Day out in Tirana

Good start to the day as we ran through the city centre to the artificial lake on the outskirts.

There is a 5k running and cycling route around it and the whole area is full of cafes and people relaxing.

It was a 10k run, I was really tired and hot by the end, but then we ran right past the hidden entrance to our hotel and an extra kilometre before we realised our mistake.

After a nice long break we then visited the Bunk Art 2.

This is a very strange and interesting place that tries to tell the story of the last 100 years in Albania.

It is set in an old underground nuclear bunker right in the centre of town, and was built in the 1960s.

The background to this is all the idea of the dictator Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania from 1946 until his death in 1985.

He ruled with an iron fist and allowed no Albanians out of the country and almost no foreigners in. He turned the whole country into a police state and encouraged the citizens to spy on each other and report any transgressions.

There was lots of ingenious ways of spying, and this set up showed two neighbours with a hole drilled in the wall and listening and camera equipment to gather evidence.

Many thousands of people were tortured and murdered and an art installation showed a brain imprisoned within a barbed wire cage to show that no independent thoughts were allowed.

Enver Hoxha believed that all of the neighbouring countries were planning on invading and he had over 160,000 bunkers built all over the country. This one had a decontamination room that was extremely claustrophobic.

The military rule ended in 1991 and since then Albania has changed massively, but this exhibition wants everyone to look forward, but also to remember the past.

It was a relief to come back up into the fresh air and daylight again.

For dinner we decided to go to a restaurant that I saw yesterday, as I was impressed with the happy looking people drinking wine and watching the people pass by.

The menu looked a bit difficult and I chose ravioli while Darren went for sausage in cherry sauce. He did happen to notice that the menu used to have an s on the end of sausage, but that had been rubbed out.

Our wine arrived first and it was the smallest amount of wine in the largest glass that I have ever seen. Huge disappointment, but I sipped it slowly to try to make it last and then Darren's dinner arrived.

One small sausage in a very cherry sauce. Nothing else. It was quite funny really, but surely the waiter could have asked if he wanted anything else with it when he ordered??

Not our most successful meal, but we will be wiser next time.

Actually the photo makes it look bigger than it actually was.