Tirana at 4 a.m. isn’t the most beautiful or friendly place. If you have the good fortune of meeting the only Muslim breakdancers in Albania, though, it may be just friendly enough to get you by.
The bus dropped us off rather unceremoniously in Tirana far too early for normal humans and we were immediately assaulted by rude obnoxiously loud “taxi” drivers trying to take my bags from me.
If you go across the intersection from where the bus drops you off, you will find ATM’s and proper yellow taxis. The challenge is communicating where you need to go when you don’t speak a language they understand. Luckily, I had my trusty Muslim Albanian breakdancers to help me sort out the cabbie and send me on my way.
Really, Tirana at any time of day isn’t the most beautiful place. If you come here, I can only recommend that you make plans to move on as quickly as possible.
I hung around the city for a day in order to get my backpack and some shorts repaired. In the interim I got to hang out with the breakdancers some more and eat a great deal of magnificent local fruits and vegetables. I decided to stick with the local fare after I saw their interpretation of pasta.
Italian seemed to be the closest second language after Albanian, which is almost a regional copy of Serbian, with German coming in third. If you are staying at the Tirana Backpackers hostel, break out your own mosquito protection. You will need it. It also may keep the dirty pussy out of your bed.
Tirana Backpackers has a local cat that likes to jump in bed with people. It is a little unkempt.
Oddly enough, for being a relatively successful hostel, noone seems to ever actually WORK at Tirana Backpackers. The thing I heard most from all the other people at the hostel was, “Does anyone work here?” If you arrive, as so many of us did, to noone answering the bell at the gate, just keep ringing it. Someone will come eventually.
Leaving Tirana was a pretty good idea. Leaving Tirana for Berat was a great idea! The bus rides to Berat are frequent and cheap. You can pay between 250 and 400 leva; the local currency. Just show up at the bus station, they run hourly or less. You can even get lucky and find some of the overly friendly Albanians to chat with on the way.
