Discover Tirana, Albania | A Hidden Gem in the Heart of the Balkans 🌍
Welcome to Tirana, the vibrant and colorful capital of Albania! In this video, we take you on a journey through one of Europe’s most underrated destinations — from its fascinating history and unique architecture to its buzzing cafes, street art, and friendly locals.
📍 Highlights:
Skanderbeg Square & National History Museum
The Pyramid of Tirana
Bunk’Art Museum & Communist history
Local culture
Whether you’re planning a trip or just curious about this hidden gem in the Balkans, Tirana will surprise you with its energy, charm, and rich culture. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more travel content!
📌 Have you been to Tirana? Drop your favorite spots in the comments!
#Tirana #Albania #TravelVlog #VisitAlbania #Balkans #HiddenGem #EuropeTravel
we took a flight from Bari to Tirana Albania The
flight was about 50 minutes on Whizz Airlines Arriving coffee with our friends Jim and Karen
We were there for 10 days During that time we got some rain a few days We visited a lot of
the places a couple of times And so you’ll see weather differences in our video Our
first stop is the Tirana Pyramid [Music] So we’re in an area where they
have these buildings that are like off kilter and you get people that ride their
bicycles their scooters their motorcycles on the pedestrian walkway area I’m not sure why This is a
This is called the Pyramid Building It’s basically a mall underneath It doesn’t look like it’s
open yet I don’t know Maybe it is I’m not sure So it’s 120 steps to the top Yes we know because
we walked it up there 120 steps It might not seem like a lot I tell you what it felt like about 500
though Here’s another building that’s off kilter All right So this is at the top of 120
steps that you have to climb in to run Albania Look at these buildings though How
modern a lot of them are The pyramid in Albania That That one across from me No what
we’re on What we’re on is the pyramid right i had to stop a few times with 20 steps Let me
tell you there’s a mosque and Jim and Karen say that they do a prayer call thing a couple
of times a day It’s a beautiful building Yep There’s no uh getting out of your way
when you’re doing a video I noticed in uh some countries visiting here they
just walk right in front of you no matter what Look at this building
Can you see that very cool [Music] This one I’ll focus it on this one A lot of skyscrapers a lot of new buildings going up here in Toronto Albania
if anybody’s thinking about moving here Very modern Very modern buildings
for sure Look at this one It’s like it’s um off to one side off to the other Come [Music] [Music] on Oh my god [Music] Oh my god What [Music] Tirana is quite young by European
standards It was officially founded in 1614 However the area had been inhabited since ancient
times with Roman and Byzantine influences evident in the nearby archaeological sites Tirana was
declared the capital of of Albania in 1920 largely because of its central location and
potential for development not because it was an established political hub In the 18th and 19th
centuries Torano experienced some growth beginning a trade hub between the sea and the interior
During World War II Tyranno was occupied first by the fascist Italy from 1939 to 1943 and
then by the Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1944 The Italian style buildings still stand in parts
of the city a legacy of Mussolini’s ambition to turn Tirana into a model fascist city After the
war Enver Hoxha’s communist regime from 1944 to 1985 turned Toronto into a gray Stalinist capital
with strict regulations and isolationist policies Monuments to Lenin Stalin and Hawka dominated
the cityscape In the 1990s after the fall of communism Toronto experienced rapid change and
chaos One of the most unusual transformations came in the early 2000s under then mayor Eddie
Rama now Prime Minister who launched a campaign to repaint the city’s drab Soviet era buildings
in bright abstract colors This color revolution helped boost civil pride and symbolized
a break from Albania’s oppressive past Tirana’s modernization continues under the rule
of King Zog with new residential areas factories infrastructure projects being developed It’s now
an interesting combination of modern architecture and Russian brutalist architecture from the
1950s and 60s Walking around brought back a lot of memories from a trip that I had years ago to
Russia Just the buildings had that same look that same kind of cold drab communist to it We’re in
Scanderbeg Square at night right now Um I always thought that the streets were pretty colorful as
