Rinas – Nënë (Mother) Tereza – Tirana International Airport

Posted on 31/12/2012 by Michael

Tirana International Airport – Albania

Rinas – Nënë (Mother) Tereza – Tirana International Airport

Tirana International Airport is officially known as Nënë Tereza but is still referred to locally as Rinas, the name of the nearest village.

The airport is small and not particularly busy making the experience of arriving or departing from there not that unpleasant. Although very close to the city centre as airports go it’s worth bearing in mind that the traffic virtually grinds to a halt at certain times of the day (especially the miss-named morning and evening ‘rush hours’) so take that into consideration if you need to travel at those times.

On the other hand if you travel when it’s quiet you race through. Leaving my hotel, not far from Skënderbeu Square, I got into my taxi at 04.00 on the dot for an early morning flight and was in the departure lounge at 04.21, and that was after checking in luggage, going through security and passport control.

Finding consistency at security controls worldwide is an impossible task. The only requirement that was new to me at Rinas was the fact that my computer notebook not only had to be separate from the rest of my luggage but it had to be open. Why? I haven’t a clue – and that might have changed by the time anyone reading this goes through the process. However, it’s worth saying that Albanian immigration/customs have been some of the easiest and most straightforward I have come across in the last few years, this in all the possible means of entry, by road, sea or air. In comparison, try getting away from or into the UK at Liverpool, that’s something else.

There is no longer any entry tax.

There are a number of ATM’s, after clearing immigration and customs, situated in the Arrivals and Check-in Halls for Albanian currency.

There are no left luggage facilities at the airport.

Rinas is not a busy airport and will close after the last flight has departed/arrived, whichever is the later. If you want to avoid paying taxi prices then think of other ways of getting to or away from the airport in the night-time (or plan for a possible 3-4 hours out in the cold).

Getting to/from the airport and Tirana city centre.

Taxi: 07.00 – 21.00, €18, 2500 leke (€20, 2800 leke, outside these times)

Bus: Operated by LU-NA bus company. Departs on the hour, from both the centre of Tirana and the airport. Leaving Tirana from 07.00 – 23.00 and the airport from 08.00-24.00. In Tirana the bus leaves from behind the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Skanderbeu Square. Cost: 300 leke.

For more information, for arrivals/departures, airlines and general information about what’s on offer go to the official airport website (in English).

No, Vladimir Ilyich and Uncle Joe, you shall not go to the ball

Posted on 21/11/2012 by Michael

Lenin and Stalin under wraps

No, Vladimir Ilyich and Uncle Joe, you shall not go to the ball

No, Vladimir Ilyich and Uncle Joe, you shall not go to the ball seems to be the message given out by the pro-Western government in Albania. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Stalin are covered up by the Albanian reactionaries in an attempt to prevent them from spoiling their Independence party at the end of the month.

This being my last full day in Tirana and my walk earlier this morning took me past the National Art Gallery I decided to say farewell to the group of revolutionaries hidden away at the back of the building in the impromptu ‘sculpture park’. It was with somewhat of an element of surprise I arrived to discover that Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Stalin had been wrapped in tarpaulins and all you could see of them were their legs or feet. The 3 ‘Albanian’s’ remained on show.

I thought that this must have had something to do with the upcoming 100^th Anniversary event of the declaration of Albania’s Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. This was confirmed by the young girl who was playing in the area (I assume the daughter of the family that cares for the building) who reacted to my laughing by saying it was ‘por la festa’.

Every time I think of this I can’t help laughing. The whole idea and situation is beyond ridiculous or farce.

In the first place I’m not sure why these statues are still in existence. In my travels and searches throughout the country I have come across few statues of revolutionary fighters and none of the Marxist leaders. So why this little group still remains is a mystery to me. I will describe the group in more detail in another post.

I would like to know at what level in the government this decree has originated. And is this a normal state of affairs at this time of year or just because it is ‘The Big Anniversary’. I was here at around about the same time last year and there were preparations going on, especially in Skënderbeu Square, but they have definitely pulled out all the stops this year.

As I came around the corner I thought I might have arrived at the time of a kidnapping attempt and was quite relieved that this is only a temporary measure, as I assume it to be.

I just don’t understand the mentality of the people who are making these decisions. If these statues are an affront to those in power (which they are as they represent the antithesis of rampant and voracious capitalism and international toadyism) then destroy them. We can always make more in the future.

