ALBANIA: A Road Trip: Kruja and Tirana

Although the highway between Durres and Tirana is a good one (not a freeway per se) and the trip takes approximately one hour, we decided that a side trip to Kruja would be a good option on the way.  Situated high in the hills about halfway between Durres and Kruja, our Maps App on my smartphone took us up a hair-raising narrow road to the castle.  We were just grateful that only one (rather surprised) local came down the other way, and in a spot that allowed us to pass without too much shuffling over towards the cliff edge.

Kruja’s claim to fame is that it was the centre of Albanian resistance to the Ottoman invasion in the 15^th century and was the stronghold of the country’s first leader, Georgi Kastrioti also known as Skanderbey.  The castle still contains homes of locals as well as a wonderful museum almost exclusively dedicated to Skanderbey and which explains that period of history in amazing detail.  There is also a fabulous ethnographic museum with good explanations of how the layout of the homes of the merchants and the wealthier members of society worked.  It was authentically furnished with mannequins sporting local costumes and was very effective.  I also walked down to the teqe (Bektashi mosque) which was very old and sits in the shade of a large and gnarled olive tree said to have been planted by Skanderbey himself to encourage the locals to plant olives everywhere.

The Great Gjorgi Kastrioti AKA Skanderbey

The view from the Citadel of Kruja

The Teqe with the olive tree planted by Skanderbey

The felt-maker with the finished product

Outside the citadel is the ancient bazaar area – rather touristy, but well stocked with all items Albanian, should you wish to purchase souvenirs.  We stopped at a shop which sold felt items as I wanted to buy a pair of felt slippers.  On chatting with the store owner, it turned out that he was the maker of the felt and offered to demonstrate how he made them.  We mentioned that we had watched a video in the ethnographic museum of the citadel and he said that it was he and his father who had made the video but that watching in real life was much more meaningful.  Tad and I watched amazed, as he manipulated the small piece of washed and combed wool into a slipper – it was obviously strenuous work (apparently it’s a skill that only the men of a family are taught as it’s too difficult for women to do) as he was working up quite a sweat, but after about 20 minutes, he had fashioned one of a pair of slippers.  At AUD $15 for a pair of finished slippers, I felt somewhat guilty knowing how hard the man worked to produce them.  If you go to Kruja, and are in the bazaar area, I would highly recommend looking him up and asking for a demonstration (you would be somewhat obligated to buy something afterwards, of course).  His name is Ndricim Guni and his sign outside his shop shows a slipper/shoe – the shop is closer to the hotel end of the bazaar than the citadel end.

The drive to Tirana was uneventful, although the chaos of the city left both Tad (the driver) and me (the navigator) in a sweat.  Armed with my city map, as well as the Map App on my phone, we tried to find our way to the hotel I had booked – of course, none of the names of the streets matched either map and some were one-way streets (not always marked on either map), but eventually we found our way to the Green House hotel.  It was our most expensive hotel in Albania, but considering it was in the capital city, and on viewing our room, very modern and spacious, we decided that it was worth it.  The hotel restaurant also was recommended by the guide book and so we booked in for dinner that night.  There was still plenty of light, and although it was hot, we headed out for a walk to the centre of the city (a 10 minute walk away from the hotel).

The 'pyramid' memorial to Enver Hoxha

The Peace Bell with local kids

Statue of Skanderbey in the main square

The Soviet 'realist' mosaic on the National Historical Museum

The National Opera Theatre

           
                                               Peasant-style garden sheds in a nearby park

An apartment building behind our hotel

Tirana settled in the early 17^th century but was not made the capital city until 1920.  In the late 1920s, Italian planners and architects created wide boulevards, a huge square and government buildings and banks, as well as the royal palace and some embassies. During the communist era, the National Historical Museum, the Opera and the Hotel Tirana were added around the square.  On first glance, the government buildings, painted red and yellow ochre, seem to glow in the late afternoon sun and although there were obviously works going on (repairs? maintenance?) they were carefully obscured with fences and walls.  The next day, however, we saw the back sides of these buildings with faded paint, peeling and crumbling concrete and electrical wires waving in the air, no longer attached to the air conditioners and other appliances. 

We returned to the hotel for a much anticipated Italian-themed dinner and were extremely disappointed.  The food was of a very poor quality and expensive for Albania – we decided that we would  not eat there again.

Breakfast was included in the nightly rate (as it was at all the hotels in which we stayed) and although there was not a set breakfast, we could order what we wanted.  We asked what was available and the waiter mentioned omelettes so Tad and I both ordered one.  This was again rather disappointing and we were happy that we had our shakes in our room to supplement the disappointing breakfast.

We headed straight to the National Historical Museum as we planned to be there for some time.  It’s a massive structure with three floors of artefacts and displays and although most are well labeled in English, the descriptions fail in some of the most interesting (and disturbing) displays.  The ground floor is given over to the ancient artefacts and we were pleased to see items from places we had previously visited such as Butrint, Gjirokastrë, Sarandë, Apollonia, Durres and Kruja.  The next floors were dedicated to Skanderbey followed by the monarchy (King Zog was quite the suave and urbane looking gentleman – almost looked like an actor!), and then WW II.  The most disturbing of the collections was of course the times of the communist era as well as the revolution following the downfall of communism.  So many idealistic young people who lost their lives (average age was 25 years old!) fighting for their beliefs – it would have been nice to read some of the Albanian papers and displays about the incidences at this time.  Families of the ‘martyrs’ had clearly donated personal items belonging to the young people to be placed on display and this had the effect of making the victims seem all the more real.  In the end, we were in the museum for more than 3 hours and although we covered all the material, we could have spent longer.  The museum didn’t seem to have air conditioning (if it did, it wasn’t working) and the air was still and oppressive so we couldn’t stay any longer.  We made our way back to the hotel, walking through some of the smaller streets around the square and had a little ‘siesta’ before venturing out again later for a walk to a rather grand park to the south of the city.

The park was situated up a hill and so the afternoon breeze was welcome on such a hot and sticky day. It was also a great place to people-watch and as we sat on a bench near the war cemeteries of the Germans and the British, we were able to observe the locals as they walked, chatted, jogged and passed the time. 

Part of our walking around Tirana took us to the ‘Pyramid’ a building that was to have been Enver Hoxha’s mausoleum and then became a Cultural Centre.  Today it is abandoned, vandalized and a mess in the centre of the city.  Nearby is the ‘peace bell’ created, supposedly, by the collection of spent bullet casings from the 1997 uprising.  Again, these monuments are covered in graffiti and although they are located in what could be a pleasant park, there is rubbish and broken stuff everywhere.  We also walked through “The Block” area of the city, now a lively area filled with shops, bars, restaurants and young people – this was not always the case as the area was once forbidden to regular Albanians and was the territory of Enver Hoxha and his henchmen.  There is a piece of the Berlin Wall and a concrete bunker at the corner of the park at the entrance to “The Block”  which commemorate Albanian’s isolation under communism.  We saw Enver Hoxha’s home and office building which now house a café (on one side) and an English-language school (on the other).  There is nothing which identifies the house as having belonged to the dictator of Albania for so many years.

That evening we found a little local eatery and enjoyed a chicken souvlaki followed by an ice cream for a fraction of the cost of the “Italian” meal at the hotel restaurant the night before. In spite of some modern structures, Tirana is still filled with ageing buildings and rubbish – the traffic is noisy and crazy and the small stream which runs through the city smells of sewage.  While we didn’t regret visiting the city, we were glad to leave the next morning.