Durrës Part 1

 Durrës is one of the highlight of Albania. It is the second city, and it is brimming with history, culture and things to do. Its a semi easy day trip to do from Tirana, you can catch a Furgon (bus or minibus) from the North bus station in Tirana. There's no connection by train, the Albanian train network is a mess and barely functions, with the main line that doesn't reach Tirana only having trains 3 days a week. I wouldn't even bother trying to use it. (Side note, there is a large amount of investment going into the Albanian Railway as we speak, but its unknown when and how the system will be fully running and functional again. I don't think I've ever head of a worse running rail service in anywhere I have been) Furgons leave the North station frequently, although some run on a timetable, and some run when the bus is full. It's an odd concept, especially if you, like me live in places where the bus goes at a specific time regardless of whether its full or not, but most Furgons are privately owned, so the driver wants to make as much money as possible from each trip. We waited around 20 minutes until the bus was full, and we were on our way. 

Its a nice easy trip there, and before I knew it, I was in Durrës, which I will say was one of my favourite places while on the trip to Albania. Durrës was nice and compact, so it was easy to get about on foot, and was developing this really nice Mediterranean feel, with newly paced streets and pedestrian boulevards, as well as having this lovely café culture vibe. Unfortunately for me, it had been raining heavily while on the bus, and continued to drizzle on and off while I was there. It's so bloody typical, the week before I got to Albania, it had been warm and dry, then as I arrived, the drizzle started. Every time I go on holiday it seems to happen. I remember being in Turkey and the woman in the hotel I was staying in apologising for the rain as I checked out, because it normally rains once a week, yet the three days I had been there it had not stopped. Perhaps I should be sent on free holidays to places having a drought, and I would be able to get the crops growing again. Just a suggestion. 

But I digress, and the first place I visited was the Archaeology museum. Now Durrës was a big city two thousand years ago, and has the largest Amphitheatre in the Balkans. The Romans called it Dyrrachium, which over time has evolved into the Venetian Durazzo, the Arabic Dirac, the Turkish Dirach and then into Durrës. This means there is plenty of beautiful Roman objects that have been found over time, and they are displayed beautifully within the archaeological museum, with some of the finest roman glass and decorated ceramics I've ever seen. The top two floors were closed for restoration (note that this is a theme in my Albanian Adventure) but the ground floor was packed full of beautiful exhibits, and everything was displayed very nicely and cleanly.

I just couldn't fathom the beauty of this statue from what was left. Imagine how it must have looked complete and in its prime, the delicate carvings, the attention to detail, and it most likely would have been painted bright colours to really bring the details into focus.

And then, it was time for the star of the show, the Amphitheatre. As I said earlier, it's the largest in the Balkans, and while its not the most complete you will ever see, it has a couple of details that I've not ever seen before, and it will blow your mind.

As you enter, it doesn't look like much, with the scaffolding and roof's put over it, but you actually get to descend down into it and the passages that run through it which was really cool.

The original stairs are still there!

Here's a window from the chapel, which was built into the amphitheatre in the 4th century, while not much of the chapel survives, there's this cute little window and some incredible 6th centaury mosaics hidden away in one of the little alcoves of the chapel.

The beautiful layers of construction are shown here, alternating stone and roman brick.

The charming mosaics, amazing to see they are still here in situ even though they are 1,500 years old.

A close up of the brick ceilings. The Romans really did build things to last, and monuments like this are testament to their engineering, ingenuity and development. To think that two thousand years later, we are still visiting and are amazed by what they built is incredible. I often think about what the Romans think of this, how two thousand years later they have still left their mark, in their buildings, language, customs, laws and culture. Perhaps they would be proud, astonished that it is still here. But deep down, I think they would know that 2,000 years on, they are just relevant and inspiring now, as they were then.