Good morning Tirana!
I liked Albania a lot an it surprised me in many ways, but also, it was the most"Balkan" of the Balkans for me.
It's almost half the size of Estonia, but it takes ages to get anywhere, at least there are these beautiful mountains to look at. It's often chaotic, but cheap, warm and friendly.
Albania has a bit less than 3 million inhabitants. The country has been part of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire and became independent in 1912. The capital Tirana has a population of around 900 000 people and is a funky city to visit.
Tanner's mosque.
We arrived to Tirana at dawn, after finally finding a bank and walking to our accommodation area, our hostel for the next nights was supposed to be open. We walked on the correct street, yet there was nothing, did rounds in the area, until a car full of guys pulled up next to us, we were ready to snap at them, when one of them loudly said "Ziig Zaaaagggg", which was the name of our hostel. They kindly pointed us to the right spot, only sign pointing it was a hostel, was a graffiti like sign on a metal door. Two tired travellers banged on the door and a very grumpy lady came to "welcome" us. She let us in and showed us to the common area, but refused to deal with us much more at that ungodly hour. Even later she was the weirdest lady.. Kind, but weird. Barely spoke any english, but got angry when foreigners didn't understand her Albanian, wanted to be part of every conversation happening, but when she decided it's late or early enough for quiet time, she was literally everywhere to kill every conversation with a loud shhhhhhhh. Fun times.
We took the Dajti express up to the mountains. The Dajti Express Cable Car is around 1 km long, takes around 15 minutes and has some amazing views of the city. It was cold up there, but the views are great and there is a panoramic restaurant/bar at the top. It keeps turning around, so sitting there sipping wine, you'll get a 360 view at some point.
Close to the cable car entrance, there's the BUNK'ART museum filled with art and history, showing what daily life was in Albania under communist regime. That is definitely one of the coolest things to do in Tirana and definitely a museum I do not regret paying for. The old, underground bunker has long dark corridors with small rooms coming off. It's spooky and chilly and totally awesome. There weren'tmany people visiting so we got to explore on our own. Most of the rooms are filled also with visual and audio effects which often made us jump and (once) scream. A guard actually ran out of somewhere to check on us after that.
In the 1980s there were up to 750 000 bunkers in Albania. Nowadays most that are not destroyed are landmarks and monuments, a few are made into museums.
There are on average 5.7 bunkers for every square kilometre. Communist dictator Enver Hoxha ruled Albania as one of the most isolationist Stalinists from the end of World War II until his death in 1985. Fearing an invasion from his former Soviet allies or NATO, Hoxha had enough concrete and steel bunkers built to stop an army of millions.
Skanderbeg Square
Dedicated to the national hero, George Castoit who stopped the Ottoman Empire from entering further into central Europe. Around the square there are the National Museum, Clock Tower and Et’hem Bey Mosque.
National museum of history.
Walking towards the hip Blloku area.
A stopover at Grand park.
The pyramide of Tirana.
This was originally built to house a museum dedicated to Enver Hohxa, after the fall of communism it was abandoned. The building sits in the middle of the city and has been used as several things like tv studio, NATO base or a nightclub, but now it just sits there and acts as a tourist attraction. Apparently people used to climb it and slid down. At the moment it was surrounded by fences and according to a very friendly local, it's being converted into a IT hub. When authorities announced plans to demolish it several years ago, locals protested, demolition plan was scrapped and it was decided to turn the pyramid into a digital learning centre.
A well preserved, beautiful 19th-century stone bridge, remnant of Ottoman Tirana. It's near the river, but not on it any more. We had it marked as a spot to visit, yet we assumed it goes over the river as a bridge would. At the spot we had marked on our offline map, there actually was a bridge. The most random, old, wooden bridge. We actually convinced ourselves that is that. Not extremely impressive, but there probably is a story about it, we were gonna google later. When starting to walk towards dinner in the center we thankfully stumbled on the right bridge as well, walked across it it and had a good laugh.
