Tirana - where coexistence thrives in a modern city

Albania has a 55-60% majority Muslim population but what's interesting is that as you talk to people they are proud to believe in coexistence and respect to all religions. 

Here it truly doesn't matter what you practice as everyone simply gets along and there are just no issues between people. And most Albanians are very nice and interesting to talk to. 

But let's not forget their difficult past where after WWII, they became a communist country which ultimately isolated itself from the world. 

They cut ties with former Yugoslavia as there communism wasn't proper. Then with Russia because they thought Russia communism wasn't pure enough, then they allied with China until they also didn't agree with them. 

So until 1991, Albania was probably one of the most isolated countries in the world, akin to North Korea today. 

And this isolation came with the usual leaders paranoia, secret police, informants, death penalties, etc. 

Until 1991, people hardly knew about the rest of the world, to the point that they have never seen fruits like bananas or a Coca Cola.

A few people told me stories of how coca colas became a symbol and people use to put a can in their houses as a way of showing change. 

It's history is also complex as Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia shares similar origins and roots but now they are three different countries. 

But what's striking is how modern Tirana has become. It's a city that works and what's impressive is the amount of construction happening everywhere in the city. 

Some of the sights to see are skanderberg square which is the main square (it's not flat so in the summer it can have water to cool off and roll down to the sides as temperatures can reach 45c), the small but cool old bazar, the mosque with it's very elebarotae decoration inside, the pryramid of Tirana, the clock tower, the Tirana castle which is really just a wall and inside you find restaurants and bars and of course bunkers. 

Talking about bunkers, which due to the communist regime paranoia they decided to build bunkers in every corner of the country for the imminent attack of Russia or America which never materialized...but propaganda is propaganda and it worked for a long time. 

Over 210,000 bunkers were supposed to be built and they managed to make over 170,000 of them in different shapes or forms as they had different types. 

But some of the most famous bunkers are now museums as Bunk art 1 and Bunk art 2.

Bunk art 1 (located very close to the Dajti cable car) is one of the largest bunkers as it was supposed to house the government and leaders in case of war and would be the central command of the country. 

This bunker has 5 levels and over 150 rooms. It's currently a very good museum with the history of Albania, particularly the communist period. Definitely worth a visit

The two other museums that provide further glimpse into the communist times are Bunkart 2 which is in the center of town and the Museum of house of leaves which is where the secret police operated and focuses on how surveillance was done on the population 

Personally I think that after seeing Bunkart 1, going to the other two are quite repetitive and not as good. 

And who doesn't like cable cars? Because Tirana has one and it takes you to the top of mount Djati from where one can get great panoramic views of the city. 

The ride is actually long of around 15 minutes as the cable car goes up and down and open all the way to the actual mountain. 

It's a pleasant ride. 

On top of the mountain there's a small amusement park, mini golf, a restaurant with spectacular views and the opportunity to do hiking in the park, there are ATVs, horses for hire and plenty of viewpoints. 

Time to hit the road!

PRACTICAL DETAILS

- Tirana is a very walkable city and easy to explore by foot but on any case there are taxis (most of them electric) almost everywhere and relatively cheap

- FOOD

Mullixhiu is one of Albania top restaurants and they do a tasting menu for 30 Eur. It was ok with a couple good dishes but nothing amazing and their service was below average 

Oda restaurant is a traditional Albanians restaurant including traditional music where the food was quite good (very focused on meat) and the restaurant is actually many rooms each closed so you share the room with 3 or 4 other tables. 

Bars

- the Blloku area is full of places to go to. My favorite for their very cool cocktails was Nouvelle Vague

Others include Radio bar, Kino, Hemingway.

As a side note the Blloku area was where the "elite" class of Feb communist regime and leaders lived and now it's the happening area of town. 

Durres - port city with plenty of history

Originally known as Epidamnos when the Greeks started this city in 7 BC and having been continuously habituated since then, it has been a major port through history. 

