Five Nights in Tirana

 Hello good people,

It’s been a good month so far.

Got my two-week annual holiday in tow and utilized it very well, if I say so myself. I’d always envied the ability of my colleagues to just pack a bag, grab their passports, and go on international trips whenever they felt like it, something we green passport-holding people could only dream about.

However, Chioma and I decided to say NO to Jaga Jaga and break that yoke. I mean there are countries where our UK BRPs could take us without any stress, so why not? We had synchronized a week of leave from our respective jobs, so we had a good chunk of time for travel waka.

We literally spun a globe on the limited choices and decided to go to Albania!

Of course, this decision was vastly helped by the amazingly low flight costs on RyanAir, and seeing as it wasn’t peak tourist season as well, we got some really good, discounted hotel rates from booking.com.

It was exciting! This would be our first out-of-country trip together and hopefully, the first of many more to come.

We packed our bags with the minimum fuss, booked a return bus ride from Birmingham to Stansted Airport, and caught the Ryanair flight to Tirana, Albania.

Guys, I know I say it all the time but please, travel as much as you can, to wherever you can. It’s an essential part of building exposure and increasing knowledge.

Albania, while still classified as a third-world European country was absolutely beautiful! In our prior planning, we had made the mistake of just booking one location within the country (the capital Tirana) for our full stay and it turns out that there were other scenic, tourist-worthy locations (Saranda, Himarra and Ksamill) which would take time to go back and forth, so the entirety of our trip was based in Tirana.

It was still worth it though.

Our hotel was lovely (even though they were doing some off-season construction work)

and we had enough time to tour the city,

see the sights,

sample the food

and make new friends

. The highlights of the five days came when we stumbled on a personal tour guide package and got in touch with one fantastic fellow named Aris

. He had a tour guide company and alongside two lovely Iraqi-British ladies (Helow and Layla)

we teamed up with, he gave us a two-day mind-blowing personal tour of Tirana which, I have to say, lived up to the billing.

On the first day, we drove up a small mountain, seeing several amazing views from different points on the mountain

, driving past local goatherds with their flock and then hiking for about 15 minutes further up a narrow trail to emerge at the foot of a stunning waterfall!!.

We dispersed with plans to meet up the following day. Chioma and I then toured the town, went to Skannenberg Square, a very big mall in the town center, and had lunch at a local structure called the Pyramid.

The second day of the tour was even better. First, we drove up a different mountain to the outskirts of a picturesque city called Kruje, had a brief look at the city, then went on a terrifyingly exhilarating drive on an extremely narrow, harrowingly twisting and winding road which was cut into the side of the mountain that went up and up and up to the highest point of Tirana as could reach. When I tell you this road was narrow… it was just broad enough for two cars to fit side by side but well maintained for most parts. Thankfully, Aris was a confident, competent driver whose Mercedes vehicle was built for this sort of thing and it turned out to be a very fun drive.

Even though it was a bit scary at some points, my goodness, the scenery views from the drive were breathtaking!

Ears popping from the high altitude, we reached our first stop, a resort in the mountains where we refreshed ourselves with some drinks and crystal clear mountain water,

had some more fresh air and continued the drive upwards to the peak of the mountain.

My people, when we got to the highest point of this mountain, I tell you, the views are better experienced than can be described. We stopped at an abandoned temple and just took in the wonderful view. Bruh!!

The five of us drove on down later on into the heart of Kruje and had a fantastic Albanian lunch spread at a popular hotel there.

We then visited a local bazaar where all the touristy stuff was being sold, and rounded off the day with a visit to a local castle where the Albanians fought off the Germans in one of the earlier world wars.

It was very well worth it.

We rested from all the exertions the next day and very sadly, had to travel back to the UK immediately afterwards.

Prior to our departure, we had heard all these things about the country re the gangsters, drugs and vices but funny enough, we experienced none of these. Instead, the people were amicable, very curious (mainly because we were the only black people at most of the places we went to) and went out of their way to try and engage us to make friends. One guy at our favorite eating spot even bought us drinks and gave Chioma a pomegranate seed treat when she said she hadn’t had it before.

All in all, a very enjoyable vacation.

God bless Albania!!