Panoramic view of the square in front of Stephen Center

For Tara

For Rhonda

Every city has a certain energy to it... people bustling about, traffic racing, horns honking.  And every city has its unique personality... London, Vienna, Tokyo, New York.  So it is with Tirane.  There are, of course, the people, cars and horns - but when you look at the people, they are far from homogeneous.  The vehicles, also, are almost as varied as the people - cars, motorcycles, motor bikes, bicycles... and then those unique vehicles that pop up unexpectedly...

Tobacco for sale

But, it isn't the hustle bustle, necessarily, it's the unexpected.  A fully covered woman walking with her husband next to a contemporary teen; a horse drawn cart (with tires) next to a Mercedes; a city worker pushing her cart down the street as after work traffic swerves to avoid her; lose tobacco next to beautiful stacks of fruit in the open air market.

See the woman at the far right

Check out the villa on the hill

What is just outside your yard is unimportant!

A new commercial building

In the suburbs, a beautiful and modern villa complete with an iron gate and intercom next to a red-tiled cottage, a traditionally-clad woman out front working on her vegetables.  Step back a little from the cottage, and find a dump just next to the drive-way of their picturesque cottage...

You can only imagine the luxury behind a well-worn gate, or the lovely apartments above the crumbling staircases.

Next door...

In the suburbs, also, new industrial buildings on gravel roads with giant potholes, next to a family farm.

Driving along, there is suddenly a mosque with a minaret!  But, there are few houses around, and you wonder who attends it!?!  The call to prayer emanates from the minaret anyway... there doesn't seem to be anyone pausing in their toil and rolling out their rug, though.  This phenomenon can be found more often in our own country and was reminiscent of my last trip around Chicago.

Or, a bevy of sellers with their wares all over the sidewalk - probably Roma, selling used clothing, shoes, food, whatever they can find to sell!  And people pawing through their stacks of offerings!

I can show you the sights, but I can't add a "scratch and sniff," or really add the hurried conversations, the soft words or varied languages.  Albanian is a lyrical language, but just today a woman riding a bike called out to my friend and me as we waited for her to pass - "piano," Italian for "slow down."  At the time, we were immobile!

But, you cannot change the hen who struts to the top of the mountain!  Or the stray dog who jauntily wends his way through traffic and pedestrians (usually male, the females more often seem weary). 

Tomorrow is a busy day for me... and I know that I am woefully behind in sharing with you.  I will try to bring you up to date before I hit the great state of California.  My plane leaves Thursday.

Pafshim!