Not the most picturesque of places but maybe I just had luck but had an amazing sunset which was truly enjoyable and made prettier by the different statues by the beach.

I really had no idea what to expect but was surprised to learn and visit the different sites. 

Durres Castle or fortified city was built in the 5th century and been repaired and reinforced throughout history. 

1) the Venetian tower - key part of the fortress of the city and thought to have been built in the 15th century and a key point to defend the city as from here they had five openings for cannons as protection. It has been reconstructed after mother nature earthquake damaged it. If you visit it, they have a projection on the dome of the tower which tells the history of Durres.

2) The Roman amphitheatre - this one is impressive. Only discovered in 1966 by an archeologist who kept hearing people saying their pets will get lost into different places where they could hear their cats meow or dogs bark but never knew where they were. Well....they were going into the ruins underneath that had a pretty massive Roman amphitheatre. 

This is the largest amphitheatre in the Balkans and it's still in the process of been excavated and studied but it was a 4 story/level high with a capacity of 20,000 people. 

And there are houses still where the amphitheatre is which the government is buying so they can continue the archeological rebuild. 

The photo of the tunnel shows how one could go down multiple levels and to the chapel that was in the amphitheatre. 

3) the Roman baths. They are located under a government building which when they started building it under the communist regime they found this and hence built the structure in a way to preserve these Roman baths. 

If you didn't knew, the Romans were quite obsessed with cleanliness and hence they built Roman baths and aqueducts to bring water so they can be clean. What's impressive is that they knew how to have hot rooms (kind of saunas as they heated the rooms from below), had cold rooms and pools of different temperatures. 

The baths were also a gathering place and we're people would hang out and discuss business. 

To go into the Roman baths area which seems to be locked all the time (as from outside the fence just looks like some archeological remains....you need to go to the bar that's by the entrance and they keep the key to the lock. That way you can go down under the government building and see the Roman baths. 

And here are a few more photos of Durres and it's beach

PRACTICAL DETAILS 

- I had a guide called Joana which was truly fantastic and can pass her details if anyone ever makes it here. 

- Accomodation - not sure as I didn't stay here

- FOOD: 

Meison Bistro & Markata - one block from the promenade, they have a selection of fresh fish and seafood to choose what you want. 

Great food but with non existent service.

The promenade by the beach is full of restaurants all of them offering an extensive menu of everything from fish, steak, pasta, pizza, etc. 

I was told the four seasons restaurant is on the better side of most. 

- how to get to Durres

From Tirana it's only around 45 minutes by car. You can take a taxi or a bus

Lake Ohrid - The Jerusalem of the Balkans! a picturesque little town (amazing summer destination!)

This little lake town of 50,000 people can triple in size during summer and its obvious why!

Beautiful little town by a lake, natural parks and plenty to do (hiking, boats, scuba diving, mountain biking, ATV, hire riding, etc.). It's also known as the Jerusalem of the Balkans as there are 365 different churches so one for every day and it's a UNESCO world heritage site --> simply because it's truly beautiful

As you walk through some of the cute cobblestone streets, you find not only the famous churches but some tiny ones the size of a small house all over the place. 

The most famous church is the church of Saint Sophia which happens to be in the 1000 Denar bills!

One of the photos is a mini replica of it. There are also other important churches like the church of St Clement and there's an amphitheatre as well. 

During summer Ohrid hosts one of the longest summer festivals in Europe for big parts of July and August with musical and arts performances in multiple places as the amphitheatre, some churches, etc. 

There are 3 other interesting attractions here

1) the famous orchid pearls. These are pearls which are created from the scales of a fish that grows in the lake which scales are very shiny. The process to do so was brought here at the beginning of the 20th century by a Russian from Laka Baikal where they do something similar. 

They are really cool the Orchid pearls and they carry in price depending on their size. Literally the town is full of jewellers selling them. Great for presents. 

