Bunkers in Albania

It seems Albania is yet another country in the Balkans that was governed by a commie dictator. In this case, Enver Hoxha who allied himself first with Russia and then with China later. Albania was never taken over by the Soviets and in fact freed itself from the Nazis through it's partisan fighters and the People's Republic of Albania was proclaimed shortly after the war. If you ever come to Albania, you are going to see alot of these concrete and iron bunkers with slits dotting the entire country. Hoxha was a bit paranoid of the West, Russians, Greeks, Turks, and just about everybody else except for his mother. I spoke to an Albanian who recalled Hoxha would tell lies about the outside world, in an attempt to isolate the country and would arrest anyone caught listening or watching Italian TV or radio. So Hoxha had his engineer design these mushroom shaped bunkers and then stand in it while a tank blasted it and since he didn't die, Hoxha ordered to build about 700 000 of them of varying sizes from 1950 until his death in 1985. Nutty but almost impossible to get rid of. So they just sit empty now in everywhere. You'll look out the window and pass some farmer's corn field and out pops this bunker, or walking along a beach and sure enough a bunker is there.

I'm in the capital city of Tirana now and just about to go Durres to take the ferry to Italy. It's not a bad city and easy to get around, relatively small and dusty. There's some Italian influence but nothing really special to see. There is a disportional number of luxury cars in here, BMW, Audi and espeically Mercedes. I swear there is a ratio of one Mercedes for every three cars !!! I have yet to see a car dealership. Apparently, Albania has a thriving black market for stolen cars and you can pick up a new(ly stolen)Mercedes for about 9000 Euros.

I heard bad about the Roma people here too and they continue to be ones here collecting or sorting through the garbage, begging or sweeping the streets late at night here.

Hope all is well and too bad about Brazil Footbul team losing last night.