Albania

We had a few days off and decided to visit Albania. Having had such a good experience in other Balkan countries, it only made sense to include Albania in the mix.

I've heard wonderful things about Albania from friends who've visited and I was excited to experience it myself.

We landed in Tirana with a slight delay and took a taxi to meet our Airbnb host. The apartment we booked surpassed our expectations. Located in the heart of the city, it was spacious, modern and clean. Our host was on time and everything went smoothly.

After dropping off our things and freshening up, we set out to explore the city in the late afternoon.

The main sites in Tirana are located in the main square, Skanderbeg Square. There's a large statue of their national hero in a wide open space, surrounded by various communist era buildings such as the Opera House. Walking off the square, we saw the mosque Et'hem Bey Mosque, which was unfortunately closed off for construction during our stay. Right next to it is the Clock Tower (not particularly impressive) which leads on to the bus station. We grab dinner at Oda, the number one restaurant listed at trip advisor, which unfortunately was a great disappointment. Not only is it over-priced, but the food is mediocre. One word of advice, do not order the chicken.

We spent the following days doing small day trips, we rode up the Dajti Ekpress Cable Car to the Dajti mountain where you get spectacular views of Tirana and you walk around the park for a little nature.

We went to Kruje on another day to see the birth place of Skanderbeg and where he defeated the Turks. It's 1.5 hour bus ride from Tirana, which a quaint little fortress on top of the market. The peacefulness of the place is remarkable, with so few people there, you really do have the place to yourself. The food at the bazar is a tourist trap and I would recommend eating elsewhere.

The Little One enjoyed the trip though, there's some interesting modern art to be found in Tirana itself, with lots of space for kids to run around freely. Overall it's a very child friendly country. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do other cities such as Berat and Skhodra which would've been more interesting in terms of both architecture and nature.