Fall affairs

September is on the way out, fall is setting in, and the weather in NYC turns to gorgeous - just the way I like it: mostly sunny, and dry, and refreshingly cool (in the 60's and 70's F)!!

Yearly activities of all sorts are getting back in full gear, after the summer lull. Among these there is the usual N.A.A.C. annual dinner, when about 500 Albanian get together to celebrate accomplishments, and honor people that have played major roles in the lives of Albania, Kosova, and the entire Albanian Diaspora.

Albanians sharing my same table

The Bitici's family, owners of 'Macelleria' restaurant in the downtown trendy new area of Manhattan
This was the 13th annual awards gala, and the honorees were:
- Mr. Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland,2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Kosova Status Talk, who was presented with the ‘Hands of Hope Award,’ for his historic contribution leading to Kosova’s Independence; and
- Mr. Fadil Berisha, world renowned Albanian photographer, and a delightful personality, who was presented with the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his superb artistic and philanthropic work to promote Albanian culture.

Honoring Mr. Anthiisari
This dinner was attended also, as usual, by various ambassadors, representatives of the Albanian and Kosova governments, artists, media and other personalities of the Albanian American community, who are present in NY this week for the annual U.N. General Aseembly. Among these it was a pleasure to greet and speak again with Pres. Sejdiu of Kosova, P.M. Berisha and new Min. of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Meta, Kosova and Albanian ambassadors to the U.N. and in Washington, and some of their spouses.

Unfortunately I cannot get good pictures inside this Cipriani restaurant, which serves great food, but is a cavernous huge hall, kept quite dark overall. It is located in an Italian Renaissance old building, dating back to 1921, which used to be the home of an old bank on 42nd Street many years ago. Its interior is a national and New York City landmark, with 65 foot ceiling, inlaid floors, glorious chandeliers and very ornate old teller windows, that can accommodate and serve very large gatherings.

Prime Minister Dr. Sali Berisha

(left to right)Mr. Bitici, Film producer Stan Dragoti, Mr. Neritani (recent ex Albanian ambassador at the U.N.)

Mr. Dragoti with Mrs. Bitici and her daughter Violeta
The entertainment portion of the program included musicians and singers from Albania, as well as this year's Miss Albania and Miss Kosova, on their way back home from the Miss Universe Pageant in the Bahamas.

Albanian musical entertainment with terrific bi-lingual singers

Another lovely couple at our table: the Gjelajs

Summertime fading away

A month has gone by since my last posting, but there was nothing exciting to convey about my life or Albania, for that matter.

Plentiful was the coverage in the media about the elections there on June 28th, which are still being debated, but it's only this week that the new government will be confirmed for the next 4 years, after the usual summer lull and everybody's vacation. With more people traveling in Eastern Europe, many new articles about Albania are appearing on all sorts of online newspapers and magazines. The same can be said about blogs written by people experiencing the little country, so mysterious to many for so long.

The beauty of having good reports online is that their cross references are so easily accessible, just by clicking the 'enter' key, if one is curious enough to investigate further. A good example of this type of dispatching is a series of 3 articles by Nathan Thrall that just appeared on the Slate website, entitled "Albania, The Muslim World's Most Pro-American State".

Summertime is coming to an end, and I have not left NYC to go anywhere, not even for a long weekend. Since my return from Albania in June, I've been continuously busy for a variety of reasons, which kept me at home for the past 3 months, hosting a young relative (perfecting her English for 6 weeks in NY), catching up with my annual medical checkups (with all the way around ok results, thank goodness!), coping with the unfortunate 'demise' of my trusted desktop, and then with the installation and quirks of its newest replacement, which never ends to challenge and amaze me on a daily basis.

The cool, rainy July, was followed by a mostly hot, and humid August, but September has started, as usual, with glorious days of perfectly dry sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Recently I spent a lovely afternoon and evening visiting some Albanian friends that live in the city, close to an area in the downtown West side, along the Hudson river.

Until 10 years ago this used to be the old Meatpacking district, full of smelling slaughterhouses and low level brownstones, now all remodeled into fancy boutiques, cafes, block long underground Chelsea market, restaurants, bars and night clubs.

The old elevated railway that ran all along this area was kept and transformed into an elevated long garden that offers a beautiful respite from the chaotic traffic of the city streets, and allows great views of the Hudson river, and the New Jersey coastline.

The project, called the Highline, includes a new hotel built over the old elevated line, and the gardens are being expanded to cover additional blocks northward, along the river.



This whole area of NYC is right across from the spot where, in the river, we recently had the tragic air accident of loosing 9 lives in the crash of a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter.

As the sun was setting, we walked to a nearby Thai restaurant for a leisure and delectable dinner.