We hadn't realised it until after booking our trip, but we had booked it in line with the final stages of the Euros (Euro 2024). Although these
were taking place in Germany and we hadn't planned to go that far into Germany on this trip apparently the whole of europe was gripped by them. In fact Skanderbeg Square
in Tirana had been converted into large outdoor area with screen to watch the games. Alongside most bars and restaurants showing the games. As such a large underlying
event for our trip was the Euros, who was winning and who'd be playing next. At this stage England were still in the tournament too.
We had heard of a few sights to visit in Albania and during our time here we visited the main tourist sight of Dajti Ekspres Cable Car which takes you right up the mountains
overlooking Tirana. Getting here is a bit of a challenge in downtown Tirana traffic with e-scooters cutting in and out of the road. We were also very lucky to find the last
car parking space as the car park is small and people tend to be gone for at least an hour. The cable car takes about twenty minutes each way and then people spend some time
exploring, refreshing and eating at the top. It is not a massive sight and not the best thing to do but the view up and down are enjoyable.
Next we headed to Bunk'Art 1. This was a communist nuclear shelter built by the paranoid Albania dictator Enver Hoxha after a visit to a similar shelter abroad. It is a large
underground complex and you really get the sense of what it would have been like to live in such a shelter. It was designed to be atom bomb proof and had many doors and systems
to ensure the bunker would not be comprised even from a direct hit. It was a haunting, chilling visit and one we'd been happy to undertake having missed out on Chernobyl first
because of COVID-19 and then because of the Ukraine war, additionally then having missed out on the Ligatne Bunker in Latvia due to time.
From here we spent the rest of our time in downtown Tirana exploring the central sights, watching football while drinking Hugos and getting dinner.
From Albania we caught a flight with Swiss Air to Zurich in order to start our next multi country road trip.
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