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2007 / Albania

Tirana banana

Friday, July 13 2007

Start with a normal western city, head down an imaginary line which turns it into a town like Marrakesh or Cairo for about a quarter of the distance, then take a hard right at communism and you end up in Tirana. Bazaars, cool bars and Stalin's-wedding-cake public buildings all mixed in together - it's a weird...  read more

 

Just a nice picture taken in the south of the country
Albanian landscape
 
Is it sand, gravel and potatoes? No? Damn...
How do you make concrete again?
 
Himara, on the Albanian riviera
Nice beach
 
I just like this picture. The llogara pass entrance is in the background.
Bus
 
This is less than halfway up the pass, looking back where I had just come from. Far in the distance in the haze is the sea, and the town I had started from that morning.
Llogara pass on the way up
 
Looking down the southern side, to where I would shortly be heading. Looks nice and flat down there doesn't it? Guess again...
From the top of Llogara
 
This is a huge mosaic fronting the historical museum in the centre of Tirana.
Mosaic
 
One of the buildings in Tirana 'spiced up' by their culture minister. This one had hand-painted arrows all over it. Go figure - but at least they pointed the way I was going.
Funny building
 
This is one of the one or two person bunkers in Albania. This type was more common in the south of the country - in fact this was the last one before the Greek border.
Oso and the bunker
 
It must be said that Tirana is not the prettiest city in the world, but it has its charms. This is from the town centre, standing in a square big enough to have your standard communist massive military parade. The mosque is one of the few old religious buildings that survived in the country.
Tirana at night
 

This is a video of me starting down the southern face of the Llogara pass, a 1000m high pass in Southern Albania. It is part of a cycle touring trip from London - Athens.
Down the Llogara pass (video)
 

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