Old Photos - Shkoder 1930's

I picked up a couple of postcards when i visited the National Marubi Fototek in Shkoder.
I love the old photos.

One of is of the centre of Shkoder in 1932.


It is interesting to see that the shops stretch across the road over to the mosque.
I can make out a couple of the shops....
One is called "Rruestore" - no idea what that means.
One is called "Udhtimit te perditshem" - I would have liked to know where they went, but I can't make that out.
Kafe Drini - no surprise there then - a cafe in Shkoder!

The other photo is of a family in Dukagjin in 1937.
I really like this photo.



It reminds me so much , and gave me a lot of help in visualizing life in the mountains, when reading the excellent book "Peaks of Shala" by Rose Wilder Lane.
Notice there is no "chimney" in the house for the smoke to leave. I take it the roofs were thatched and the smoke eventually rises up and through the roof.

I have a couple of questions though...
1) What does the woman on the right have in her hand?
2) What is hanging from the roof, and also what is hanging on the wall under the oil can?

I previously heard that the old bank on the new pedestrian walkway in the Piaca, would be turned into a museum to show off much more of the old Marubi photos than are currently displayed. The outside of the bank has been finished for ages, but still no sign of any work on the inside, nor of the Marubi exhibition moving. I am disappointed. Tourist season is starting and even leaving entrance fee as free, I am sure the the sale of postcards, booklets and magazines on Marubi and his photographs would allow the museum to function.

( I have not posted for a while, but hopefully I will keep the blog up. I have some posts I have not done, so over the next few weeks I should have a few posts)

Happy New Year Shkoder 2010

Changing Face of Shkoder

Shkodra po ndryshon!

Well Shkoder is looking a little different. Not everything I like. I really think that the fountain isn't that great. I am beginning to think the whole idea of moving the 5 heroes was so they could make the roundabout smaller, and give the big apartment room on the road opposite our house.
i also think that in the centre of the town, within a mile radius of the centre, there should be no apartments higher than at the very most 6 floors!!
You really want to keep the look of the centre of your town, much as they have done in the Piaca - which the local towns house should be very proud of! - they did a great job there.

The new home for "5 Heronjte"

( Can you spot them - they ARE in the photo!)


I met a friend this week on a visit to Shkoder.
He came up from Tirana by train.
When I met him, he told me that he had found the 5 Heroes.( and full credit to him - because they are NOT easy to find)
he said to me...."They are in a rubbish dump just outside of the city!"

So yes - it is true - the 5 heroes have a new home!!

...and yes there is some good news.
You can actually view the beauty of this sculpture from above and not just below. You can actually touch it. You can actually appreciate just how great a work of art it is.
That is really good!!

...of course, that is if you can actually find where the 5 heroes are!

They are in the middle of nowhere.
wait...that is not true.
they are in the middle of a rubbish dump....way outside of Shkoder....



The only people there were two men burning rubbish and a donkey!



Talking of donkeys.
What a stupid decision to send them here!!

And there is more...
I went to get my wife a birth certificate and family certificate today.
First of all, why does she have to have a birth certificate dated within the last 3 months?!
Her details of her birth do not, and never will change, so any birth certificate will ALWAYS be the same.
Anyway, whilst i was there , and waiting ( as you do for a certificate!! - usually for most of the morning!) I decided to check the maps on the wall to see what zone we are in for my wife's identity card.

Maybe I just got very stupid or disorientated, or maybe geography was never my strong point, but I could not find where we live!!

I mean , we live at "5 heronjte".
How difficult can it be to find that!!!

Then I realised the problem.
" 5 Heronjte" does not exist anymore...neither does Rruga Çlirimi....nor nearly every other road in Shkoder. they have all been renamed.
I now live on rruga Qemal Draçini, Sheshi Demokraci, Shkoder. ( ?!)


So here is Sheshi Demokraci!
The lasting legacy of democracy....


I remember seeing a Documentary in 1994 on the BBC in the UK, before I came to Albania. It was by Andy Kershaw a Radio One DJ on a visit to eastern Europe and of course - to Albania. His program only lasted 30 minutes and , 15 minutes were for Albania. I always remember how he finished off his report. he was up in the mountains somewhere having been invited to a wedding. There, he was with Albanians sitting on a wooden seat drinking raki and toasting the happy couple....
As the day went on, someone got in a Mercedes car and started driving round and round a field...as there was in fact no real road to the house where the wedding was celebrated.

The film showed a group of mainly young men laughing as the driver reversed in circles at high speed in a huge field....and Andy Kershaw gave us his prophetic words...

"My lasting view of Albania.....

Travelling at high speed into democracy - but in reverse gear - not knowing where they are going!"

Snowdër

Shkoder in the snow

Yes the snow has come.

It was forecast for Thursday but it has been snowing non-stop for the last 8 hours...and the forecast is for more snow during the night and tomorrow.

The kids love it, it makes a great photo...but I would rather a beautiful warm Spring day!

This is the heaviest snow fall that i can remember for a good few years, so I cannot complain. In fact my boys once asked me why it never snows in Albania like it does in Scotland!
I told them , no-where snows like it does in Scotland!!

