Google Maps knows best… (or does it?)

You may know that I love maps, I love to explore, and I love shortcuts.   This past Tuesday, the love of these three things coalesced and I decided to explore the shortest way back to my new apartment from work. I had noticed that the shortest way between home and work is like the hypotenuse of a right triangle, while I had been wasting all kinds of time by walking the long way… I had further noticed that this direct way to & from work was inconveniently obscured on my Tirana city map by the map’s legend.  Very inconsiderate of the map makers, I thought!!  So Google Maps came to the rescue, and I zoomed in on the labyrinth of streets and planned my course.  I just jotted down, “Left on XYZ street; go 2 blocks, curve right, then left, then take a right on ABC street… ,“ etc.  It looked so simple!  Hmmm… has Google Maps ever let you down?  Has your GPS?  Actually, in this case, I honestly have to say that Google Maps didn’t, in the literal sense, really deceive me.  It’s just that the streets that looked so innocuous and… street-like… were something else entirely.  This short cut, which I would have expected to take somewhat less than 20 minutes, took me more like 45… and for awhile, I thought I was lost in this maze of backwater, “Tirana ghetto” alleys, overgrown with weeds and littered with broken cobble stones… some of the “streets” were so narrow and treacherous that – I kid you not – they could not possibly be negotiated by any motorized vehicle save a four-wheel drive Smart car… The streets were so poorly marked, that I had to back track more than once and my heart was in my throat for fear I was hopelessly lost in this urban jungle, until I finally found my way to the main thoroughfare that I daily take to work. Whew!

Before I close this looooong post (several posts actually), I need to reassure you (lest you are convinced otherwise) that I really am working!!  Yes, indeed – Monday-Friday, from about 8:30 to 5:30, I am fulfilling my responsibilities as an Embassy intern.  My boss has been getting better at giving me things to do, and I’m kind of liking being in the Regional Security Office.  It’s an interesting place.  I’ve been working on various projects, getting to see how other offices work (Pol/Econ, Public Affairs, etc.).  There are three other interns besides me; two are Albanian (heritage), so have the advantage of speaking Albanian – lucky them!  Another is Russian (actually, Kazakhstani), so she and I have fun talking together.  Anya and I are going to Macedonia together this weekend!  In another instance of “let’s do what Google Maps says,” I strongly considered renting a car and driving what appeared to be the logical, direct way from Tirana to Skopje, Macedonia.  Thankfully, the Spieckers and Embassy people talked sense into me and I learned that those squiggly lines that look deceptively like roads are really almost impassable and that it probably wasn’t the best idea for me to rent a car and hurtle down some of the very same roads that we took to get to Greece.  So we thought about taking a furgon… one of those little minibuses… but ended up finding a driver who could take us there for a bit more money and a lot more comfort and peace of mind.  Oh – and let me explain why we’re going to Macedonia?  You may remember that awhile back, I worked part time for a bakery which went out of business in 2008. Well, the owner and his wife are now working in Macedonia, and have invited me to visit them!  Small world.  Ok, all for now. 

Discord within the Albanian political system, but consensus without: We ♥ George W. Bush!

On Saturday, I decided to visit the small town of Kruja (pronounced “Crew-ya”), about an hour outside Tirana (probably about 20 miles away, if that). Kruja is known for its 15^th century fortress ruins; it is the birth place of Albania’s national hero, Gjergj Kastrioti, also known as “Skanderbeg.”  I was prepared to go solo, take a furgon, a small minibus and venture out on my own.  Still, I didn’t refuse when Jorid suggested that her eldest son accompany me.  14 year old Nathan, already over six feet tall with fiery red hair that he likes to gel up to look even taller, is fluent in Albanian and feels more comfortable here than he does in either the US or in Norway.  He proved to be a great guide, and we jumped on a furgon that was almost full (departure is dictated by whether or not there are enough passengers to justify leaving).  As it turned out, this particular furgon was only going as far as Fushe Kruja, a very small town between Tirana and Kruja.  “Fushe Kruja?”  I asked Nathan.  I couldn’t believe my luck!  This little town’s one claim to fame is that it was visited by George W. Bush in 2007.  And just this past Wednesday, a statue of Bush was unveiled in the town square!  I just had to see it. 

