Date
|
Place
|
Duration (min)
|
Sprint along lake
|
Pull-ups
|
Time
|
20 Sept
|
Tirana, Rruga Kavaya to Park
|
35
|
1:11.02
|
13 and 9
|
11:26
|
I ran from my apartment to the park in about 15 minutes. So although it would be nice to run in the park without the exhaust fumes, the distance significant. I guess I will have to save my park runs until the weekend.
A great event in Albania today—the pope arrived. I haven’t figured out yet why he came to Albania, a nominally majority Muslim nation. There are, in addition, many Christians and scads of missionaries, including a bunch of Mormons.
I timed it all very well in that I strolled over to the main street where he would be coming (I knew this because I followed crowd). I walked up and noticed everyone holding their cameras above their heads, I decided, in true ‘follower’ fashion, to get my phone out. Not 60 seconds after I arrived, along came the dude himself, in an entirely open mobile, waving and smiling.
 |
| He’s in there…you can barely see the white of the vehicle and a bit of his robe. |
Automobiles were not allowed on any of the streets in the downtown area, so it was truly pleasant to walk around. About two blocks from the main street, there were barriers to pedestrian traffic that funneled everyone to a police checkpoint. It was something that surely would not fly in the US right now. A police office grabbed me only around the waist, padded my pockets and rubbed my shirt. Such an action is completely understood, but civil rights wackos in the US would have a problem with such abrupt behavior. As I left the area, 5 minutes later, most of such checkpoints were no longer looking for weapons and allowed people to enter at their leisure. The spot where I had entered, however, was still checking people. As I walked out, the policeman seemed to put his hand into one guys pocket after he had already walked through the opening. No discoveries.
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| The RAGBRAI-esqe look of the car-less streets |
Here is the pyramid—the place where I would have liked to go so I could get a look of the whole city covered with people. But, as you can see, the place is occupied by snipers, or simply police with guns. The yellow streaks might be paint, or it might be slippery stuff that would discourage people from climbing—as I think about it, it’s probably just more graffiti.
This pyramid is featured in this blogpost from 2011. You can see us crawling all over what is the left side of the photo above. I’m actually surprised that the colossal piece of junk has not been demolished yet. It’s right in the middle of the city on land that must be quite valuable. What’s more, it is showing signs of wear that make it uglier each month.
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