Tirana

Tirana is the capital of Albania, and home to some of the Balkans worst traffic jams. Tirana became the capital as a compromise between North and South Albanians in the 1900s.

Tirana has been inhabited at least since Roman times. This Greek Christian inscription is from the 6th century A.D.

The local Illyrian tribes has strange jewellery.

And cool helments

The Albanian coast was home to many Ancient Greek colonies.

Who doesn't love Bes?

I wouldn't want to be hit with that thing.

A gentlemen from the Greek colony of Apollonia

The art quality went downhill for a while during the decline of the Byzantine Empire.

Albania is famous for its numerous bunkers, built by its paranoid Communist dictator, Enver Hoxta.

The defunct Pyramid of Tirana

The Tirana Art Museum was holding an exhibition called "Tirana Patience." Note that the museum is covered in a giant burlap sack.

What is our relationship with art? Let's find out by covering most of it up.

To be fair, almost all the art is in the Socialist Realism style forced upon the country by Enver Hoxta.

Even Muslim Albania loves Christmas.

An old wall originally built by Justinian I, with some unique park benches next to it.

The clock tower of Tirana, built in 1822, originally had not clock face, and only used a bell.

A hotel in downtown Tirana

The Bunk'Art Museum documents Albanians suffering in the 20th century. Most interesting, the few tourists let into Albania in the 70s were forced to get haircuts to match the Socialist aesthetic of the populace.

A Christmas / New Years Fair was being held in Skanderbeg Square

The mosaic on the National History Museum is fantastic.

Enver Hoxta's old house

Is across the street from a KFC. Capitalism wins again!

The Tirana Zoo is incredibly depressing. It did have a nice ostrich.

Lego is making it big in Tirana.