Tirana

At the end of 2018 I was visiting a lot of Eastern European countries. Particularly places in the Balkans that I hadn’t visited before. There is a lot more culture, history and sights in the region than most people give it credit for. It’s a generally cheap region to travel in as well, particularly for European standards. The main issue is sometimes simply getting there. Not all parts of Eastern Europe are easily accessible by flights from Central Europe. However, I found a good deal on a ticket to Tirana. I decided to make Albania the next country added to the list, by spending a few days in its capital.

MONDAY, November 26th

I flew with Air Serbia from Zurich to Belgrade late in the evening, a flight which was pretty much punctual.

The airplane was quite empty, and almost everyone had a row of three seats to themselves. Although I had already had dinner before leaving home, I bought a sandwich as a late-night snack while waiting between flights in Belgrade. I was quite tired, having been up since 5 AM to work in the morning.

At 11:30 PM the gate for the flight to Tirana was opened. All passengers had to go through security once again to enter the gate area. Eventually, it became time to depart, and we were all bussed out to the Air Serbia ATR turboprop as it began raining.

The aircraft left its hardstand on time. I began dozing off a bit towards the end of the flight, but I woke up right upon landing. Once we arrived at the gate, two specific passengers were escorted off by police first. I’m assuming they had been deported, as they also boarded first with a police escort in Belgrade. The rest of us were brought to the terminal building in busses. After a quick passport check, I got some cash out of an ATM and found a taxi. The taxi driver called the owner of the Airbnb for directions, and called her once again shortly before we arrived. I met with the owner of the Airbnb and finally arrived inside the apartment at 2:15 AM. Long overdue for bedtime.

TUESDAY, November 27th

Slept in slightly, showered and packed my backpack for the day. I was still pondering whether to stay in Tirana or take a day-trip. Because of the weather it proved a better idea to stay in the capital.

I walked downtown towards Tirana’s main Skanderbeg Square. Eventually, I found a bakery where I picked up some pastries to-go for breakfast. A couple of locals jumped me in line, walking up to the street-side counter beside me instead of behind me. The woman behind the counter eventually ignored the locals to serve me.

Skanderbeg Square had a small funfair set up. Presumably it was for Christmas as that was the theme, even though it was still November. The square is located right in the heart of Tirana. One of the biggest buildings on the square is the National Museum of History, where I went inside.

Getting a ticket was slightly chaotic. There were hundreds of school children in the lobby, with their chaperones buying stacks of tickets. Not to mention the lack of proper line etiquette which is commonplace in this part of Europe. Eventually, it was my turn, and I got a ticket. I went straight to the museum’s exhibits, trying to get ahead of the school groups.

I spent a couple of hours inside the museum, the largest in Albania. It has a chronological collection from the ancient Stone Age, until the post-communist era in the 1990s.

One of the oldest items in the museum’s archaeological collection, a rock painting from around 4-3,000 BC.

Most of the exhibited artifacts were found buried in former Illyrian settlements from 3,000 years ago. There are also items that date from Roman times.

Parts of the historical collection relates to Skanderbeg. He was an Albanian nobleman that led a rebellion during the Ottoman Empire control of Albania from 1443 to 1468. Skanderbeg is a national hero for Albanians.

One room with Orthodox icons was locked when I first passed it. A larger group asked for it to be opened, so I snuck in with them.

Large sections of the National Museum of History are dedicated to WWII, including the formation of the Communist Party of Albania.

Founding members of the Communist Party of Albania. The group elected Enver Hoxha as First Secretary of the party, pictured on the top left. He ruled Albania from 1944 until 1985.

Weapons seized from retreating Italian and Nazi German units.

The Partisan fight to liberate Albania is also highlighted in the museum. Items worn by communists who took part in this fight are on display. Some of the Communist Party founding members lost their lives fighting against Nazi Germany.

Enver Hoxha’s coat and weapons.

A separate section only accessible from the museum courtyard looked closed. I tried opening the door and found a small, private event going on inside. It seemed like the unveiling of an art exhibit. I exited the museum through that section of the building.

Next, I walked across Skanderbeg Square, past the statue of its namesake. I continued through a park towards the Blloku area, where I would be having lunch.

I specifically walked towards a restaurant called Juvenilja, because they serve Albanian food. For lunch, I ordered meatballs in tomato sauce.

