Albania

So. Tirana, Albania. What can we say about it? Well, for a start, communism fell in 1991. Albanian communism was so hardcore, they told China it had sold out on its ideals. Prior to 1991, there were no roads into or out of Albania, and there were only about 600 cars in the country, all of them for party officials. Having only been able to have cars for the last 18 years there's still sights like the ones below to be seen in the more rural areas.


They have however very quickly grasped onto commerce and entrepreneurism. Here's a picture from a market we stumbled across. Mmmm tasty, tasty rabbits. Just out of the frame were some turkeys too.

Oh and it's definitely a waste-not-want-not society. Here's a streetside banana stall with the oldest, ripest (blackest) bananas selling for 10 Lek, and graded upards to about 35 Lek, I'm fuzzy on the exchange rate, but 35 Lek is around 50 Australian cents.

You may be wondering about the sights in Tirana, well one of them is in the picture below: Mt. Dajti, complete with Austrian and Swiss designed/built cable car.. There's a few other day trips to historic towns etc. but y'all've seen castles before.

Of course, why go all the way out of the city, when right in the centre of town you can take a toy electric car, a mini-quadbike or a mini-motorbike for a spin around an unfenced, public square?? Oh the thrill of seeing the adolescent employees hurtling around on the two right wheels (who needs the let ones anyway?) of a mini-quadbike, inches from pedestrians.


Oh, and on the way to Montenegro in a taxi, who did we see? Mr. Ed!!! So of course we pulled over for an autograph. It'll be up on e-Bay soon, keep an eye out for it.

There's no way to put up enough photos here to really capture the wonderfulness of Albania. It's a crazy place, but only because it's as far as we could see, it's a country that is so rapidly moving forward. There's a wonderful sense of optimism about all the little enterprising street-vendors. We constantly compare it to Mongolia. There's plenty of poverty, but it's balanced with hope. I'd love to know what it's going to be like in ten years.