirana. Then, I had gone up to it by car with local friends, and, after a long climb thru a poorly maintained, winding road, we eventually reached a very large flat area, where an old and dilapidated huge building was standing. It was empty and abandoned when I saw it, but, I was told, it had been a very active summer camp for children during the communist regime. I also distinctly remember one of my friends mentioning then that a tram way would be a great idea to make this place more easily accessible.





Today such a facility is a reality, and the modern cable car system, called by the generic European term “teleferik” in Albanian, is labeled the Dajti Express. It's the type of a ski lift, with cabins carrying 8 passengers each.

I decided to use it with another young friend, who lives in Tirana, but had not yet seen it, so that we could experience the different ride, and breathe real fresh and clean air on the top. I reminded her that I used to be in a similar position in my early days in NY. It took many years before I visited the usual touristy spots, and this happened only when I accompanied some foreign visitors to sightsee.



The weather was perfect for such a trip, with mild temperature, beautifully deep blue skies, and not a cloud in sight. We were lucky to travel by ourselves in one of the modern, air conditioned cabins, and were astonished by the route covered through this technological achievement.







From the base, the cable cars travel up and down several peaks and valleys, with a variety of landscapes. During the 15 minutes ride, we actually went over some farms, with homes and terraced land, tucked in between forested hills, then down to some rugged gorges, then up again above tree line, and finally, steeply above naked limestone rocks, to the tram landing, the surroundings of which is still being worked upon.

The modern structure is fully functional and it contains a large and well stocked bar, fast food, pizzeria, with some outside facilities and a children toy park annexed to it. Right next to it an enormous new construction, several stories high, is also taking shape. The flat countryside is the same I remembered from my previous visit (and, unfortunately, still covered with litter all over), as well as the huge ex summer camp, which, however, now looks very much under renovation. Many the tourists walking around and the locals whose children can also ride small horses that patiently snooze in the sunshine waiting for their customers.





An unpaved path leading to the ex camp, takes us to a nearby 3 story brand new building, which is a hotel, restaurant, bar. Here we decided to have a leisure lunch and I enjoyed the well known Lefreq fish with a wonderful mixture of grilled vegetables.



By the time we walked back to the cable car, the visiting crowds had increased, and we had to stay online to catch the return trip. As we took in the sights going down the mountain, we could see, in the distance, Tirana with its skyscrapers engulfed in smog, and, on the horizon, the sea shining in the setting sun.

More trivia

After a month of no water problems in Tirana, this week the shortage returned, like in the old times. Although the past two days of rain should have provided a supply of it, here one never knows whether the trouble is restricted to the building, the city zone, or widespread. Bottom line: one must adapt to the ever changing conditions, which affect the daily life in this city, Shower in the morning, or shower at night? Laundry in the AM, or in the PM? The change of time may be inconvenient, but, eventually, it all gets done somehow.

Speaking of liquids, it’s interesting to notice that the bottled (oligo-mineral) water produced in Albania is quite properly labeled since it includes all the data required for approval by the European Community. I guess Albania is one step ahead in this respect, since it aspires so much to become a member of the European Union, but still needs to wait a while for this to become a reality.



Meantime, I dread the thought of going to northern Italy now because winter is already in full swing in the Piedmont region I have to visit, and it practically rains every day, while in Tirana the sun has reappeared again today, and it surely felt like springtime. No wonder so many beautiful palms trees thrive in this city!

Upcoming holidays

With this week I perceive a sense of hurry everywhere, not only for me personally, since my time in Tirana is running out, but also because the holiday season is coming up all over. Autumn is still ongoing, and even Tirana is affected by the change of colors, as shown in this small park for children, with yellow leaves paving all sidewalks along the boulevards.





A few spots, however, still exhibit wonderful displays of freshly bloomed, beautifully flowers, usually not typical of this season. The sunny weather has helped along this month with springtime temperatures at midday.


For some people the time stands still, however, and I am wondering why this young man felt so comfortable at 2pm, perched up on a garbage bin, in the middle of a busy commercial street in Tirana e Re (new Tirana).


This is my opportunity to wish all my friends and acquaintances in the U.S. a "Happy Thanksgiving Day" on Thursday, and to advance to all my Albanian friends and relatives a “wonderful and serene Flag and Independence Days” on November 28 and 29.

