This weekend Mark and I decided that we wanted to experience some of the local sights and sounds of Tirana, the capital city of Albania, where we are currently living. Friday night started with a beautiful view of the sunset from our balcony and a toast with our favorite local beer, peja. We left our apartment and stopped at one of the outdoor cafes overlooking the lake for another celebratory peja. The beers are 50 cents so let's be real we had to do it. The night was beautiful so we continued our walk through the blloku neighborhood and toward skanderbeg square. The outdoor scene in Tirana is vibrant and alive, no matter the time of day. We walked by a strand of indoor/outdoor Albanian eateries. One of the waiters was incredibly friendly and motioned for us to come over. He told us that his eatery was the best and quickly got us a menu in English. He then brought us into the indoor part of the shop where the meals were made and showed us the different meats, cheeses and sauces on display. He let us choose right out of the case which things we would like to eat. We had chofta (Albanian meatballs that look more like sausages because they aren't in ball shapes), smoked sausages and spicy sausages and some tzatziki with homemade bread. These are traditional Albanian foods and damn were they delicious (and cheap!) Sitting outside enjoying the night air, the buzzing conversation of the locals and the smells of cooked meats wafting by made for a perfect Friday evening.
The next morning Mark, Liz and I treated ourselves to breakfast at Duff's, a local bar that we have come to love. It's named after the beer company on 'The Simpson's'. One of the waiters here even has a 'Bart' tattoo. They have a really delicious American brunch. Mark and I shared a croque monsieur and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich with some amazingly well cooked oregano seasoned chips on the side.
However, Albania is a country that brings each dish out as it's made, so not everything will make it to the table at once. Because of this our sandwiches were long gone by the time we got our chips. After finishing our delicious meal, we started our walk to the Dajti Mountain bus. Our first stop was BunkArt, a mix of a history and contemporary art museum built underground, inside one of Tirana's largest bunkers. Getting to the bunker almost feels like time travel-- you walk through this very long, cold, underground tunnel.
Once you've passed through to the other side you continue walking alongside an active Albanian military base until you reach the actual bunker entrance. The bunker has iron bars and three huge concrete doors that seal it off from the outside world.
Once you head inside you're able to explore three floors worth of Albanian history-- the private rooms built for Enver Hoxha and his elite staff, the assembly hall for large gatherings, the original sketches of the bunker layout and even a room that simulates a mustard gas attack (we were assured that the gas coming out of the room was completely safe and non toxic...) The museum shows the history of Albania from the Italian invasion in 1939 to the overthrow of communism. I would say it's a must see for anyone in Albania.
After exiting, we continued our journey up the hill to get to the Dajti Ekspress, the longest cable car in the Balkans, that would take us to the top of Mt. Djati. A roundtrip ride costs 800 lek per person and includes a 25 minute ride in a small clear pod hanging off of an overhead cable.
The view is incredible but was very hard to capture via photos because most of the windows in the pods are really scratched.
Once we were at the top we decided to have a look around. We passed by tables with bebe and paintball guns that you could shoot for a fee, in addition to many horses that the locals were trying to entice us to ride.
We continued walking and encountered some cows at the top of the peak and then a security guard blocking a path that went deeper into the mountain. There are two restaurants, plus a 360 degree rotating bar at the top. We wanted to check out the bar first and grab a drink before dinner but it was so unbelievably hot in there that we couldn't even last through our order. We chose to head back out into the sunshine for a cocktail and dinner. Luckily for us the restaurant had a big outdoor observation deck where we were able to stand and look down on all of Tirana.
Our table was also situated right alongside the glass window that overlooked the city below, so we were able to enjoy the view for our entire meal. We ordered a cheese and meats plate that had a fantastic variety of flavors. Each of us ordered a traditional Albanian dish for our main course and shared with one another. Mark got meatballs, I got noodles with beef and Liz got a soup with cheese and meat. All three were absolutely fantastic, but I liked mine the best :)
Watching the sun go down was lovely, but the darkness on the mountain meant very chilly temperatures. We decided to hop on the cable car and head back down to the base where it was significantly warmer. We ended our evening at a restaurant called Cioccollat Italiani, a dessert restaurant that multiple people here in Tirana have recommended. It definitely lived up to the hype! I had gelato drenched in hot chocolate with a scoop of salted butter cream on the side (they won't swap out the vanilla gelato with the salted butter cream for some reason). Mark had a 6 scoop sundae that came with a miniature cone filled with melted white chocolate and Liz had an 8 scooper with two mini cones filled with melted chocolates (Mark and Liz were adamant that I clarify that the scoops are Albanian sized, not American sized) I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone with a sweet tooth. I know Mark and I will certainly be back!
On Sunday we treated ourselves to massages at a spa that's right across the hill from us. Not only was the heater turned off partway through which resulted in my lips turning blue, but the amount of time spent on my feet compared to my back was incredibly disporportionate. At one point, I saw a bright flashing light and then felt one hand move slowly away from my body while the other stopped moving and rested limply against my leg. I opened my eyes to my masseuse on her phone! To top it all off, it ended with a 15 minute stomach rub. That's right- a stomach rub. Needless to say, the massages in Albania don't measure up to the ones in Asia or the states, but we'll certainly keep looking.
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