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A rest day that became a real estate investigation: two 30-story towers rising in Tirana, and a developer who thinks a 3-bedroom apartment is worth €800K. Lunch was a Greek lamb sandwich. Sunday was fried chicken and packing for Berat.
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I meant to pull 7,500 Lek. I pulled 75,000. What followed: an honest exchange house (Iliria’98), the magnificent Orthodox Cathedral of the Resurrection, a spa recovery, and a peppery Kosovo sausage at Tymi that was one of the best grilled meats in Tirana.
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The mountains are cursed. That’s what our tour guide said and he explained why. We leave Tirana at dawn and within an hour the landscape has turned biblical — jagged peaks with clouds dragging across their shoulders, valleys so deep they swallow the light. By 9:33 am we reach the Macedonian border. By 10:15, Lake…
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3,700-year-old Copper Age stilt houses, a marble Head of Zeus stolen in 1991 and bought back by two Albanian footballers at Christie’s, bunker domes and Lenin statues, and sushi with a 15-year-old waiter who already has a life plan: leave, earn, return.
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I swore off bus tours after Montenegro. Then I signed up for Lake Bovilla — 4.6km² of striking blue reservoir, 14km from Tirana, 400 displaced families, zero birds, and one hidden viewpoint behind a restaurant that no tourist bothered to find. The redemption arc.
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Morning in a contemporary art gallery with Krist Dimo’s ‘Vuoto’ — paintings of fragmented figures and shared human experience. Evening at an Albanian wedding show, dancing in a circle shouting ‘opa.’ In between: a $6 pita, a produce vendor who now knows my face, and the realization that Tirana is starting to feel like home.
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Some days on the road exist not to be conquered but to be absorbed. Day four in Tirana was one of those — no museum, no landmark, no checklist. Just groceries, a long slow afternoon, and a dinner that reminded us why we travel with our appetites first. The day started the way rest days…
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The Great Albanian Fry Crisis solved in one pan (it’s the oil). A billion-dollar Spider-Man matinee, 26 minutes of waterfall peace before the ghouls, the data on why women run Albania’s economy, and Delibros — the best burger in the country, with impeccable fries to prove the oil theory.
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A hands-on Albanian cooking class (byrek, sheqerpare, përshesh, cornbread), the secret of Kalinjot olives, and a walk through Tirana Castle — besieged in 1817, demolished in 1832, now woven into the modern city.
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First day in Tirana: Skanderbeg Square (40,000m², Europe’s best public space), the Et’hem Bey Mosque with its painted landscapes, the Clock Tower, BunkArt 2 (former secret police HQ), a €43 dentist cleaning, and a bag of potatoes bought from a street vendor to finally solve the Great Albanian Fry Crisis.