Rome II

Ellie and Emma in front of our apartment, on our way to breakfast and then Vatican City.  Next picture is on the bridge going over to Castel Sant'Angelo.  The big circular portion was built by Hadrian as a family tomb.  The two Baroque statues on the bridge are by Bernini.  Rome is continually interesting because of the juxtaposition of eras in such proximity -- Hadrian's tomb from 135 AD to the Baroque era of the statues.  The walls around the tomb, which make it look like a castle, were completed by 1500.  The top part of the tomb was added in the 1400s as a chapel.  During the sack of Rome in 1527 the pope stayed here.

The next two pictures are at St. Peter's.  Cindy is wearing an orange scarf which she will later convert to an orange skirt to walk through St. Peter's.  The obelisk in the middle of the square is from Eqypt, brought to Rome in the 100s AD.  

The last picture is the Pieta.  When I was here in 1970 one could walk up and touch it.  After being beat up by a hammer-wielding (Turk, I think -- the google will tell you) in the early '70s, it is now behind plexiglass.  

Rome

We went to Rome this past weekend to meet our friends from Jackson.  They're doing a little tour of Europe, and they flew in from Prague.  We met at the airport baggage claim area, and eventually came into the city.  We stayed at an apartment right across the Tiber from Castel Sant'Angelo.  The apartment not only had a great location, but 80 unadvertised steps to get to our attic garret.  After arriving at the apartment, our first order of business was to find lunch, which we did right around the corner.  That is Woody and Cindy waiting for food.  Woody is a retired prosecutor from the same office Cindy was in in Jackson.  Woody's wife Cherie is a court reporter in Jackson.  After lunch we walked across the bridge to the Castel, then along the Tiber to the Ponte Cavour and crossed back over the river, then on to the Piazza Spagna, home of the appropriately named Spanish Steps.  It gets its name because in years past the Spanish embassy was here.   Then we walked down the street past  Gucci and Prada, etc., etc., stores and on to the Trevi Fountain, in front of which Cindy and I are standing.  (The bottom picture is Trevi also.)  I am sporting my new Albanian-style haircut.  Then by the Pantheon, the other two pictures.  The Pantheon I think is the oldest intact building in the world, at least the western world.  In its present form it dates from around 120 AD.  The doors are original, huge and no telling how heavy.  When I do the google I'll let you know.

Flags

I took this picture from the balcony of our hotel in Durrës.  This is not an uncommon sight in Albania, displays of these flags together, or maybe just two of them.  On the left is the EU flag and on the right the Albanian flag, the double-headed eagle, which was the emblem of Albanian national hero Skanderbeg, real name Gjergj Kastrioti, in his fight against the Turks in the mid-15th Century.  The amount of money pouring into the Balkans from the U.S. and Europe is staggering -- almost every day the paper has something about a new program of some sort.  3.5 million Euro from Spain for vocational education in North Albania, 10 million Euro from the EU for this or that, 5 million Euro from Italy for a highway, so on and so on.  Of course I get the idea that in this atmosphere of rapid expansion and easy money that a lot of money gets "redirected" away from its original intended target and into a waiting pocket, but that too is put to work building large houses or businesses.  It is hard to be critical the day after Ted Stevens's indictment, or after reading an earmark list ($1 million for a Woodstock park?)  But my concern is that the west is so anxious to incorporate the new Balkan countries into NATO and the EU that they're going to accept a lot of "exceptions" to their roadmap, and in the end the unstable economies and corruption will lead to economic unrest in Europe, the way unstable countries and nationalism in the Balkans led to political unrest in Europe a hundred years ago.  

The hotel owner who flies these flags is a very nice guy, obviously very hopeful for the future, and actually seemed to be honored to have a couple from the U.S. embassy staying at his hotel.  (Maybe he was just shocked we weren't at the 5-star Adriatica down the street.  One shows a passport to secure payment for the hotel bill is how he knew for sure, other than everyone seems to know from looking we're Americans.)  I hope his leaders don't disappoint him.  But right now securing power and covering their tracks seem to be the order of the day.  But, again, it's hard to point fingers -- remember Karl Rove and the permanent Republican majority?

Modern Durrës

All over  Albania one finds these old concrete bunkers.  They're relics of the communist Enver Hoxha era.  Most were constructed after Albania left the Warsaw Pact.  The "Bar Berlin" sign is covering up the slit in the front.  This looks to be a command bunker, and it would have it its line of sight one or more single-person bunkers.   Command bunkers were manned all the time, and had radio contact with command posts high on a mountain.  The single-person bunkers would only be manned in the event of an invasion, and had two slits, one to shoot from and one to see the command bunker for orders.  They are well constructed and difficult to remove, apparently.  They're used for feed storage, sleeping places, outhouses, souvenir stands, and who knows what else.

The second picture is present day Durrës spread out to the east.  Albania is a very rugged mountainous country.  There is a central valley which extends from Durrës east to Tirana and then more or less southerly to Vlorë, and is by far the most populated portion of the country.  I'm strictly guessing, but I imagine the area between Durres and Tirana comprises 2%, at most, of Albanian land area, and 90% of its population.   The picture is taken from King Zog's ruined palace, right by the Adriatic.

