Celebrating 14th of March in Tirana: For Albanians, 14th of March is the spring day and it is quite an experience to see how they celebrated it ! Was a wonderfull sunny day. The main Boulevard of Tirana (boulevard of the Martyrs of the nation) was closed and only for pedestrians and bicycles like during communism time (no cars :-)! A lot of people walking, enjoying music and fanfare parade. Others were selling the traditional cookie made only for this day , the famous and delicious "Ballokume" (a cookie made of corn flour, butter and sugar). Me as a French girl, originaly from Vietnam and living in Tirana since 2 years, i was the curiosity of the people ! Why ? Just because for this special day, many Albanians were coming from the countryside and many of them have never seen an Asian girl ! Then, they all said "oh Chinese chinese" and try to speak English with me , saying "hi, hello" ! They were so friendly, not with any kind of discriminations or things you can find in an other European country. My 6 years old boy (half vietnamese/half German) was surprised and amused because he didn't understand why they said Chinese as for him he is not Chinese ! We were laughing a lot and enjoying the spring day with all Albanians ! Attached, some pictures and videos from me or from my friends !

14th March : spring day in Tirana

Tirana on 14th March 2012 or How Albanians celebrate the Spring day :
14th of March is very important for Albanians. We can say that Albanians are really celebrating this day. The main boulevard of Tirana was closed and only for pedestrians and bicycles (like during communism time) ! the center of Tirana was full of people, enjoying music, fanfare parade and the famous and delicious "ballokume", a traditional cookie (corn flour,sugar and butter) made only for this spring day ! Me as a French girl, born in Vietnam and living in Tirana, it was quite funny to see how they celebrate the spring day ! Many Albanians came from the countryside to Tirana for this day and when they saw me they said "Chinese Chinese" and try to speak English with me saying "hi or hello" ! They never saw an Asian girl in real and were very friendly, without any bad feelings or thoughts ! My 6 years old boy (half vietnamese and half German) was quite amused by this because he asked me " why did they say Chinese?" For him, he is not Chinese ! We were laughing a lot, enjoying music, buying many of these ballokume for us and friends and celebrating the nice atmosphere of Tirana.