A Weekend in Albania

November 10, 2023- November 12, 2023

I just had the most thrilling, exhausting, and entertaining weekend trip of my life alongside my roommate. We knew we wanted to travel somewhere this weekend but didn't know where, so I did what I always do and found the cheapest flight and allowed that to determine where our next adventure was going to be. It led us to Tirana, Albania!

Our first day after flying into Tirana we immediately began just walking around the city of Albania. We stopped for some coffee and pastries and found ourselves eventually stumbling into Skanderbeg Square that's in the center of Tirana. We noticed this tour group congregating close by us so we asked what is was all about and discovered it was a free walking tour! So obviously we decided to hop on into this tour and learn more about the city. We walked around for 2 hours seeing many sites such as the Pyramid of Tirana, House of Leaves, Bunk' Art 2, and so many more. Our tour guide was amazing, as was the group we randomly decided to join. Once our tour had ended we had plans to take a cable car ride up to the top of Dajti Mountain on the Dajti Express. This was one of my favorite experinces I've ever had. Although it was rainy this entire weekend in Albania, it didn't inhibit the beautiful view of the Dajti mountain range or the city, now seemingly very small, that was behind us. At the top of the mountain there is a restaurant, activity jungle, mini golf, and a breathtaking viewpoint! Although the restaurant was convincing, our tour guide had mentioned a restaurant that had caught our attention on the tour, so we decided to circle back there and I had the most amazing Mountain Tea with Honey I have ever had... It was delicious I will say! For the evening we mingled with some other fellow hostel stayers until we went out the evening to experience Albania's nightlife. We found ourselves dancing the night away at this bar called Charl's. There weren't too many other people dancing but that didn't stop us from having a great ending to our first day in Albania!

Our second day in Albania was spent taking a day trip to the sea of Durrës, Albania. I absolutely love the sea and after a busy day yesterday, it was exactly what we needed. We ate gigantic waffles and crepes for breakfast, and then bought some Albanian snacks to eat by the sea as we sat and talked for hours upon hours. There's not much to say about our time in Durrës becuase it's so relaxing that's almost all there is to do, but we did find time to walk past the Roman Amphitheatre. We ended our day trip in Durrës around 5:00pm and made our way to this classic Albanian restaurant that was recommend to us by every local, Oda Restaurant. The ambiance was incredible. They were playing live Albanian music and served us fresh, classic Albanian dishes that we loved. Personally, I would recommend the fërgëse. After dinner our hostel had made plans to go out to a TechnoClub that evening so of course we obliging joined them, and I'm so glad we did. It was a crazy experience and although I was exhausted at this point in our trip I remembering thinking 'I can sleep back at home, but I can't go to a TechnoClub with people from a hostel in Albania at home'!

Our final day was spent lazily wandering into cafes and museums. We first visited Bunk' Art 2 which was a wide array of informative artifacts about Albanias history that was very intriguing. To end our stay in Albania we went to a small cafe an ordered Salep which was genuinely Christmas in a cup. It was a vanilla/ cinnamon combination of a warm pudding like dessert that warmed us right up from the rainy day.

If there's something I've learned during this trip it's that memories will last longer than my tiredness will! I wouldn't have changed anything about this trip, only that we had more time to experience more of Albania, specifically Durrës, and hopefully I will do that one summer to swim in its beautiful sea!

Check out my YouTube video of my trip to Albania to see more of my adventures!