Tirana, Albania
Meat, sunshine, and skyscrapers in progress
After having spent 10 days detoxing in the Albanian countryside, I was just about ready to explore some goddamn civilization again. And with more than half a million residents on 1,1 km2, Tirana's got civilization alright.
In fact, they're building more of it all the time. Around half of the skyline seen from the city center of Skandërbeg Square consists of new, unfinished skyscrapers which, within a handful of years, will be hotels and corporate buildings.
The thing about Albania is, it pretty much went into a free market overnight in early '92. So there wasn't any transition rather than a clean cut to modern, American-style capitalism from a version of Communism that used to be oppressive to an extent that makes the term 'Orwellian' seem inadequate.
So they're still kinda trying to keep up with themselves. And you'll see this reflected in some of the urban areas that are within only few hundreds of meters from those capitalist ivory towers but still look like the poverty van came by and dropped its entire load all over the place.
All that aside, Tirana is a nice city. Especially during high summer where it's one of the sunniest cities in Europe. You can easily spend an afternoon getting lost downtown and exploring the local food markets, the many small, private second-hand clothes outlets in alleys and backyards, and, not the least, the many zgaras. 'Zgara' is the Albanian word for 'grill', but meaning, in practice, a restaurant where meat is abundant.
While you should definitely visit a zgara while you're there, one food place I gotta recommend is Delibros – a gourmet burger restaurant run by two brothers with a passion for burgers with unconventional combinations of flavors and ingredients. Their tangerllëk burger, which, aside from the nice, juicy beef patty, also contains gorgonzola, roasted pear, blueberries, walnuts, and caramelized onions, is perfectly insane. Apart from my local souvlaki joint, this is the only place I ended up revisiting – and that's in spite of the fact that they play fucking reggaeton there.
In terms of metal bars, there are no explicit ones. Tirana suffers from the same disease as Croatia and other Balkan countries, in that Google Maps is more or less poorly updated. So I spent quite a while looking for metal bars that'd either closed or moved elsewhere.
However, there's one place called Iron Brush, which, when they're not cranking Eminem, does play a nice mix of classic, alternative rock, and metal. The first evening I was there, they played Tool, AC/DC, Metallica, Nirvana, Rolling Stones, Audioslave, Stone Temple Pilots, and Queens of the Stone Age. Also, their interior decoration is pretty cool, and their local draft beer is passable. So that's one to check out.
Another bar I'd recommend is Duff Sports Bar and grill – yes, as in Duff Beer from The Simpsons. The Duff Beer I had there wasn't as good as the one I had in Universal Studios, presumably 'cause this one was an export version. But I did enjoy their Duff double burger with bacon, cheddar, and truffle sauce, along with fries and buffalo sauce plus cheese nachos with cheddar dip. (Yeah, probably gained a coupla pounds in Tirana.) Plus, Duff Bar has hella Belgian beers and Scottish single malts, and they don't play that stupid autotune shit that all other clubs are playing. So, good times.
A couple of the biggest things to check out is the mountain and the Bunk Art 1 museum. And you can conveniently do both in a day. This one bus goes to the northern part of town where you'll find Bunk Art 1, and when you walk uphill for a coupla 100 meters from there, you'll get to the mountain cable car.
The Bunk Art museum is former ruler Enver Hoxha's old bunker, which now hosts an elaborate series of historic displays from the last 100 years of Albanian history, focusing particularly on WWII and Albania's own struggles during Communism. I'm not exactly a history buff, but the many costumes and recreations of the old interiors are pretty neat. However, I'm not a big underground structure buff, either, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend going there if you've been known to get panic attacks in more or less cramped spaces.
The mountain is worth the trip only for the +20 minute ride in the cable car. The view and scenery is astounding – especially around sunset. (By the way, it's pretty high, so the same thing about panic attacks would apply here, only with heights.) But apart from the view, there are several activities on the mountain, like mini golf, archery, quad bikes and shit. Or you could just go for a nice, long forest walk.
Apart from that, what else does Tirana have going for it? To be honest, not a whole lot. It is a pretty cool place; the local food is yummy, it's all fairly cheap, and the weather is wonderful during high summer. But I didn't find a whole lot of sights or activities there, so I wouldn't recommend spending more than two weeks there if you're working while traveling.
If you go, you should definitely do the free guided walking tour, which, aside from being historically informative is also well-attended, so there are good possibilities of meeting people. The same thing goes for the pub crawl held by the same company, but I wouldn't recommend that one because it's more like a club crawl. So, dumb autotune shit, and too loud to have a conversation without shouting.
Also, you can always get cheap dentistry – Albania's one of those countries. I got a complete whitening job plus a cavity done for around €120 in total. And also, since Albania's kinda known for its rave scene, I went to a techno festival down the coast. You should be able to find something similar if you're interested in broadening your horizon and experimenting with new impressions. – Musical or otherwise. If you know what I mean. (HINT: I MEAN DOING DRUGS.)
