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Monday, March 22, 2021

Traffic circle entertainment

It was a rain day yesterday, and we only left the apartment to go downstairs to the grocery store that is located next door.

Fortunately, we have an unlimited supply of internet... and some entertainment right from our balcony. This area has some road construction going on, and when you couple that with the fact that there aren't very many parking spots it makes for some pretty chaotic traffic. 

Our balcony overlooks the traffic circle to one side, and the narrow one way street below. 

We first encountered this lack of parking spots when we were in Bucharest, Romania in November 2016. Back in the communist era, very few people owned cars. So apartment buildings were built without parking spaces. Nowadays, many more people own cars, but they don't have anywhere to park them!

And it's the same problem here in Tirana.

Anyhow, once every 15 minutes so, we hear the horns start to blow as someone gets stuck on the road below. Sometimes it's really funny, with a few cars wanting to go one way and a few cars wanting to go the other. And none of them willing to budge. Once it got so bad that a police officer had to come by and sort things out.

I tried to video a couple of situations for you, but never did get the really good ones. Here are some examples of the entertainment that we have from our balcony...

(No need to turn your volume up, unless you want to hear the horns blowing!)



You get the idea. It's a real circus.

I spent a bunch of time researching where we want to go next. The problem is that we're still a couple of weeks early for decent weather in the mountains. In fact, while it's been raining here in the city this past weekend, it's been snowing at higher elevations. The small city of Korce had a rare March snowstorm as well...

This photo was taken yesterday in the city of Korce.

Fortunately, the precipitation is supposed to stop this afternoon, and they are calling for temperatures to warm up throughout the week.

So, on Wednesday we are going to the small city of Berat (pop 85,000). It's a bit of a tourist spot because it's a UNESCO city, so accommodation is a bit more expensive. We were only going to stay for four nights because of that, but I found a place we liked that was advertised at $40 CAD per night and asked if they would give us a deal for a week long stay. With the Airbnb fees it still came to $34 a night, but we booked it.

Raining again this morning, but it's supposed to stop after lunch so we are going for a walk back downtown.

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And in Canada...



12 comments:

  1. It's always funny to see traffic jams like that unless you are part of it.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like walking rather than driving was a good decision. I personally ride my bike whenever I can. Half the time when I'm driving I'm grinding my teeth and wishing horrible deaths on the people around me. That never happens on a bike.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We totally agree, at least if you are in this area and wanting to get to downtown at least or anywhere close by.

      I don't blame you for wanting to ride your bike most places, it is so much better for you both physically and mentally, not to mention how much better it is for the environment as well. :-)

      Delete
  3. Kevin,
    Your adds weren't too bad originally but now there are way more ads than content and I have to click on some to get them out of the way to find your content. I understand your need to make some money but when I have to deal with intrusive ads to find the content, I have to wonder how much longer I will continue to follow you guys. You guys do a good job of writing a blog but now your page is mostly ads.
    Just thought I'd let you know I think you are over doing it and not just by a little.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Kevin;
    I finally had too much of the ads,so I activated Ad Remover. Your blog is now enjoyable again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you're enjoying it once again. Of course using an ad blocker also removes the income we deserve for the hard work that goes into providing the content every day. Our paypal address is [email protected] if you would like to make a donation to compensate us.

      Delete
  5. I did turn up the volume(must have been bored!) And heard the cars honking at each other! So is this something rude people do!
    I'll hope you can get out soon, and show us more of the town. Take care, Rawn Stone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, we don't think it is because people are rude that they honk their horns, just very impatient!

      We were out yesterday, there will be more pictures coming your way in the next blog post. :-)

      Delete
  6. Hahaha....the traffic entertainment reminded me so much of the regular traffic going on where we live in Puerto Vallarta. After a while, you get used to it and wonder if there’s something wrong when you don’t see and hear the usual noise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was definitely entertaining to watch but not so fun when you have to sit in the traffic to get in and out of our Airbnb every time we took the car out, luckily we only did that twice, the rest of our stay we did on foot.

      Delete

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