2) Paper museum - using old techniques, the old man still makes paper from natural ingredients (wood, cotton and water) with the traditional method dating thousands of years from China. He also has one of the few Gutenberg press replicas with which he prints different souvenirs. 

3) woodworking shop - a family tradition passed on generation to generation, in this tiny shop they make some elaborate wood carvings. They have been commissioned by some churches to make full rooms decorated through wood carving. Even some of the small things in the photo could take weeks or months to make. 

30 Kms outside of Ohrid lies the St Naum monastery which makes for a great day trip. The location of this monastery is exactly where the fresh springs are that fill the lake and hence you have one of the cleanest waters in the world at this place. 

On the way to the monastery you can stop at the Bay of bones museum which shows how people lived in houses made on stilts in the water around 1200-700 BC as they found archeological remains and have recreated a little village

You can visit St Naum and Bay of bones both by car or in one of the day tours by boat (during summer)

Also on the way to St Naum is the National park Galicica which is supposed to be amazing to hike during summer. 

And of course I did a boat tour as I'm at a lake so it had to be done. The strong wind, waves and a bit of rain was no deterrent and captain Nikolai (B&F cruises - highly highly recommend him) gave me a tour in his boat

And of course, I had to add the Yugo car found wandering the streets of Ohrid.

Can't wait to go back during summer!

I stayed in a cute place called Villa Amfora which while the rooms were small they were very nice. 

And two restaurants I went to (recommended by locals) were worth going to:

Kaneo restaurant and letna bavcha - great food and great selection of wines (all of which can be ordered by the glass!)

Restaurant Dalga - spectacular views and an awesome terrace on the lake. 

Time to hit the road!

Kosovo - Pristina and Prizren - development money at its best

I wasn't sure what to expect from going to Kosovo and I still do t know what to think of it. 

Clearly after the war in the 90s, things have changed. The American prescence is obvious and while Kosovo is now in it's majority a Muslim country, it's probably one of the most pro American Muslim countries in the world.

While most Serbians have been pushed outside of Kosovo and only Catholics can have a miniscule prescence as the Orthodox church isn't allowed anymore and without entering into a debate of what happened or not as some call it the successful ethnical cleansing of everyone not Muslim there. But the reality is that at least at first glance there's tolerance. 

Some people I spoke believe that Kosovo, Albania and parts of Macedonia should be together but for the sake of peace I hope no such nonsense of more conflicts starts getting traction. 

The moment you cross the border, you get 4 lane highways, newly built bridges on the roads, it's infrastructure clearly being pumped big $$$$$

Pristina as the capital of Kosovo has very little in terms of attractions unless you are a Bill Clinton fan and you can take a photo with his statue. (I couldn't care less)

There's an abandoned Arabian Orthodox church which will never be finished as Orthodox church isn't allowed in Kosovo.  The still under construction massive Catholic church which is also in honor of mother Theresa seems a bit huge for the tiny population of Catholics still in the country but as a homage to Mother Theresa is not a bad thing. 

The little statue about reading I simply liked. 

But I think the most famous building here is the one the locals call the Ugliest building in the world which is the National library. The wires around it are supposed to mean the occupation and hard times the country has gone through but all I can say is the architect deserves a prize!!

Then I went to Prizren which back in the Ottomans time used to be the capital and now is a cute little town with a few mosques, cobblestones street, cafes and simply a pretty little town. 

There's a lot of history about Kosovo and all the Balkans region but not sure I'm terms of visiting just for history purposes. 

Prizren is a beautiful quiet little town but that's about it. 

Skopje - Europe's Kitsch capital and some party animals

My top observations of Skopje

1) Kitsch at its best. There are more monuments and statues that I've ever seen anywhere. But all of them are new or recently built

2) Macedonians love to party

3) Everyone smokes everywhere - from restaurants, bars to buses and museums. It's F...annoying

4) Super friendly people

There are interesting contrasts in this small capital city of North Macedonia (one must include the North part to not offend any Greeks who made Macedonia add the North to its country name.....Politics nonsense in my opinion but hey...)

