Aug 29th - Tirana

Off to visit the old capital of Albania today, the city of Kruja.  This town is renowned by the Albanians as the place where Skanderbeg, a feudal lord, stopped the Ottoman armies overrunning Albania in the 15th century.  The whole place really is just about Skanderbeg and with the highlight being his castle, although there’s not much of that left.  In its place though is a newer communist-era looking museum, an architectural style that doesn’t really do it for me.  The inside was a bit of a disappointment as well as most of the exhibits were either reproductions or modern painted murals.  An interesting trip but all up not highly recommended. 

This evening we went out on a guided walking tour around the centre of town.  With the Enver Hoxha pyramid (the country’s previous communist dictator) and the Vodafone bridge there’s quite a number of interesting and unusual looking buildings around.  However, overall the city still has a poor 2nd World ’feel’ about it (which is no surprise as that what it is). 


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