24 Hours in Eastern Europe’s Kindest City (we weren’t prepared)

24 Hours in Eastern Europe’s Kindest City (we weren’t prepared)

After spending three months traveling across the entirety of Albania, we kept hearing the same thing from every local we met. You need to visit Jurro Castra. So, we hired a car to drive from Tana to the stone city to find out why it’s every Albanian’s favorite destination. Is it because of the winding stone streets? Definitely is a great spot if you want to have a drink in the shower during the day. Maybe it’s the deep, fascinating Jurastan history. Go in. I’m not going to go in. Go in. Go in. Look. Look. You’re not even going to go in. Or could it be the raw kindness of the locals would call this place their home? Don’t speak English. Don’t worry. No problem. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. Whatever the reason, we’re on a mission to get to the bottom of it. Starting inside the beating heart of Jurro itself. Welcome to the old bazaar of Giraaster, which is amazing. Full of cobblestone roads, cobblestone houses, and a lot of restaurants, a lot of cafes. It looks so pretty. It really looks like being inside a fairy tale. And now we’re going to explore a little bit more of it. [Music] Right now it’s like 10:00 a.m. and it’s generally pretty quiet. It’s very quiet. I expect it to be more noisy, especially for a Sunday morning. Yeah, I’m not sure. G is it Giraasta or Jirrocasta? No, that’s not start. Giraa is not a morning town by the looks of it. But most of the shops and cafes are opening up. Maybe simply the tourism is finished because it’s the start of September. Who knows? Oh, I doubt it. I reckon this is tourist all year round. But it’s so pretty and I’m happy that we have the place almost all for ourel. Maybe I think I found something that you want to know. We have a mission for the day. What is it? So I check on Google Maps. There is a picture to check D. D the Oh my god, there’s a dog pinned on Google Maps and it has a fivestar rating. Our mission for the day is to find doula. Okay, that has now become the new mission. So this is the very center of the old bazaar and I would guess the city of Gircasta. And it has five rows of shoots. So one, two, three, four, and one over there behind you. Which one should we go down first? Which one you like? I like the idea of this one cuz it’s in the shade. Okay, let’s do it. I like that. I like that. Something that is super nice about all these roads is that all of them point towards an amazing view. Like at the end of these roads, you just see the huge mountains down there. If you check the other roads, it points towards the castle, another one towards the hill. So, it’s like every road that you decide to take is like super super scenic. We actually arrived here last night. And we came into town quickly for dinner and a couple of drinky poos. And we ate here for dinner at Submarine 105. Would you recommend it? The white wine was so good. Recommended for the wine. [Music] It looks like the areas is still closed though. Yeah, I think I might have picked enough road here. But I like it because there are umbrellas. She’s a simple lady with simple tastes. I’m a basic Giraasta is known as the stone city in comparison to like Barat city of a thousand windows because all of the buildings are made out of stone in like the Ottoman architecture style. And that’s why there’ll be the stone hostel there. Ooh. Yeah. Right. Fun fact. Let’s take a selfie. What were the rocks? Yes, the famous rocks of the city of stone. Quick reminder that you should add commas. It looks like stop enjoying your life. I have to say it’s got a little bit busier since this morning. Yeah, I think right now is the time where all the tour groups are going to start to turn up, but that’s okay because this is the amount of people that come to visit Judcaster. And it makes total sense, guys, because it’s so cute. We may have had a few drinky poos there last night. So, we should go this way. Yeah, definitely is a great spot if you want to have a drink in the shadow during the day. Okay, I think we end up choosing another road that doesn’t really leads anywhere. But the point is that it’s still super pretty. This is what I think about UNESCO towns that even though as soon as you go out of the main path, you still find so much prettiness like amazing rocks, wool, cobblestone, and amazing rocks. Look at this tree. Poison is illegally placed to kill stray dogs and cats. Well, that’s sad. It reminds me of Bali. Yeah. Hopefully, we will still find D, though. This is probably a fancy place to stay. Imagine waking up in one of those rooms and have the view. Maybe it’s pronounced Yurcastra. Giraastra. Giraastra. Stay with me. I love Jirrocaster. Giraastra or Jirrocastra. I don’t know how to say it. This is like it’ll be a lovely cafe to come for a nice drink or a beer with an insane view. I don’t think