Wedding Palaces in Albania

 

Albania. Wedding Venue. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

You pass a lot of buildings like this along the motorway out of Albania. 

Why outside the city? Is it just because land is cheaper? Maybe, but also because they are able to get a large plot, big enough for a large building, landscaped gardens and a large car park. They are isolated to making noise, and noise late at night, is less of a problem than ti might be in the city.

Albanians like to come back to Albania, where previous generations of their family live, to hold large weddings. Two receptions may be held, one on the day of the wedding, one the night before. One is hosted by and for the bride's family. The other is by and for the groom's family. Each wedding can be for 100 to 500 people. Hence the large venue.

In addition to the wedding venues, we also saw lots of shops selling wedding dresses.

Religious buildings you will see, some mosques with minarets and orthodox churches with crosses. 

Useful Websites

https://incredible-albania.com/tours/wedding-on-the-beach/

Singapore's superb city architecture

What are the features?
Bay windows.
Stepped designs - a bit like art deco.
Triangles.
Diagonals.
See-through sections. What is the technical term?
Surrounded by trees and landscaped gardens.

Whether I am in a taxi, on a bus, or part of the train system which emerges overground in the suburbs, I enjoy looking at the architecture. Singapore is a city of skyscrapers. Modern. They seem to have fewer restriction.

Buildings from the post-WW2 cash-strapped nineteen-fifties with their dull cigarette box shapes are few and far between. Those dull designs either were not built, or they have been pulled down for higher buildings to make more money from the same piece of land.


Singapore Flag.

Is it entirely a different mindset in Singapore, with the surroundings of the mosques with their curves? Not entirely. Many times the architects are from the UK. Whatever the reason, even a simple bus journey turns into an enjoyable tour.

Singapore is a great stopover between Russia or Europe and Australia. 

Travel Tips

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

australia.com

visitbritain.com

visitbritain.shop.com

visitbritain.org

visittheusa.co.uk

visitsingapore.com

Singapore Airlines: 

singaporeair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker and trainer in the English language and communication.
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Temples in Cambodia - East and West

Problem
Which was do temples face? In Cambodia mostly towards the East. (Actually large numbers of religious buildings, ranging from standing stones such as Stonehenge in the UK to church, mosques, synagogues and Buddhist and Hindu temples (and many graves and burial places, as well as monuments and houses and public buildings from the days before electric light and gas light) will be designed to face East. That means they get the sun on certain features such as holy statues. Does it go back to sun worship, or simply the practicality of having the sunlight so you can see?

Another thing we discovered about hot countries, you want to rise at 5 am in order to walk or work in the cool, but rest or stay still in the heat of noon and afternoon. At this time water has heated up and even wooden balustrades in sunlight are too hot to touch.

If your tuk-tuk driver wants to drop you off at the west and collect you at the east, or vice versa, your instinct is to say, no, meet me back here at this spot so I can find you. (He argues and this goes round and round until one of you gives in.) He has a good reason for his decision.

The temple may take an hour to walk through to see everything. If you walked to the middle and back in an hour you would have missed all the carvings and statues and views on the other side.

The arrows all point in one direction. In order to find the exit you have to follow the arrows.

Some of the staircases are one way and at busy times you will be going against the flow.

It is easier to follow the arrows because you know you will eventually get out.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.