Durres & Tirana, Albania
The enigmatic country of Albania is on few people's travel list. Perhaps because they haven't heard enough about it. Or maybe they remember reading about it under the oppression of the Soviet rule or Chinese rule, and led by a dictator that permeated himself too long in power.
Today we tied up at Durres, the largest port of Albania, and were taken to the capital, Tirana, on very comfortable coaches. There we visited the marvelous Natural History Museum, where we admired the beginnings of civilization in this region, the modernization by the Illyrians and Greeks, and then the Romans, when the country prospered the most. Later other cultures took over and the nation of Albania went on to the future with a democracy. Today everybody is really trying to do their best at adapting to capitalism through hard work.
We then went on to a lovely local restaurant, where we shared an incredible varied and delightful buffet, and heard the ethnic music accompanied by young ladies dancing to it. We then left Tirana, and headed off to the old capital of Kruje, which sits in a spectacular setting, at the base of the long, long limestone escarpment. This is the site of the Skanderbeg, or Albania's national hero, and a quaint, small ethnographic museum.
The enigmatic country of Albania is on few people's travel list. Perhaps because they haven't heard enough about it. Or maybe they remember reading about it under the oppression of the Soviet rule or Chinese rule, and led by a dictator that permeated himself too long in power.
Today we tied up at Durres, the largest port of Albania, and were taken to the capital, Tirana, on very comfortable coaches. There we visited the marvelous Natural History Museum, where we admired the beginnings of civilization in this region, the modernization by the Illyrians and Greeks, and then the Romans, when the country prospered the most. Later other cultures took over and the nation of Albania went on to the future with a democracy. Today everybody is really trying to do their best at adapting to capitalism through hard work.
We then went on to a lovely local restaurant, where we shared an incredible varied and delightful buffet, and heard the ethnic music accompanied by young ladies dancing to it. We then left Tirana, and headed off to the old capital of Kruje, which sits in a spectacular setting, at the base of the long, long limestone escarpment. This is the site of the Skanderbeg, or Albania's national hero, and a quaint, small ethnographic museum.
