Albania Day Three. December 17, 2017

Greetings from Tirana –

Not really sure where I left off, and I’m already a day behind. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to give these notes their just do. We are going 24/7, and everything is incredibly interesting.

So, while eating breakfast on Sunday the sun popped out and we dashed out to have some set of hours without rain (taking our umbrellas with us – just in case).

We left the hotel and walked about a mile or so to the “new bazaar” – located in the Pazari i Ri neighborhood – a residential area in the Old Town. It’s a residential area but the market is interesting and in addition to a main farmer’s market has many side streets that are typical of older parts of cities all over the world – narrow, chock full of cars, housing, people, and little stalls offering a variety of single items (old tires or whatever) being sold in shops no larger than a typical closet. From there we strolled into some other neighborhoods – always on the lookout for those painted buildings.

Eventually, we decided to hop a taxi to head to the National Gallery of Art (it looked like rain was about to eliminate the sun, so this seemed like a good place to be). The building itself is pretty bland and built in the 1950s when “bland” was in in the Soviet-linked capital of Albania. The best part is the entrance – the “cloud pavilion” – a three-dimensional structure, made of open cube frames of white steel… it creates a semi-transparent, 3-d façade that enables visitors to walk through and climb through (or walk on platforms that emerge from the cubes.. and sort of voids the bland façade..

The museum was in the process of installing a new exhibit so we took a few minutes to see some of the permanent collection of social realist art from the 1970s. From the museum we walked a bit more through the central part of the city and had a late lunch at Delicazzo de Mare – another all fish restaurant.. We shared mussels, followed by a pasta with crab (It’s difficult to have a meal without pasta here and it’s all good, always home made and cooked very al dente). We then walked back to the hotel since I needed to finish reading term papers, do grading, and polish up my talk for Monday morning.

At about 9 pm we headed to dinner at Millenium Gourmet – just a few blocks from the hotel, on the second floor, and on a major walking street. Of course by then it was drizzling (and by the time we left it was pouring!) Dinner was quite wonderful, starting with a veal tartare, followed by a scampi dish, followed by a lamb dish with pumpkin and spicy pineapple – and of course we couldn’t leave without desert – an orange cheesecake. Walked back to the hotel in the rain and finished reading term papers.

Lots to tell about Monday (today), but will try to catch up tomorrow… I have to post grades and tweak my presentation to the city for tomorrow. Hope I remember all the parts of today, since it was chock full.

All the best –

Fern

PS – Am keeping up with the nonsense of the US since we get CNN at the hotel. But would love to totally disconnect as it seems to get weirder by the minute.

PPS — For those that asked. Julia’s baby was born three days ago. Mom and Dad and baby are doing well.  The name is Louis (but they are French-speaking, so more like “Louis as in Louis the XV” – Louie..)