With the city divided by the Vardar river, on one side one has most of the glorious Kitsch buildings and statues and on the other, one can go to the old bazaar part of town which is quite a beautiful neighborhood of cobblestone streets, shops and restaurants all the way to their market. 

The old bazaar is mostly the Muslim part of the city and where a lot of commerce happens. One can simply cross the river through the old bridge and walk along the not very busy old bazaar

But let's talk about the Skopje 2014 project which was driven by the government to build and develop the city and through which dozens of government buildings, monuments and infrastructure projects were developed and billions embezzled on the process. 

That's how they created Europe Kitsch capital or a Disney world looking city where everything feels as from a movie set and out of place. 

Below are just a glimpse of many of the copies of the famous monuments from across the world. But mosthavevbeen minimalized to reduce costs, been made of cheap materials so they look like real marble when they are cheap metal and the like. 

A funny story is that of the Prometheus statue (who dared to steal fire from the gods) but the difference in the Statue in Skopje is that Prometheus seems to be wearing diapers instead of being naked as typically all over the world. Simply because some puritans started protesting about the indecency of a naked man statue and hence Prometheus was dressed with what looks like diapers. 

As someone told me. You can come to Skopje and pretend you did a full Europe trip on Instagram as we have kind of replicas of the most famous monuments in Europe, from the Paris Arc de Triomphe, Berlin's Branderburg gate, Athens Parthenon and so on....Instagram paradise galore!

If you still doubt the Kitsch part, the pirate looking ship is just for show, probably a copy out of Pirates of the Caribbean as the river isn't even navegable and the ship isn't even on the water but they built 3 such ships just because one can (or a politician wanted to win such tender!)

The main square has a statue of Alexander the great, which in North Macedonia can only be called the man in the horse as the Greeks have decided Alexander was Greek and hence Macedonians have no claim on him...

There's also an old fortress from back in the ottomans time

And here's a fun fact for you:

Which very famous person was born here in Skopje?

None other than Mother Theresa. There's only a plaque on the center of town where the house she was born used to be but they have created a fake replica of her house a few blocks away. 

The old building above is the old railway station which is now a museum and a memorial for the 1963 Skopjw earthquake which destroyed the city And marks one of the rare times during the cold war where Americans and Russians cooperated to help Yugoslavia at the time rebuild after the powerful earthquake. 

-------

As for the partying, I will just be brief and to protect those involved there will be no photos or videos shared. 

We were told that we need to go to a day party as that's what the locals do and being new year we were a bit skeptical as new year is at midnight. We were told they start early as get there by noon so we went there around 1pm and arrived to a jam packed place at Intermezzo where there was no more space and they sold us tickets just because we weren't locals. 

But at this time, every table was full (they only have high tables but no chairs anywhere as the place gets packed) and every table had bottle service and the drinks were flowing, the party was going, a famous singer was singing.  

I could imagine this at midnight, but at 1pm??? But when traveling do as the locals and we joined. 

But then we had more surprises as the day parties tend to finish around 8 or 9 so people can go home, take a break and then do this all over again at the night parties, sometimes in the same venue or another one. 

I will just say, this is a very very fun city to experience the nightlife or should I say the daylife???

But the best part is that people are super friendly

It was a great new year. Happy 2024!

And there's more of Macedonia to come!

Moldova - wines and more wines - are they worth it?

Some of the stuff I really enjoy besides traveling is to taste different foods and wines. Food is a door towards the culture and customs of a place. And wine is one of the oldest beverages of all time and something I enjoy. 

I've been curious about Moldovan wines for a while, especially after I learned that the largest and biggest wine cellars are situated not in France as one might have guessed but here. 

So one might ask how did this happen?

Moldova has been growing wines according to some history buffs around 7000BC so I will take their word for it. 

