We slept in a bit for this trip till 9am and then went down for breakfast in the hotel’s nicely appointed dining room. (I think our hotel has a highly-rated restaurant for dinner, except it’s closed in off-season.)
Breakfast was quite good, and they made a decent cappuccino too. There was an orange tree on the patio (we had to walk through it to get to the dining room), it was so full of oranges, that we just had to stop to take a pic. We thought about just plucking an orange for the road but didn't.
First stop for touristing was the Pyramid of Tirana. It used to be a museum, and then converted to a conference centre. It looks like they had a big fire cause it was all fenced off, with the windows blown out. Oh well.
Next on our list was the National Arts Gallery. It too looked like it was under restoration of some sort, covered in brown fabric. On closer inspection it was actually covered with coffee bean bags stitched together, as an art installation of sorts. Unfortunately the doors were still locked, although it was 15 minutes after the scheduled open time. So far, 0 for 2 for touristing :(
We followed the pedestrian boulevard, and came across Bunk’Art 2, a history museum in a former Communist-era bunker. It was very well done, documenting the dark history during communism.
After we went back to the National Arts Gallery which was now open! At first we were puzzled cause about 90% of the paintings were covered under screens. Later we asked and it too was part of the art installation, a statement by the current curator. It’s interesting as an installation, except now we just paid admission to see a bunch of coverings. The paintings that we could see were similar to the Soviet-era art we saw at the Belarusian National Arts Museum, the style of which I really like.
We walked around some of the lively pedestrian areas. The cafe patios were full with people enjoying the nice weather (relatively, for January) (It was about 12C and sunny).
We tried to find a little restaurant listed in the Lonely Planet, supposedly a classic Tirana place, near the food markets. It was closed (permanently or for the season, we couldn't tell), but there were plenty of other happening restaurants nearby. We picked the one with the least number of smokers on the patio, and ordered off the menu. We should have just pointed at other tables; the most popular item was the qofte (ground beef and spices, grilled on skewers), served with a salad and draft beer. We ordered a mixed grill and I had a 'large' beer, which turned out to be in a 1L glass! At least we had a sampling of all the types of sausages we had seen in the markets :) . Found another place for an espresso.
On our way back to the hotel, we walked through a carnival of sorts in Skanderbeg Square. There were classic rides, almost antiques, such as a double-decked merry-go-round and bumper cars. The kids activities were in the centre of the large plaza, surrounded by pop-up cafes and bars. It seemed much more genteel than some other hectic carnivals we've seen.
We also stopped in at the Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Cathedral. Its 46m bell tower is a landmark visible from most of the centre.
The sun was setting and the temperature dropping, so that was it for the day. Relaxed back the hotel, and later went out for dinner. We had reservations at Padam, which we didn't need as there was only a few other diners. The food was so-so. We were both tired, and had our flight to Vienna tomorrow, so it was an early night.
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