Welcome, 2009!

Hello for the first time in 2009! I'm sure you all passed the New Year in many different ways. Mine passed with flying colors. Literally. Let me explain.

Remember how I said that New Year's is the main holiday here? Well if you would've been here with me, you'd have no doubt about that! The first part of the tradition includes turkey. For weeks, since the beginning of December, all the markets have been full of turkeys. Live, dead, in trucks, on the street, in parking lots, or hanging over the shoulders of those who bought them. Unfortunately, these spots were so crowded the whole entire time that the only thing in the picture would have been people and not turkeys. So I apologize for not being able to give you a solid mental image of this. It was really something though!

The reason turkey plays a big part in this holiday is because it's their main holiday and so they spend much time with family. People gather together and have a big meal and turkey is their New Year's meal like it is for our Thanksgiving. They also cook a massive, and I'm talking gargantuan meal in addition to the turkey because they stay up all night to celebrate. This way, they have food to last them all night. We were fortunate enough to be invited to the Huna's house (Olsa, Neda, and Ledio's family) for dinner where everyone's plate was piled high with turkey, beef, proschute (It's a type of ham/sausage that I think is very good. They put different forms of it on pizza too. Yum! ), a hot dog sausage, traditional qofte sausage, tomato slices, sliced cucumber, pepper slices, a hard boiled egg, olives, and two types of cheese (feta and something else that was white). Then there were also small cookies, potatoes, and bread to add to the meal. And wine and soda. And cake for dessert.

See, what many people do--because it's tradition--is this: They gather with their families and start eating this huge huge meal. Then, at midnight, they ring in the new year with toasts and tons and tons of fireworks. Then people go out to bars for drinks or coffee or dancing, etc. until all hours of the morning. Usually at least until 5am. Our landlord's son didn't get home until 8am. The next day is still a holiday and most places are closed. So people stay at home and just do nothing but spend time with their family or they go and visit other friends or family together.

I took pictures of our night but the most amazing part was the fireworks. First of all, understand that Tirana has over a million people. Second of all, you need to know that the big dangerous kind of fireworks that are illegal for everyone except licensed professionals in the U.S. are perfectly legal here and can be bought on the side of the street. Therefore, everyone buys their stock and lights them off at midnight. This means that at least a tenth of the city (100,000 people) are lighting a supply of dangerous explosives at the same time. Some were doing this from the ground, some from rooftops, and some right from the balconies of their own homes (apartments). It was crazy!!! I loved it! :)

You could hear fireworks going off all day, but from the time it was getting dark around 4:30 until 2:00 in the morning (at least), there was a constant rumble and blast of fireworks. It sounded like gunfire. Now I know why war sounds are described like fireworks with flashes of light in books and movies. In fact, Mrs. Huna was joking during dinner by saying that on this day, Albania is like Afghanistan. She meant with the noise and flashes of light from the fireworks, it's like war. And honestly, if you didn't know it was a celebration and the explosions of light weren't designed with such festive appeal, it probably would have been very similar.

We ended up watching the show from a 7th floor apartment balcony thanks to our friend Lori. She had been planning to watch the fireworks with us but then one of her co-workers, Gretchen, mentioned that she was pet sitting for some people who are back home visiting family right now and they said to use their balcony for anyone who wanted to watch fireworks. It was perfect! It was at a high enough place in the city and was a tall enough building that we could see it all. Thanks to the balcony that went around 3 sides of the building, we just about had a 360 degree view of everything. It was easier to take video instead of pictures, so that's what I did. Watch closely and you can see some of the fireworks whiz right past the balcony. I did it in a chronological sequence in a span of about 10 minutes before I just had to stop and watch and take it all in.

At 10 to midnight things really started to get loud so we bundled up because it was cold (low 20s) and made our way to the balcony. The first video was taken at 5 minutues to midnight. Then I took one again at 2 minutes to midnight. The next video is at midnight. And the last one I toook was at a few minutes after midnight. (They can be viewed, in order, at the bottom of this post.) I was just in awe of the craziness and reckless abandon at which people fired them off. Wow!!! It sure was a sight to behold! :) I know I have never seen anything like that before and I feel certain that I never will again. It was outrageous and spectacular all at the same time. And I loved it! :) We literally passed the New Year with flying colors. ;)

After the majority of the fireworks displays seemed to have calmed down to a less deafening level, we ventured out again and went our separate ways to continue with the night's plans. For Emily and I, that meant walking over to the Block area to meet Aida and wish her "Gezuar Vitin E Ri!" (pr. geh-ZOO-ar VEE-ten EH REE = Happy New Year!) She had made reservations at a bar kafe where she was spending the rest of the night with friends. We turned down the invitation because the reservations cost approximately $15 per person and we were not willing to shell out that much to sit in a ridiculously smokey room (Have I mentioned that Europeans smoke like chimneys?) listening to blaring folk music that we don't understand and don't know how to dance to, especially since we're travelling in a few days. Our money will be better spent on that. :) Then we walked home to call our families and remind them that we're so far in the future that we were in a different year! ;) We were still up late but not as late as most other people around here. lol

I have a few more photo albums to share of other things, but that can wait until tomorrow or Sunday. We went up Mt. Dajti yesterday so that story will wait until the pictures can accompany it properly. Until then, I haven't heard any bad news, so I assume you all had a safe, happy, and healthy new year! Welcome to 2009! I will leave you with a little message from Ledio and myself. (The very last video on this post.) We were playing with the camera and this was the best we could come up with. Hope it makes you smile. :)

P.S. For those of you who are missing me, this is the year I will see you again. ;) lol

P.P.S. A huge shout out to Andrea for telling me how to make clickable word links to my photos. Why I never thought to google the topic myself, I'll never know. I google everything! lol :)