Heading to the Balkan: a trip to Albania

Towards the end of October, we flew to Tirana, the capital city of Albania. We travelled the seven of us together, with my boyfriend and some of his friends. I had been excited before the journey as it was my first time in the Balkan. Since Albania is not an EU-state, we had to go through passport control both in Budapest and in Tirana. It was strange for me that the flight only took a bit more than an hour and yet we landed in a totally different country, culture and climate.

On the first evening, right after our arrival, we had two quite shocking experience. The first was the drive from the airport to the hotel. The taxi driver was driving very fast and crazy, but we quickly realized that it was normal there. Even if there were traffic rules and speed limits, the locals didn’t seem to care about them. On the one hand, I was happy that we were supposed to rent a car later, and drive by ourselves, on the other hand, I was quite nervous because of the roads and the traffic. The other thing that was rather shocking happened after we got comfortable in our hotel room and wanted to rest. We could hear the noise of the construction works that came from the neighborhood. I couldn’t believe my ears since it was already midnight! It turned out that construction works at night is actually a thing in Albania and it’s considered to be totally normal. Well, at least after midnight it got quieter, but on the second day, late at night, I actually went down to the receptionist to ask if there was nothing to do about it. Finally, we were in a hotel at night! Sadly, the receptionist kindly told me that he couldn’t do anything about it, the construction had been allowed by the government and that it was normal in the Balkan. When I asked him if it would be the same at the weekend, he assured me that there wouldn’t be any noise then. Well, there was… Anyway, I was already happy about my own bed back at home, where I can’t hear the noise of any construction work at night.

Day 1: Exploring the capital city Tirana

On the first day we didn’t need a car as we were just walking in the city center of Tirana, and our hotel was quite close to downtown. The only thing that bothered me was that I couldn’t drink my morning coffee as I always do at breakfast, because they couldn’t offer me plant-based milk in the hotel. When I asked for it, they said if I had told them before, they could provide it, but otherwise they only have normal milk. Well, at least on the next day I got my milk. My boyfriend stayed positive and said that we would buy a coffee for me somewhere in the city while we were walking. It would have been an easy solution but in the center of the capital city we couldn’t find a single coffee shop offering plant-based milk as an alternative. And of course, there was no Starbucks or anything like that in Albania. After having asked about ten different coffee shops, I decided to buy a Coke and tried not to panic. We were in a different culture after all…

Tirana is actually a nice city, with a diversity of architecture and houses. There are still a lot of old buildings everywhere, but there are also a lot of modern ones and it gives an interesting combination. We walked a lot, went into a historical museum which used to function as a bunker, we saw a mosque as well as an orthodox church from inside and outside, we walked to an open-air market with cute little shops and to a park with a lake, so we could enjoy our afternoon walk there. For lunch, we went to a traditional restaurant offering local Albanian food. We got big portions, but we were only partly satisfied with the food. They also have a lot of strange meat dishes that none of us dared to try.

Since the others were not too hungry in the evening, only the two of us went to have dinner in a burger place where I could have gluten-free burger. By the way, it wasn’t difficult to choose gluten-free options in restaurants in Albania, since a lot of their dishes contain vegetables or meat with rise, cheese, etc. And at the hotel, I could also ask for gluten-free bread for breakfast.

Day 2: Visiting a lake, and Berat, a UNESCO city

On the next day we started with picking up our rented cars (we had two for the seven of us). Then we were ready to explore different places in the country. We stopped at an artificial lake which was nice but nothing special. There were some cafés and such places around it, and we enjoyed the time on the terrace of one of these cafés.

After this, we headed towards Berat, a famous Albanian town, which is part of the UNESCO Heritage Sites. It was actually my favorite destination during our stay in Albania, I liked it even better than Tirana, since it was smaller and beautiful. The view when you are walking along the river is indeed special due to the mountains in the background and the pretty houses on both sides of the river as well as on the hill (or small mountain). We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Then we went up to the mountain by car, where there were a castle and a nice viewpoint to the town. It’s good that you can drive up to the castle and you only need to walk a bit; it’s actually enough on the mountainside. The view was beautiful; it was worth climbing up the mountain. In general, the nature is astonishing in Albania, and we could enjoy it for a couple of days.

Day 3: From the mountains to the seaside

Our last day in Albania was full of programs, and we visited several places. In the morning, some of us wanted to try the zipline course which is considered to be a long one in Europe. Even though we were just watching them with my boyfriend, it was still fun! The guy there knew that we came from Hungary and played some Hungarian songs for us (there was music while they were on the zipline).

Then we went to the big mountains. Gamti Mountain is a famous place near Tirana (about one-hour drive away), with Bovilla Lake in the middle, surrounded by mountains. It is a beautiful, amazing place indeed, but the drive there was rather scary…

I didn’t feel too well on the way up to the mountain due to the poor condition of the roads. But we finally survived and it was worth going there because of that beautiful view in the middle of nature. Surprisingly, there was a completely modern restaurant on the top of the mountain, with huge class windows. We decided to have a small lunch there, while some of our friends still went further to climb on the rocks and to get an even more special experience of this place. I was still a bit nervous that we must make the same way down… But I felt relieved when we reached the towns again and headed toward another touristic place: a town or smaller city with a traditional bazar. We had expected it to be bigger and more special, so we only stayed for a short while as it was walkable and you don’t need a lot of time, if you only want to look around a bit. We still had enough time to buy a few souvenirs and then we left this place, too. The day was already quite long and full of experience, but we still drove to the seaside to spend our last evening there.

Unfortunately, the sunset had already passed by the time we reached the sea, but it was still beautiful with the lights. There were hardly any people there as it wasn’t the holiday season anymore. In Albania, October is not warm enough to be at the beach and swim in the sea, but it’s perfect for sightseeing and going on trips. Anyway, we walked a little bit on the shore and then went into a restaurant where we planned to have dinner. It was quite strange to see modern buildings such as hotels, restaurants and cafés right next to old building where it was hard to imagine people still living… Tourism is definitely developing in Albania, but it’s still on its way towards a well-developed, fancy touristy place.

Our last evening got very long and exhausting (after such an exciting, long day), as we still had to find a petrol station and a car wash to clean our dirty car (due to the roads in the mountains…) Finally, we managed to find the right place and later at night arrived back at the hotel where we had to pack our suitcases and get ready for next morning’s flight.

Back in Budapest

Our flight back to Hungary was quick and smooth, but we had to go through passport control at both airports. I was happy to be back in my home country. When we took a taxi in Budapest, I was very much relieved that the driver was driving the car “normally” and calmly – it was a new experience after the crazy driving culture in the Balkan.

As we stepped into our apartment, I said to my boyfriend: “Everywhere is good, but the best at home.” – a Hungarian saying that reflected my feeling very well at that moment.

This short holiday was full of exciting adventures, and we saw many beautiful places. The locals were friendly and welcoming, and they spoke English well, which made things easier. Still, it was enough for me for once and I would consider other destinations in the future, to see even more of Europe and maybe of the world.