May 15, 2009

An Albanian Wedding

If I ever meet an Albanian from now on, at least I can surprise them with the fact that I've been to a three day Albanian wedding extravaganza where dancing is the order of the day.

Friday night : Cocktail party
Saturday : What can only be described as a continuous banquet dispersed with bouts of dancing and music. 6 hours, 12-6pm.
Sunday : Church wedding at 5pm, onto the Colloseum for pictures, dinner and party (more Albanian dancing) 8-late.

On Saturday the poor old groom, already the tallest man in the room by probably a foot, was the centre of attention the whole time and dancing like this for 6 hours. Here you can see family members of the bride placing money on the happy couple as they dance for the well wishers.



On Sunday the church wedding took place at a quaint chapel hidden down some Mediterranean looking back streets.

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After this the entire wedding party, 6 inch stilettos and all, traipsed to the town Colloseum for some photo ops. This is all in Durres, the second largest city in Albania.

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Then it was on to the party, 'Club Tropicana'. Yes, drinks were free.

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All that's left is my before and after comparison. Here we are on Saturday, sat around the table at about 1pm thinking 'What the hell...'



Here we are on Sunday night...can you spot the difference (the alcohol level could have had something to do with it as well).

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