I’ll be traveling to Italy then, but shall be back in NY early next month, just about in time for the year end holidays. I still have to complete a lot of things in Albania, but, as usual, I am always rushed in the past few days. Although I try to plan and schedule tasks and meetings as soon as possible, I am invariably delayed by the way other people live here, and….. I must go with the local flow!

Another day of rest

Another Sunday with Albanian friends, who insisted I spend the day at their home. I planned to reach their apartment after a visit to the family plot at the cemetery, where I hadn’t been yet since my latest arrival in Tirana. It’s not the only burial ground of the capital, but this one that I am familiar with, and houses 3 different sections, has doubled in size in the past 13 years that I have come to it.


On the way this morning, I made some observations. The traffic in Tirana, for the past few years, has always been heavy, but, this time it seems the number of vehicles must have dramatically increased, for two reasons: very often now, one moves a bit forward and then must come to a full stop because of a car jam, and the smog is so thick it could be cut with a knife! Both conditions have been experienced in the past, but not to this excess, and when I observed the smog today, it was only 11 o’clock in the morning!

Another culprit is also the large amount of dust everywhere due to continuous large buildings’ construction, as well as upgrading and repaving of streets, which still necessitate a great deal of intervention to meet today’s telecommunication and traffic requirements. There are still, however, many very old, one/two story houses in town, which are quite a contrast to the modern means of transport, as the following pictures shows. As shabby as the house on the left looks, I was surprised to see that it accommodates a restaurant and a bar!


The bountiful, and delicious, full course lunch at my friends’ home was followed by a few hours of interesting conversation on a variety of subjects and I am always thankful and delighted of learning something new, as it was today. I even came home with a ‘care package’ that was sneaked into my bag!

Mementos and some daily trivia

Today I enjoyed a long visit by a good friend, a well known historian and writer, who surprised me with an unexpected, but quite welcomed gift. During one of his many visits at the Albanian Public Library (he actually spends most of his time there and at the National Archives doing all sorts of fascinating researches), he, very coincidentally, found an copy of an old Albanian newspaper, the front page of which includes the announcement of the wedding of my father and mother a long time ago in Rome, Italy.

For some time now he has gone through many old archival files of my family, the Court of Cassation, and the Council of State of Albania, in search of significant papers dealing with my father, who was a lawyer, Chief of the Cassation Court when I was born, and later on also a Member of the State Council. So far he has collected more than 500 documents that reflect my father’s legal opinions, judgments, and objections throughout his career, which, he feels very strongly, should be collected and published for future use and reference. While we reminisced a bit (his father was also an attorney), we also discussed a lot about current situations in the country, the still persisting problems, and the hopes for the future of Albania.

This was this morning. Now, as I am writing, the Italian TV channels are going nuts about the marriage of Tom Cruise and his Katie that will take place in about half hour in the huge castle of the small town of Bracciano (north of Rome). The direct coverage shows the arrival of the many foreign guests, and mentions the only Italian one, Andrea Bocelli, who will be singing at the party. Their cars find their way up the ramp to the castle lined with lit torches, while on the top of the 3 towers flags are flying in the late afternoon breeze. The town is jammed with on lookers, cameramen and reporters, and everyone is doing a booming business, especially the people lucky enough to have their apartments facing the entrance to the estate. More than 3,000 euros is going price for the privilege of such sites for just a few hours!

For me it’s time for a break, and I am going to enjoy a couple of Albanian tangerines (called ‘mandarins’) that you can find everywhere here and they are so sweet!

Way of life

The other day I found myself assessing the interesting phenomena on how differently I feel physically when I am in Albania. For the past two years I have noticed that while in NY I suffer from acute osteo-arthritic pains most of the times, when I arrive in Tirana these pains seem to subside drastically! How come? Someone ventured the idea that it may be due to the different barometric pressure. Whatever it is I am thankful, although Tirana is still one of the most polluted cities in the world.

Because my affairs require me to travel frequently to Albania, several of my friends on both sides of the Atlantic have questioned me whether I would consider coming back to live permanently in my country of origin. My answer has been that I would never completely leave the country where I spent most of my life, but I must admit that the above phenomena is an additional incentive to spend more time in Albania, in addition to the fact that here I have rediscovered old friends and acquaintances, made many new ones in the past few years, and I really feel at home every time I come back.

