Strange World

• Location: Tirana, Albania
• Date: December 2009

I am in capital of Albania. Temperature is close to zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit). I am here for few days already. Till now it’s raining everyday most of the time. It wouldn’t be such a disaster if you can come home (to a hostel in my case) and dry your cloth. But that’s impossible, because there is no heating there. And it’s damn cold there. I thought it’s just my hostel, but heating is missing almost everywhere. I visited few friends at their homes, university, some governmental buildings and it was the same everywhere. They have no heating in many restaurants and cafeterias as well. Only better restaurants and bars in fancy part of city called Blloku are well heated. Interesting but understandable is that people don’t put down their jackets and coats until they feel warm enough when they come inside. It looks pretty strange when there are people in restaurant wearing coats (sometimes even waiters). Reason for all this is obvious. There are just two or three months of cold weather in Albania each year and they think it’s not enough for having heating. If you think it has something to do with the fact that Albania is rather poor country for Europe, it’s not true. The same situation with heating is in south Spain, Italy and so on.