While I had lunch, it started raining heavily. The restaurant was not far from the former residence of Albania’s communist leader, Enver Hoxha. Despite the weather, I walked over to have a look at it from the outside. The property isn’t open to the public.

This building is also inside the Blloku area, which translates to “the Block”. Blloku was a neighborhood essentially sealed off from the rest of Tirana during the communist period. Only politburo members and high-ranking party officials were allowed to reside in Blloku. Ordinary citizens weren’t allowed to set foot inside the neighborhood. On some city maps the area didn’t even appear. Today, Blloku is a rather trendy area.

Not much further away was the National Archaeological Museum. The rain was quite heavy at this point. I sought shelter underneath the roof of a building which I thought was something else.

This building was actually the museum. However, I only realized this after having crossed again to the other, wrong side of Mother Theresa Square while it was pouring down.

The archaeological museum didn’t have much labeled despite having quite an interesting collection. Pretty much just the time period of each cabinet was indicated, but not each individual item.

Some items were pretty self-explanatory, and I’ve been in enough archaeological museums by now to recognize a few other pieces. One such example would be the red and black Hellenistic/Roman vase pictured below, which is likely around 2,000 years old.

The archaeological museum also displayed several Roman statues, mostly from around the 2nd century AD.

Following my visit to the National Archaeological Museum, I walked past the Palace of Congress. This building didn’t actually look too special, despite being constructed during Enver Hoxha’s communist regime.

Much more noteworthy was the unique Pyramid of Tirana, further north. It was finished in 1988 as the Enver Hoxha Museum, three years after his death.

The museum was dedicated to his life, constructed with Hoxha’s own daughter as one of the architects.

After the fall of communism in 1991, the general consensus was that the legacy of the unpopular Enver Hoxha didn’t deserve a museum. The Pyramid of Tirana was then converted into a conference center. During the 1999 Kosovo War, NATO forces and humanitarian aid groups used the facility.

Since the early 2000s, the building has been neglected and no longer used. It has become so dilapidated and vandalized, that it’s known mostly as an eyesore in central Tirana.

The Pyramid of Tirana was the most expensive individual structure in Albania at the time of its construction. Today its only purpose is connected to the broadcasting antennas mounted on top of the building. Several projects have proposed tearing the building down to make way for something new. Others have suggested repairing the pyramid to allow it to be repurposed. None of these projects have moved forward.

After having seen the Pyramid, I continued towards the Clock Tower next to Skanderbeg Square. You can climb to the top for nice views of the city center. I managed to get in just 20 minutes before it closed. Unfortunately, there was a rain shower passing through as I was at the top. You could still see something from inside the tower, but the best panorama views are from the balcony. The balcony was right below the ledge of the roof, where all the rainwater was running down.

After having waited for about 5 minutes, the worst of the rain had passed.

With most of the rain gone, I could quickly get a few photos from the balcony. The visibility was also much better.

I had wanted to visit Bunk’Art on the outskirts of Tirana, but this was not open on Tuesdays. I realized that there was a second bunker museum in downtown Tirana – Bunk’Art 2. It was opened and close by, so I went down underground to have a look at it.

The communist Enver Hoxha government had lost diplomatic connections with almost all of the East Bloc during the 1970s. The government was paranoid about being invaded either by the West via Italy, or by a coalition of Communist countries. In addition to closing and fencing off the borders, the population was given self-defense and weapons training. Perhaps the most controversial defense measure was a vast network of bunkers planned throughout Albania. These range in size from Bunk’Art 1 on the outskirts of Tirana, with 3,000 square meters and space for the entire parliament, to small fireproof bunkers holding a dozen people. The plan was to build exactly 221,143 bunkers, but “only” 173,371 were completed.

Bunk’Art 2, the downtown Tirana bunker, has been converted into a museum detailing the history of the police and armed forces of Albania from before and after WWII. The organization of the police and the military is explained, and some of their equipment is displayed in the exhibits.

There are stories of how the border police hunted down any would-be escapees. The police often cooperated with locals living in the mountains. Sometimes the civilians were armed and trained as well.

A switch-board style telephone used for communicating internally in the bunker and with other buildings nearby.

During the communist period of Albania, one of the most infamous organizations became the Directorate of State Security. They are known colloquially as the Sigurimi. Their function and methods were essentially similar to the Soviet Union’s KGB and the East German Stasi.

