David Sneezed And Two Armed Guards Showed Up At The Door

Five weeks ago, David and I moved to the Bllok, a neighborhood in downtown Tirana, Albania.  This neighborhood served as the residential area for the country's communist leaders from about 1945 through 1991.  This 3 block by 3 block area literally had a guarded fence around it during the communist era.  The home of the communist dictator, Albanian Enver Hoxha /Hoe juh'/, is still standing in the Bllok.

Since 1992, this neighborhood has become the quintessential European neighborhood with multiple cafés, restaurants, bakeries, fruit markets, and shops on every block.  And, in typical Balkan style, the neighborhood gets livelier and louder as evening approaches.  On any given weekend night at 9pm or so, you will see the cafés jam-packed with a youngish crowd drinking espresso in preparation for a night at the clubs.  We will do this one day...when we are finally rested.

For those of you who expressed concern about our safety in Albania....  Last night, after we turned on our security system, David sneezed and two armed guards from the embassy showed up at our apartment within minutes.  As you might have guessed, the glass break sensor is incredibly sensitive.  It WAS a loud sneeze though.  We do feel quite safe in our apartment.  Outside of our apartment, crossing the street and second-hand smoking are the biggest obstacles to safety and health.

We have been told that a typical Albanian dwelling is about 2-3 rooms with tile throughout.  The style of our furnished apartment is standard; we are very fortunate though to have  a 3-bedroom, 1.5 bath apartment.  Hope you will visit!

           

Guess what this is . . . the control panel for our shower!  The embassy requested that we have a bathtub vs. just a shower.  So, now we have a 5 star shower/tub with water jets for the back, the feet, and all around the tub.  Plus, it includes a radio, CD player, light, fan, sauna, and possibly bluetooth (we haven't quite figured that button out yet).  

The view from our kitchen window.  The mountains in the background are beautiful!