Bottom line is that I am lucky enough to have 2 very comfortable places to live in, but the way of life in both is so different! In Tirana, for instance, I enjoy a larger kitchen, completely inundated by sunshine every morning, that allows me to have breakfast with my back warming up by the hot rays that come through the balcony door, which can be kept open for a few hours even during this season.

On the street people usually stroll, rarely rush, and good friends habitually promenade arm in arm. A perfect example was in front of me the other day when, on the way home from a meeting, two small students, happy to have concluded another school day, were slowly proceeding under the weight of their huge back backs, embraced as two good buddies would do.

An ideal Sunday

Today it turned out to be a warm Sunday in more than one sense. The weather was just perfect - sunny and no wind - and one family of friends came to visit making the day a very pleasant get together. We hadn’t seen each other for several months so we had a lot to catch up with.

While imbibing aperitifs at my place I was able to convince them to have a leisure lunch with me at one of Tirana e Re restaurants. This most modern district of the capital is a very busy and crowded business center during the work week, but today it was a pleasure to walk along its tree lined, almost deserted avenues. Few the strollers on the streets, but quite a few families inside the “Tavernetta” that offers a large, self service salad bar, and good main courses. A bottle of good Sangiovese Tuscany red wine accompanied our meal, which lasted more than a couple of hours.


On the way back we ended up making a couple of stops. Days ago, from a distance, I had noticed a display of very large old photographs in front of the Parliament building, and I really wanted to study them closely. I was informed that this display was the idea of the current Head of Parliament, Mrs. Josephina Topalli.

To my great surprise they depict politicians whose names I’m familiar with, since they were in government during the early days of my family, and I recognized some of them from similar photos that I inherited from those days.



The second stop was a visit to the new supermarket, of the Italian chain ‘Conad’, which is housed in one of newest business centers in Tirana, called, I believe, the European Tower.
The building houses several offices, banks, and the supermarket

One of the building 2 main entrances

Here I couldn’t resist buying some of my favorite Italian foods, which were carried home for me by the youngest member of my friends, a 16 year old, bright and excellent student, who at the age of 9 was known as the youngest Albanian painter, and now dreams of becoming an architect.


An ideal and relaxing day overall, indeed, among devoted friends!

Friendly group

Since my arrival I have had the pleasure of meeting a few more people, but I am not talking about locals. They are fellow ‘bloggers’ and a small number of foreigners that, for one reason or another, are now living in Tirana. They are part of an English speaking community here, which, I am told, meets monthly at a hotel so that they may share information of what’s available in the country and get oriented on how to live here.

It’s thanks to one, previously encountered, Canadian blogger, who lives on the top floor of my same building, that I had the opportunity of meeting some of these people. The chance presented itself on Tuesday, when I accompanied her to the new modern Taivan complex, where some of them meet to bowl on a weekly basis. I didn’t stay to play, but spent half hour meeting the ones that showed up for the game.

It was an interesting mixture of men and women, mostly spouses of foreign staff at various Embassies, and world governmental offices. Some of them have just landed here in the last two weeks, others have been here for a year or more, and the one present this week originated from England, Wales, Australia, China, and Ireland.

The bowling alley is in the sub basement of this complex, which is located in the midst of a central park of Tirana and includes also a casino, indoor and outdoor cafes, and restaurants. It is quite impressive and well known in town, and better described by my fellow bloggers in their own sites.

Facilities

It took a few days to get everything in working order in my Albanian apartment since arriving in Tirana. The place, unused for a few months, was plenty dusty, as expected, but the water system had to be activated, the boilers and the fridge turned on, the lights checked, the cell phone recharged, the TV and Internet connection checked, etc.

Not surprisingly, a lot of these things were not functioning, but, little by little, I was able to solve the small nuisances, while the TV repairman that promptly responded to my call had to change a part in the satellite dish so that I can get most of my news, at least in Italian and English. I have almost 460 channels at my disposal, but, interestingly enough, no access yet to the Albanian state and private channels, which require an additional antenna on the roof and special wiring, which I choose for now not to bother with. My apartment is so quiet that without a TV or radio it feels like a tomb! I also asked an electrician to come and change some outlets in the kitchen, which have been defective all along. This shall be done by tomorrow.

