tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-184654192013-05-16T05:26:15.259+02:00ollinoreply@blogger.comBlogger344125This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-50725144028705040562008-01-28T20:38:00.001+01:002013-05-06T02:15:47.977+02:002013-05-06T02:15:47.977+02:00

Welcome to Our Man in Tirana. I moved to Tirana, capital of Albania, in October 2005 and left in October 2007. This blog is a mix of photographs, reports, links, impressions and, undoubtedly, prejudices relating to the city and the country. Since I am no longer in Tirana I am no longer updating this blog. However, there are over 300 posts covering this two year period and I hope that they are

ollinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-36245071054662240262008-01-22T14:29:00.000+01:002008-01-22T23:51:20.531+01:002008-01-22T23:51:20.531+01:00

Mark Mardell, the BBC's European editor, has made his first visit to Albania and is blogging about the country on the BBC website.

ollinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-9567071268675395402007-10-24T16:23:00.001+02:002007-10-24T16:36:21.098+02:002007-10-24T16:36:21.098+02:00

And now the end is nearand so i face nanananana...Never did like that crappy song.But it's true nevertheless.Tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning we will be heading for the airport for the last time. I suppose it was too much to expect that I could have kept this going while getting ready to leave. So apologies for the lack of postings over the last weeks. This is post number 380 something so

ollinoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-78138060354011461952007-10-06T00:08:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:31:44.493+01:002008-01-22T23:31:44.493+01:00

When we first arrived it seemed that I heard it everywhere. Now, as we get ready to leave I'm hearing it everywhere again. In the last three days I've heard it three times - on Wednesday in Juvenilja, on Thursday somewhere I can't remember, on Friday at an open air festival in Mother Tereza Square. The latter was a kind of ersatz reggae version - pleasingly different.I tried it once myself at

ollinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-21220316628366352772007-10-01T14:23:00.001+02:002013-01-27T01:37:40.142+01:002013-01-27T01:37:40.142+01:00

On Saturday, we were at the Rogner meeting with an expat friend who was leaving Tirana. It was breakfast time, and as our friend was finishing his tea the breakfast room started to fill up with over-dressed (or under-dressed) young women wearing blue sashes. These were the contestants for the Miss Globe 2007 beauty pageant being held in Tirana tonight at the Palace of Congresses. High heel

ollinoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-20997483385366366192007-09-27T17:18:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:37:21.462+01:002008-01-22T23:37:21.462+01:00

ollinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-23073683937416540552007-09-26T12:20:00.001+02:002008-01-22T23:33:40.000+01:002008-01-22T23:33:40.000+01:00

Apparently it's World Tourism Day and European Heritage Day. I only know this because the Ministry of Tourism, Culture Youth and Sports is organising a series of events to mark these.In Tirana, most of the events are taking place at the National Art Gallery on Thursday 29th. There is a exhibition of photographs running all day, and in the evening there is the 'Albanian Tourism Destination

ollinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-79231828527870296262007-09-25T16:19:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:39:43.757+01:002008-01-22T23:39:43.757+01:00

Middle of the day. No other traffic. Dead straight road. Boy in Mercedes decides to play with his brakes. Tyres squeal. Boy loses control. Car slides. Car hits parked lorry. Result: Mercedes 0 - Lorry 1.

ollinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-10384171130445269392007-09-23T00:46:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:34:24.119+01:002008-01-22T23:34:24.119+01:00

Ask me how much I knew about Albania before coming here and my list would be a short one: Enver Hoxha, bunkers and Sir Norman Wisdom. I have no idea when or how I acquired this extensive body of knowledge, but the association of Norman Wisdom with Albania was by far the most interesting part of it.I remember watching Norman Wisdom's old films on British television. My parents were fans of his

ollinoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-77154988079531570542007-09-20T12:57:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:34:53.724+01:002008-01-22T23:34:53.724+01:00

Albanian blogger Elvis Palku had an interesting announcement on his blog yesterday. He has set up an online bookshop making Albanian language books published here available for Albanians everywhere. There is also a dedicated blog with regular news on the project.

ollinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-69478522443983493062007-09-18T14:59:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:35:44.829+01:002008-01-22T23:35:44.829+01:00

ollinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-86184799264585765962007-09-17T12:39:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:37:58.731+01:002008-01-22T23:37:58.731+01:00

ollinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-85758993883532594152007-09-13T10:31:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:38:06.872+01:002008-01-22T23:38:06.872+01:00