As Nathan and I exchanged a few words on the furgon, a woman next to Nathan asked where we were from.  He explained that while he has lived his whole life in Albania, he and I were both Americans.  The woman leaned back and told her two daughters who were traveling with her, and then asked Nathan if they could practice their English with me.  So for the rest of the way to Fushe Kruja, Anjeza, Sara and their friend chattered away in amazingly good English with me and said they had never spoken with a native English speaker before.  We exchanged names so we could find each other on Facebook, and when we got off the minibus in town, they took us straight to see George Bush, standing majestically in the square across the street from the George W. Bush café.  We took pictures both of him and of us (not all together; the sun was in a bad place to get a good shot of “Dubya.”

George W. Bush, a great friend of Albanians

New friends Anisa, Sara, Anjeza

The girls got us on the next furgon headed to Kruja, and we had fun exploring the town, visiting a museum commemorating Skenderbeg and his valiant struggle against the Ottomans, whom he successfully held at bay for about 25 years in the mid-1400s until his death in 1468, when the Ottomans once again took control of the region.  We also saw a stage being set up for the “Miss Shqiperia 2011” (Miss Albania) pageant that was to be held the next day and broadcast live on television.

Skenderbeg

View from the castle

Stone carvings of Skenderbeg and his men

Miss Albania poster

Lulzim Basha finally wins the May 8th Tirana mayoral election!

Let me just start off by saying that Albanian politics is messy.  Politics on the national level is bad enough, and some violent demonstrations in January of this year are an indication of that.  The Democratic Party and the Socialist Party are the two main political groups. From what I can tell, there has been bad blood between the DP and SP ever since the summer 2009 elections, when the Democratic Party formed a coalition with a more moderate socialist group and gained the majority in Parliament; the SP cried that there had been foul play and there has been a stalemate in the governing process ever since.  I hope no Albania experts are reading this because there’s a lot more to it than this skin-deep survey of the situation, but for our purposes, this is adequate!  In January 2011 it got pretty ugly; a violent demonstration on January 21 of the socialists against the DP, calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Sali Berisha, led to four shooting deaths and it’s still being investigated.  On May 8^th, local elections were held all over the country -  the most volatile of them was the Tirana mayoral election – the socialist incumbent, Edi Rama, against the democratic candidate, Lulzim Basha.  As it turned out, Basha seemed to have narrowly won by something like 81 votes… this has led to more cries of foul play, and appeals to the Electoral College and recounts ad infinitum have been going on since then. 

This past Friday evening, Ned, Jorid, the kids and I went out for a stroll to the downtown area.  It was a nice night, and half the city was out with us – a great night for people watching.  Lydia, 11, and Marcus, 12, asked for a few lëk to buy some roasted corn on the cob, for sale on almost every corner.  People set up little charcoal grills and husk corn, grilling the ears and making a brisk business of it… walking further, we saw a crowd gathering outside the Democratic Party headquarters.  I would have wanted to go check it out, but with three children in tow it probably wasn’t the greatest idea, so we continued on and ended up at a fun “International Patisserie” with outdoor seating under a broad awning.  We all decided it was a great time for ice cream (when isn’t it a great time for ice cream?), and as we were waiting, we saw on a TV screen in the bar area of the café, the Democratic Party headquarters that we had just walked by.  The crowd had grown, and Lulzim Basha was addressing the crowd, proclaiming that he definitively had been elected Mayor.  The crowd cheered; fireworks were set off; the streets, as we were walking home, were filled with processions of honking cars with people hanging out the windows, shouting and waving DP blue & white flags… And I didn’t have my camera with me!!!  Ugh!  I could kick myself.

