After the protest

Today dawned bright and sunny, if cold - the mountains around Tirana are white with snow - so we went for a walk this morning. Politically things have been quiet this week; supposedly there are going to be protests and counter-protests on Friday and Saturday but for the moment life goes on more or less as usual.

As we neared the big pyramid-shaped monument where the heart of last week's protest took place I was thinking that everything looked exactly the same to me, until I saw the flowers and burnt ends of candles heaped around one corner where, I presume, the three protesters were killed. That was quite sobering. Then I noticed the public works men replacing paving stones that had been dug up to throw at the police. All along the boulevard were spots where stones were missing; cubical rocks just the size to fit into your palm.