we’re going to be stopping for a beer at 10:15 in the morning. There is an amazing view above the town, though. It’s so pretty. So, we’re going to go up this road now. Yes. Do you want a hammer and sickle stone? Ah, that’s cool. Is it? It was Sarah’s birthday yesterday. I think I found her a late birthday present. It would be amazing to be my next jewel. Jewelry. Jewelry. [Music] sitting down for a bit cuz we’re a little bit sweaty. Yeah, it started to get quite hot as soon as the sun come out. Yeah, especially in those streets. It kind of traps the heat in there. You know, like sometime when I think about Albania, I always have in my vision this a little bit like a Soviet type of houses and maybe a little bit run down and I’m amazed by the fact that there are towns like this. So far, I’m much more in love with Barat and Giraastra than I am any of the towns on the Riviera. 100%. It’s true. I think the Riviera gives a very Riviera vibes. It’s very like holiday vacation vibes. Yeah. I’d much rather come here for a few days than Vora, for example. Yes. Yeah, I agree with that. There’s this door here that says tunnel nostalgia. It’s like a old war bunker. Oh, they’re doing a shop inside. Yeah, with a shop inside. Wonder if we can go in. Ice museum introduced it 23 m long. Oh yeah. Historic communism only before communism. Where are you from? Switzerland or Italy. And I’m from England. Brah. [Music] No. No. No. No. It’s very important to smile, right? I love it. What is your name? Manush. Manusha. S beautiful. Thank you. You can take photo video. Okay, perfect. [Music] Oh, wow. Wow. This is cool. Glass fish. Old Albanian glass fish. Old water glass. Oh, so it’s like old memorabilia and stuff from communist times. So from 1945 to 1993, this would have been weapons I suppose, books, old teapotss, shot glasses, even medicare packs. I even didn’t know that there was such a museum here. It looks so cool and so deep. So deep. [Music] These are all the bomb. My grandparents had one at home. What the pistol as well? No, it’s crazy that they are just here to be sure. Like it’s almost like, oh, I can just take it, you know? I can just buy it. It looks like a shop shelf. Like, they should all have prices on them and you can come here and buy everything. I mean, look at this little nook here. This is crazy. Look at the size of that old gramophone. I never seen a gramophone in real life. I just saw it in movies. I had no idea this was here. This is completely a shock. I’m going to have to be so careful with my bag. I wonder if this rusted through or if like it got shot or something fell on it or I have no idea. This is gonna be a difficult pass. It’s crazy how much stuff they’ve managed to like save from that era. And this is all like hand painted glass. My mom used to do this for fun. An old ice cream scoop. Oh, now we’re on to like tools, oil cup things, pickaxes, spades, shovels. This must be an old dog collar. Oh, potentially. I don’t know. What feels really nice is as the deeper we go is the colder it gets. That was terrible grammar. Babe, this is what we need. Cheese grater for some cheese grater. I think so. It looks like you could use that on your feet. Get the dead skin off. I should try that. I can hear television. It’s a television at the end. Is the propaganda potentially it won’t work on me though cuz I won’t know what it’s saying. If anyone knows who this dude with the glasses is, let us know in the comments below. [Music] That was a very interesting experience. I didn’t think I was going to have today. No, it’s so cool. It’s just so randomly placed. Let’s keep exploring. Ember Hodger is the old supreme leader of the communist period and he’s actually from here from Jericho. I don’t know if they enjoyed talking about it too much because he’s not particularly liked in Albania, but fun fact. Do you want something? I’m going to try a GO. Yes. And one cold drink. So, we found this place on the high street that does I don’t know. There’s bags that say Indian coffee over there. And it says it does Turkish coffee, sweet gico, and cold drinks. So Sarah’s going to try a cold drink. And I’m going to try a sweet Gco. I don’t know what it is, but I’m willing to try. I’m going to go have a look inside his shop. Oh, wow. It’s like old school. It’s beautiful. I just went inside and he’s got like old school coffee grinders and an old school coffee roasting machine in there. It’s very like old school like 80s coffee shop. Oh, really? I wonder if it’s past generations. I’m concerned I order alcohol. I think it’s juice. M very good. Liquor is very good. Pak. Oh, okay. But it’s delicious. You should try this. I think you’re going to like it. Yeah. It’s like medicine. I don’t think there’s any alcohol in it. Are you sure? Yeah. But it’s like a very sweet concentrated fruit flavor. I think my GO is fruit. Oh, really? I thought it was a sweet drink, but I think it’s