Albania travel blog
Embarrassed though I am to admit it, I often don’t know a whole lot about a country before I visit. I mean, the whole point of travel is to discover and experience new things, but most people have some idea about the place they are going before they arrive. I really didn’t know anything much about Albania at all, except for the fact that it shared a border with Greece, where I happened to be at the time. It turned…
Repurposing Tirana’s Nuclear Bunkers Part 2 The BunkArt project has established two museums/art galleries within a couple of Tirana, Albania’s Cold War-era nuclear bunkers. After having a fascinating time exploring BunkArt 2, I set off on a sunny winter’s day to walk the hour-and-a-bit from central Tirana to BunkArt 1. On the way I stopped in at a bakery for a mid-morning snack. I must admit I find transactions in countries where I can’t speak the language (which is just…
Repurposing Tirana’s Nuclear Bunkers Part I Fearing attack from an external power, communist dictator Enver Hoxha built nearly 175,000 bunkers across Albania. These included enormous structures designed to accommodate the government during a nuclear or chemical weapons attack. Two of these bunkers are in Albania’s capital Tirana, and have been converted into fascinating museums and art galleries: BunkArt 1 and 2. The Interior Ministry Bunker that has now become BunkArt 2 is located in the middle of Tirana’s central business…
I spent my first week in Albania exploring the nation’s capital, Tirana. It was there I saw my first Albanian bunker, an incongruous concrete dome in a pedestrian walkway near the centre of the city. It was the first of many, in fact literally hundreds, of Albania’s bunkers that I would see during my time in the country. After its liberation from the Nazis in 1944, Albania was lead by a communist dictator named Enver Hoxha, who ruled until his…
Suspicion, Surveillance and Subjugation ‘State security is the sharp and dear weapon of our Party, because it protects the interests of the people and our socialist State against internal and external enemies.’ Enver Hoxha After World War Two, Albania was ruled by a communist dictatorship, lead by former wartime resistance fighter Enver Hoxha. After taking control, Hoxha wasted no time in building a terrifying state security apparatus that imprisoned the people of Albania within their nation’s borders, and sought to…