In Prizren, Kosovo, we got up before dawn to photograph the blue hour (half an hour before sunrise) of a historical bridge and mosque (above). We then left for Tirana after breakfast to return to Albania for a few days.

Enver Hoxha was the president of Albania from 1941 until his death in 1985. He was paranoid that America or Russia would invade his People’s Republic of Albania. He therefore built more than 175,000 bunkers across this tiny country between 1969 and 1986, or roughly 15 per square mile. We saw the bunkers throughout while driving the countryside, and stopped to look inside one of the larger ones (top left and middle left).

We then stopped to photograph the ruins of an ancient Greek city of Apollonia upper right and middle right). It had an old chapel with peeling frescos (lower left), and overlooked the city (lower right).

As we passed through Immigration to return to Albania, we saw ads for BunkArt. We were not really sure what it was. When we asked, we were told it was a major underground nuclear bomb shelter for the Albanian elite, created during the Cold War. After being closed for decades, it has been renovated and turned into a huge museum.

You approach the bunker through a very long tunnel, close to a KM in length (upper-left). Once you begin to enter the bunker itself, you pass through several concrete doors, each a foot thick with ship-style air-tight sealing hatch (upper right). You then pass through a maze of corridors, able to house thousands of people. There were communication rooms (lower left) and even a small grocery store down there (lower right). The museum was well done, with films, old photos, furniture, gas masks, and old uniforms.

Enroute to Kruje, our lunch stop to photograph the castle of Kruje, we saw a field of red poppies and stopped for a break and to grab some photographs (left column). After that lunch, we strolled down a tiny shopping street just below the restaurant. While much of the stuff there was souvenirs, there were a couple of stores selling interesting used musical instruments (middle column) and even antique cameras and telephones (right column).

Our Albanian guide knew of a pair of old trains that were being stored on a track in the city of Durres that had been turned into a graffiti canvas, so we decided to make a side trip and check it out. Surprisingly, we were told that these two trains are actually still used on occasion from this train station, though it was not clear just when or for whom.

This was Mehmet’s 58th birthday (our Turkish guide with whom we have traveled on seven tours, under his company Turfantastik Turizm). I had asked our Albanian guide (Arber) to have a special cake made. He asked Mehmet for his favorite image from Thethi, without telling Mehmet why he wanted it. Arber then arranged for a delicious cake to be made using that photograph on the surface, and a miniature photographer standing on the cake.

Mehmet was completely surprised, as we had hoped. You can see him taking a photo of his own cake and grinning (right).