sweet fruits instead. It’s something ready for this. I believe a plum and I don’t even know what that is, but two fruits covered in honey. And the last time we had fruits covered in honey, we had figs in honey and it was delicious. I think that is apricot. M. That’s cold and refreshing. Really? The honey is delicious. For €2, I can’t complain. That is some fresh fruit. Not sure I’m going to like the plum, though. Let’s give it a go. Oh. Oh, that’s hard. That’s not a plum. It’s not. I don’t know what that is. Is it sweet or sour? Neither. It’s just got the flavor of honey. I don’t know why it doesn’t really appealing. Yeah, it’s strange on the inside. It’s like It’s like it’s wrapped up in something and inside there are leaves. Oh, you know what it is? A casta. I think I feel chestnuts, but it’s delicious. I’m definitely not into dessert right now, but it’s lovely. So, on the website Mediterranean Latin love affair, it says that Gico is a sweet prepared preserved whole pitted cherry cooked in a way to preserve the shape. Really? It didn’t really have a shaped cherry. I mean, it was cherry shaped. According to Mediterranean Latin love affair, that’s what it is. We love it. We trust it. Mediterranean love sleeping. Ah, okay. So apparently if you come to the city center, go up this road, turn left past the Irish bar that we went to last night, find this doorway and go up these stairs. Keep going up the stairs, find the sign that says the best view in town. Past the sign that says Obelisku, you’ll make it to the Obelisk of Education, which is apparently here to symbolize education in the city of Jurichcasta and was built in 1908 near the first school in the city. God, I’m out of breath for those stairs. So, we just read this information flag. And this building here next to the obelisk was the first school in Juraca. I thought it was like nearby. I didn’t realize it was right next to it. And it was opened in like 1878, I think it said. 1895. 1895. Then it was closed and became a level works. This is again according to the plaque. And then it was closed and restored again just for a public building now. Something to do with the EU. This is an information center of some sorts. But you got an amazing view past the obelisk over the city of Duraccasta. The view from here is super amazing. We can see all the town. There are some minates. There are some very old looking building. And overall it’s stunning. It’s kind of cool cuz from a viewpoint like this, you can really see where Jericho got the city of stone name from. And a lot of the buildings are designed very similarly. So I would assume that they were kind of like the original Ottoman buildings out of all the ones around or the least renovated. And you can also tell why this is a UNESCO heritage protected city cuz this is beautiful and you don’t want to ruin it. Absolutely not. Sarah, are you using the 100-year-old educational obelisk for shade? Yes. We’re just trying to see where our guest house is up on the hill cuz we know it’s up on the hill. We just need to find which front it is. I think Sarah’s found it. It’s this one. I recognize it because there is the vineyard next to it. There is an amazing view from our guest house. So, like I said, we’ll have to give you a tour later. Can’t walk past the Irish bar without grabbing a beer. I mean, it’s 11:45 a.m., but it’s 5:00 somewhere, right? It looks like the Irish bar actually turns into more of a coffee shop during the day. I think I’m the only one with alcohol, but hey, cheers. [Music] We’re heading for lunch and it’s got significantly busier in this middle part of the city. Now, this is where all the tourists were hiding. Probably they were still sleeping this morning. We are starting to get a little bit packy. So we’re going to head for dinner lunch at the restaurant traditional Oda Odasha which was recommended from our friend Mara. Thank you Marta. Two people please. There is a very cool fresh air coming up from the AC. Ready? Please. Thank you. Uh for me with potatoes. Yes. And uh baked cheese. Yes. Yeah. Do you want to share something more? What is it? The rice. Traditional dish of your custard. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cheers, babe. Cheers. It’s very watery when you put in your mouth and incidentally the taste popups and it tastes like peach. This food literally took about 5 minutes to turn up. It’s all there and it looks very delicious. Should we try the rice balls first? They are the traditional one. Yeah. I don’t even know what they’re made of actually. Rice. That’s it. Okay. Rice. They’re quite bland. There’s some sort of cheese in it. So, it’s not my favorite because of that primarily, but it’s nice. It’s creamy. It’s sort of like rice that’s super creamy when you cook it. I don’t know which type of rice that is. I’m going to try the musaka, which is traditional and it looks very much like a lasagna. Oh my