Tirana

Background Story

This trip came about in a slightly unusual way. A few months ago I was searching online for a short break to Ohrid in North Macedonia. Ohrid, a UNESCO Heritage site, has been on my bucket list for some time, and as North Macedonia is the last remaining country in Europe that we haven’t been to, I thought a small trip there would be in order.

With my mobility issues (I struggle to walk for long distances, and standing still quickly becomes very painful for me), I didn’t want to just book a flight and a hotel, I wanted a private organised tour with a guide. As always, my fingers wandered towards the Undiscovered Destinations’ website, as we’ve travelled with them a dozen or more times already. In addition to group trips, they will arrange private bespoke tours to almost anywhere in the world (even if the destinations are not shown on their website, they very likely have contacts there). I sent off an email to get a quote for a trip using their Hidden Europe tour as a guide, which covered Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Having visited Kosovo fairly recently, I wanted to omit the places we’d previously been, and although we have also visited Albania, it was a long time ago, and well before digital photography, so I was happy to go back there.

I quickly received a suggested itinerary at an acceptable price. However, meanwhile I had been looking at a map of the area and discovered that Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, and Meteora Monasteries in Greece (both of which have featured heavily on my bucket list for years) were within reasonable travel distance from the main route taken on my itinerary. And so, after a few emails back and forth with Mark in Undiscovered Destinations, a ‘short break to Ohrid’ quickly became a 24-day tour covering five countries.

Hotel Austria, Tirana

The hotel restaurant is crowded when we arrive for breakfast, with a large group of Norwegians. There is a choice of Continental and cooked breakfast. David has cereal followed by his usual Full English, while I opt for yogurt with fig jam and seeds, followed by some dark break, meat and cheese.

David and his Chocopos

My first course

My second course

Tirana City Tour

It seems that the Norwegian group (all 40 of them) are leaving the hotel as the same time as us, and are crowding the reception and lobby area while they wait for their guide, leaving no available seats. David and I therefore go outside the hotel, and wait just a couple of metres down from the entrance, in the place where Vladimir dropped us off yesterday. There is a low wall to sit on, which is useful.

By 09:10, Vladimir still hasn’t turned up, and I am thinking of maybe going inside to the reception area to see if he is there. The Norwegians, meanwhile, are having a briefing by their guide on the steps right outside the entrance, making it impossible for me to make my way through the crowd to reach the door. We stay where we are.

At 10:20, a somewhat displeased Vladimir comes over to us – he’s been waiting in the reception for us all this time. He wasn’t there when we came through at 08:50, so he must have walked unnoticed (to us) through the crowd of guests that were gathered outside.

With that sorted and all OK, we begin our city tour. I am dismayed when Vladimir tells me it is a walking tour. “It’s only a few hundred metres” he reassures me, and I reluctantly agree to slowly make my way down to Skanderbeg Square on foot, providing I can sit down as and when necessary on the way.

Skanderbeg Square

The plaza, considered to be the centre of Tirana, is named after the 15th century Albanian National Hero, Gjergj Kastrioti Skendërbeu, known as Skanderbeg. The square is one of the few things I can remember from our previous visit to Albania, in 2001. Below you can see a photo I took back then (bottom), compared with a photo I took today (top).

The square was renovated in 2017, and is now much larger than it was back then, and of course surrounded by many more modern buildings.

This is by far my favourite, a hotel (not yet opened) created to look like the face of Skanderbeg. Very impressive, and very creative.

The omnipresent statue of Skanderbeg himself, takes pride of place on the square, although he is having a bit of a facelift at the moment.

Each of the stones forming the paving on the square have been brought from a different city in Albania.

Et’hem Bej Mosque

Known for its frescoes outside and in, which depict motifs rarely seen in Islamic art, such as trees, waterfall and bridges.

The mosque was, as with many other houses of religious worship, closed under communist rule. The mosque started life as a temple in 1791 (and is now known as Mosque of the Temple). It was 'illegally' reopened in 1991, a year before the fall of the communist regime. The police turned a blind eye to the act, and anyway, they were somewhat outnumbered by the 10,000 worshippers who turned up.

Upon payment of a donation, we are permitted to enter the mosque. No headscarf is necessary (although I did offer, having deliberately packed one in my camera bag), and when he sees my stick, the caretaker even says I can wear my shoes inside if it is difficult for me to remove them. I do, however, take my shoes off out of respect.