was the square A little later in a video we’ll be back during the daytime Walking through the
streets of Tyrana the capital of Albania is like stepping into a living tapestry of history energy
and bold reinvention The first thing you’ll notice is color Buildings splashed with bright pinks
yellows and blues Remnants of a postcommunist urban art initiative that sought to breathe
life into the city’s gray socialist blocks Murals stretch across facades quirky and
political playful and profound [Music] The Pyramid of Toronto originally built
as a museum dedicated to the communist as dictator Enver Hoxha has been dramatically
transformed into a new kind of cultural hub Reusing the concrete structure the pyramid
is now an open sculpture in a new park The park and the sculpture are home to a
ensemble of colorful boxes scattered in and around the original building that houses cafes
studios workshops startup offices incubators festivals and classrooms where Albanian youths
will learn various technical subjects for free Steps have been added to the building sloping
facade allowing the people of Albania Albania to literally walk all over the showpiece of the
former dictator One of the city’s most bizarre and iconic landmarks is the pyramid of Tirana built
in 1988 as a museum dedicated to Enver Hoxha After his death after the fall of communism it fell into
disuse and decay but has become a powerful symbol of Albania’s turbulent past and is now being
repurposed into a technology and cultural center Here we are back in Scanderbeg Square during the
daytime and it was nice We actually had a good day No rain Hey this is a video from Tyrana Albania
You recognize Jim and Karen from our videos all right so we’re walking through this
park area to where the clock tower is and kind of grally kind of muddy but they
have it blocked off where you can’t go the shortcut So we have to go this
way to get to it So we are and it’s right here Okay We’re going to put the
name of this little square I think it’s called Scatterbeg Scanderbeg I don’t know I
remember Jim telling me the name of it Something like that But we’ll link the name of it down there
to you um the correct spelling Okay I want to get over here where it says I love tea rather than
Tirana because I guess it’s such a long name they just abbreviate it We were over here last night
but my camera lights wouldn’t work very well on my camera so we thought we would just come back
today and do a picture of it But all these tiles I understand are from different parts in Albania So
and if I’m wrong somebody can correct me but that was my understanding of these tiles that are laid
out here Again another new building bright yellow Now this thing looks like it’s got a face to it
My friend Jim told me that it lights up at night but we were here last night and it didn’t light
up at all I’ll show it to you in just a second that building right there It almost looks like
eyes and a nose but it didn’t light up That’s pretty modern too for sure So then there’s
some restaurants through here But I’m going to go ahead and get a picture of this I’ll put it
in the video and then I’ll get a snapshot of it So this is a museum that we can’t go into right
now Where’s the opera house oh the opera house is over here And then that’s that building
that’s supposed to look like a face but it does not light up at night So I just want to tell
you Jim doesn’t light up at night We were out here last night Didn’t happen And these in here
are drinking faucets or where you can wash your hands It’s got a kid’s little bouncy
thing right there Here we are at the entrance of Bunk Art 2 located in Scanderbeg
Square in the heart of Toronto Bunk art 2 stands as a testament to Albania’s dark and
mysterious past under the communist regime The museum housed a large underground bunker has
drawn visitors from all over the world from Europe to America and as far away as China But what
makes Bunkart 2 so special and why is it such an important destination for tourists bunkart 2 is
more than a museum It’s a window into an important and often dark period of Albanian history For
visitors from all over the world it’s unique opportunity to learn about a small country with
a rich and complex history For Albanians it is a powerful reminder of the past and a lesson
for the future It is one of 750,000 bunkers built in Albania Scattered throughout Toronto and
Albania as a whole The bunkers are built during the rule of Enver Hoxha Part of the massive
defense of paranoia some have been turned into museums like bunk art which offers a chilling yet
fascinating look at the life under a dictatorship This piece of artwork was called the cloud I
thought it was the world’s largest jungle gym but the security offers assured me it wasn’t
