Inauguration Day, Jan 20th, 2009

Last night Courtney and I went to Albert Kasi's house to watch live coverage of the Inauguration on his satellite TV ~ Barack Obama gave a great speech in front of record crowds. We are really excited about the transition and can't wait to see what happens next.

"...and the walls came tumbling down..."

Total neglect of this historic home (The Koloi House) led to its collapse last Sunday afternoon, Dec 14th… and there are countless others in the same condition just waiting to fall...

About two weeks ago I took a minute (from my oh so busy schedule) to take pictures of this abandoned house that stood two minutes walk down the hill from where I live. What made this house special? To me it represented another piece of the potential that I see all over Gjirokastёr – a beautiful structure left to the ravages of time and neglect. It had a very hansome arched doorway. At some point there was a roof and a second floor (evidenced by the charred remains of the wooden support beams). People were using the open doors and windows as a place to dump their garbage… After walking past this house almost twice a day for the past seven months, I began to realize how much I liked it, how much character it maintained even in its damaged state, and decided I should take some pictures. Now I’m really glad I did – because it collapsed and is completely ruined.




The abandoned building fell on Sunday evening. It was raining again as it has for almost a month straight. Apparently the weight of the water and total saturation of the wall caused it to buckle and give way. Luckily, no one was hurt in the collapse, which (as you can see from the pictures) sent the heavy debris out into the roadway - could you imagine the headlines if a car, an old woman, or a group of German tourists on their way up this main artery into the old town were crushed under the weight of a collapsing two story home? Almost one week has passed and still the broken blocks and debris are scattered about the road.

Every day, new pieces are picked off and carried away by different passersby. On the day after the collapse, Monday, the wreckage was in its most orderly state, everything remaining exactly as it fell. Most of my pictures of the wreckage were taken on Monday morning. On Tuesday evening a man was loading whatever wood he could salvage into the back of his open Mercedes – the stuff was so water logged and broken, I gathered he would take it home to dry and use for fire wood. On Wednesday, someone else began stacking the least damaged of the larger stones which were then gone later in the day when I passed by the site. The wires were still hanging down, broken and twisted beneath the wreckage that was spread out across the road. I’m just waiting to see how long it takes for the Mayor/Municipality to respond to this situation and have the roadway fully cleared… to their credit, they did put up one sign at either end of the street to divert traffic and some caution tape, but one of the signs was taken and the caution tape has been removed… so cars are still driving up the street before realizing they have to turn back by going in reverse back down the cobbled street.


On Friday Courtney watched five men with only one shovel move the stones off the street, opening up one of the two lanes of traffic... and life goes on in this UNESCO city.

Crêpes have come to Gjirokastër!!!

Crêpes! Crêpes!! Crêpes!!! - They're just so gooooooooooooooooood...

Greg and I found a Crêperie today while we were wandering around the new town looking for a place to buy cardstock for our amateur photo-restoration project (I'll talk more about that in a minute). So this place has been open for two months, and I only wish I'd known about it sooner! It's delicious!! The owner, named Mr. Santell, is a solid looking guy with a thin beard somewhere in his late 20's. We ordered two dessert Crêpes (chocolate, cumbled cookies, and creme). The owner speaks a little english, and when he found out we were Americans living in Gjirokaster he offered us both a drink of our choice from his fridge and insisted that we not pay for the meal. His Crêpes ranged in price from 80 to 250 Leke and offered a variety of ingredients and toppings, some savory, some sweet. We gave him many thanks and continued on our way.

The Photo Restoration Project is something that sort of fell into our laps as we began visiting the different historic houses in the old town to gather info for our new line of tourism brochures. We were visiting the house (whose name escapes me) near the Babaramo House. The owners weren't home, so Greg went back later in the week and was invited in for coffee. While he was there, the owners showed him a number of old photographs, some badly ripped and damaged, and he offered to scan and restore them (in a rudimentary way) using photoshop. They agreed, and the photo restoration project was born. It has since grown (in my mind) into a larger project. If we can make an effort to approach - or excite others about the idea to approach - one house per week over the next two years, we'll compile and restore a large database of images for the collective memory of the city. The finished product could be used to create a series of miniture museums with photographs and family histories in the different historic homes, thus drawing in tourists and spreading the wealth directly to homeowners... Or they could be compiled into a single museum space housed up in the castle... Or they could be used as images for postcards, callendars, etc. to be sold commercially... whatever happens, atleast a copy will be preserved in the electronic archive of our office here in Gjirokastër, a partner of the Regional Institute of Monuments and the National Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports.

There is one more piece to the Photo Restoration Project - I am in the process of contacting the National Archives in the following countries: Albania, America, Austria, England, France, Germany, Greece, and Italy; to see if they have any historic photographs or documents from any period of Gjriokastër's long history. We want to do everything we can to add detail to the canvas here. We were inspired to start reaching out to the archives of foreign countries when we found this photograph of (what we think are) Austrian troops occupying the castle sometime in the First World War...

Now it's raining again and I'm heading home (while we have power) to make some pasta...

McCain Concedes the Election to OBAMA

McCain and Palin are finished... finally. It's 5:30AM in Albania and we're celebrating!!

On the eve of our most important election...

It's late to still be in the office, considering the working day unofficially ends at 2:30PM. But, I've decided to start writing - something small, maybe a little prayer for Obama in tonight's election - it's still hours before the first poll's start to close on the east coast, and there's a dedicated group of us who'll be huddled around the computers up in the office to watch a live feed of the election results begining around 2AM. There is a lot of blind support for McCain in Albania, but tonight, the Coordination and Administration Office of the Museum City of Gjirokastër is going to be Obama's Campaign Headquarters for this corner of the world. Let's hope all goes well tonight...