But let's fast forward to 1952 when Stalin created the Cricova winery which focused on mass production of wine for Russia. But why create cellars when you already have old limestones mines full of underground tunnels which have the perfect temperature and humidity to store wine naturally. So this is how they started what are now some of the largest collections and largest cellars in the world.

Both Cricova and Milesti Mici have tours to their underground cellars which depending on the package you get you can also have a wine tasting session. These two wineries are a bit of tourist traps but worth going just for the experience. 

Here are some photos of Cricova, including a 1902 wine bottle from Jerusalem which is the only one of such bottles in the world. 

Cricova also does sparkling wine in the traditional champagne method manually and one can see the long row of bottles which are manually turned everyday so they ferment and create their okish sparkling wine. 

As for the rest of the wines I tasted, let's just say I tasted wine. 

Milestici Mici has the guineas world record for number of bottles stored and their collection goes back to bottles from the 1970s, but the majority is post 1986 as in 1985 Gorbachev prohibited alcohol across Russia and ordered all cellars to be destroyed due to the riding alcoholism in the Motherland. Obviously as any winemaker would have done, they never destroyed everything and they hid quite a bit. Hence they still have a very large collection.

So I decided I needed to taste one of these old wines. A 1986 Cabernet Sauvignon. Let's first also share fome of the other wines that I tasted on this trip

The photos above include a tasting at Asconi winery as well. 

What was common at every winery I went to is that the staff is Clueless about their wines and asking them anything more than is this red or white or dry vs sweet is too much. They have leaps to go if they want to put Moldova on the wine map.

But you might be wondering about the 1986 Cab Sav.....I invite you to imagine what an old shoe box stored in an mouldy attic would taste like. Disgusting was an understatement. Horrible nose, zero body, felt like watered down wine. These bottles look cool as souvenirs but calling them wine is just not right. 

So you might wonder is Moldovan wine any good? Actually it is. You just need to avoid the cheap mass produced stuff (which sadly is mostly what they export) but once you start looking at their smaller wineries and quality wines they have amazing wines and for relatively very good value for money. The Divus wine on the photo was a great example of this. A superb wine. 

Also they are bringing back some moldovan grape varietals as fetesca neagra, rara neagra and others which are worth trying. 

For the best wine tastings, just head to the Carpe Diem wine store and bar where the young fellow there is studying to be a sommelier and actually knows his shit. 

If you think all I did was drink wine??? There a city to be explored in between tastings. 

The cathedral from the central park, it's pedestrian street, a memorial for the Jewish community that was exterminated in the holocaust and a typical American style bar.  

As any city, it has its market in which they weren't very friendly when one asked if one can take their photo. Many of the old babushkas probably still think I'm a Russian spy or something. 

Below is also the facade of what used to be the Jewish synagogue of Chisiniau which will be redone/remodeled. 

Chisiniau had a population of around 50,000 Jews before the Holocaust out of 110,000 people in the whole city so the Jewish prescence was quite important. Today there has been a renewal of the community with almost 15,000 people according to some. 

The little statues are called the lovers and they are in the main pedestrian street. 

There's also the Alexander Pushkin house and museum as the famous poet was exiled to Moldova at some point in his life. The museum is just a house and no explanations at all so not really a sight worth going to. 

What was also quite interesting in multiple conversations was Moldovans take on the Ukraine war, as some people support Russia and others Ukraine, but the general belief is that Russia was going to invade Ukraine and conquer them in weeks and Moldova was next (especially as they don't really have an army) so ove the last two years the support for Ukraine has grown as they literally are stopping Russia from also going and conquering Moldova. 

To finish, I found two really cool places. One is a cherry liquor bar where that's all they serve and it was quite good. Piana Vyshnia. And not only there drink is tasty but the small bar is really cool

Last, a MUST is dinner at Fuior.  This was a highlight as they have taken traditional Moldovan recepies and given them a modern twist. It's probably the best place in Chisiniau and the food was phenomenal. Some of the best I've had in a long time.

Fuior is worth coming back to!