Happy Turtle Traveler: Tirona/Tirana/Tiranë

A city in Transition

Tirana itself is a city in transition. It’s very difficult to describe as an American. Before we left, I had heard so much about how much it had changed in the last few years, how developed it had become, and how Dritan and his family wouldn’t recognize it when they went there. I saw pictures of beautiful landscapes, modern streets and lovely people. Pictures, of course, have a subject matter of the photographers choosing, I quickly learned. Now, I’m no stranger to developing nations or poverty – I’ve traveled a bit, and have seen some extremes. But I truly have no reference point for living in a Communist nation. As my husband explained it to me “They told you where you could live [assigned housing], what you would do for work, whether your kids would go to school, and if they could, what they would study. They took your land and your wages and told you it was all for your benefit.” They chose which cities to develop and how to develop them. I’m told the difference in standard of living between Tirana and the rest of the country was huge. As an American, this is pretty much unfathomable to me. As he was speaking to me, the words “…land of the free…” took on a whole new meaning.

I was asked many times what I thought of Tirana – Albanians are quite plain about the good and bad of their country. I, as a visitor and a new addition to the family, wanted to make a good impression on these people, came up with the only non-answer I could: “I love Tirana!” It’s the truth: It’s my husband’s home city. But the standard of living between the US and Tirana simply does not translate. Infrastructure and public works is taken for granted in the US, even in the poorest of areas. Water, sewer, roads, garbage removal – these are things that the Albanian people do not have systems for in their cities. It’s understandable – The country opened up a short two decades ago, and was affected by the Kosovo war until 1997-ish. The amount of development in just 13 years is phenomenal by any standard. However, with the government being so weak, and with Tirana more than trippling it's population in that time period, the infrastructure is simply overwhelmed.

A rooftop view of Tirana

It was amazing to me that you could be inside an apartment or store and it could look like you were in a showroom for Ikea - fresh and clean, shiny, new and modern. The people themselves, no matter how poor, dressed very well – very coordinated, like-new clothing in mostly modern styles. There were no pajamas or sweatpants to be seen in public, no thongs or boxer shorts, no bra straps or muffin-tops. It doesn’t sound like much, but, 1) when an entire nation of people do something, no matter how small that thing is, it’s noticeable, and 2) it offered a striking contrast to the public façade of the city. You could then step outside of an apartment or store and be assaulted by broken and non-existent sidewalks, run-down buildings, garbage in the streets, diesel fumes and pitiful stray dogs. Truly, it was a city in transition.

The downtown area was teeming with people and was better taken-care of, publicly and privately. In fact, for several blocks, you could really be in any European city – there were bars and cafes, furniture stores, banks, restaurants, clothing and accessory shops (My favorite was the Pasticeri – the bakery!). All relatively developed, and all very lively and friendly. Many of the shop owners spoke [broken] English (plus Italian, some Greek and maybe even a smattering of German). Albanians have an affection for casinos, I learned, and coffee shops. There wasn’t anything particularly tourist-friendly about this area, I noticed; I’m guessing this is because Albania doesn’t have a lot of tourists. Overall though, I wish I was able to spend more time in the downtown area, sampling cafes and restaurants.