We're In Tirana

Apart from the mad traffic, Tirana is a town of many high rise building projects. Everywhere you look there are cranes and half-finished buildings. The architecture is eclectic to say the least. I was enamoured of one particular building which consists of four towers that seem to widen as they get taller. It is called the 4 ever green tower and was completed in 2019. The cladding is made of terrazzo and glass, in different shades of green and blue. Other buildings have cantilevered bits or sticky-out bits in odd places.  Oh yes, I know my architectural terms.

We managed to walk up the 115 steps of the 'pyramid' building and enjoy the view. It was originally designed as a museum for the legacy of Enver Hoxha, the communist dictator, but has since morphed into an IT centre, having very recently been refurbished. Last word on all the building from our guide is that most of the projects are fronts for money-laundering. There is a huge over-supply of residential apartments that no-one can afford to buy. 

Speaking of guides, we met our group of fellow riders and our guide last night. One American family did the Croation trip last year and were meeting Belgian friends from that trip here. They all seem a lot of fun. There are some Germans, and Poms as well. Just a happy group glad to be riding in the sunshine.

A mosaic depection of one of the Albanian revolutions, probably when the communists tooks over, but I really don't know. This is at end of the main square, Skanderbeg Square

At the other end of the square was the man himself, Skanderbeg, who freed the country of the Ottomans in the mid 1400's and brought together many of the tribes of Albania and forms alliances with various Italian kingdoms working against the Ottomans whom he once worked for.

A very old Ottoman bridge which was used to bring goods to Tirana way back in the 1600s.

One of the many buildings in Tirana, under construction. For a city with a population of only 400,000 or so, there is sure a lot of high rise construction in the city. According to our guide, a lot of the money is being laundered by criminal gangs.

In the "Pyrimad" precinct they were having problems with a number of buildings. I picked this one up off the ground and managed to get something underneath it.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to do anything with this one.

The "Forever Green" towers made of specially formulated terrazzo with hunks of circular glass in the face. It looks extra good close up.