Tirana evening

My friends the Spieckers are gone in Greece for a couple of weeks on a camping trip, and although I’ve moved to a different apartment, they have given me free run of their place (just three blocks away), for which I’m very thankful!  The temps have been nearly 100 all week, and humid – and in my new little apartment, where there is no A/C, well, it’s just hot.  It’s a simple, very clean and well-kept place, on the third floor of a building that’s located on a busy street.  Some have asked for pictures of my new place, so I’ll include some here, but I should also (next time) take some pics of the view from my apartment.  Lots of hustle and bustle and activity.

Right now, though, I’m sitting on the balcony on the 8^th floor of the Spieckers’ building; the balcony itself wraps around three sides of the building and affords a wonderful view of the city.  I’m watching the hazy, orange sunset with distant mountains on one side, the closer Dajti Mountain on the other; colorful high-rise apartment buildings and smaller red-tile roofed multiple-family houses all around.  A nearby Catholic church has a white, lit-up cross on its roof; its glow against the darkening sky is comforting to me.  A peaceful Mediterranean evening with the distant sounds of traffic, occasional honks and tire squeals down below.  Things will pick up later – Rruga Qemal Stafa, adjacent to the building, is a “main drag” for drag racing, teenaged motorcyclists that seem to wake up around 10:00 p.m.  Cafés remain open until late – before I went to bed last night around 11:00, I peered down from my lofty perch and could observe people, old and young, out and about; small groups of women or men sitting in doorways, drinking coffee and smoking at cafes; adolescent boys hanging around… snatches of conversation and bursts of laughter float up through the night air… the people of Tirana coming to life in the coolness of the night.

Enough of reflection – I need to catch you up on the past week!  First, though, I want to show you some pictures – these ones are of a door/window at the Spieckers’. It’s a style that I also saw at the hotel in Greece, so it must be common all over in Southern Europe. 

The window can open as a door, and it can open at an angle just for ventilation.  Lastly, all windows have these heavy blinds that can be pulled down all the way or just part-way.  They are great at blocking the sun while still allowing some flow of air through tiny holes in between the slats.  I just love these windows.

Next, you’ll see some pics of my new place (I got some requests to see pictures of it).  It is an older apartment building (unlike the Spieckers’, which was built just six years ago).  It feels very Russian in some ways.  It’s a two-bedroom and has a living room as well. 

 

The kitchen is narrow; the front entry area is the only place where the washing machine can fit.  The bathroom doesn’t have a traditional shower (or tub); you’ll notice a shower head hanging over the sink, and a drain at the foot of the toilet; you just take a shower standing right in the middle of the bathroom floor and then use a squeegee to help the water find its way to the drain afterwards.  You’ll also notice a tan-colored pipe on the floor in the lower right part of the picture; this pipe extends from the washing machine and when you’re doing laundry, you just put the pipe in the toilet for the washing machine water to drain.  It’s all quite functional!

As I’m typing, some fireworks are going off in the distance!  I have been told that Albanians love fireworks and they often go off in Tirana.  New Year’s is the big fireworks time, and the whole month of December preceding the new year, fireworks go off here and there all the time.  Since I’ve been here, I’ve seen small displays several times – tonight they were some big “chrysanthemum” type bursts in red & white… I wonder if it was because today is Bastille Day, the French independence day…? 

Day in Thessaloniki

You don’t eat meat?  I give you lamb!

We made it across the border, past Albanian and then Greek customs, with lightning speed.  Lisa’s diplomatic license plates allowed us to bypass a long line of cars that were being carefully scrutinized, as the Albania-Greek border is somewhat porous and is known for trafficking in persons (TIP) and possibly drug smuggling (don’t quote me on that one).  There is also a risk, somewhat low, of transnational terrorism in Albania, and there is always a possibility that someone could slip across the border.  I was thankful that we didn’t have to wait!

