Leisure time

Europeans really know how to enjoy life, and Albanians are no exception! During the weekends many escape the city and take advantage of what the nearby Dajti mountains (with a national park), or the close port city Durres (with a long beach coast) offer. Thus, I also went along with what my local friends suggested.

On Saturday, after a nice long walk with a couple of them in Tirana’s “Great Park” and an aperitif at a café by the great lake, we had lunch on the terrace of a local, characteristic restaurant, inside the park, among beautifully smelling pine trees. The sun was shining, the children were playing in an adjacent grounds (especially setup for them by the restaurant), while parents were enjoying lunch in the open and could keep an eye on them. No noise, no pollution, and a very relaxed atmosphere here!

Although prices have skyrocketed in Albania too, everyone seems to have a good time and frequent the public places and facilities: from bars, to restaurants and pubs, from recreational parks for children to game playing spots for adults. One can also observe very large advertising signs with flashing neon lights almost everywhere (unheard of only a few years ago), and many more traffic lights that seem to function pretty well although they may be still ignored by many!

On Sunday I planned to travel to and visit the southern, port city of Vlora, where I have never been before. It was a long ride from Tirana (~ 2 ½ hr). It took longer to get there since the friends accompanying me wanted to show me some of the other towns along the way, such as the city of Fier, with its long main street flanked by tall palm trees. Along the beach of Durres we stopped at the Adriatik Hotel, which I remember in complete ruins during my first visit to Albania in 1993. Now it’s a 5 star hotel, with marble floors and stair cases inside, manicured lawns, pool, beach bar on the outside, and attentive uniformed staff. It borders the public beach where people were strolling and some in bathing suit were jogging – a scene that could have been easily mistaken for a similar one in Florida!

Traveling south the vegetation changes to gently rolling hills and terraced agricultural fields. Many greenhouses can be observed (for vegetable growing all year around), in addition to large extensions of vines, fruit and olive orchards, with their very old and contorted tree trunks, which are still producing!

The city of Vlora is bigger than I thought and it covers a large expansion of land. Many new tall buildings can be spotted all over the city, an overview of which we were able to enjoy from a high hill, where there is a café, a radio ad TV antenna, and even a Bekteshi temple. This area has a very rugged and very scenic coast line. Historically, Vlora is the city where Albania was formed, and I was able to visit the house where the first Albanian flag was hoisted by the patriot Ismail Qemali in November 1912, when Albania was declared a state.

Another wonderful lunch was experienced on a terrace of a seashore restaurant along the coast, served by an attentive staff of the Paradise Beach Hotel in the town of Oricum. The place was busy with entire families enjoying the outdoors! On our left we had the prominent peninsula of Karaburun, and in front the famous island of Sazan, occupied by the Italians military forces during WWII.

We reached Tirana in the darkness of the evening due to the change of time from Daylight Savings; a bit tired, but relaxed and ready for a new work week.