As they were escorting me from the premises we came across this fairly interesting
street art Let us know what you [Music] think This is an Orthodox church that we were told by Jim and Karen to go inside
of So we’re going to do that [Music] [Music] This is the Namaska Mosque Construction completed
in 2023 although planning began much earlier in 2010 It has a capacity of 5,000 worshippers
making it the largest mosque in the Balkans Albanian was under the Ottoman rule for over 400
years during which Islam became a major religion In 1967 under Enver Hoxha communist regime Albania
declared itself the world’s first atheist country All mosque churches and religious institutions
were closed or repurposed and many were destroyed After the fall of communism in the early 1990s
religious freedom was restored but the Muslim community lacked a large central mosque in
Tana You have to go in barefoot Shoes are not allowed Scarf Oh scarf Sorry I got to get a [Music] scarf Wow this is beautiful I had to get a scarf on Oh my gosh this is stunning I didn’t know
that we could come into a mosque [Music] Okay so we’re walking into the mosque I didn’t know that anybody could come
in here I was told I needed a scarf so I have one on my head Wow this is stunning So for you that you that have never
seen a mosque before this is beautiful Despite Muslims being the largest religious
group in Albania no major mosque was allowed to be built in central Tirana during the
communism or immediately after Muslims had often had to pray in the streets during major
religious events due to lack of space It was designed in a classical Ottoman style inspired by
mosques like the Blue Mosque in Istanbul Turkey It features a massive central dome four minarets
intricate tile work and Islamic calligraphy The complex includes library conference halls and
educational facilities making it not just a place of worship but also a center for cultural
and community life This is the outside inner court of the mosque For many Albanian Muslims the
Namaza mosque is a symbol of religious revival and identity after decades of repression Its
construction also reflects Turkeykey’s power and influence in the Balkans We noticed a lot
of Muslim influence in society The women were more conservatively dressed and you really
didn’t see any public displays of affection Oh wait a second Is this Cinderella’s did she leave her carriage here uh-oh This
right here is called the Friendship Monument Hey you’ve got your
electric cars here charging Yesterday that taxi driver said that it’ll cost
you a couple of luck to take a picture of the electric cars Remember that Mark here we stumbled
into a bakery Look at these cakes Aren’t they beautiful anyhow lot of tempting things in there
but I’m sure that the bakery was nice enough to take all the calories out before baking it Yeah
And would you It seemed to me there was quite a few bakeries in um Tirana too Yeah there
was This one was pretty big and had a lot of different choices I mean it seemed like there
were hundreds of choices that you could have Yep Yep That’s a red velvet cake right there Then
they had some uh where I’m going next is some baklava different ones that I’ve never seen Um I
as it goes down there’s baklava that I’m familiar with which is usually Greek but um yeah so many
tempting uh delicious treats in there for sure But did we buy any i don’t believe we did We didn’t
Um our willpower held out amazingly enough It did Um Paul’s pointing out the baklava the baklava
there But uh yeah this this uh bakery was amazing It had literally hundreds of different things Yep
For sure And probably thousands and thousands of calories Yeah If not millions My final thoughts
about Albania is it was actually never on my bucket list It was just that it was close from
Italy and we wanted to visit our good friends So that’s why we stopped there Um Mark and I spent 10
days there Our hotel I think was in the $30 range a night So 300 bucks for 10 days Um I probably
would not go back I think that you could do Albania probably in 4 days at least Tyrana Albania
where we were in the capital What’s your thought babe yeah Um I don’t know that I would need to go
back either Um it for me it was kind of a sobering experience you know just experiencing um you know
the the history of communism and war and and all of that other stuff I found it interesting but
I honestly don’t think I would need to go back again Our last night in Toronto Albania we
were given a wonderful farewell by the city
2 Comments
I think you captured Tirana really well. Enjoyed the video and reminiscing our time together. 🎉
We have heard a lot of good things about Albania.