The whole time I was in Greece (about 48 hours), I couldn’t get the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, out of my head!  I really need to find a copy and watch it soon.  Everything was so… Greek! The signs with Greek lettering (and a knowledge of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet is only a partial help… rendering appropriate the expression, “It’s all Greek to me…”), the music, the little old ladies clothed in black, or the Orange Fanta that was labeled ”Portokolada,” just like the family name, Portokalo (which, you will remember, means “orange”), of the girl in the movie…  Lisa and I were taking turns quoting lines from the movie.  But in all seriousness, Greece was fantastic.  First of all, they have great roads, have four-lane highways, and build long tunnels through the mountains.  This makes driving a lot faster.  Secondly, they have an Ikea.  (Anyone who knows me well knows that thanks to my Swedish heritage, I absolutely love Ikea… and yes, we did visit the one in Thessaloniki, since Lisa had to pick up some household items.  My heart swelled with pride as I guided my traveling companion on her very first visit! But no, we did not indulge in Swedish meatballs and pickled herring – not in the land of gyros, moussaka and souvlaki!) Thirdly, the food!  I couldn’t get enough of Greek salads with feta and olives, pizza, gyros, Greek yogurt with honey… but there’s really only so much you can eat in 48 hours L. Fourthly, Greece has, of course, an amazing and ancient history – everywhere you turn, there is another millennia-old ruin… after awhile, I’d see another one and feel rather blasé about it.  Wondering about a church in the distance that wasn’t on my map, I pointed it out to a souvenir shopkeeper and asked her what it was.  She looked positively scornful as she declared, “Oh, that church is new.  It is not on the map.” Later I figured out what it was and learned that it had been built in the 16^th century… very recently!! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

No translation needed :-)

After a good night’s rest in the hotel, located directly on a beach about 20 km south of Thessaloniki, Lisa and Cejdro headed to the beach where we’d gone swimming the afternoon before.  I, however, ventured out on my own to do some exploring. My parents had visited Thessaloniki a few years before, and so my dad spent some time doing some research for me on a good itinerary for me to maximize my time on my one day to explore.  I mean, he wrote up an amazing document that was detailed down to “…turn left on Via Egnatia, go three blocks and you’ll come to the Agia Demetrios church…”  Not only that, but he had researched how to get from the hotel to the downtown area, so I knew that I needed bus 73, then transfer to bus 2 at Ikea, etc.  The hotel concierge confirmed my dad’s instructions, so armed with a map of Thessaloniki and my dad’s tour guide, I set out.  At the bus stop, a woman with grey hair who appears to be 50-something was waiting, so I hesitantly asked if she spoke English.  She did.  People always say that they just speak “a little,” but I always marvel at how well people who have never been to an English-speaking country do!  This lady was no exception, and she was a God-send as she helped me navigate the tricky transfer (the bus numbers had changed), and we sat and chatted the whole way in to the center.  She lamented the state of the Greek economy and held out little hope of its successful turnaround.  She also told me that she was born about 70 km away, in the birthplace of Alexander the Great.  By the end of the 45-minute trip, Eva and I were fast friends and she gave me her phone number in case I ran into trouble or in the event that I ever come back to Thessaloniki. 

I imagine that Thessaloniki isn’t quite as impressive as Athens or some of the Greek isles, but it should be a high priority on anyone’s list of noteworthy places if they plan a trip to Greece! I won’t give you a blow-by-blow of my actual itinerary of my day, but my expedition did start out with a visit to two churches.  Since it was Sunday, I actually caught the end of one Greek Orthodox service at Agia Sophia church, and got to experience the beautiful a capella men’s choir and chanting by the grey-bearded priest wearing a long black headpiece. Baskets with large hunks of bread were placed all around the church; people were holding them and eating them from the palm of their hand; some were walking to the front to partake of the wine.  After the service was over, I walked around and, as unobtrusively as possible, snapped a few quick pictures.  Later, as I exited the church, I saw the universal symbol for no photos – a camera with a slash through it.  So glad I didn’t see that on my way in!!  J

