Trip to Tirana Albania, p4
I worked in this hotel for a while.
This could be almost any hotel in the world. Conferences look about the same everywhere. Most men wear suits and ties etc.
Then Arbri came to meet me. He brought Verena and another hostel traveller, Ane from Denmark. Ane studied and now works in a law office. She doesn't like lawyers though! We had some pretty good talks. She told me she was more a socialist than the other people in her law office. We talked about what it meant to be a socialist. and about things like laws, judges, understanding, punishment etc. It became clear to me she hadn't been questioned much about her beliefs and she hadn't had much time to really think about them or to see the inconsistencies in them. When I asked her how to prevent someone from smoking she said "I don't know. Maybe prohibit smoking." Then she thought about this for a moement and said "But I am in favor of legalizing marijuana so I don't really know." After a while she got tired of my questions and wanted to go back to the novel she brought with her. This reminds me of Daniela from Germany who also studied law and also read novels while she was traveling.
Not many people wear helmets here, even though I guess officially it is the law. This is another way the people are more free than in some countries which talk so much about freedom. They could also ride their motorcycles acrros the plaza, where no cars are allowed, and they can have sheep, horses, cows etc. in the parks in the middle of the capital city.
For some reason, though, the train station is locked up when there is no train coming or going. Arbri asked if we could come in and take some pics and he was told no. This surprised him. He has never taken a train by the way. The trains evidently take about twice as long as the busses!
We walked over to the street market near by.
Ane noticed the fence was open to the train station. We walked over and I took out my camera. The man told Arbri we couldn't take any pictures though! (Just like at the US Embassy!) But Arbri said go ahead and take one so with his encouragement I did. One can only wonder why this man wouldn't have wanted me to take pictures. By the way, the day before I had gone through a hole in the fence to get inside the train station. I didn't know it was sometimes locked up. But as I got closer to the exit I started feeling afraid I wasn't supposed be inside without a ticket or something. But the door through the waiting room was open and I just walked out. That's why I assumed we could go in when Arbri and the girls were with me. Very puzzling.
Used shoes for sale, nicely arranged!
He was sprinkling water around. I'm not sure if it was to keep the dust down or if it is some kind of religious thing.
These guys were joking around with me. One spoke about ten words of English. They didn't mind me taking a pic.
This couple saw me taking out my camera as they were getting on the motorbike. I smiled and they laughed as they drove off.