A report of torture used during interrogation by Sigurimi of a victim that was most likely innocent.

The museum inside Bunk’Art 2 shows a few examples of how Sigurimi monitored citizens. One of these methods involved installing themselves in adjacent apartments. Pictured below is a camera and microphone inserted into the wall. Sigurimi officers then covertly recorded movements and sound in the neighboring apartment.

The bunker that today houses Bunk’Art 2 is close to government buildings in downtown Tirana. Some of its rooms were designed for the Minister of Internal Affairs to keep working along with his closest staff.

This particular bunker was finished in 1986, but the office rooms inside the bunker were never used.

The museum also details the show trials that defendants went through, often for political or religious reasons. 

One of the bunker’s rooms has been designed like a Sigurimi interrogation room. However, this particular room was never used for that purpose.

Over 5,500 people were executed by Albania’s communist government, and many more were imprisoned with long sentences. One room in the bunker has long lists with the names of all those victims.

Having seen Bunk’Art 2, I went back upstairs to the street level. There were two more spots that I wanted to stop by in the vicinity. One of them was the Fortress of Justinian, or rather what remained of it. The remnant is little more than one stone wall which is slowly being integrated into the buildings around it.

The other of the two sights was Tanner’s Bridge. This stone bridge is preserved on a street corner. The small bridge just stands by itself, not even above the river. It isn’t even connected to the modern road network running alongside it.

I thought the National Gallery of Arts was going to still be open until 8 PM. Just past 6 PM it had already closed. Its covered front entrance provided a nice retreat from the heavy rain though.

I waited for about 10 minutes, during which the weather remained bad. With no improvement in sight, I continued walking to a nearby restaurant. For dinner, I ordered some cornbread to start with, and a local fergesë stew as the main course.

I did ponder going to the Martyr’s Cemetery, which is on a hill south of the city center. It had stopped raining after I was done with dinner. However, it was dark, so I figured the cemetery wouldn’t be lit and the views would be better during the day-time. I put it off for the following day if I would have time.

Instead, I returned to my Airbnb apartment. After a couple of hours of relaxing and letting my clothes dry, the weather had improved. Because of that, I decided to go out to sample a bit of Tirana’s nightlife. It did rain pretty heavily again as I walked back to my apartment later though. 

WEDNESDAY, November 28th

I woke up and walked down to the same bakery shop as the previous day, for breakfast pastries. Then I walked across the central Skanderbeg Square to its eastern side. The square is pedestrian-only, so it’s a shorter drive from that side. I needed a taxi to get to Bunk’Art (1).

The primary bunker, one of Albania’s biggest, is situated on the outskirts of Tirana. It has nine corridors and was built large enough to shelter the entire Albanian parliament. There is a fortified assembly hall inside the underground complex. The bunker also has bedrooms for each of the parliament members, military leaders, and bodyguards. The parliament itself numbers 250 people, not counting the additional military leaders and bodyguards. The complex covers an area of 3,000 square meters.

This bunker was the first to be converted by Bunk’Art into a museum, before Bunk’Art 2 in downtown Tirana. The name “Bunk’Art” might look funny, but it is a contraction of the words bunker and art. It is also a bit of wordplay on the word bunker itself.

One of the most prominent features of the Bunk’Art 1 is Enver Hoxha’s rooms. As the supreme commander of the armed forces and Albania’s leader, Hoxha’s offices and rooms are the most luxurious. However, they are built to be functional, with rather modest furniture.

On the table is a photo album that included pictures of other communist leaders, particularly Stalin, who Enver Hoxha admired.

The rooms were designed for Enver Hoxha and his wife to live and work in the bunker during a national emergency. The bedroom was never used. However, Enver Hoxha took part in a practice demonstration of the office equipment after the bunker was finished in 1978.

Other rooms inside Bunk’Art 1 museum detail the communists’ rise to power during and after World War II. Also explained is the structure of Albania’s military forces and the propaganda that the population was subjected to at the time.

A liberation parade in Tirana in November 1944.

There are several rooms with pieces of communication equipment. The equipment connected the military leaders or parliament members in the bunker with the outside world.

An Albanian-produced TV set.

The most prominent example of the bunker’s communication equipment is in the military command room.

