Glamor Shot

So what’s the story on this picture. Couple of things. First of all, I fell in to the trap of Albanian glamour photography. All of my Albanian friends love to get dressed up and take pictures of each other. The funny thing is that a lot of times they don’t smile (especially in wedding photos.) So you end up with a lot of pictures of people looking rather sad. Behind me is the Adriatic Sea. It’s the sea that runs up between mainland Europe (Albania) and Italy.

What’s behind me in the sea you ask? Glad you asked. It’s a bunker. Albania was under a communist dictator for about 50 years until 1991. After he broke ties with the two big communist nations (Russia and China), he started to fear being invaded so he had thousands of bunkers built all over the country. They are everywhere especially along the border areas. Some are little, some are big. And no one really knows what to do with them now. They are really expensive to move so they pretty much just sit where they are. I’ve seen a few creative uses for them. They’ve been made into restaurants or parts of restaurants, used as trash cans, painted crazy colors, or even used to keep their animals in.

This particular bunker is about 100 feet out into the sea. I’m not 100% sure why they would put them in the water… unless the water has risen since it was built, but I’m pretty sure I would not like my family to be assigned to this particular bunker. I’m fairly certain that none of the bunkers were ever used as they were intended (to defend Albania from invasion), but don’t quote me on that.

So there you have it glamour photography and a history of Albania. All in one post.