Life in Tirana

During this stay in Tirana, luckily and contrary to previous visits, there has not been, so far, any interruption in water and/or electrical supply, which is part of living here. The days are wonderfully sunny and hot in the mornings, but sometimes in late afternoon the clouds appear and it may even rain throughout the night.

The streets in this capital are currently in a real shamble. Diggings are ongoing everywhere, along the main boulevards and in the new part of town, to lay down water pipes and conduits for modern communications. Some squares and older streets are full of potholes, while the construction of tall buildings, started over a decade ago, continues to grow and it seems never ending. The smog produced by the enormous and intense vehicular traffic, in addition to the dust created by the above activities, makes breathing a challenge. When, on top of all this, it rains, the end result is a real mess, with mud and water all over! But this city’s dwellers nonchalantly, but assertively, proceed in their walks, hopping from unusable sidewalks to the middle of the street, or across the stagnant water holes, or in between cars that are continuously maneuvering to avoid hitting the bad spots. They are used to being great walkers (no private cars were allowed during the 50 plus years of communist regime) and they are survivors in all sorts of situations!

Today, while conducting some business at a local, but modern, bank, I was noticing how different these services are from the US or even from other countries such as Italy, for instance. The general public is served by well trained tellers-cashiers that will take care of any need one may have, by filling up withdrawal, deposit, or transfer forms, while other customer service personnel is available for special requests, such as the printing of the latest statement, or the issuance of checkbooks. The customer has only to specify what he wants and the teller will take care of it. This bank provides, in the same fashion, services for business accounts, but in a totally different area of the bank and with a different group of customer reps. Interestingly enough, in this day and age, there are no special barriers between staff and customers, or even security entrances, such as in Italy, for example; just some guards are patrolling the floors.

For the daily needs of food in Tirana, shopping is easy and readily available everywhere. In addition to a large outdoor market that is open even into the night, there are modern indoor supermarkets, strategically located, and, here and there, throughout the city there are also small vendors of produce that line up along some smaller streets, rain or shine, and compete among themselves for price and quality of product. What they offer is cheap, and extremely fresh, and that’s why and where the locals shop daily for their meals. Today, I bought some zucchini, a bunch of carrots, a whole head of cauliflower, four golden apples, two tomatoes, two cucumbers, and 3 beutiful large clementines, all for $3.75.

Tirana today has also a wide array of fast food places, which are opened at all hours, just like some bakeries, where freshly baked bread can be found late into the evening, but there is no MacDonald or Burger King chain here. The sandwiches, just like the pizza (light and delicious), are served hot and filled in front of your eyes with the ingredients that you want. Their price may vary from one to two dollars. maximum. Some restaurants also do deliver at home, via motorcycles.

Most of the life of this city though is displayed by the cafés, which are mostly outdoors, used all year around, and always filled with customers from morning until night. The newest part of Tirana is now bustling with nightly activities, especially for the younger generations, with a wide variety of spots that usually bear foreign names, mostly American. Such is life in Tirana these days!