Albania: the Maldives of Europe

My third and final stop over spring break was in Albania. You may be wondering where that even is. Find Italy. See the country next to the heel of the boot and above Greece? That's Albania. I've heard great things about Albania, seen some fantastic pictures, and knew that it was very cheap. I figured it was a perfect place to spend the majority of my spring holiday.

April 9th - Easter Morning:

Usually, public transport in London is running constantly, and the Underground opens early; between 5:00 and 5:30 AM. However, because it was Easter morning, public transportation was running different that usual. I work up at 4:45 AM to get ready, check out of the hotel, and get to the bus station by 5:17 AM.

I made it to the bus station, located right outside the hotel, at 5:15 AM and shortly was boarding the bus to start my 45 minute bus ride to one of the only Underground stations opened. After 45 minutes, I got off at my stop and had a 10 minute walk to the Underground station, where I started my 45 minute Underground ride. Usually, is the Underground was opened, the whole journey would've taken 45 minutes.

I was traveling to Albania with one of my friends from Greenville, who also happened to be studying abroad in England. We met at the airport and headed to our terminal, breezing through security and stopping for a traditional English breakfast at Gordon's Plane Food. Then, we made our way to our gate to board our 3 hour flight to Albania.

We landed in Tirana, the only international airport in Albania. The Tirana airport is tiny - one terminal with 7 gates. We fought our way through immigration and went outside to wait for the shuttle service that our resort sent to pick us up.

The ride to the resort was about 45 minutes. We passed by fields, mountains, vineyards, and beaches before we arrived to check in. After dropping our things off in our rooms, we explored a bit of the resort, grabbed some lunch, and then took a walk on the beach. Later that evening, we joined the rest of the guests for a buffet dinner before grabbing a cocktail from a bar and watching the sunset on the beach.

April 10th:

The next day, we grabbed some breakfast before taking a walk on the beach. We were staying in Golem, but you could walk to Durres by walking along the water. We spent a couple of hours walking along the beach, seeing the different restaurants and bars nearby, and watching the stray dogs.

After our walk, we decided to lounge by the pool for a bit, sipping lattes and reading in the sun. Before we knew it, it was time for dinner. Rather than a buffet, it was a five course meal full of delicious foods. It took about 2 hours to finish dinner, and afterwards we went to the bar to enjoy the live music and a drink.

April 11th:

We started our day with a buffet style breakfast and discussing what we wanted to do. We decided to walk down the other side of the beach as far as we could go. It wasn't as far down as we had gone the day before, but we saw a lot of stray dogs and abandoned bunkers.

Albania, at one point, had 750,000 bunkers across the country. Now, there's about 150,000 left across mountains, beaches, fields, and more. We passed probably a dozen of them in various states - some had held up quite nicely and others were breaking into stone.

When we got back to the resort, we spent the rest of the day enjoying the poolside, beach, and reading our books. We ordered lattes in the afternoon and a cocktails at night before headed out to watch the sunset on the beach. After the sun had set, we headed back inside for a delicious dinner full of seafood, cheeses, and pasta.

April 12th:

We started the day with breakfast, complete with pastries, eggs, cheeses, and juices galore. Afterwards, we spent some time enjoying the beach before heading to a coffee and gelato bar down the beach. We found a nail salon nearby, so we got some cheap manicures in Albania before enjoying a small lunch at a restaurant nearby.

When the sun began to set, we headed back to the resort to watch the sunset. Then, we were back inside, enjoying a 5-course dinner with a new menu before headed upstairs to watch a new Netflix original movie and headed to bed.

April 13th:

After breakfast, we spent the morning lounging by the pool and reading before heading to a beachside cocktail bar about 20 minutes down for lunch and drinks. My friend was planning on going to Ireland in a couple weeks, so we talked about her trip, what we were doing over the summer, and our senior years of college.

Shortly, we headed back to our resort to lay in the sun and read for a bit longer, enjoying the sand, the breeze, and the sunset until it was time for dinner. Once again, it was 5 courses of delicious food. After dinner, both went and finished up packing before going to bed.

April 14th:

After an early breakfast full of delicious pastries, omelets, and cheeses, we waited for our shuttle service to take us to the airport. It arrived around 9:00 AM, and we were on our way back to the capital of Albania, Tirana. We stopped in a couple small gift shops before checking into our flight and headed towards security.

Like I said, Tirana airport is quite small. The security line was massive, and people would push past you or cut in line. The security was state-of-the-art. Ne need to take out electronics, liquids, or ditch your belt and shoes. After security, it was time to go through immigration. We didn't originally get our passports stamped when we entered Tirana, but we saw people getting stamps when we were leaving Tirana. They ended up stamping our boarding passes, not our passports.

We had a bit of time before our flight to London, so we grabbed a quick snack before waiting at our gate. Once we boarded the flight, we realized we were sitting really close to the front of the plane, which was nice because it meant we could leave quicker.

We ended up sitting on the flight for an hour waiting for take off, so we got back to London late. Once we landed, we went through immigration - where I was stopped and questioned - and then we took the Underground to a Mexican restaurant near Camden Market. After our late lunch/early dinner, we headed to King's Cross Station to catch our respective trains.

Overall, Albania was a lot of fun and much different from the other trips I had been on. It was more relaxing, and enjoying the sun and sand, which was especially nice since in Ireland and Germany I was very go, go, go. If you're already in Europe, I think Albania was a nice place to go but I don't think I'd travel there from America.

In Order: The View from the Hotel, Walking on Durres, Albania Sunset, The Water in Albania, Abandoned War Bunkers, Stones on Albania Beaches, Walking in Albania, Me in Albania, The Beaches in Golem, Abandoned War Bunker, Lea & I in Albania, Albanian Sunset.