Apollonia in the AM

Saturday we were blessed with a wonderfully warm and sunny day. My Albanian friends drove me and my Italian friends first to the archeological park of Apollonia, which we reached in 2 1/2 hours, after having the usual stop for an espresso along the way, while riding through some lovely hilly countryside.

A Greek colony, founded on Illyrian lands in about 600 B.C., this ancient city, named after Apollo, became an important cultural center where Octavian lived and studied in 45 B.C. before becoming Emperor Augustus. The original excavations were done by the French archaeologist Leon Rey, but, so far, only 10% of the ancient territory has been unearthed.









A beautiful Bizantine style church contains very nice icons, while the museum has extensive displays of artifacts.


Religious places like this were used as hostels by the communist regime. They have been restored after the country came out from that dark period, and in some cases elsewhere, the old cells used by the friars in ancient times, have been turned into modest, but comfortable travel lodgings.

As we left the Apollonia park I couldn't help taking a picture of this military bunker, one of the more than 600.000 that the ex dictator had built throughout the entire country to defend it in case of 'possible invasions' from foreign nations. Under his maniacal rule Albania remained isolated for more than 50 years.

wonder who left the graffiti?

Visitors

An Italian couple, friends of mine, who visited NYC last fall, and extensively traveled the rest of the world decided to get to know little Albania too, and planned their trip here while I am in town.

The May 1st European holiday presented the perfect opportunity to hop on a plane and spend an extended weekend in Tirana. Arrived by midday on Thursday, after a 1 1/2 hour from Milan, they started to view the capital on foot since they are in terrific shape and love to walk. It’s too bad the weather turned for the worst and the rains that plagued Italy for the past few weeks, have now moved to the Balkans. Nevertheless, as good troopers, they were ready to go anywhere and we made some plans to also go out of town during the weekend.

On Friday we decided to go first to the town of Kruja in the mountains, and then to the port city of Durres and along its coast.

my friends at the entrance of Skanderbeg's Museum in Kruja

handiwork sold by locals along the way to the museum
I was amazed by the great number of new constructions that took place in Kruja itself in the past year. The town, perched up in the mountains, was crowded everywhere with local and foreign tourists traveling via private cars, motorcycles, buses, and local transport.

It's always exiting to see the remnants of the old fortress and citadel's walls. This was the home and headquarters of Skanderbeg, the national hero, who kicked the Turks (Ottomans) out of the country in the 1400's, giving Albania the only period of 'true and complete' independence from any foreign influence. Written history about his deeds and life began to be published since 1508 in Rome, and continues to this day in a variety of languages.

the old tower of the citadel

the new (mid 1980's) Skanderbeg Museum

the statues that greet visitors in the lobby


a portion of the mural depicting Skanderbeg's battles, his helmet and sword







Skanderbeg's desk chair


the visitors' register
While the weather was a bit chilly in the morning, and the clouds accompanied us during the first part of the day, when we left the mountains and the fog behind, the sun began to appear and it was nice to walk along the beach coastal area.



In Durres, we stopped for a while at the Adriatik Hotel.

I saw this hotel for the first time in 1993. It was then an empty shell of an old building, now privatized, completely modernized , and part of the luxury class of accommodations in this area.

This costal area 15 years ago was totally empty, but now it's completely built up for miles on end.

Although it's still spring, the hotel large outside pool was already filled up and beautiful terracotta pots with blooming flowers were everywhere.

The hotel is just a block off one of the main thoroughfares of Durres, but it's a place of complete tranquility and pleasure!


A wonderful fish lunch was consumed again at the great restaurant near the port area. Here they serve 3 appetizers and a dessert of freshly cut fruit topped by ice cream, all free of charge. Later we rode up the hill, along the old city walls, to have coffee in a bar that overlooks the entire city, the port and the coast. A beautiful Italian ferry swiftly was pulling into the port, while, as usual, many cargo ships were waiting in the bay area to take their turn in docking.

