"Tiranë, botanical garden" Top 5 Page for this destination Tirana Off The Beaten Path Tip by JLBG

I do not know if the botanical garden has suffered during the years that have followed the end of the Communist era. In 1988, it was a very large and valuable botanic garden, very well kept, a true jewel as can be seen on the first photo. Such a botanical garden requires a lot of manpower to be kept in good condition. The natural tendency of plants is not to stay in the square space that they have been allotted, under their label and the most powerful are all the time trying to invade the space where the weakest are trying to grow. If abandoned, it takes only a few years to be lost forever.

The second photo shows a group of students from the University visiting the garden and working with their teacher.

On the third photo, Agron, our Albanian guide, explains to the students, that are very likely to have never seen any foreigners, what we were doing here. After that, each of them began to talk a few words with us, in the language he/she new. Several spoke Italian, others Serbo-Croat, some English, others French, one knew German and when one asked us if we spoke Russian, I answered "niet, niet, ne Russki" they all shouted, laughed and clapped their hands, shouting "nuk rusishtja, nuk rusishtja!". The one who had spoken Russian laughed too and mockingly hide himself behind his hand, ashamed!

On the last photo, a guy of our group has convinced one of the students to come with him and takes a photo for her with a Polaroid.