Its hard to describe how dangerous the roads are in Tirana and the rest of Albania for that matter. Before 1991 Albanians could not have driver licenses and they could not own a car. Only the Communist Party officials had cars. Since the fall of the communists, all Albanians want to have their own "makinë". Its kind of like "every man for himself" attitude on the road. You never worry about the "other guy". First one into an intersection wins etc. You never back down and let the "other guy" go first. So this all leads to many wonderful traffic jams. Above and below is a picture of the the intersection you can see from our apartment (Rrugge Kavajes and the Unaza). This is what happens when everyone believes "I'm first!".
You just have to love these drivers, but you also have to look both ways, even on one way streets. No one backed off this traffic jam and it sat this way for nearly 15 minutes until a police officer showed up and helped get the mess untangled.
We've been having a very strange weather pattern for the past week. Sunny mornings followed by torrential rain with thunder and lightening in the afternoon. It really helps keep the temperature down, but lots of streets and sidewalks flood. Photograph below is taken looking down from our apartment on to the Unaza. Above photograph is my little garden getting wet. You will note I've got my string beans climbing the electric wire that runs next to our balcony. Picking my beans in the rain could be a shocking experience.
Last Saturday we had a little outing with our 4th Tirana Branch youth. After playing some soccer in the park, we got pizza at the local "Mcdonald's" look alike. There is no Mcdonald's in Albania.
Its hard to describe how dangerous the roads are in Tirana and the rest of Albania for that matter. Before 1991 Albanians could not have driver licenses and they could not own a car. Only the Communist Party officials had cars. Since the fall of the communists, all Albanians want to have their own "makinë". Its kind of like "every man for himself" attitude on the road. You never worry about the "other guy". First one into an intersection wins etc. You never back down and let the "other guy" go first. So this all leads to many wonderful traffic jams. Above and below is a picture of the the intersection you can see from our apartment (Rrugge Kavajes and the Unaza). This is what happens when everyone believes "I'm first!".
You just have to love these drivers, but you also have to look both ways, even on one way streets. No one backed off this traffic jam and it sat this way for nearly 15 minutes until a police officer showed up and helped get the mess untangled.
We've been having a very strange weather pattern for the past week. Sunny mornings followed by torrential rain with thunder and lightening in the afternoon. It really helps keep the temperature down, but lots of streets and sidewalks flood. Photograph below is taken looking down from our apartment on to the Unaza. Above photograph is my little garden getting wet. You will note I've got my string beans climbing the electric wire that runs next to our balcony. Picking my beans in the rain could be a shocking experience.
Last Saturday we had a little outing with our 4th Tirana Branch youth. After playing some soccer in the park, we got pizza at the local "Mcdonald's" look alike. There is no Mcdonald's in Albania.
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