The mosque is smaller than I remember and the frescoes have been cleaned up.

The Clock Tower

The 35 metre high tower was built between 1820 and 1830, and there are 99 steps inside to reach the top. We decline, although I expect the view from up there is fabulous!

Bunk’Art Museum

One of my most vivid memories from our 2001 visit to Albania, is the number of war bunkers dotted around the towns, villages, and the countryside. There were, at one time, 221,145 of them scattered all over Albania.

The bunkers were constructed by Enver Hoxha, Albania’s communist dictator from 1944 to 1985 because he was paranoid about nuclear attacks from foreign enemies. The attacks never took place, and today, many of the bunkers have been pulled down or turned into restaurants / shops, or as this one in the centre of Tirana, museums. Tunnels still link many of the bunkers together.

A number of steps lead down to the entrance of the bunker, and I am warned that the tunnels are narrow and can be claustrophobic, but this is one of the things I really want to see here in Tirana, so I carefully make my way down the steps, one at a time, and swallow hard to pretend that I don’t suffer from claustrophobia. It works for the majority of the visit, only when we encounter a large group of French visitors in one of the tunnels, blocking my exit route, do I feel the panic, not so much seeping in, more like flooding. I breathe heavily, in, out, in, out. Thankfully, David notices my quickly rising terror, and guides me into an empty room off to the side of the tunnel where I try to concentrate on the many exhibits detailing what life was like during communist times.

We were almost alone when we arrived, but this corridor filled with slowly moving tourists is what set me off. Even David admitted it made him feed uncomfortable.

This particular bunker was constructed for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and each room tells a different story about life back then, about the forced labour, border control, and the 34,000 political prisoners, 5,500 of whom were executed.

Vladimir takes us to the most interesting rooms and explains what we are looking at. He can be quite difficult to understand, with his strong accent, and unusual use of words.

This was constructed as the room for the minister to retreat to, should the city come under fire

It feels good to get back up into daylight, although my poor knee is not at all happy with the many steps.

The exit from the bunker museum

We wander back through the streets of Tirana to where Vladimir parked the car, admiring the different architecture along the way.

Dajti Mountain Cable Car

At 4.7 km, this is the longest cable car in the Balkans, and the only one in Albania.

To get to the start of the cable car, there are two flights of steep stairs. I cope, but my knees as feeling a little shaky by the time I reach the top. As with most cable cars, the pods don’t stop for you to get on, you just have to get the timing right. With my mobility issues, I was a little concerned how I would cope, but the two assistants help me on and it is no problem.

The view of the countryside and Tirana beyond is definitely worth it.

David and Vladimir in the cable car

Once we reach the top, a further two flights of stairs bring us down to the ground level. We wander around for a little while, and send up a drone.

Vladimir kindly carries our bag

View from the top at 1,000 metres above sea level

We send up the drone from a field behind the cable car and restaurant

Restaurant Ballkoni Dajtit

All the tables by the window are taken (the views over Tirana are amazing), and there are only a couple of others available, so we grab a seat where we can.

Vladimir orders some traditional Albanian dishes for us.

Tavë Tirana - a lamb casserole. The slightly spicy lamb falls apart

Cornbread in Yogurt. I am not so keen on this, to me it is just soggy bread, which is difficult to eat.

Much to David's delight, we also get a huge bowl of chips.

The cable car going down is just as spectacular as the trip up.

Getting out at the bottom, however, is even more scary than getting in, and I make a right mess out of it. I try to get out from a sitting position, rather than standing up and just stepping out of the moving car. To make matters worse, I sit on the wrong side of the car, with my back to the direction it is going, so when I put my feet on the ground, I have to run backwards. The same two attendants manage to salvage my failed attempt, however, by grabbing me as I am just about to fall over backwards. All is well that ends well, although I do hurt my knee in the process.

Back at the hotel, I rest my weary knee(s), acknowledging that I have probably overdone the walking and stair climbing today. I just wanted to see and experience as much as I can, but I expect I will suffer from it tomorrow.

David seems to have developed a UTI over the last couple of days, so he pops out to the local pharmacy to get something to nip it in the bud.

We are both still too full up from lunch to go out for a meal, so we just have a drink in the room, accompanied by some of the leftover snacks from the flight yesterday.

Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for arranging this Balkan Adventure for us.