Daily life in Tirana

My stay in Tirana is, as usual, quite comfortable. The local friends come visiting as soon as they know of my arrival, while I get rid of the jet lag, stock up on local staples, cook up a storm, and smooth out my daily routine in Albania.

As my close friends know, I'm here to continue the voluntary work I've set out to do during my retirement, and this trip is no different. Meetings need to be set up and attended to, related documentation has to be taken care of, and follow ups on ongoing affairs must be kept up. Taking advantage of the time at my disposal here is of the utmost importance. I think I'm doing a pretty good job keeping at bay and balancing out everything I have to do, but regret the slow pace, and inefficient handling of matters that goes on here.

After decades of very specific, and detailed system work in the U.S., modesty aside, I'm a good planner, and I try to maintain the same working habits here, but that's not easy. Europeans way of life and work customs are very different. In order to accomplish something in the old continent, one must switch to the more easy going ways and yield to their systems. Albania is very similar to Italy in many ways, and I've become a bit of an expert at this after working in both countries for several years.

Yesterday, Sunday, is a typical example. In the morning I had planned to visit the local cemetery since it was the annual remembrance day of the Dead, and in the afternoon I had 2 working appointments. At 9am, instead, one of the people that I was going to see in the afternoon asked to switch the appointment to 10am, and I agreed. During that meeting I received an unexpected phone call from another party that wanted to see me around noon, and, again, I agreed. So my original plans went out the window, but, eventually, I was able to accomplish a few things.

Daily life here is much better that it used to be just a few years ago, and now in Tirana proper electricity and water are available at all times, with a few exceptions. So far, in my 10 days here, I never lost electricity, and my computer happily keeps humming along from morning 'till night, but water supply disappears by noon time almost every day, for a couple of hours. I do believe that this is due to the poorly planned capacity for the entire building that probably did not take into consideration modern needs, such as washing machines, present in most apartments, and used daily by Albanian housewives. One has just to look outside the windows to see everywhere freshly washed clothes hanging to dry in the sun every day of the week.

The weather so far has been unusually warm during the day, sometimes even hot (like today's 80 degrees), with no rain, while the evenings are cool and refreshing; thus, I find myself having to change clothes almost 3 times daily.

Haven't taken many pictures so far, but intend to do so soon, so keep tuned in!