A massive rain happened to Albania. Thankfully in the evening, and just one time during all these travels.
Now already "competent" in Albanian bus system, or so we thought.. took a morning bus to the coast to Vlore. The day before we went looking for a bus station to buy tickets. I'm glad that we did. Long story short, there is no one main station in Tirana, buses to different directions go from different stations and they are not that close to each other at all. The main directions are southbound, southeast, northbound, international and Kosovo. Also you cannot buy tickets in advance. You go there find a guy who is yelling your destination the loudest, try to make sure that the bus is actually going soon, not in may hours, go sit into the bus, pay the driver and wait for departure.
The minibus to Vlore was actually quick and painless.
Hello beautiful coastal town Vlore!
It's the third largest city in Albania, with population of around 80 000. It was originally founded as an ancient Greek colony and is most famous for being the place where Albanian independence was proclaimed.
It was actually difficult to find food around mid-day. It was either pizza or drinks, and thankfully that one local joint.
Our home for the night. As we decided to go to Vlore on a whim, we booked a cheap hotel near the beach a bit out of the centre.
A walk to the centre/promenade area on the beach. There are 300 sunny days a year in Vlore. Not bad.
A lot of it is still under construction.
Southern Albania is all about seafood. It's fresh, cheap and so delicious. We overate every day, 3 times a day.
Watching the series finale of Game of Thrones. So bittersweet. And yes, it needed liquor. Still can't believe it's over.
A lot longer bus journey than we expected. Welcome to Albania!
It wasn't so easy to get from Vlore to Saranda. One beach town to another. The distance between these two is 180 km. And the drive took 5 hours. Mind blown. It didn't help that the bus-driver made a stopover somewhere in the mountains, said nothing, excited the bus and disappeared for half an hour. Average speed for the bus at most times was 25 km/h, but the views were exquisite. So, it was probably the slowest, yet also most scenic ride I've taken.
The bus stop in Vlore was actually easy to find, but when does a bus to Saranda go, was a mystery to all. Obviously there were no signs. Locals and other bus drivers in the area had no idea either.. Soon, was what they said. Somebody then figured out that in an hour. We went for breakfast, when we came back and there still was no bus, they went back to "soon". At some point somebody figured out that there is at least another hour to wait. We went across the road for a beer and wifi to try to become wiser ourselves. By that time the locals had also found out the correct time. I have to stress out again how friendly they are, three different strangers came up to us telling us what time it departs.
Saranda! And our view from our balcony of a lovely family-hotel, which we were the only habitants at, as the season had not officially started yet.
As there was no beach area set uo for the hotel yet and all in all there was a lot of construction and renovations going on, they put up these chairs just for us.
Good morning!
Ksamil!
Ksamil is a village and a former municipality in the riviera of Southern Albania, part of Butrint National Park. It's half an hour ride by a local bus from the centre of Sarande. That bus actually had a schedule and was on time!
Mussels for lunch, freshly caught from the lake next to the restaurant, and they cost barely anything!
The restaurant owner also owned a private beach and welcomed us there after lunch.
Nights in Saranda are vibrant and fun, there are plenty of bars, cafes and clubs on the promenade.
On our last morning, walked to the lovely city park, took the tourist bus to the edge of the town and started our hitchhiking route to Thessaloniki. First stop, like our sign said, Ionnina. As our first car was the kindest pair of Albanian guys, they also took us to one of the sights we otherwise would have not had time to visit, the Blue Eye.
The Blue Eye.
The deep blue sapphire waters of the center form the pupil of the eye and are surrounded by the vibrant emerald greens, teals, and turquoise of the iris. The water is cold and deep.
By the evening, after many adventures we made it to Thessaloniki, Greece.
A quick stroll in town, lovely dinner spots, quirky cafes and cool rock bars.
We had a flight back to Tallinn a 2 am from Thessaloniki. There is an airport bus which also serves as one of the few night buses in town. On a Friday night it was extremely crowded, so beware of pickpockets! I speak from experience.
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