("Hoxha" is pronounced sort of like "HO-jah").
From the 1960s until the mid-1980s, Albania's Communist government built over 173,000 bunkers around the country. They sometimes go by the name "Hoxha bunkers," after Albania's Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who was in power for over 40 years. Hoxha's regime had the bunkers created as protection from military attacks, but the bunkers were never used as such during Hoxha's years in power and their construction was a drain on resources.
Although many of them in the cities have been uprooted and removed, I guess the bunkers are generally difficult to destroy because they're made of steel and concrete. I've read they were numerous on the Albanian countryside, so I was surprised that it took me over 2 weeks in the country to find one.
Right about this time, a bunch of dogs started barking at us, so we skedaddled. I hope to spot more bunkers in the future and geek out over them in the blog.
Oh yeah, I forgot to say what I was doing. 6 of us went on an afternoon stroll across town.
Sunny came and found us again and accompanied us for the entire trek. Again, we do NOT pet or feed this dog. She can just intuitively sense how cool we are, I guess.
It was a memorable walk. In addition to the Hoxha bunker, we found a strange green pool. And a beastly dog who was very interested in intentional relationship building with Sunny. And, according to Thor, a Communist-style post office (I believe him). At one point I stepped in mud up to my ankle. Good stuff all around.
I'm still in awe of the scenery here. Some of the following pictures were taken by other people. If the photo looks a little better than the other ones, someone else took it. I'm not making money off this, so I'm going to help myself to the bounty of our collective photographic efforts today.
Një ditë e mirë.
(A good day.)
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