Rain day - Tirana

It was in the forecast for the week and it was originally the entire week. But today it rained and turned cold. Thankfully I was prepared as I had nothing of consequence on the agenda.

Slept in a little late but there is another group that has kind of taken over the guesthouse and they had crying children. They are musicians but I can’t quite figure out the gig.

After breakfast I had a few things to do. I fixed the blog and paid some bills. Even caught up with Cousin Monika.

Then it was off to visit a museum. The House of Leaves. A rather unassuming building surrounded by trees that was the center for surveillance and eves dropping during the Hoxha years. There were direct hardwires from embassies and hotels all around the city to this house.  So even if you were a hippie tourist and agreed to cut your hair and buy respectable clothes, your hotel room was bugged.

(Just coincidently I am writing this from a craft cocktail bar called Radio where I am enjoying a riff on a ciprihana but made with fig jam and raki. It could be a retro bar in any city in America)
After the museum the weather was worse I decided to nap.

I don’t have anything but wondering and the National Museum on the schedule for tomorrow.

Dinner to follow. 

(Thought I had my night all planned but restaurant - highly rated - was completely empty at 830pm. Not a good sign but don’t understand why. So emergency fall back to place I went Sunday. Great food and varied menu. Reviews are definitely manipulated here as everywhere.)

[addendum to yesterday’s tour. During the Hoxha regime, religion was banned. Existing houses of worship were mostly repurposed and not destroyed. Today around the large central square there is a brand new mosque under construction with help from the Turkish government, and a relatively new Catholic Church with reverence to Mother Teresa who was born in North Macedonia which is considered Albanian and an Orthodox Church. The problem is, as in most of the world, religious affiliation is not growing.]