Another annoyance that actually impairs and greatly slows down my work is the dial up connection to Internet. The Albanian telephone lines are quite poor, and, it is extremely frustrating to work this way, when time is of the essence. Although I have heard from friends that even a costly, high speed, dedicated line is not the best here, I have placed an order for it, but it’s not so easy to get the installation in a timely manner. Everything takes time here, but, if one persists, it eventually gets done, and it is usually accompanied by a good natured, and very friendly smile. During my previous trip I succeeded in getting the satellite service installed, and this time, hopefully, I may get the speedier connection taken care of.

Thank goodness the weather has warmed up a bit and the daylight hours are beautiful, but as soon as the sun goes down, the heating facilities must be turned on, at least for me, and we have been fortunate enough, so far, not to suffer any real power cuts as in the past.

Not alone....

Just heard that late last evening many parts of Europe (in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy) were affected by a blackout due to a failure of a power plant in Germany.

Albania is not alone having put up with this sort of problem for many years, and until last year the shutdown lasted several hours every day for complete lack of power. The situation is better today, at least in Tirana, although finding oneself in the dark can still be a daily, albeit brief, occurrence so far into this fall/winter season. Snow has already covered the mountains above 1,000 meters, temperatures have dipped quite a bit here this week (almost near freezing point at night); thus, the shorter sunny daylight hours are relished by all as much as possible.

While yesterday the electrical stoppage was only 5 minute long, today it lasted about half hour, but, unfortunately, it’s never a good time when it happens. I was in the midst of cooking and the sun had disappeared early behind some dark clouds when everything shutdown unexpectedly. Obliged to exercise patience that I normally don’t have when in the US, I just sat down and forcibly rested for a while. The results of my culinary efforts, however, did not suffer from the interruption, and I really enjoyed my dinner that included a veal, old fashioned, roast with mashed potatoes that melted in the mouth, while sipping a bubbly Italian red wine (OltrePo’ Pavese Bonarda that I’m familiar with since way back then…)...all of which were bought upon my arrival at the large modern supermarket (Euromax) in the outskirts of Tirana!

Traveling to Tirana

The flight from NY was ready to depart and left the gate on time, but, had to park near the runway for another 1 1/2 hour before getting the ok to take off due to the clogged up air traffic. As per previous experience with Austrian Airline I felt pretty confident, however, that connecting in Vienna would not be a problem, and fellow Austrian passengers confirmed to me that the airline phases in the extra time at departure knowing the situation at JFK airport. Sure enough, we arrived in Vienna on time, and made the connection, as expected. Thus, here I am in Tirana again! It’s is unusually chilly and even windy, but the friends are always prepared to be warm and hospitable.

The planes are always almost fully booked these days, and, before departure, all sorts of seat exchanges do take place, with the hostesses’ help, to accommodate the passengers that were not lucky to sit together. It is the single passenger that usually obliges in this ritual, and this time it was my turn. I was happy to do so as long as the seat was on an aisle and I handed up in the center raw with 2 delightful Austrian young businessmen, who had just experienced for the first time a NY vacation.

The seat I gave up was to accommodate another couple of very young American men, who stood up in the crowd due to their being dressed in black leather and metals with their arms completely tattooed up to their necks. They were unhappy to have been separated and the one next to me was fretting about it like a child, while avidly reading a comic book. The hostess that provided the switch not only thanked me profusely, but even served me some Austrian chocolates, and from time to time checked that I was comfortable enough in the new seat. Never had such service in economy class before!

Austrian really stands out for me so far on the transatlantic flights for the courteous and efficient assistance, the good food, accompanied by free wine and wonderfully fresh hot small rolls that everyone asks seconds of, and the continuous service throughout the night of drinks every 2 hours on the clock! I also find its partner, Tyrolean Air, that services the European cities, very efficient, although is not liked by some because it charges for food and special drinks. There is really no need to eat on board during a 1 to 1 1/2 hour trip, however, if one plans accordingly. An Austrian chocolate ‘bon bon’, on the other hand, is always offered!

During this trip from Vienna to Tirana I noticed a rather large number of mature German businessmen, in addition to the usual crowd of Albanians that are returned visitors, for whatever reason. Many don’t think twice about traveling back home for a wedding, a funeral, or a birth in the family, and they are the ones that furnish millions of dollars worth of income to the country on an annual basis.

Now I must complete getting my apartment livable, connected, but I already have stacked it with food for myself and the visitors that, I know, I’ll have soon.