Chapter IX
'But Why?!'
December 2023,
Whats the point? Why? What on Earth? Just a few of the comments I received in work or from family and friends, so let’s begin. A flight to Albania in particular Tirana was £32, no not one way, return! I think it actually worked out that the flight ticket was like £8 and the rest was taxes and admin costs. As I have mentioned before I do like to take a spontaneous trip, and theres something about going on ‘Kayak’ the discover page and just look to see what the cheapest flight out there is for the following weekend, that is pretty much what happened. Of course I did some research into it as per, I mean its on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea and I do love my greek mythology it shares the same coast line with Croatia and Montenegro, it must have something, right? The flight out was very early and from London Luton, so yes a bit of a drive but Luton airport seems to be the back alley gateway across Europe, mostly because of ‘Wizz Air’ pretty much base themselves from here, so if you are stuck for choices, don’t mind the travel and happy to fly anywhere I recommend just jumping on their website, they go to places I still have never heard of, which makes them the best destinations for a random getaway. It surprisingly only takes 3 hours, so a more than comfortable flight, I will say the airline isn’t the most organise I’ve ever seen and you do get some people… But thats now all part of the experience as they say haha.
As you can see this time I had a helper, my cousin decided to join me on this adventure, I mean for £32 why wouldn’t you, we touched down in Tirana, capital of Albania, the plan was to spend the first night in Durres a coastal city about 40mins drive, spend the day/night there, then head back to Tirana to finish the trip off. On arriving in Durres our very friendly taxi driver informed us of the good old days of Albania where if people didn’t like you they shot you in your back… I would like to say it was a joke but honestly who knows, what I will say the skies were blue there were no clouds and palm trees and white sand laced the coast of Durres. The hotel I booked for the night was called ‘Ventus Harbour Hotel‘ and its definitely worth a visit, this hotel in this location with that view costs you £200 anywhere else in the world, in Albania £60, room was spacious the restaurant was incredible and as I said the balcony which if you wanted to just jump off into the sea you could, fantastic hotel. Recommend!
It was sunny and incredibly pretty but it was still pretty chilly, after all its December. We chucked our stuff into the hotel room and met back up at the bar and sipped a beer Korca which was alright to be honest. We then set out to explore what Durres had to offer, there was lots of modern style statues, including one of a naked woman’s torso, I dunno… didn’t complain though. There was a few bars mostly restaurants along the front and I will say it was very quiet, mostly elderly walking around, I don’t know if thats what this place was or is etc but it was peaceful maybe in the summer its unbearable I don’t know I can only comment on my time there. We took a walk further into the centre and it still remained very quiet, shops were empty but plenty of decorations around celebrating the xmas spirit. There was a part castle wall which was meant to have a very nice cafe on top this to was not open, we then stumbled across an amphitheatre I mean, I’m starting to collect these things, I will say this one actually looked pretty intact and although it didn’t quite have the same touch as others it was pretty cool to witness in the middle of this very clean and attractive area. We stopped in some bars just off the coast road mostly looking to find what would be the cheapest drink to order, we ended up drinking more local beers which most are pilsners if thats your kind of thing, but the spirits are the go to drinks for prices, think it worked out like 39p a shot which isn’t just cheap its dangerous. After a few liveners we took to the streets again, not far away was a roof top bar called ‘XV’ which as the night fell it was a nice place to just see this coastal town lit up. We didn’t stay long it was more for the view and heard there might’ve been live music, which there wasn’t, so we headed back towards the hotel, to our surprise a lot of bars which didn’t look like much the start of the day looked to liven up, I cant say there was many people in them but it did feel like they might sooner than later, we ended up in a bar called ‘Bottle Brothers’ it had a vibe to it and actually was particularly busy, they had great drink selections and good music, we stayed there till early hours and then headed back.
The next day yet again blue skies and sunshine and it was an incredible view to be hold, I went for a walk around the beach and then proceeded to have some breakfast, on return we were then both ready to set off to Tirana, we ended up booking a taxi I think it was through Uber but obviously it wasn’t Uber.. but at least this way you know what you’re paying, I then asked the local taxi cabs how much to Tirana and they over priced it by nearly half, so it was worth sticking around waiting for the pre booked cab. It took about 30mins to enter the city, the designated bus and taxi roads make it a lot quicker as the city is busy. We got to our hotel which was called ‘Hotel Theatro‘ it had everything you needed but mostly it
was fantastic location, smack in the centre of town. We headed to a Hemingway Bar, yes the very same from Cuba if you can remember that far back now, it was nice served lovely coffees and enthusiastic drinks, decor was jazzy, just a nice way to start the city trip. We then proceeded to the main square where the statue of Skanderberg is located, a very famous commander who led the fight against the Ottoman Empire. You’ll find his statue in several countries around this area, a very popular and loved figure. Beyond that there
was a lot to see in the downtown area of the city, incredible looking buildings sculpted similar to pixels, grand mosques and lots of Christmas markets, there was something called ‘Bunker 1’ which was used in the war and is preserved exactly how it used to be, they also use it as a type of art exhibit which was cool, of course I had to get some pictures of the military jeep with turret positioned outside and hold some fire arms. In the distance we noticed a cool looking building and thought we would check it out, it just so happened to be the national stadium which was incredible, we
also found out it recently hosted the first Europa Conference final between Roma and Feyenoord, the stadium was also open to visitors where the bar would serve food and drinks whilst just admiring the stadium,
it was also pretty bizarre as the Albanian government was on the pitch doing interviews who also came up to the bar after, pretty surreal actually. We then headed back towards the hotel but of course went the direction of the bars, we found an American style bar which served Duff beer and then seen the night out in an Irish bar which was packed of locals, we were in our element, Guinness and karaoke, safe to say we were settled for the night. After some horrendous singing and being pretty bollocksed we diverted past the square again to see the xmas market and activities in full flow before getting back to the hotel. The next morning it was off to the airport for our return journey home, what a break again and what a surprise Albania was.
