Another holiday

Today was the turn of the Greek Orthodox church to celebrate Easter, following the Catholic Easter of a week ago. For Albania's state employees this meant a short work week squeezed between two long weekends, since every time a feast happens to be on a Sunday, the following Monday is also time off for them. The weather was cloudy most of the day, but quite mild.

Some friends invited me to take a ride with them to the port city of Durres, where we actually took a leisure walk on the beach before deciding to have lunch in town. The sun even decided to smile on us for a while while we walked among many other strollers, children playing football barefooted, and souvenir sellers rolling their carts along the water edge. The bay was crowded with anchored ships waiting their turn to dock in the port to unload their cargo.


The fish lunch at the restaurant near the port area that we have patronized other times is consistently excellent, and included also some very tasty free appetizers.

Afterward we decided to have coffee in the new cafe` bar on top of a nearby tall building that has a 360 degree view of the city and port.

It's accessible via a modern glass enclosed elevator that rides on an outside wall of the building and offers a quick. but great view of the surrounding areas.




When we returned to Tirana, my friends drove me through newly developed areas of the city, which I had never seen before. We rode through many hills with lots of green areas, some of them still quite rural, but on brand new roads that the city has obviously built to keep up with the tremendous expansion of the city. I was informed that every bit of all this land has been sold and none is available anymore for purchase. Here the air is still country fresh, and cleaner due to the altitude and the lesser vehicular traffic. New houses, businesses, and newly planted trees were already all in place along these roads.

We all ended up at my place for drinks and sharing a delicious Italian "Colomba" (the typical Easter cake - in the form of a 'dove'(=colomba), which is exported all over the world). What a relaxing day for me, still jet lagged from the transatlantic flight (!), but now ready to tackle the chores and appointments of this coming week.