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Traveling Around: Tirana, Albania
Can you relate?
- Driving through Albania gorges and valleys with beautiful nature to get to Tirana.
- Visiting a local olive oil factory “Shkalla” and buying some extra virgin olive oil directly from them.
- Passing by Albanian International School at the Southern entrance to the city.
- Practising one’s patience navigating through Tirana’s traffic and the narrow streets.
- Walking down the marble-paved boulevard towards BLLOKU, the place to be in Tirana.
- Staying at a private, secluded hotel isolated from the traffic noise – Hotel Panorama.
- Experiencing the variety of cuisines available locally, mostly Italian, but also Spanish, French and the local Albanian.
- Taking taxis to get around the city and only paying 2-3 EUR for each ride. Though it is important to note that the city is a very walkable city.
- Being treated with great service at one of the best rated restaurants in the city of Tirana – Era. They have a strict no-wifi policy. They say that the best unlimited internet connection is friendship!
- Checking out the main market and realizing immediately that the locals don’t shop there. Though the market has had a makeover recently, it appears as if there aren’t enough buyers that want to go there. Maybe the prices are too high?
- Having a decadent ice-cream cup in an upscale Italian chocolaterie and finding that the menu, though very beautiful with pictures, was all in Albanian. It is really difficult to try and understand most Albanian words, even if you know a number of languages. Luckily, the servers were more than willing to help us out.
- Meeting up with the sister of one of our friends from our host country. Not knowing her beforehand or her boyfriend, it was a risk. But a good evening was had as we actually had a lot to talk about from politics to languages to history to food, etc.
- We had rented a car here, but quickly decided that we were not going to drive to different places around the city because of the “crazy-like” driving from the locals. It really seems like if you don’t know the local “rules” of the road, it will be very tricky and potentially dangerous for you!
- Enjoying the perfect weather every day. I mean it was a sunny and the just right temperature every day here. How lucky the people are that live here! Living on the Mediterranean definitely has it’s perks!
- Looking at the buildings here are so interesting. Though it is true some of the buildings look a bit run down and falling apart, the local artists have made these buildings into works of art. They draw really clever patterns or drawings on the facades of the buildings that make them look very beautiful and interesting to look at.
- Being amazed by the streetlights here. The whole pole holding up the traffic light was actually a light itself! So when the light turned red, the whole pole turned red and the same for the other colors.
- Walking around the recently rebuilt park with the artificial lake and seeing many people, young and old enjoying the beautiful weather in October.
Currently, we have 107 international schools listed in Eastern Europe on International School Community. 57 of them have had comments submitted on them. Here are a few of those schools:
Albanian International School (Tirana, Albania) – 19 Comments
International School of Azerbaijan (Baku, Azerbaijan) – 39 Comments
QSI International School of Sarajevo (Sarajevo, Bosnia) – 18 Comments
Anglo American School of Sofia (Sofia, Bulgaria) – 49 Comments
American International School of Zagreb (Zagreb, Croatia) – 29 Comments
International School of Brno (Brno, Czech Republic) – 25 Comments
International School of Estonia (Tallinn, Estonia) – 22 Comments
Britannica International School Budapest (Budapest, Hungary) – 19 Comments
International School of Latvia (Riga, Latvia) – 33 Comments
American School of Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland) – 89 Comments
Wroclaw International School (Wroclaw, Poland) – 46 Comments
Anglo-American School of Moscow (Moscow, Russia) – 68 Comments
International School of Belgrade (Belgrade, Serbia) – 59 Comments
Pechersk School International (Kyiv, Ukraine) – 122 Comments
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