Again in Albania

Arrived safe and sound in Tirana, as per schedule. Left cloudy and muggy NYC, and found hot and dry weather in Tirana fifteen hours later, discounting the time difference.

It was a long 2 hours sitting on the tarmac at JFK, in a fully booked plane, before we could be airborne due to traffic congestion, but the rest of the trip went perfectly well thanks to the usual efficiency of Austrian airlines. The service and food was very good as usual, and I was even able to snooze for a couple of hours during the transatlantic flight.

In Vienna had plenty of time, as per schedule, to wait for the Tirana connection, but it was fascinating to watch the hundreds of passengers that were boarding at the nearby gates. Every half hour a new destination was posted, such as Moscow, Belgrade, Skopje, Istanbul, Krakow, Minsk, and even one I never heard about before: Chinisau (now I know is in Moldova). The flow of outgoing travelers of all shapes and ages were disappearing and re-appearing at each gate, on a continuing rotating interchange. The transfer buses, and special cars for assisted passengers, were magically coming and going with ease; the stream of operations was run with smoothness of action and clockwork precision. A pleasure to see!

The connecting flight from Vienna to Tirana was a surprise. It was quite an upgrade from preceding, rather small and old crafts I have taken in the past. It was a new Airbus 319, which was also fully booked with about ¾ of the passengers being foreigners, lots of them looking like business related travelers. Time for a quick drink and snacks and 1hr and 20 minutes later we landed at Rinas, actually named Mother Theresa International aiport.

My old driver was waiting for me and within one hour from deplaning I entered to my apartment in the city, where, to my great surprise, I found all sorts of goodies waiting for me.

Fresh flowers on the coffee table, a full basket of fruits on the side, fresh vegetables on the kitchen bin, bread, crackers, and breadstick on the table; the fridge stocked with cheese, cold cuts, eggs, milk, and other vegetables and fresh fruits (some of which, like sweet melon, was already peeled and cut, ready for me to eat!).

My kitchen and living room were inundated, as usual, by gorgeous sunshine, and my plants are all in good shape!

The hot water boilers were turned on in the kitchen and bathroom, so I was able to take a nice shower and go to bed for a couple of hours while counting my blessings!

Long traveling for a short visit

During this past weekend I took a short trip to Michigan, where I visited relatives and friends, and did some planning to do a fundraiser next spring for the organization I am involved in, that deals with Albanian culture and education and I am helping on a volunteer basis.

When I landed at Washington's National airport where I had to make a connection, I noticed a large crowd surrounding a full size orchestra playing national hymns at a nearby gate.

With time to spare I approached the group that continuously kept pace with the music by clapping hands, and realized that they were greeting wars' veterans disembarking from another plane. It was quite moving to see the reactions of complete strangers that so enthusiastically were saluting and shaking hands with former members of the military that were exiting the plane and congregating in a nearby area. Lots of them were in wheels chairs, but all of them had broad smiles on their faces!

The continuation of my travel went well, and I thoroughly enjoyed the four, full days spent in the Detroit area with meetings of all sorts, albeit the lack of sleep. I was reprimanded by my relatives because I didn't allow them to host me at their homes, as per Albanian tradition, but the Hampton Inn I chose to stay at, in a central location of the city, surprisingly turned out to be an exceptionally good lodging that actually pampered their guests in many a way.

The return home was a different story. The small plane from Detroit to Washington was full, and on time.

only 50 passengers

above Lake Michigan

traveling toward rainy Washington

hazy Washington and the Pentagon

quiet Potomac

landing at National
But ended getting back home late because the shuttle aircraft I was booked on had mechanical problems, and we had to be transferred to a larger plane to finally reach LaGuardia airport in NYC.

Remembering......

Ten years ago I was undergoing a routine medical test when the incredible happened. It was just about 9AM when I exited the totally enclosed (no windows) lab room and walked into a waiting area that was overlooking a usually quiet cross-town street in midtown Manhattan. There, I was supposed to be met by a friend, who was scheduled to accompany me home, as recommended by the laboratory.

It took just seconds to notice the large number of people scurrying outside, while someone inside was blabbering that a plane had hit the Twin Towers. Was it an accident? How did it happen? What was going on?

The questions began to fly around the room as additional news were being received and spread around, including, at a certain point, the order to evacuate the premises I was in because the building was being shut down. Meantime, a hurried doctor had shared with me the good results of my test. Although still a bit light headed, I stepped outside and decided to just wait for my friend to arrive in front of the building, as the stream of people was rushing by, seemingly with no sense of direction. I began to realize the extent of the event when I, and my friend, headed toward my apartment, further uptown.

The flux of humanity in the streets and avenues kept on growing, while the public transport was coming to a halt. It was impossible to even think of taking a bus, so we walked. That day I was also supposed to vote in a primary election, but the voting place was shut down by the time I got to my neighborhood, and the local supermarket turned out to be a place of pure bedlam.

Although I did not suffer a direct, personal loss that day, what I still distinctly remember is the terrible smell of the smoldering ruins that permeated the entire city, and kept on seeping into open windows for a long time, while the stench of death that surrounded the city morgue, saturated the nearby streets for months, due to the make up tents set up to hold thousands of remains.

While I reacted calmly on 9/11, I actually felt the brunt of this event the day after, when, for the first time in my life, and quite abruptly, I had a weird, stirring sensation in my chest that made me rush to my doctor's office, who performed an EKG. It turned out to be just an awful, disturbing experience.

To date, and especially throughout this past week of intense replays of recorded experiences, 9/11 resurfaces to evoke great emotions not only in the ones personally involved, but continues to have vast resonance throughout the entire world.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the ones who have endured and still suffer the consequences of this destructive event, while I wish that sense of harmony and togetherness could persist among people without having to set in only during times of catastrophes.

Stormy weekend

Irene's fury passed over NYC on Sunday morning.

It found a city completely shut down thanks to a well implemented disaster plan, and moved northward all the way to Canada.

From the cozy inside of my apartment I took some shots and the above videos, while listening to radio and tv broadcasts that kept the population continually abreast of developments all along the Eastern Coast of the U.S.

The concerns in Manhattan proper were obviously related to highrise dwellings that could produce falling glass, stoppage of elevators, and emergency equipment due to electrical and water outages. All buildings located at the tip of this island were evacuated also due to floods from the high tide coincidence of our rivers and water bay. Luckily, I live on the upper end of this borough, and thus was spared such dire forecast.

The real damages are felt only now all around us with still 900,000 people without electricity, on Long Island, and north and west of the city, even in the state of New Jersey, where many large areas have been totally submerged by cresting rivers.
The damages are calculated in millions, and the water is not expected to recede until the end of this week.

Meantime, the meteorologists are already closely following the development of other upcoming hurricanes, named Katia in the Atlantic and Lee in the Pacific. Thus, more bad weather is coming by next weekend, the traditional end of summer Labor Day week.