An interesting detail here is that all of the equipment has buttons with Chinese text. Enver Hoxha’s hard-line Stalinist policies isolated Albania from the rest of the communist world. Hoxha aimed to avoid Soviet Union influence nor American imperialism.

Enver Hoxha testing the bunker’s telephones.

Albania withdrew itself from the Warsaw Pact in the late 1960s. One of the last allies was the People’s Republic of China. Albania had been highly involved in the process at the United Nations to transfer the Chinese representation to the PROC, instead of the Republic of China (Taiwan). When the bunker construction project began in the 1970s, China was the only source of technological equipment that Albania could still trade with.

I wonder if the Albanian operators were taught Chinese in order to use the equipment. Perhaps they simply memorized the specific buttons. Most of the Chinese text on the machines does not appear to have a translation.

In 1978, Albania even broke the ties with its last major ally. Enver Hoxha was upset when China increased its diplomatic ties with the US. This essentially isolated Albania completely from the rest of the world.

Albania wasn’t just isolated diplomatically, but geographically as well. The land borders were closed by the communists, as it was illegal to flee the country.

Both Bunk’Art 1 & 2, which I visited the day before, display many aspects of the Albanian military and the Sigurimi secret police. One of these was the border forces, which used dogs to hunt down people trying to escape the country through the mountains.

As I mentioned earlier, Bunk’Art 1 is the largest bunker in Albania. This bunker has nine corridors, all of which contain numerous rooms in various sizes. One of the middle corridors in the complex revisits some of the history regarding the Communist Party of Albania’s political rise to power.

Enver Hoxha led the communist partisans that were instrumental in liberating Albania. Other resistance groups in Albania actually sided with the Nazis, in order to combat the growing role of the communists. The Communist Party of Albania saw its support among regular Albanians grow as a result of this. Enver Hoxha was one of the main representatives of Albania at subsequent peace negotiations, particularly regarding the country’s borders as it related to Kosovo and Yugoslavia.

After World War II, up to 95% of Albania was partially or fully illiterate. The first elections were carried out using little balls placed in boxes, instead of written ballots. Before the elections, liberated Albania was essentially in the hands of the Communist Party of Albania. They were the main party in the Democratic Front coalition that fought the Nazi Germans.  Most of the elections had Enver Hoxha as the only candidate, with an empty box next to it, as seen above. According to the communists, 93% of Albania voted in favor of Enver Hoxha. This was used as legal reasoning for the communists to fully seize power in Albania.

It must be mentioned that Enver Hoxha did actually have some supporters among ordinary Albanians. Particularly after he fought to liberate the country. However, a lot of his alleged popularity really stemmed from a cult of personality and tough political repression.

A long line of local Albanians waiting to pay their final respects for Enver Hoxha. He was placed lit de parade in an open coffin for his funeral on April 12, 1985.

Some of the measures taken to train ordinary people in self-defense and weapons use during the communist era are also described. Gas masks were widely distributed, and are a common sight throughout the rooms of the bunker.

The above picture is from a bedroom intended for high-ranking military leaders. Close by is a meeting room for the chief of general staff. It was designed to enable secret, but very important meetings for military commanders. These military leaders would have decided all of Albania’s military operations from inside the bunker in case of an invasion of the country. An extra door provides additional security. The portrait on the wall is of Enver Hoxha.

One of the last rooms at Bunk’Art exhibit details about the bunker program. The outrageous plan to build an excessive amount of bunkers throughout Albania is explained here. It includes an overview and sketches used for the construction of the massive Bunk’Art 1 bunker.

At least at the time of my visit, a few of the corridors remained closed to the public.

The desire to build self-defense bunkers was fueled by the paranoia that spread throughout the government after Enver Hoxha isolated the country more and more. Some of the 173,371 bunkers were built at street level or on beaches. They are a common sight throughout Albania even today.

The path through the bunker museum ends at the fortified assembly hall. The hall was gutted by looters after the communist regime collapsed, so the chairs are not original. 

As you exit Bunk’Art 1, there is an exhibit with a random mix of traditional Albanian household furniture.

Bunk’Art 1 even recreated a typical storefront from the communist era of Albania.

