The music in this video is by Orges & the Ockus Rockus Band. There was a huge party event at the bar we were working at and this exuberant Albanian band performed a few hours of rollicking music. This song seemed perfect for our current travelling lifestyle - check out their video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQY2eL5RMk.
While in Tirana, Nate + I wandered the jagged streets and watched the city go by. On our very first day, after busing in from Montenegro, searching for our hostel, downing a massive dinner and a liter of celebratory wine ('we made it!'), we stumbled upon a pop-up carnival that was either in the act of being built or broken down...it was hard to tell. We followed a group of similarly silly kids onto a spinning sleigh ride of a Americana-attired giant woman who's skirt whirled and shook us into oblivion. It was a perfect introduction to the capitol of Albania - a bit unnerving and potentially nauseating but amazingly diverting in the process! :) The music in this video is by Orges & the Ockus Rockus Band. There was a huge party event at the bar we were working at and this exuberant Albanian band performed a few hours of rollicking music. This song seemed perfect for our current travelling lifestyle - check out their video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQY2eL5RMk.
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Tirana (locally Tiranë) is the most madly exuberant city we've visited so far. It's the sprawling, winding, screeching capital of Albania. As we first neared the city, the scent of burning wood and plastics seeped through the windows. The sight of rushing trucks, cars, mopeds, carts, dog packs + livestock writhed around us in a zigzag swirl, reminiscent of India's notorious roadways. Bus riders waited on the roadside with crates of live chickens and slayed goats over their shoulders. The clanging accelerated as we pushed through the perpetual rush hour, nearing the city center, rounding a traffic circle centered on a domineering metal statue of a two-headed black, howling eagle from the flag of Albania. ![]() We came to Tirana to volunteer at the local backpackers hostel. This magical garden and art-filled oasis in the city center became our comfortable home for two weeks - where we worked as bartenders morning and night. We would wake at 7 to clean the bar/garden from the night before, make cappuccino, latte, espresso, fresh squeeze orange juice, and brainstorm/test that night's cocktail special. In the evening we served wine, cocktails, our daily concoction and of course many many cases of beer - for as the vast majority of tourists to Albania seem to originate in Germany a fierce demand for lager seemed to follow. In addition to bartending, I was able to paint a new chalkboard-inspired menu to hang over the bar. It was a wonderful job as it allowed us to relax behind a bar, chat with fellow adventurers and hear their shared experiences and insights. In off hours we would go out to eat or roam the city together - even went on a trip to see La Traviata at the national opera house! We made a glorious little family in our short time there. Typically, we would have midday off (except when the bar required shopping/restocking) and we would gallivant about town. Tirana is not like other touristic capitols like DC or Paris, it does not have an edified list of MUST SEE places, so visitors develop different tactics for exploring. Nate & I would typically hear or read about one of Tirana's many diverse restaurants spread far + wide or a mysterious forest-park or art gallery, point generally in that direction and then wander for miles on foot until we discovered it. That way we let the layered city slowly wash over us in all it's frenzied diversity (video next post will elaborate). I still don't know how I feel about Tirana. It's totally daunting/overwhelming/sickening on the one hand + intriguing/welcoming/inspiring on the other. The public space was like roaring static - a mesmerizing constant noise of sights, sounds and scents. Every element fought for your attention: every concrete high-rise flickered with hanging laundry, neon lights flashed in storefronts, merchants and beggars lined the sidewalks, the roads raged with we-better-ruuuun-traffic, even the mammoth blocks of communist-era monoliths demanded your eyes with their stripped-down enormity. ![]() Clearly, a main challenge to the city is its car situation - hundreds of thousands of out-dated high-guzzling cars, running on leaded gas (that's illegal in the EU), ruling the streets and creating a constant tan-exhaust tinge to the air. Pedestrians are clearly on the bottom of the food chain. Many large intersections lack even a simple traffic-signal. The large foot-commuting population of Tirana seems to migrate by building up a critical mass of humans on the road side, then @ the slightest hesitation of one driver, collectively takes the street/cross to the next intersection! It's like a million revolutions everyday. :) But the subsequent pollution is significant - It's been labelled "the Pollution Capital of Europe" since 2004. Nate and I got sore throats, headaches and nausea everyday when we went for walks - had to sleep it off with uncharacteristic pre-work naps everyday. I even had a 3 day bout of vomiting and sleeping ... although that may have been more virus related. Regardless, Tirana has challenged my bodily health. Now, before we get too judgmental about the capitol of Albania, we must realize that they are rebounding from some serious and long-lasting repression and turmoil under communism. As one Albanian bar visitor retorted to us tourists and our auto-centric complaints: "We've only had cars for ten years - what do you expect!?" Seriously! I can't imagine if my country has been so controlled and shut down for decades that I did not have the right as a citizen to transport myself anywhere. Most Albanians were not even allowed to leave their town, let-alone drive solo about the country. They were expected to perform their assigned labor in their town of birth forever. Albania's emerging into a new world now, with new freedoms and rights to work out. And as you can tell from the length of this post, I am intrigued by the city. I'm am grateful for all the smiling and helpful strangers and the friends I found, even through the smog. Life in the CityTirana has so much good Food! |
AuthorAn Upstate New York-grown, art history + Italian major turned organic farm volunteer turned Home Health Aide turned Landscape Architecture Grad student currently adventuring about the globe and taking far too many photos for one travel blog to handle. Archives
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