god. You will like this one. It tastes like like spiced up vegetables. Delicious. That tastes super homemade. Okay, so I got meatballs with chips and baked cheese because I really fancy cheese. Meatballs in Albania always seem to taste really, really good. Everything here tastes so homemade. Baked cheese. One one question. Do you know where we can find Jul? No. Okay. [Music] Welcome to our stay for the night to stone room 1850. We have a red door. Pull the things to open. Oh, it looks very much closed. Now we can go through the front door. This is the beautiful open area with some grapes and a beautiful view. Mita [Music] is very very Yeah. This is the entrance and she already show the next room that we’re going to stay. I think it’s this one. Okay. Oh, that’s nice. Wait, where is the light? Super lovely entrance. Very rustic vibe. And here is our castle for the nights. Oh, that’s that’s very soft. Our room, fridge, TV, huge mirror, and window that goes to the garden and to the hill. We’ll leave a link to this place down in the description because it’s it’s great. It’s a really cool stay. And there is such a cool view from this garden all over the city. That’s insane. We were sitting here looking at it this morning. It’s beautiful. So, we’re heading out to the next spot and it’s going to take probably about a kilometer of uphill graft. So, hopefully it’s worth it. But the pictures look good. So far, more far from here. Further up that way. This way, but more. Do you like to come and I leave you in my in my home and you work only 5 minutes? Come. Don’t worry. Can we do it? Okay, why not? No problem. Okay. No problem. At your home. Okay. I have restaurant. I think we’re going there for dinner. there before. I don’t know. Or maybe my brother, he bring me in the bridge. Don’t worry. If you come in the restaurant after, okay, the tax is free. Where from? Uh, Switzerland and England. In England, lovely brother. England. Okay, brother. My home up in the hill in the top. It’s my home. You know, now we have a car, but before we don’t have a car and every day by food. Well, this is a random change of events, but I was not expecting. You’re going to save us so much time. What a event of serendipity. It’s like, oh, it’s going to be such a long walk up. Do you want to get in my car? Bye-bye. Bye-bye. [Music] Will spin. All good. It’s a slippery stone. Yes. Yes. You speak Italian also? I speak Italian. Your accent is Italian. Ah, can you can you speak Italian? My name. Okay. You go with my brother. Don’t worry. to bring you the bridge after Kardash. Don’t speak English. Don’t worry. No problem. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. Oh, sheep. Sheep. My brother. It’s your brother. Oh, everyone here is brothers. My brother. [Laughter] Lemon. Bye. Well, that 5 minutes. 5 minutes. Yeah. 5 minutes. Amazing. Well, that is what you call the best luck in the world. The best place in the world. Albania. Yes. Albania really is the most beautiful place in the world. It’s beautiful. Yes. Come. Come here. You can get top of my roof and get everything. So perfect. Should have come. Come there. Thank you. Wow. What a string of events in one go. Ah, up the stairs. I live in London. I love you. So you are close by in London. I live in Kent. Probably my husband can see us from the camera. Oh, really? Wave. Wave at the husband. My husband knows. I bring you always. Let’s go have a look upstairs. We will do it. We will do it. My be as well. Thank you so much. Oh wow. This is You cannot have a better view than this one. Where are we? We are on top of Durcaster. And you can some random woman’s house overlooking the city. It’s beautiful around here. It’s like the really really top of the city and it’s feels super rural compared to being down in the city. There’s so many ruins just out the back of her garden. That’s so true. That’s insane. And actually, we are so close to almost the top of the hills. Close. I I like the clothes. Hello. How friendly are people in Albania? Just every single place we go, every person so friendly. Sit down now and I can bring you some honey from my beans. Oh, you sure? Are you happy we can give him some honey? Just for trying. Just for Yeah, that’s great. That’s my husband until I come out. Hello. Are you are you still in the UK? You don’t look very happy. I’m still in the UK. Yeah. I can’t work remotely very much. She’s out there babysitting the bees at the moment. I’m stuck in Greenwich. Come in. Oh, you have a beautiful house. You’re so welcome. Thank you so much. Do you do it yourself? Yes, we have be. You sing the be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people have this. Yeah. Don’t look the nice. It’s okay. You look amazing. You look amazing. Who cares? I think having bees is quite popular in Albania. Yes, it’s nice. Yeah. Last year we went to Tropoya. Someone was there. He came from America and he have honey. We