This post sees us visit Tirana, the largest and capital city of Albania.
Tirana (Pop 557,422, Elevation 110m, Founded 1614) is known for its colourful Ottoman-, Fascist- and Soviet-era architecture. Pastel buildings surround the city's focal point, Skanderbeg Square, which is named for its equestrian statue of a national hero. On the square's north end is the modernist National History Museum, covering prehistoric times through Communist rule and the anti-Communist uprisings of the 1990s.
Tirana is only 40km from Duress and quite a boring drive with mainly freeway passing industrial estates. Tirana itself was a very pleasant surprise for us. The city centre is surrounded by a ring road lined with trees and there is a boatload of interesting and colourful buildings to see. The city centre is very vibrant, full of people of all ages and most well dressed. Buskers everywhere, nice restaurants and modern shopping malls. A real surprise. The highlight for us was Skanderbeg Square, which is like Tiananmen Square – huge and open but unlike Tiananmen, covered in marble tiles of all textures and colours. Ironic really in that this square is where several uprisings occurred resulting in the abolition of communism in 1990 and the establishment of the current Parliamentary system of President and Prime Minister. All the buildings of significance surround this huge square so it takes only 2-3 hours to see everything.
This left us ample time to drive to “Dajti Ekspres”, a fantastic cable car ride to the near summit of Mt Dajti overlooking the entire city and suburbs. This cable car was built by the Swiss in 2005 and is 4,354m long, travels 560m up to a height above sea level of 1,613m above sea level at a speed of 16.2km/h. It takes a whopping and heart-stopping 15 minutes to reach the top – a marvellous feat of engineering !!! The view from the top is amazing – you can see the entire city in one glance. There is even a hotel up there. The Dajti Ekspres is is a must do and must see.
The downside of Tirana is the driving – cars, bicycles, trucks, dogs, prams – all on the road – all vying for space and all doing whatever they want and without indicators. I lost more weight driving than I did running here !!!
Now I can relax and show you the wonders of Tirana…
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