Ancient Durrës

I'm getting back to my Durrës entries.  These are of Roman-era Durrës, known then as Dyrrachium.  In grand functionality of design, there is not a lot of difference between a Roman amphitheater and a modern football stadium.  The top photo is of the walkway inside the main level where attendees walked around to their seats.  The alternating brick and stone layers in the wall was the Roman engineers' way of protecting against earthquakes.

The next picture is of the inside of the amphitheatre.  This one would seat around 15,000, which is about a third of the Coliseum in Rome.  Note the mosque in the background. 

During excavations about 40 skeletons with broken necks were found -- unsuccessful gladiators, I assume.  After gladiating (is that a word?) was banned the theater was abandoned, and the Byzantine church took it over for a church and cemetery in about the 6th Century.  The mosaics behind the bars are of that era.  There is a small stone baptismal font outside the entry to this chapel.

Unlike in Rome, this theater has been built right up to and in -- note the house in the next picture.  Excavations are going on right around this house.  Getting the house emptied will no doubt be a problem -- I don't know that eminent domain works well here.  It would displace several families (judging by the number of satellite dishes and antennae on the roof) who have no doubt lived here for years.

The bottom picture is in a different area of town, about 1000 yards as the crow flies from the amphitheater.  These Corinthian columns are what remains of the Byzantine-era forum.  

Destin in Albania

We spent the weekend in Durrës.  It is an ancient town on the Adriatic about a 40-minute drive from Tirana, and is Albania's largest port.   The highway along the coast has been built up for about ten miles to the south.  To the north the coast highway abruptly ends at the foot of a mountain, which can be seen in the top picture off in the distance.  The photo was taken from the balcony of our hotel, the Vila Belvedere.

The next picture is looking down over the town from the former house of King Zog, who fled to Greece when Italy invaded Albania before WW II.  The next is the highway along the coast on the way to our hotel.  The last two are hotels or apartments that are under construction.  You can see some little houses remaining from when this was a little village, but  they've been surrounded by new construction.  The construction scenes are not just typical of Albanian construction, they are the only type of construction I've seen, whether it's a house or high-rise.    

Typing Program

Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox had a .406 batting average in 1941.  He is the last major league player to hit over .400.  In the past 100 years only seven major league players have hit over .400.  (Although two of them did it three times each, Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb)

I was thinking of this after hearing of one of the USAID Rule of Law projects here in Albania.  There are no court reporters in the courts.  Cindy told me that in a trial she attended that every ten or fifteen minutes the judge would stop the proceedings and write a summary.  I'm not sure why this is in lieu of just using the judge's notes -- of course if one used Judge Barbour's or Judge Keady's notes, you'd be in good shape.  Judge Cox's notes were nonexistant to sparse, to put a shine on it, so you'd be pretty much out of luck.

To remedy the lack-of-a-record problem, USAID, through one of its contractors, is working on a pilot program in ten courts to train speed typists to type what everyone says.  I'm unclear on whether they plan for the typists to type a summary as they go, or if they intend it to be a verbatim record, but I had the idea it was the latter.

The fastest typist I've ever been around is Carol Gray.  I don't know what number of words per minute she could type, but with the aid of her little add-on typing program she could type pretty much as fast as I could talk, which is probably around 160 to 170 WPM, unless I get animated, and then it might go up to 171.  For minimum national certification in the United States, 225 WPM is the standard.  Albanians seem to talk pretty quickly, maybe because I don't understand too much yet, but it definitely is on a par with English, so let's say 225 should be the minimum requisite competency speed for verbatim reporting here as well.

So what are the odds that your taxpayer dollars are going to be able to teach some Albanians to type that fast?  About as good as the Atlanta Braves coming over here and teaching some top-of-the line Albanian athletes to hit .400, I imagine.  

And what seems obvious to me, the Albanian lawyers I've met being every bit as intelligent as American lawyers, what do you suppose the argument will be when contesting the accuracy of the "record summary"?  That damn court reporter left it out!

Bastille Day

One Dollar = 76.85 leke, 62.98 Euro, .5041 pounds.

Happy Bastille Day!!  The day in 1789 when a mob released all seven of the prisoners held at the Bastille, succeeding in getting a hundred of their fellow stormers killed.  It's main purpose was to loot the arms stored there.  It is like Lexington and Concord 14 years earlier in that both involved trying to acquire munitions (although it was the British authorities who were trying to destroy munitions they correctly believed the patriots had collected) .  The two events had almost no tactical importance but became real flashpoints of patriotism and each country celebrates their respective events as the beginning of their revolutions.   When I was at Ft. Devens in Ayre, Massachussetts, we marched in the annual reenactment of the Boston to Lexington/Concord route.  We were volumteered, a great military tradition, not unlike the British who marched out of Boston.  Of course, we were not shot at like the British were.

