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The police chief of Saranda, Albania deals a stack of dominoes during a friendly Saturday game on the seaside promenade of the Adriatic port town. Try finding pix of Albanian domino players in any other paper!
Good morning and welcome to Summit Up, the world's only daily column that's going to clear up this Albania thing once and for all.
Albania rocks because it's the home of Frankenstein and Dracula, and with Halloween coming up, that's pretty cool. Plus, they love Americans. They hang American flags off their balconies, they have little American flags on their cars and play old American disco music like Donna Summer in their coffee shops while quaffing cups of thick Turkish coffee. What's not to love about the combo of caffeine and Donna Summer?
MILLIONS OF SUMMIT UP READERS: Dudes! That would be Transylvania, not Albania. Get your geography straight! And we gotta say that we were glad when disco died. Nothing against Donna Summer, but the whole shake-your-booty-on-the-shiny-dance-floor-thing is so, well, 80s.
SUMMIT UP: Oops, our bad.
We just got a little confused on our Balkans. That's all. OK, so even if those gruesome guys are from Transylvania (and we're not sure exactly where Frankenstein is from but sounds more German than Transylvanian), Albania has pretty much the coolest old castles you've ever seen, not to mention white-sand beaches, deserted islands and — get this — old Albanian dudes hang out in the park Saturday morning, playing dominoes for money ... and the police chief is part of the game!
MSUR: Get out. Dominoes? For money? How do you do that?
SU: We're not exactly sure, but we know it involves wearing a dusty old fedora and a checkered shirt. You also need a handkerchief to wipe your brow, and you need to be able to yell really loud and slap down those domino stones really hard, so that they make a really loud CLACK when they hit the table. Then, after all the dominoes are on the table, the chief shuffles through a pile of Lek (the official Albanian currency) and passes it out.
Then there's also the buses. They're old. They're rickety. They leak. But they get you where you want to go and they're super-cheap. Plus, they sometimes load buses onto little wooden ferries to get them across rivers, and that is pretty darn exciting, especially when there's also a load of sheep and goats on board. Often the whole village comes out to watch, probably with the expectation that they might get to watch the bus float down the river and a bunch of goats and sheep swim for their lives after the ferry sinks.
MSUR: Now you're talking. We love ferries, and we love sheep and goats. it sounds pastoral and exciting, all at the same time. Nothing like a good ferry sinking to liven up an afternoon.
SU: See, we told you we'd be able to answer all your Albania questions. As a final bonus, we need to tell you that the Albanian version of MTV is a steady stream pink-tinged, soft-focus belly-dancing type stuff with a driving disco beat that goes well with feta cheese and olives.
We out, brushing coffee grounds out of our teeth.
Albania rocks because it's the home of Frankenstein and Dracula, and with Halloween coming up, that's pretty cool. Plus, they love Americans. They hang American flags off their balconies, they have little American flags on their cars and play old American disco music like Donna Summer in their coffee shops while quaffing cups of thick Turkish coffee. What's not to love about the combo of caffeine and Donna Summer?
MILLIONS OF SUMMIT UP READERS: Dudes! That would be Transylvania, not Albania. Get your geography straight! And we gotta say that we were glad when disco died. Nothing against Donna Summer, but the whole shake-your-booty-on-the-shiny-dance-floor-thing is so, well, 80s.
SUMMIT UP: Oops, our bad.
We just got a little confused on our Balkans. That's all. OK, so even if those gruesome guys are from Transylvania (and we're not sure exactly where Frankenstein is from but sounds more German than Transylvanian), Albania has pretty much the coolest old castles you've ever seen, not to mention white-sand beaches, deserted islands and — get this — old Albanian dudes hang out in the park Saturday morning, playing dominoes for money ... and the police chief is part of the game!
MSUR: Get out. Dominoes? For money? How do you do that?
SU: We're not exactly sure, but we know it involves wearing a dusty old fedora and a checkered shirt. You also need a handkerchief to wipe your brow, and you need to be able to yell really loud and slap down those domino stones really hard, so that they make a really loud CLACK when they hit the table. Then, after all the dominoes are on the table, the chief shuffles through a pile of Lek (the official Albanian currency) and passes it out.
Then there's also the buses. They're old. They're rickety. They leak. But they get you where you want to go and they're super-cheap. Plus, they sometimes load buses onto little wooden ferries to get them across rivers, and that is pretty darn exciting, especially when there's also a load of sheep and goats on board. Often the whole village comes out to watch, probably with the expectation that they might get to watch the bus float down the river and a bunch of goats and sheep swim for their lives after the ferry sinks.
MSUR: Now you're talking. We love ferries, and we love sheep and goats. it sounds pastoral and exciting, all at the same time. Nothing like a good ferry sinking to liven up an afternoon.
SU: See, we told you we'd be able to answer all your Albania questions. As a final bonus, we need to tell you that the Albanian version of MTV is a steady stream pink-tinged, soft-focus belly-dancing type stuff with a driving disco beat that goes well with feta cheese and olives.
We out, brushing coffee grounds out of our teeth.
