Parting Shots of/at Tirana

As we ended our time in Albania, I finally figured out how to download all the photos I'd taken from my phone. So here's a few parting memories of Albania...my apologies for the poor picture quality.

Not only is Albania the place to find all your formerly stolen cars, you can also find all your former children's toys there too. In the center of Tirana, an enterprising Albanian ammassed a variety of children's riding toys for children to enjoy for only 200 lek per 10 minutes. Ollie had a ball.
One day while visiting Teuta's house, Ollie and Ainsley spotted their first flat tire. Ollie stared at it as if the car was literally wounded.

One year from now, I'll own one of these. This bike, and accompanying sidecar only cost $800, and functioned. Once again, Ollie had a ball.

This is Jen (center) attempting to sing "I'm Your Venus", with the assistance of her friend Annie (right), at the behest of the a very drunk and snaggle-toothed Macedonian singer (left). (FYI, Jen can't remember lyrics to songs.)

Our two beautiful children enjoying an undestroyed park bench in Tirana.

President Bush's motorcade vehicle when visiting Kruje, Albania. If I has been faster with my camera, you'd be looking at a photo of two hundred Albanian's mobbing Bush within inches of me.

Altough the pile of trash behind Ollie changed form from week to week, it remained an everpresent pile of trash for our three years in Albania. (Three dumpsters sat less than a block from this [and many other] pile[s] of trash). I only wish it would have been on fire to get the full effect.

Just another herd of well-fed Tirana-city sheep.

Although the new Turkish restaurant in town offered a delivery service, they didn't have to foresight to print takeout menus, so I made one of my own. When there's only five restaurants in the city that serve something other than Albanian food, they become instantly popular with the foreigners.

Ainsley and Ollie wielding balloon swords at the Dalloku (Albania's richest family) birthday party. Besides the 100 kids, 60 adults, three course dinner, open bar, uniformed catering staff, valet parking, armed security guards, three birthday cakes, troop of clowns, Celine Dion concert playing in the background, and three layers of synchronized fireworks, the party reminded me of many I'd had during my childhood.

At the same birthday party, Ollie did balloon battle with the great grand-daughter of former Albanian dictator/tyrant, Enver Hoxha.

A large part of what I worked on in Albania was monitoring their progress at fulfilling international standards related to getting into NATO. Fortunately for them, removing concrete electrical poles from the middle of the road was not one of the benchmarks they had to meet.

Okay, this was taken in Munich, but I couldn't pass up including a picture of an early morning meeting between a golden statue, a mime, and someone who plays a miniature drum set. They all glared at me after I took the photo.