So sing La Marseillaise and have a great day.

Dubrovnik

Top picture is approaching Dubrovnik from the south.  At least we were coming from the south -- Dubrovnik itself faces into the Adriatic looking south, so I guess this picture is actually taken looking west.  You can see the tip of Lokrum island, where supposedly Richard Lionheart almost shipwrecked on his way back from the crusades.  No matter where I go I can't seem to get away from this guy.  But the story goes that he promised God that if he survived the storm he would build a church.  In those days one kept one's word in matters such as these, and he left the money for a church.  I remember the church in Vienna, built in honor of a similar promise, this one a victory over Napolean.  Times had changed by Hemingway's time -- I recall his description of the guy in the foxhole being shelled and promising God that if he survived he would lead a better life, a promise, as Hemingway wryly noted, that was forgotten as he went upstairs that night with the girl from the bar.  A Farewell To Arms, I think.  But I digress.

The second picture is closer up of the walled old town.  The site has been inhabited on and off since Greek times, but became a permanent site during the fall of the Roman Empire when the remnants of two Roman cities, one north and one south of Dubrovnik, came together and settled this site, immediately starting construction of the walls, which continued to be built for the next seven or eight centuries.

The third picture is of Stradun, which is the main street and divided the Roman and Slav portion of the city.  It originally was a marshy area, but eventually was filled in and paved, with marble.  The marble is not smooth polished marble, but it makes a pretty street.  A sign is posted at the entrance to old town showing the location of all the damage done to Dubrovnik when it was shelled in 1991 by the "Serbs and their Montenegran allies."  Stradun was repaved, and my understanding is that most of the tile roofs in the photo are new (since '91.)  

Picture four is from the walkway around the top of the city walls.  The walkway is about 1.2 miles, with many steps, up and down.  The walk is definitely not ADA-approved.

Photo No. 5 needs no explanation; two tourists on the sun-drenched Adriatic coast.

On the Way to Dubrovnik

We are back from Dubrovnik.  It was a nice four-day trip, with two of the days devoted to getting there and back.  Our trip advice was near perfect:  180 miles, seven hours.  The top picture is of the road from Shkoder to Bar (in Montenegro)  The first two pictrures are in Albania; the next three are in Montenegro.  This road is "red" on the map, indicating a paved main highway.  It is denoted "autostrada" on the map legend; I'm sure this is a translation artifact and not a statement of fact, although some of the local drivers seem to think they're rolling down the autostrada.  Shortly after leaving the Albania/Montenegro border crossing we came upon a wreck where two cars hit head-on in a corner.  As you can see from the photos, there is not much extra room when two cars pass on a straightaway, and they do have a habit of cutting the corners.  Albanian society seems to move at a leisurely pace until one gets behind the steering wheel of an automobile, whereupon thoughts of the possibility of another vehicle approaching unseen from around the bend do not seem to intrude on the driver's desire to rapidly get wherever it is they're going.

The donkey cart was outside of Shkoder, and the donkey eating grass was in Montenegro.  We had other encounters of an animal kind:  we came around one corner and there was a guy herding cows through town.  Up in the mountains there were warning signs to watch for cattle.

The fourth photo is the autostrada in Montenegro, getting close to the Adriatic.  Last photo is the ferry at Lepetani, Montenegro.  There is a large bay off the Adriatic here and the ferry saves a lot of driving.

 

Plans

Saturday morning we're driving to Dubrovnik.  It is 180 miles and we've been told it takes about seven hours if we only get lost once or twice.  Albanian highways don't have numbers, or at least if they do, they're not posted anywhere I've seen.  The best I think we can hope for is an arrow pointing to a town we're headed to.

After we get into Montenegro maybe things will improve -- they have highway numbers listed on the map, as does Croatia.  Hopefully they'll be posted.  

We've also been told that when in doubt and choosing between two roads that look like the main road, take a left.  That way we'll be heading toward the Adriatic and not Romania.  Since there aren't highway route numbers to follow, our directions contain info such as "after you pass the castle on the hill in Shkodra, take a left at the next big road."  Our "main-highway" route has only one one-lane bridge and only one ferry.  But I'm assuming since everyone else can get there we can too.

I'm canning my first batch of tomatoes today.  They're not turning out too good -- too much water.  I don't know why, because I've eaten this kind before and they were real meaty.  I'm going to have about 15 quarts of two-day marinara sauce, or lots of soup stock.  I've already cooked the juice down some.   Nancey's dad knew more about tomatoes than anyone I've ever known, and in June Mr. Turnage always started worrying that there would be a  big rain and ruin his tomato crop.  The ripening tomatoes would suck all that water up and the skins would split.  Which is what mine looked like, and we did have a lot of rain up until about a week ago.  So maybe my next batch will be better.

As soon as my pickling stuff gets here I'm going to make pickles.  It was difficult in Jackson to find cucumbers small enough for good pickles, but here there are a lot of them.  And I've seen the first baby okra in the market.  So I'll be putting up vegetables through the summer