Tirana - A Living Picture Book

Our last day in Albania has begun, the Greek border is right in front of us, and we are enjoying one last evening of legal wild camping in the middle of the prairie. For me, Albania was a country full of contrasts, experiences, and new adventures that I would like to share with you in two to three posts. Starting with the capital city:

Since Basti had already had enough of the mountains in Montenegro and the bad weather, our first stop in Albania was directly the capital city, with the goal of meeting people. We were told that there would be a lot going on, but we were still a bit overwhelmed by all the hustle and bustle. It was already getting dark, and the fact that we had neither orientation nor internet only intensified this feeling. So step 1 was to buy an Albanian SIM card. Fortunately, there are seemingly 100 stores in Tirana, and we quickly found one where hardly any English or German was spoken, but we managed to communicate with the store owner and one of his friends. With the words "If there are any problems in Tirana, come back," in mind and data volume in our pocket, we also found a suitable sleeping spot in the city center.

The next day, we explored the city. After just the first 200 meters, we noticed that Google Maps was overwhelmed with Albania. Something new was constantly being built somewhere, something old was being torn down or walled up, which is why marked paths did not actually exist. As a result, instead of being in the city center, we found ourselves in the middle of a market where it felt like everything was available. But hunger drove us towards the city center, where we had breakfast in a beautifully furnished bar. In retrospect, we realized that there are almost exclusively beautifully furnished bars in the city center of Tirana.
In general, the scenery of this city is exciting. In addition to many modern residential buildings, hotels, boutiques, and restaurants, there are old residential buildings from the Soviet era, confirming my theory from the previous evening of a living picture book. As we walked through the streets in amazement, we discovered a great café that was also a small USSR museum. However, there was no small snack for lunch. Although Albania is not expensive, we were not in the mood for anything fancy. Only a few districts further out, we found a snack bar with a lot of meat (being vegetarian or vegan doesn't work in these countries), where we had lunch for a total of 5€ including drinks.
We also thought there should be a bit of culture, so we decided to visit the historical National Museum on the way back. A complete flop! It was not only poorly didactically prepared, but there was no English translation from the 2nd floor and the entire Second World War was missing on the 3rd floor. The sofas, on the other hand, were very comfortable, and we were able to rest a bit before heading back to the parking lot.

In my opinion, Tirana is definitely worth a visit. You can sit right in the middle and simply observe the mentality of Albanian culture. The noise, the business, and the sociability seemed even more intense to me in the city than in the countryside. On the other hand, you can see the modern buildings that are being erected and that already strongly resemble a European Union Europe. Although it only has 400,000 inhabitants and is thus smaller than Nuremberg, it feels like a metropolis of millions, not least because of the many people on the streets. More on that later 😊.