The Xhiro gets inverted

Albanian culture lesson- the xhiro (pronounced like giro). Xhiro, literally means to walk around. During the spring, summer and fall, everyone in every Albanian town walks around in the evening as a main source of entertainment. Usually this walking takes place on the main street of the town or in the town square. Often, the city government will block off traffic to the main xhiro street in the evening so that people can walk. People walk up and down the street, meeting neighbors, talking, stopping at cafes, etc. For the young, the xhiro turns into a sort of mating ritual- the young women wear their most scandalous outfits and strut to attract a good husband; the young men sit at cafes and watch the scantily clad women walk by. Every town is proud of their xhiro. Cerrik had a good xhiro because of the park. Elbasan’s xhiro is ok, made better by the recent completion of the renovation of the castle street. Peshkopi’s xhiro is nice because the Boulevard is so beautiful with the trees.

I have to say that the definition of xhiro was stretched to its limits last weekend in Durres (is it still walking around if you are upside down?).

Durres has kind of a double xhiro- there is the main street leading up to the mosque, but there is also the sea front. After 8 PM (when it is finally cool enough to go outside) both of these areas are packed with people. Some entrepreneurial souls have made the sea front into a sort of carnival, by setting up various rides along the way. There is a carousel and several inflatable bouncy castles and a flying Dumbo machine. And then there is the inverter. When we first came upon it, I didn’t really know what to think. It’s one of those rides in which you sit strapped in and swings back and forth until you are upside down. At one point you get stuck upside down for a few seconds. I’ve seen similar rides to this, but never this particular model (it kind of reminds me of a mix between the Avalanche (which I think is called something else now) and the Skyflyer at Elitch’s). Either way, I knew that riding of that thing in Albania, I was taking my life into my own hands. I was in!

Why are amusement parks and carnival rides scary? Well part of it is the stomach sinking feeling you get when you go upside down, but there is something else. I believe that the scariest (and usually most fun) rides are when you feel like you might actually die. This a theory that I developed during a visit to Lakeside- the other amusement park in Denver. Denver natives know all about both Elitch’s and Lakeside. When I was young, they were very similar in many ways- they were even rather close together (the old Elich’s was only about 15 blocks from Lakeside). They had basically the same rides- each with a good wooden roller coaster, ferris wheel, carrousel, tilt-a-wirl, etc. Elitch’s was always a little bit bigger and better, but not much. But then their fortunes changed. Elitch’s got a big infusion of money and started to build new rides and then eventually moved to their present downtown location- complete with three big metal upside down roller coasters and a water park. Lakeside has remained unchanged for years. A few years ago when I went to Lakeside for the first time in years for a fundraiser, I realized what I had been missing. Lakeside was great. I had the best time. It was old fashioned and a little run down, but Lakeside was awesome. Part of that fun factor was something that Elitch’s, with its fancy roller coasters and safety rules, lost a long time ago- fear. I never really felt afraid at Elitch’s (except that one time when the kid forgot to close the cage on the ride and me and Mae almost fell 50 feet to our death, but that’s another story). But at Lakeside, there was still that fear- that something would go wrong, that the seatbelt would brake, that the guy running the machine would be drunk (although after knowing a lot of people that worked at Elitch’s this was a problem there too, I’m sure) etc. There was the same fear on Saturday night on the seaside at Durres- I don’t know where the ride came from or what kind of maintenance has been done on it. So it was a matter of putting my faith in an Albanian ride owner, closing my eyes and going along for the ride. Xhiro- to the extreme.