but some things never change

O Tirana! I’ve missed you so. I was last in Tirana in 2023 and during that time I kept remarking how much the city had changed since 2018. But now that I’m back in 2026, the city feels like it has changed even more in the past three years.

The Rruga Dibres and Pazar i Ri areas have changed so much. The area near liqeni—wow, just unrecognizable. There are so many tourists that I’m losing count and we had dinner a couple nights ago in the Arena and I was blown away. I told the girls about how I went to a national game 18 years ago at the old stadium and people kept asking for sheets of paper from my notebook because they did not want to sit on the dirty seats. And now there’s this new arena with a Marriott hotel on top!

But, just as so many things have changed, so many things in the Tirana streets remain the same:

I remember the first time someone asked me if I wanted to buy corn and I responded yes, gleefully, only to take a bite and say, “Yuck, it’s burnt” and my friend replied, “Yes, it’s good that way.” And yep, folks still selling corn on the side of the road.

“Excuse me, ma’am, do you want to weigh yourself in the middle of the road for me and everyone else around you to see and react with gasps?”

I remember noticing these posted near my building when I first moved to Tirana. This is how many death announcements are still made. My Dad used to read the obituary section of the local newspaper every day and when I was in college this was part of my campus job one summer, as I had to look for alums or family members of alumni who had passed away.

Can always count on the book dudes in the road. I once bought a collection of Enver’s writings as well as some children’s workbooks from the communist period. And one time several years ago I even found a Black romance novel because pse jo?