Bad result. Albania should have had at least a draw. If one of the two early efforts that were cleared off the line had gone in who knows what might have happened.I don't know what was wrong with the first disallowed goal, though the second one was definitely offside.I know some people have been blaming the referee - we all do and I've done it myself many times - but the biggest culprit on the

ollinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-16241842336898095442007-09-12T10:20:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:38:31.530+01:002008-01-22T23:38:31.530+01:00

I had expected that the Dutch fans would have started arriving yesterday for Holland's game against Albania tonight, so I went out to find them. All I found was a group of seven drinking Heineken (home from home) at Taiwan yesterday afternoon. I went out again last night, but if they were in Tirana they were evidently staying in their hotel bars. I'm heading out again in an hour with my camera to

ollinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-4218911250426061482007-09-11T15:44:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:39:43.758+01:002008-01-22T23:39:43.758+01:00

It's been a bad month on the roads. BIRN reports that 46 drivers were killed in traffic accidents during August. (In 2005 there were 308 fatalities in total. The statistics for 2001 indicate that 22% of that year's casualties were drivers of vehicles. This would suggest that the figure of 46 for August includes all fatalities, not just drivers.)It's a frightening number of deaths in such a small

ollinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-5955199340261388102007-09-10T11:26:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:40:10.687+01:002008-01-22T23:40:10.687+01:00

Just a few pictures of Saranda, which was a disappointment having heard so much about it. We arrived on 1 September and everyone appeared to have gone home with very few people about and a lot of places nearly empty or closed.Like much of Albania there seemed to be a lot of uncontrolled building going on. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the whole of the hillside around the bay is

ollinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-17039480119704527202007-09-07T15:22:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:40:37.582+01:002008-01-22T23:40:37.582+01:00

Thanks to Venera for introducing us to yet another fine restaurant in Tirana. On Wednesday we were at Grepi i Arte, which is tucked away on a small, nameless street between Bulevardi Gjerg Fishta and R. Myslym Shyri.The restaurant is bright and spacious and tastefully decorated. More importantly the food is excellent as is the service. The owner, Niko, has made a real effort and it seems to be

ollinoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-39888548507964950822007-09-06T14:10:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:41:25.773+01:002008-01-22T23:41:25.773+01:00

Ten years after Mother Tereza's death, Albania is holding a ten day celebration of her life, with a series of public events across the city. Large posters have appeared across the city marking the anniversary.

ollinoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-62049630861721539822007-09-06T09:55:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:52:07.245+01:002008-01-22T23:52:07.245+01:00

The latest article from IPS looks at the weakness of civil society in Albania.On RFE/RL Ismael Kadare discusses Kosovo.TOL joins the ranks of those discussing Albania's power crisis.BIRN reports on EU frustrations with the Albanian government's handling of police reform.BIRN is also anticipating fireworks in parliament as MP's returned to work this week.Apparently we had an earthquake yesterday

ollinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-7935382350787544552007-09-05T11:57:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:44:55.904+01:002008-01-22T23:44:55.904+01:00

I'm still working on the photographs. In the meantime the BBC have been in Butrint and produced a radio programme as part of their Heritage: The Balkans series on the World Service. You can stream the programme anytime or it is available as a download for the next week.

ollinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-90437885230626317172007-09-05T11:03:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:46:00.122+01:002008-01-22T23:46:00.122+01:00

After too many weeks of hot days and humid nights we had a terrific thunderstorm last night complete with driving rain. This morning the sky was grey but bright, the temperature seemed to have dropped by 10 degrees, and the air was clean and clear.I took the chance to go for a walk in the park with the dogs and took in the sweet fermentation of long dead leaves, brittle from the heat, freshly

ollinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-13553494656948582012007-09-05T00:20:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:46:31.840+01:002008-01-22T23:46:31.840+01:00

On the menu at Sofra i Ariut: the Laura Bush veal fillet.

ollinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-31651701660177317362007-09-04T10:43:00.001+02:002008-01-22T23:46:58.529+01:002008-01-22T23:46:58.529+01:00

It took us nearly two years, but we finally made it to Saranda and the south this weekend. More photos - mostly of Butrint - to follow once I have sorted them out.

ollinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-75450684856003753432007-08-28T10:16:00.001+02:002008-01-22T23:47:33.770+01:002008-01-22T23:47:33.770+01:00

ollinoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18465419.post-7037074557746936512007-08-24T09:03:00.000+02:002008-01-22T23:48:02.818+01:002008-01-22T23:48:02.818+01:00

The Washington Post has discovered blood feuds.

ollinoreply@blogger.com4