My wanderings also took me to the Roman forum or in Greek, agora, meaning “gathering” (where the word “agoraphobia” is from – a fear of gatherings of people); archaeologists have revealed that the forum was not only used as a market area and meeting place for Roman citizens, but early Christians also met there.  As Thessaloniki was a stop on Paul’s missionary journeys in the first century A.D., it is conceivable that he spent time at the forum himself.  I also wound my way up narrow, hairpin-curve streets up to the ramparts- the ruins of the Roman fortress at the top of the city, where I was treated to a spectacular view of the Gulf of Thessaloniki and the city below.  Further points of interest were an old cemetery I stumbled upon, the Roman Hippodrome now surrounded by high-rise apartments, the Galerius Arch, and finally the waterfront, where the principal landmark of Thessaloniki stands – the White Tower, built in the 15^th century, if I remember correctly.  Nearby is a large monument to Alexander the Great. 

Fortified by a lunch of gyros and tsatziki, I explored the waterfront area, lined by cafes filled with locals and tourists, and was joined in the late afternoon by Lisa and Cejdro, who had thoroughly enjoyed their day at the beach.  We took a boat ride around the harbor and had a nice dinner (dolmas, shrimp, Greek salad, souvlaki…), followed by a stop at an ice cream shop and then a quick drive back up to the ramparts, where the evening view of the city was even more spectacular than by day.

The drive back to Tirana the next day was just as enjoyable as the trip to Greece;  it afforded many more opportunities to snap pictures from the car and catch a glimpse of rural life.  Overall, a very fun trip with great traveling companions!

Inside Agia Sophia

Ramparts...

View of the "new" church

Galerius Arch

Ruins of Hippodome

Alexander the Great

The White Tower

Portokalada!

Evening view from ramparts

On my way to Greece!

Russian roulette on the roads

Saturday morning, early, we left for Greece!  I was able to hitch a ride with one of my Embassy colleagues, Lisa, and her son Cejdro – they had planned to head down to Thessaloniki to spend the weekend on the beach, leaving her husband and daughter to have a Daddy-daughter weekend.  I, on the other hand, had no intention of lying on the beach – I wanted to explore the city and experience Greece for the first time!  So we set out in Lisa’s Honda CRV… the distance between Tirana and Thessaloniki is only about 425 kilometers (265 miles), so you’d expect that it would take around 4 1/2 hours… but no, not quite.  It took us more like 9... including a couple of stops for lunch & coffee. As mentioned earlier, Albania is very mountainous, and as Lisa so aptly put it, the Albanians never learned to build roads through the mountains, but instead built them probably following the ancient tribal cattle trails that had wound up & down the mountains literally for millennia. Many parts of the drive were, simultaneously, breathtakingly beautiful and hair-raisingly precarious, as we wound our way up & down mountain after mountain, with “guard rails” that were less than confidence-inducing… Lisa’s expert driving on those narrow roads was all the more laudable if one considers our fellow travelers on the road!  Any road markings or lane separator paint is generally ignored, and impatient drivers behind you “leap frog” ahead of you no matter if there’s a curve immediately ahead.  And invariably, there is a curve immediately ahead! You just never can tell if an oncoming car is going to be zipping around the next curve…

Needless to say, our progress through Albania was slow, but fascinating.  We descended into a valley, down through a blanket of smog into the industrial city of Elbasan; around a good portion of beautiful Lake Ohrid, which is shared by neighboring Macedonia (formerly a part of Yugoslavia), and toward the border with Greece… and as we neared the border, I noticed more and more of a peculiar construction, in some areas dotting the landscape – bunkers.  I had heard of these defensive hide-outs, built during the Communist period by the order of Hoxha as a means of fending off the invasion that never came.  Hoxha was convinced that Albania would be attacked by Yugoslavia or Greece.  These concrete domed structures look eerie and unearthly and are reminiscent of an early, 1970s-vintage Star Wars movie – you know, the one when Luke Skywalker was a boy and they lived in fear of attack from the Dark Side… forgive me if my recollection isn’t correct?!

