Keeping Time
Climbing the Tirana clock tower to see what I can see
The first time I set out to climb the Triana clock tower I had a very Albanian experience — the clock tower was closed. No reason given. Height of tourist season. Nope. Sorry. No clock for you.
I had a friend visiting and thought the tower could be a good start. I’d already learned from climbing the Tirana Pyramid that it’s nice to see the mountains and the city from above.
Part of Albania’s charm is its old worldliness, how the country is NOT “just a click away,” to borrow from the favorite cliché of my students. You can’t get whatever you want when you want. May Albania forever stay this way.
In Albania, my old-school skills of reading guidebooks, taking bad photos, educated guessing, and adapting remain useful.
Of course, my friend (because she’s a friend) is adept at adapting as well, and so we climbed the Tirana Pyramid instead that day.
But the clock and I had unfinished business.
The Ottoman-style tower was built in 1822 by Et’hem bey Mollaj, a Bejtexhinj poet, who also constructed the adjacent mosque. The tower was damaged during World War I. When rebuilt construction increased the height by five meters. World War II caused more damage, then communists removed the clock mechanism in 1973. The tower has since been repaired but I didn’t hear any bongs.
In Rose’s time, the tower would have been the tallest structure in Tirana, a skyline now eclipsed by highrises sprouting like invasive, alien asparagus.
When my partner, Wolfgang, came to Tirana, we returned to tackle the tower and its 90 spiraling stairs. The tower used to be free, but we paid a fee. (Don’t remember how much. Sorry, those who always ask, “How much?” The answer is: not that much, ok? Just about anything you do in Albania is less than an American drive-thru fast food meal. )
We paid cash because Albania loves cash. The man put the Lek in a box and wrote down our country of origin in a spiral notebook.
Albanian bookkeeping.
The climb generates some huffing and puffing, but nothing dramatic, even for this asthmatic. Stone cools the air. I imagine Rose climbing these same steps, and speculate her views of red tile roofs, mountains, dirt roads, and a free-flowing river.
I didn’t take external photos of the tower or the required selfie, but here are some 360 views from the top. Witness the asparagus buildings on the rise.
