Tirana, Albania: Despite the fact that cell phones service rates in Albania are the most expensive in the region, Albanians are definitively in love with them and our sense of community (or chit chat culture) is very much being supported by the escalating cell phone mania trend of anyone who has one.
More and more as I walk the streets of Tirana, or as I travel around the country I notice more and more how my countrymen are using this little gadget called cell phone at all times and at almost any imaginable public place that we can.
Even this morning as I was coming to work, I was reminded of this while watching several people talking on the cell phone while driving their car or walking on the sidewalk or in the middle of the street, despite the incoming traffic, the red light, or the street police watching.
However, my favorite examples are definitively the guys on bicycles or bikes, yes, even bikes. This morning I saw this one guy on a bicycle that almost got run over by a car while going against the traffic flow on a one way street and I think he did not even have good brakes because he had to use his feet to bring himself to a compete stop, while the car also struggled not to hit him.
Anyway, I don’t know what it is, but in the end I have to admit that we as Albanians are taking this cell phone mania a little too far. But my true concern is the fact that we are utterly reckless at almost anything we do in public and it almost never ceases to amaze me. May be it’s just me! I don’t know.
(Picture above is for illustration purpose only)