Minaret in Elbasan

Up close & personal... one of Enver Hoxha's bunkers

Bunkers dotting the landscape...

Lake Ohrid, overlooking the town of Pogradec



"Guard rails"....??



Albanian driver in need of driver's ed

Pre-fourth of July events

July 4^th, Independence Day

So much has happened since I last wrote!  I will quickly backtrack.  Thursday, June 30^th was the day of the Embassy’s big 4^th of July bash for the Tirana community.  About 800 people were invited; most were Albanians – politicians, businessmen, leaders in the community, etc.  100 or so of them were VIPs – about 20 ambassadors from other countries, all of the Albanian ministers, President Bamir Topi and Prime Minister Sali Berisha, etc.  The event was held at the National Gallery of Arts in the center of town and the Tirana police, together with Embassy guards, blocked off a huge swath of the downtown area to keep the curious locals away. It felt funny to see crowds of people lining the edge of the cordoned off area watching to see what was going on.  The American Ambassador, Alexander Arvizu, gave a speech; the American national anthem played followed by the Albanian anthem, and the Marine Corps (stationed at the Embassy) did a presentation of the colors.  A very swanky event, and another intern (who hails from Kazakhstan) and I had fun chatting with the Deputy Chief of Mission of the Russian Federation. 

On Friday, July 1, the American Chamber of Commerce put on a Fourth of July party that was a little less stuffy, and another 800 or so people showed up and enjoyed free hot dogs, hamburgers, beverages, ice cream, and a display of fireworks.  I hung out with a few Embassy people.

The American-Albanian connection

But let me explain something that I should have before… Albania and the US have a very special bond!  Truly, to a great extent, Albanians love the US.  Here is a very brief, and potentially slightly inaccurate (sinc e as I’m writing I’m not connected to the internet), history lesson…  Way back, one, two, three thousand years ago, the beautiful, mountainous area known today as Albania was sparsely settled by tribes.  At that time, the region was known as Illyria, and it was conquered by Alexander the Great, then the Romans, and visited by the Apostle Paul (see Romans 15:19). For centuries, starting roughly in the 1400s, the Ottoman Empire controlled the entire Balkan region and Albania was very much under the thumb of the Turks.  The Albanian language, from the Indo-European language group that is unrelated to any other language in use today, was banned.  Still, the Albanian language and culture remained alive, and in the 19^th century, as the Ottoman Empire grew weaker, and revolutions were spreading across Europe, the Albanians also began thinking about independence.  In 1912, when the Ottoman Empire fell, Albania finally declared itself an independent nation for the first time!  This new state called itself “Shqiperia” – Land of the Eagles – and its symbol, featured on the Albanian flag, is a two-headed eagle. BUT – at the conclusion of World War I, once again Albania’s fate became uncertain.  At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the Great Powers (Great Britain, France, and the U.S.) and other victors of the war met to decide the fate of Europe- including the Balkans. The consensus was that Albania should be carved up and divided among neighboring countries (to Greece and Yugoslavia, mostly).  Had it not been for Woodrow Wilson, who put his foot down and insisted that Albania remain a unified nation, the Republic of Albania would have ceased to exist right then and there.  The Albanians have never forgotten this and even after 50 years of Communist rule during which time dictator Enver Hoxha (pronounced Hodja) did everything in his power (and did a great job of it) to isolate Albania from the outside world, Albanians still love the U.S.  You even run across men whose first names are “Wilson.”  And when a sitting U.S. president, George W. Bush, visited Albania in 2007, he was received with excitement (you may remember from an earlier posting that a street in Tirana is now named after him).