Walking in the park

Sometimes we go for walks in a park in Tirana that is cleverly named "The Big Park". The park is full of paved paths, which, like the rest of Tirana, are full of potholes. Although the park is supposed to be just for walking, somehow cars (and donkeys) use it for transit. We'll try to take as many pictures of donkeys as possible, just to keep the blog interesting.

Next time we'll take pictures of what's REALLY interesting. Old men in speedos. Lots of them. The park sits next to a lake, were, when the old guys are through standing around the streets, they come stand around the lake, in their speedos.

We came upon an Orthodox funeral. We think it's Orthodox--whatever they are, they're members of the funny hat club, something the Mormons have yet to join.

We stared at the funeral the way people stare at us when they see our double wide jogging stroller. A few weeks ago there was a film crew at the park and we wound up on TV. We're total celebrities.

In reality, when we want to go on walks we have to go to the park. Let me explain why...

• The sidewalks that do exist in Tirana randomly disappear because people think it's clever to build their shops onto them.
• The smell of burning trash and unfettered exhaust in the city is unbearable.
• The kids want to stop and buy various chips, suckers, cheap plastic toys.