Are the ones in power so superstitious that they think that by covering them up they will cease to exist, that the ideas they represent will somehow just go away? Or perhaps they think that Vladimir Ilyich and Joe will be upset by all the tripe that will be spoken next week and they want to protect their sensibilities? Or are they so feudalistic in their thinking that they fear the ‘evil eye’, the dorlolec?

Even though I can’t understand most of what is said in Albanian I think I would be affronted by the fatuous and meaningless statements that will be made to comfort the gullible about the importance of independence. All this at a time when the country is probably lees independent, in a real sense, than it has been in any of the past hundred years.

Just like all the efforts that were made in the UK in 2012 to try to create a ‘feel-good factor’ the economic and political problems don’t go away just because you don’t think, talk or even try to deal with them.

The tactic of covering up these two statues is just a demonstration of the feudal, peasant narrow-mindedness that is the basis for the political philosophy of the rulers of present day Albania. This was shown by the return, last Saturday, the 17^th November 2012, of the remains of the self-proclaimed king, Zog, to Tirana. Those in power in Albania have no future to offer the people so they present them with a feudal and subservient past.

Lenin, Stalin and friends behind the Art Gallery, Tirana

Now you see them …

… now you don’t.

Visiting Enver Hoxha’s grave in Tirana

Posted on 14/11/2012 by Michael

Enver Hoxha’s grave

Visiting Enver Hoxha’s grave in Tirana

After his death on 11th April 1985 Enver Hoxha was buried next to the Mother Albania statue in the Martyr’s Cemetery overlooking Tirana. However, the counter-revolution that took place in 1990 allowed his political enemies to take their revenge by denying him a place of honour in the country’s history and he was reburied in the main public cemetery of the city.

To get there take the bus to Kombinat, an orange and always crowded bus, from the top end of Rruga Kavajes, the road that leads away from Skënderbeu Square in a westerly direction. Cost of the fare is 40 leke.

Stay on the bus until it arrives at the terminus. This is the main square of Kombinat. During Socialism, in this square, standing atop a large plinth, was the statue of Joseph Stalin – which now stands in less grandeur behind the National Art Gallery in Tirana. Across the square from where the bus drops you is the entrance of the now abandoned and partially destroyed textile factory, which bore Stalin’s name and provided not only work for the vast majority of the population of Kombinat but also its name – kombinat means factory in Albanian.

Go back to the main road and follow the direction the bus had brought you, i.e., with Tirana at your back, and walk for about ten minutes to arrive at a narrow road that leads off the main road, slightly uphill, to the left. This junction is opposite a petrol station and there are flower shops as well as stone engravers workshops plainly visible. Continue along this road for a few minutes until it turns to the right and in less than 50 metres go through the gate on the left. There are always flower sellers on either side of this gate.

Once through the gates take the path to the left and then the first path, heading up hill, to the right. When you see a sign with ‘Parcela 6’ on your right you know you are getting close. Look for the back of the doubled-headed eagle symbol, ubiquitous throughout Albania, and that’s where Enver‘s remains currently reside. If you arrive at the same level as a second caged grave (presumably the relatives were afraid s/he would escape otherwise) you have gone too far.

It’s a modest grave, two in from the path, of red marble and the only inscription being his name and dates (1908-1985), surmounted by a small star. At the head there are two pillars which support a black metal, double-headed eagle. There are always flowers on the stone, a mixture of real and artificial.

Enver‘s remains were moved to the public cemetery in Kombinat in April 1992 from its location in the Martyrs’ Cemetery that looks down on the city of Tirana, in the north-west of the city, beside the road to Elbasin.

Even in its original setting the grave wasn’t ostentatious. It was a bigger piece of marble but the inscription was no different. What made it special was its location, the Martyr’s Cemetery being the place of honour for those who died in the fight against fascism during the Second World War. This was just a spiteful, political move by those opposed to Socialism as has been demonstrated by the installation of a pro-fascist monument to the right of the Mother Albania statue.

The original tomb stone was later used as the principle monument to the English military who died fighting in Albania during the Second World War. The English Cemetery is in Tirana Park just behind the main Tirana University Building.

Because the British had supplied the Communist Partisans with weapons after the victory over Nazism they thought they had the right to determine what should happen in Albania after liberation. British activities in the aftermath of the war continued until the fall of the Socialist system in 1990, beginning with the infamous ‘Corfu Incident’.

To read Enver Hoxha’s son’s (Ilir) account of the exhumation click here.

Or to read that account as a Word document Lilo Hoxha on his father’s, Enver Hoxha, exhumation.