After my visit to Bunk’Art 1, I had much less time than desired before my early afternoon flight. I decided to focus on Tirana’s National Gallery of Arts, instead of visiting the Martyr’s Cemetery. The art gallery was within walking distance of my apartment, while the cemetery was much further away. I got a taxi back to downtown Tirana, a trip which took almost 25-30 minutes due to traffic.

The National Gallery of Arts does have a range of different categories of art. However, its collection of socialist realism pieces from the communist era stand out the most. I’m no expert on art, but even I can see it’s a distinct type of art.

The colors tend to be darker, and not surprisingly, red is used a lot. The artwork highlights the rise of the communists and the partisan struggle.

Ordinary citizens and workers are placed in the spotlight. As is common with communist propaganda and art in other countries, workers and farmers are portrayed as equal to soldiers, all fighting for the “revolution”.

I spent longer than I usually do at art museums because these are paintings you don’t see every day.

There’s a handful of statues in the garden behind the museum too.

Having finished my visit to Albania’s National Gallery of Arts, I walked back to central Skanderbeg Square for a stroll around the funfair.

By now it was past 1 PM. I bought a hot dog at a food stall as a quick lunch. Then I walked back towards the apartment.

I had already arranged with the owners of the Airbnb that I could do a late check-out. They even offered to drive me to the airport for a price that was cheaper than a regular taxi. They were really nice hosts! I got to Tirana’s airport about an hour and 15 minutes before my flight. Since check-in and security didn’t have much of a wait, that gave me plenty of time to pick up two sandwiches, in order to fully satisfy my lunchtime hunger.

The first flight to Belgrade was quite uneventful and punctual, yet again with Air Serbia onboard a turboprop ATR aircraft. Because I had already checked-in and gotten my boarding pass for the second flight in Tirana, I found a seat somewhere and took a break after we arrived.

I had a layover of 1 hour and 45 minutes in Belgrade. This was the fourth time I connected in Belgrade, including the flights to Tirana, and back-and-forth to Montenegro the week before. In Belgrade Airport, each gate is an enclosed space, separate from the rest of the airport terminal. To enter the gate area, you have to show your boarding pass and passport. Then you’ll go through a security check at the gate itself.

The second flight to Zurich was going to leave on time. About 45 minutes prior I went over to enter the gate, which had now opened up. When the assistant at the gate entrance checked my boarding pass with my passport, she crossed me off her passenger list. However, she told me to go to Air Serbia’s transfer desk. I asked for a reason why, since I already had my boarding pass, and she could confirm my identity with my passport. She couldn’t give me a reason why. Apparently it was to get my “passport swiped”, and it absolutely had to be done. Out of the several hundreds of flights I have taken so far, that’s a first. I have never been told to visit the transfer desk when I was already checked-in with a boarding pass.

Often there are significant waiting times at transfer desks. Thus, they should be only for those who need help, not simply everyone who is connecting. But the other times I had connected in Belgrade, this wasn’t necessary. I had to wait for one family, who argued continuously with the staff, and one other traveler before it was my turn.

I had enough time to notice that the signs at the Air Serbia transfer desk haven’t been updated in a while. Air Berlin had been bankrupt for years, and Niki and Etihad Regional no longer existed either.

I asked the transfer desk personnel why my passport had to be “swiped”. She asked where I had come from, and simply said it was the procedure. So that didn’t really explain anything either. Mind you, this isn’t for immigration purposes. I never entered the Republic of Serbia, remaining inside the transit area of the airport terminal the whole time. The only reason I could think of, would be that my passport data wasn’t forwarded from the check-in agent in Tirana. That makes me question why I was issued a boarding pass in Tirana, instead of being told to contact the transfer desk right away after landing in Belgrade. I had plenty of time between flights. If only I had known about this procedure before, it could’ve been handled much more easily.

After all the stress, I did consider it OK to skip the line still waiting outside the gate. I had already been through it once. The agent at the gate let me pass this time, and after passing the security, the boarding had already started. Guess what, they still needed to see my passport along with the boarding pass to let me (and everyone else) board. Quite excessive if you ask me. This cross-check of everyone’s identities had taken place literally 20 meters before at the door to the gate area itself. Seriously, what was I going to do, steal the boarding pass of a fellow passenger waiting inside the gate for the same flight both of us were booked on?

After all the bureaucracy in Belgrade, the flight to Zurich with an Air Serbia Airbus A320 was at least punctual, and we even landed a little early.