Orkestra Sinfonike, Tirana

This evening in the old theatre of the Faculty of Art of the University of Tirana (C.1933) the RadioTelevizionit Shqiptar Orkestra (radio-television orchestra of Albania) was giving a free concert, as is usually the norm in Albania. The orchestra was created in May 1962 under the Stalinist Regime of Enver Hoxha. It is a very good orchestra and a lot of its members are the original crew. The conductor is one Nir Kabaretti of Santa Barbara, California, who appears to belong to the ham fisted school of conducting. The soloist was Mirela Kokasykja who played the piano concerto opus 54 of Schumann, on a piano that needed tuning. The music auditorium is quite small about 500 seats, built like a bunker in concrete, poor acoustics and it has never been renovated since 1933, you can well imagine the terrible state of the place, the stuffing coming out of the chairs and the smell of mildew, dried sweat and stale cigarettes, I think it use to be called the smell of old communism. The chandelier in the ceiling is missing and the paint is peeling off the walls. Also during the concert people talk and take calls on their cel phones. But I have to say that though the Faculty is full of ghosts of the last 80 years it is sad but at the same time fascinating.
The faculty buildings of the University of Tirana stand at the end of the great boulevard built in the 1930's by the Italians for Mussolini, at the opposite end of the great square of Skanderberg currently under massive renovation by a Kuwaiti firm.
Though the concert was free only about 50 people showed up, many quite elderly.

On the main boulevard this week a protest by the Socialist party of Edi Rama,they set-up tents and are blocking the street, each night speeches to a light crowd who I am told is paid to attend and listening half-heartily. Lots of police around but not one has a gun or any weapon, just looking around.

Here at the Hotel Rogner (Austrian owned) jazz concerts on Thursday and Friday nights in the lush gardens. The music is quite good, it reminded me of Budapest. This is probably the best hotel in Tirana in terms of comfort, services, amenities and price.
Tomorrow return to la Citta Eterna.

A few photos of Tirana

This week I am in Tirana, Albania, this little country of less than 3 million people, no bigger than Vermont and a former Stalinist dictatorship with a personality cult to its paranoid mad dictator Enver Hoxha who finally died in 1985. The communist lost power in 1990 and since the country has been on a mad rush to catch-up. Albania joined NATO last year, with enormous help from Canada and other member countries. It wants to join the E.U. in the near future. I am on my 9th trip to Albania on work related issues. What surprises me each time I come to Tirana (pop 680,341) is the amount of change in the City. Per example 3 years ago, power cuts were so frequent that you needed a flashlight all the time with you and an emergency generator for your office and home, now it is a thing of the past. The City Mayor has planted 2000 trees around the city and you can see these green streets everywhere. New buildings and the first large modern hospitals have just opened, the airport and the highway to the airport is brand new. Infrastructure projects are everywhere, modernization is the ''in'' word. Today I went to the major square in central Tirana and discovered a huge rebuilding project of 50 million dollars paid for by the Emir of Kuwait.
The Sheraton Hotel is also owned by Kuwaitis and the other major hotel the Rogner is Austrian. What strikes me about Albanians is that they appear to simply want to enjoy themselves and life. Their history from 1940 onwards was sad and depressing, now they are putting all that behind and looking forward.
Photos of central Tirana where all the official government buildings are located. I also include one photo of the infamous 80,000 concrete pillbox which were part of the defense plan of the dictator, they are everywhere in Albania and impossible to get rid of.
This one is in the garden of the Rogner hotel, there are two others in the garden and one across the street in front of the former official home of the communist era Prime Minister. The idea was that in case of invasion the whole population of the country would go into them and shoot at enemies. By the time Hoxha died, the country was a pariah on the international scene and had no friends even in the communist camp, Hoxha had fought with everybody and saw the world as against him. He also had a huge white marble pyramid mausoleum built as his official tomb in the centre of Tirana. Today the marble covering is gone and the derelict mausoleum stands abandoned, a monument to his madness.

Returning home

So today I flew back from Tirana, Albania to Rome, a short flight 60 minutes across the Adriatic and up the boot of Italy on Alitalia. On their flights they have either an all male crew or a mix crew with a higher ration of male staff. Their staff all look like models on a catwalk. 

When we entered Rome from Fiumicino airport via the E.U.R. and Porta Capena, I noticed a lot of police everywhere around the Teatro del'Opera and Santa Maria Maggiore. It's Rome and we were having our weekly demonstration. If you live in Rome you come to accept that there will be strikes and demonstrations almost weekly or bi-weekly and the police will come out and the demonstrators will block central Rome, meaning Piazza Venezia and Piazza Reppublica by the train station Termini, this means that if you want to drive across the city it becomes difficult. The demonstrations are always peaceful, it is not about violence or anger, but coming out and marching and flying flags, usually of the CGIL the main trade union and the Communist party, balloons and banners.  The police stand by, smoking cigarettes and drinking espresso and talking amongst themselves while the demonstrators walk past. It is a little like a social event, the left has lots of demonstrations. The right and the Fascists have rallies, where speakers go on and on for hours, usually in some stadium built by Il Duce. Denouncing the left and all they stand for. Today the rally of the Left was to mark Anti-Racism day. 

The weather is much colder now, must be around 9c this evening in Rome. The puppies were happy to see me much yapping and jumping and then this evening Nicky did something he has never done before, he jumped on the sofa snuggled up against me and fell asleep next to me while I was reading. 

Will says he was looking for me all week. When I came in, he came really close to my face and just stared at me for the longest while as if he wanted to say something, like where have you been. 

Glad to be home, I find travelling to be such a chore now. Probably will go back to Albania at end February or early March, work again. Sorry no pictures, there is not much to show.