I'm sorry for those of you living abroad, because Shkoder is looking beautiful and peaceful tonight!

New Year in Shkoder 2009

The sunset of another year

Some sunsets this past week.

Doorway to the real Albania

I have been out running this past month. I really need to get fit AND lose some weight :-( ... at least that is what the doctor said.
I may post more about me running another day for anybody interested.

I have been running through the streets and lanes of Shkoder….and my longest run so far has been 5km….which isn’t bad, because I couldn’t run for 1 minute when I started.

Anyway, I have been enjoying running around the streets and seeing “normal” Albanian life. Yes, I do get LOTS of really strange looks and a “jogger” seems to be a strange sight in Albania. But there are some things I really like, and I am enjoying running.


One of the things that has struck me is some of the old Albanian doors to private houses. There are many of these and one street could have about 20 different kinds of doors. It is the old wooden doors that I really like.

I think to myself, what kind of story could these doors tell us if only they could speak.
What kind of joys or sorrows as people have come to celebrate weddings or attend funerals in the yard outside the house. Children leaving to go to school, or a bride leaving her family to start a new life with her husband.

I wonder who might have lived there, and when was the house built. It is funny, an open door always seems to be so inviting! As though it is saying, come inside and share a meal with us!

Anything is possible in Albania!

Took this photo today when i was in Koplik.

A man selling sheep from his car boot.


Then by chance I saw this on another website.

Sunset at Shengjin

Albania 1989

It is worthwhile going to this page on Flickr and looking at the photos from 1989.
Quite a lot, and although not too many from Shkoder, they are very interesting.


Shkoder

Tirana


Saranda

Berat

Gjirokaster

Don't worry, be happy!

This is taken from a collection of photos called "Pictures - taken at just the right time"

It is well worth looking at!

Some will make you laugh, some will make you squirm!

Crime of fashion

I ask you, who would wear a white suit?

This is a photo from the shop at the bottom of our apartment building. I wonder who will buy this, and when they will wear it and why?!

In fact I did see an Albanian wearing a white suit once. He was with his father and they were trying to get on the ferry to go to Italy. I was with an Italian and he turned to me laughing and asked,
" Does he really think he is going to walk about Italy in a white suit?!"

In the end he was refused entry to the ferry and was turned away, with his father shouting and arguing that their documents were all in order.

It left me thinking that maybe his documents WERE all in order and it was really the "fashion police" that had arrested him! ;-)

Albania 1987

Delighted to find this link on the internet.

A fascinating read, of an Englishman's visit to Albania.
Covering Shkoder, Lezhe, Kruje, Tirana and Berat.

here is a short extract...
"Albanian vehicles were produced but many old diesel vehicles from the People's republic of China were still in use. We looked in at a watch repairers shop, where behind the screen an old man was working on clocks and watches that would rarely be seen in junk shops in Britain. Perhaps one of the few digital clocks in the country is the big one over the State Bank of Albania in Tirana.

"Make do and mend" is common; one of our group related the tale of a shop where holes in plastic buckets are repaired by a man with a hot iron, melting and joining the plastic. Plastic goods are produced by the country's developing petrochemical industry, and can be seen in shops. But perhaps due to the low national wage (said to be kept within a 2:1 ratio of 500 to 1000 Lek a month) and the thrifty nature of Albanians, all kinds of goods are kept functioning as long as possible, if at all repairable. Another example was a motorbike windshield which was apparently broken at some time and had all the pieces glued back together like crazy paving. "

Some great photos as well.

Hope you enjoy it!

I certainly did!

Tirana

I was back in Tirana again this week , a couple of times getting the car fixed - £1000 of repairs :-(

Anyway, as there was no point in sitting around the garage, I walked around Tirana. It is far less stressful walking than driving!!
Still, Tirana is far too busy and noisy for me....so I decided to walk through the lanes and backstreets rather than the main roads.

What a change!

There were a number of times I couldn't hear ANY traffic, and I was alone in a quiet, peaceful street with few high rise apartments to be seen. the birds were singing and I felt like it was the old Tirana that I saw on my very first visit almost 15 years ago.

That inspired me to go back to the apartment I visited on my first full day in Tirana.
As it was on a main road, I had to walk on the busy street...but I was looking for any kind of shop or sign that reminded me of my first visit....but so much has changed.
Then I saw this....


What a breath of fresh air!
That must have been there for many years, and I must have passed it on a number of occasions, and have never ever noticed it.

And so i went in...


I could only think that this library has not changed since the time of communism. Although I hope that this man has not been sitting there for the last 20 years! ;-)

I took a look around the books, but I would have loved to get inside their archives which were kept in another room.


Right on the main street, a glimpse of old Albania.
That made me so happy!
It was a place of peace and tranquility in the midst of chaos...and although I have passed it many times, I had never ever noticed it!

I wonder how many other "treasures" I am missing as I rush through the streets trying to get my work done and not stopping to enjoy the beautiful moments and places that life brings us!

First for Photos

1st of the month again...so here are some photos taken when I was in Vlore.

First for Photos

A couple of photos here of Shkoder lake.
Taken from Shiroke looking back across the lake toward Shkoder and the mountains behind.
Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, so these were taken on my mobile phone.