ALBANIA
Albania was the second stop on my trip to the Balkans. I entered Albania from Kosovo (read about the Kosovo trip here). I was supposed to spend nearly 8 days but cut my trip short to 4 after finding a place that I did not enjoy and people not welcoming and very rude, especially men with high levels of TOXIC MASCULINITY!
Albania was not for me and I am glad I decided to cut it short, I only visited Tirana (one of the ugliest cities I have seen on my trips).
There are some places I did enjoy in Albania but mostly the experience was negative, possibly one of the worst countries I have visited.
But what happened in Albania?
These are some of the bad experiences I had in 3 days in Albania before escaping to North Macedonia:
My first bad experience was already on the Bus from Kosovo to Tirana. Very chaotic no order at all and a very rude bus driver. Again this could happen in any country so I let it be.
Second experience. after the 4 hours bus journey I was really looking forward to going to the hotel I booked (booking.com) to relax for a little bit. when I arrived, the receptionist ( a man, all negative experiences in Albania happened with these toxic men!) took my passport and threw it over the check-in desk saying " we are OVERBOOKED find another place". Not a sorry, not a word of apology. Well, I quickly rebooked myself into another better hotel.
At 2 museums I arrived at opening hour, actually 1 minute earlier. I love getting there early so I avoid all the crowd, especially in the summer months! Of course, nobody is there and you will wait for 30-45 minutes without nobody showing up. Of course, eventually, a man will show up and this happened twice! After asking about the opening hours they started being rude and using the same argument " you live in Sweden, you have a better salary so we come late as we don't have a good salary here". A totally SHIT argument, if you ask me. this mentality and rudeness were also constant in many places I visited in the city
People being so rude in coffee shops or shops always using the same idiotic argument that " we are paid little money so we have the right to people like shit".
I then left Tirana having had enough of these people. Of course, until the very last moment toxic masculinity was omnipresent:
At the border, I got asked for money to go through! of course, I did not give in to any bribe! How this country can even be considered to enter the EU with this high corruption?
the border guards decide to empty my bag and look for everything! they wanted cigarettes apparently....good luck with a non-smoker
Then the last touch of toxic masculinity happened with the driver of the van I was travelling on with other locals to reach Struga in North Macedonia. He left us 15Km from the city, for no reason! Luckily I love walking and I was simply happy not to have to deal with these people anymore. It was the best walk of the trip!
I only stayed in Tirana, a super ugly city with scaffolding everywhere. There are a few things that I enjoyed and I will share them below together with some practical info on how to get into Albania (If you really want to go) from Kosovo and most important, how to leave Albania and reach the super friendly North Macedonia!
To get to Tirana I travelled by bus from Prizren in Kosovo. I booked the ticket online here. It is a little bit pointless to book online since you still have to go to a ticket office to get a paper ticket! Prizren station is very small and there is no information office or ticket office. Eventually, someone pointed me to an old lady's office where she then gave me a paper ticket. In Prizren, you don't take the bus to Albania. You will take a small van that will take you to a service station where you will board a bigger bus. This is where the chaos starts, a very chaotic experience to get to that bus and board that bus. the bus, to my surprise, did not stop at the border so I didn't get an exit stamp from Kosovo or an entry stamp to Albania. Bring noise-cancelling headphones because people are loud and rude and they do not have headphones themselves so everyone is watching movies or listening to music with loudspeakers. such an enjoyable trip! Welcome to Albania!
BUNK'ART 2
This is one of the many Bunkers built in Albania. Albania had over 750000 Bunkers. This is in the centre and it was pretty packed when I went to visit around 5 PM on my first day in Tirana. Been to many bunkers on my trips but this and Bunk'art 1 are really nice places to visit. This is a former anti-atomic shelter of the interior ministry of Albania.
BUNK'ART 1
This bunker is not in the centre but is easy to reach. I decided to walk there, it took around 50 minutes to walk from my hotel. This was a way to avoid more toxic masculinity among Albanian men and this is one of the museums I arrived on time to then find nobody there as I wrote a little earlier.
this is probably my favourite place in Tirana. The bunker is really big and well organised with so many rooms and so many things to discover. The bunker has 5 floors, 106 rooms and even a congress hall... I am surprised I didn't get lost since I was the only one there. The bunker is near the cable car Dajti Ekspres so you can combine the 2 in one trip. I did not like the Dajti Ekspres trip to be honest. Overpriced cable car to end up in a restaurant! waste of money, but I do recommend Bunk'art 1!
HOUSE OF LEAVES
This is a museum of surveillance and it was originally the headquarter of the national intelligence service that was keeping a super close eye on the Albanian population. Originally the house was a medical clinic then transformed into the HQ of the secret services. they have the stupid rule that you are not allowed to take pictures! no idea why! but I took pictures anyway!
STREET ART
there is pretty much street art everywhere. This was really nice. Especially since Tirana is not a very nice city
GREAT MOSQUE OF TIRANA