A Shkodra story

Last evening at the Ministry of Culture there was a presentation of a small, recently published book, entitled "A Shkodra story", which describes the history of the first maritime flags of the Albanian Merchant Marine (1913-14).

The story came about because of the curiosity and research of an Italian Navy Officer, Paul Muner, now 64 years old, and retired, who spent considerable time in Albania since 1992, when he was dispatched to work as a Commander of the Coast Guard. This unit was charged to take control of the wave of speed boats that in those days transported, every night, hundreds of illegal immigrants to the Italian coast. He hales from Trieste, where he also had the opportunity to research old records that were preserved by Austria, covering a period of maritime history along the Balkan Adriatic coast.

drawing of a early merchant transport
Balkan history is rather complex and voluminous to explain, but the subject of this book revolves around the city of Shkodra and its large lake for the following reason.

Among the many changes in the political map of the Balkans (between the late 1800's and early 1900's) there was the decline of the Venetian dominance along the Adriatic, the retreat of the Ottoman empire further south, while Montenegro at one point took over the port of Ulcinj. This port was the base of the Albanian merchant marine, which at that time was still traveling with Turkish flag since Albania was still part of that empire.

Turkey offered to relocate this fleet near the Bosphorus, but the Albanians decided instead to move themselves to the Shkodra area, which currently shares its lake also with Montenegro. Shkodra was at one point considered the capital of the Albanian region. After the recognition in 1912 of Albania as an independent nation, the fleet began to use its own maritime flag using the same colors of the national one (red and black stripes).

a view of the old Castle that towers over Shkodra to this day
After a lovely short musical opening and the customary introductions, the author addressed the audience in Italian with a preface read in Albanian. He covered many details, and explained the difficulties encountered in translating references to maritime terms and names, from the old to the new records.

the author in the middle flanked by his publisher (in white) and translator (in red)
A reception followed, while the author busily signed, with perfectly spelled Albanian greetings, the copies of the book freely distributed by the publisher.

Spring Sunday in Albania

The cloudy day turned out to be very pleasant once we left Tirana for lunch outside of the city. My friends, knowledgeable of new places springing up everywhere, wanted to try a new restaurant on the road that leads to Elbasan. There is a distance of 40 miles to that city, but we didn't have to go very far out of Tirana to reach the establishment they wanted to try.

It's a brand new, huge place, well equipped with all sorts of facilities: from a small park for children, to several terraced bars and pizzeria outdoors, as well as pools, and separate housing for lodging guests.


This entire complex, with manicured green lawns covers a vast area that is enclosed by a rustic, old fashioned stone wall.

The above main building contains an incredibly big indoor restaurant furnished in good taste and served by an efficient staff. Interesting iron works decorate various gates, doors, and all the windows of the restaurant.

The food was very good and excellently presented - my main dish was a perfectly cooked medallion of beef in a creamy green pepper sauce that melted in my mouth!

Children were playing in the nearby small park that contains also an old, "grizzly looking" bear. Pacing in his cage he knew that visitors would toss him fruits and bread that the restaurant supplies on the side for everyone's enjoyment to feed the animal.

Some of these facilities will be in full swing during the summer, but, even today, while we have 63F degrees temperature, most customers are eating outdoors.

We decided to have desserts and coffee somewhere else along the road, but it was impossible to find parking. We went by several places, but most restaurants, bars, and pizzerias were all doing a booming business!!

Closer to Tirana we finally found a place my friends like for its excellent coffee, but it's tucked away in the country side and it's reachable only via a narrow unpaved road. Here too we found lots of people lounging around, and we spent a pleasant afternoon chatting and savoring espressos along with freshly baked desserts in the calm and sunny outdoors.

We were located on a hilly area, not too far from the National Cemetery in the back (towered by the 'Statue of Albania' pictured above), but from the front, in the distance, we could also see all the way across most of Tirana, crowded by high raises everywhere!

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.