stayed there for breakfast and um I love the honey. And I said, “Oh my gosh.” because I used to buy honey every time I came to Albania and I said, “But why do I have to buy honey where uh I have a place here and I have a house in the mountain.” So I decided to buy bees. Now you can enjoy your honey. Thank you so much. Thank you. She go home. Go home. She’s like, I don’t want to go home. Try the honey. It’s so good. It’s delicious. Is it real honey? I think so. This is my honey. Would you like to cherish? No, it’s okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I’m perfectly fine. Thank you very much. You should try the honey. It was very, very busy. It was the first week of August. You didn’t do a good choice to go. What you think about honey? Good. Oh, it’s delicious. Honey, the mountain is beautiful. Mountain honey. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, guys. I will let you go. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Would you like any water or anything? I think we have water. Yeah, we’re okay. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for the hospitality. Thank you so much. Lovely. I didn’t catch your names. I’m Sara. S. I’m Zara. Zara. Zara. Yes. Same. Save. I’m Ryan. Ryan. Ryan. Nice. And enjoy your stay. Thank you, S. It was really a pleasure. Thank you so much. We have never experienced the kindness of strangers more than Albania. We’ve been to many, many countries now. Yeah. And it still blows me away. Oh, can I wish we could have got some honey, but I really don’t know where we can put it. Yeah, we can’t travel with it. We can’t travel. Should we go see the bridge? Yes. [Music] Oh, wow. That is cool. Even from here, that looks cool. That is crazy. We need to get closer. I like my eyes cannot comprehend. I never seen anything like that. I think we made it to the bridge. It is a bit of a treacherous hike across the mountain with some big stones and some slippery rocks. With some shore footing and some common sense, you’ll make it. Wow. This bridge looks like it’s prime about to fall down. Yeah. You can do it. I believe in you. You can cross. It stood for 200 years. It’s not going to I know. That’s what I was thinking. This is such like a random bridge in the middle of the Jericho mountains. Are you coming? I should come now. Okay. Okay. As Zoran said, it was up for 200 years. It’s not going to fall now. Oh my god, it feels so weird. I never cross a bridge like this ever. We made it onto the bridge in the middle of the bridge. So, this bridge was actually I just literally quickly Googled it. It was built in the early 1800s and it was commissioned by Alip Pasha, hence the name. And it used to be a vioaduct. So, it used to provide water to the city of Jurashra when they didn’t have any water quite just yet. Well, not like flowing and excess water. So, this bridge allowed them to get better access to water. Can you jump up and down? No, no, no, no. I’m not even joking. Where are you going? Where are we supposed to go? We got cross the other side. Okay, okay, go. Okay. Okay, let’s go. [Music] Hello. Hey, you all right? Yeah. Yeah, not too bad. Not too bad. Thank you. It’s crazy because I haven’t seen this place on Tik Tok or stuff and it was worth it. Yeah, 100%. Would you recommend it? Absolutely. Yes. So, if you want to come see this bridge, if you do walk all the way from the center of Jurichastra, it is a 30-minute hike all the way uphill. In the heat in the summer, if you’re here in the summer, that could be difficult. Maybe you can get a taxi. I don’t know. Or you can just try and hail down the nicest Albanian man you can find and his brother will bring you up. But either way, we’re going to head over to the castle now, which is our last major stop of the day and one of the biggest and main attractions in Jericho. So, I suppose we’ll see you there. You don’t want to see the walk, trust me. And just like that, we made it to the castle. After a long walk, we are about 30 minutes. Yeah. Through the back streets, which was kind of really nice. So, if you do walk up, it is a bit of a trek to get to that bridge without getting a lift. Oh, babe. It’s raining a bit. Yes. Maybe let’s just rock. Let’s go to the castle. Yeah. [Music] 50. This is a proper castle I think as you have to pay an entrance to this one like Sarah says it’s a proper castle one like Barat where it’s like a village inside the fortification walls but this one is going to be a lot of fun to explore and it’s crazy there are huge arches and there are so many of them it looks to be in awards [Music] I’m not sure where we’re going but we are going this action. Maybe was this the main gate? Oh no, they got stuck outside. Do you want to try and go through? I don’t know. He’s trying. Oh no. Maybe not. Maybe not. Oh, I’m filming it. He gave up. Walking into this bit is like walking through the past and experiencing the history. This castle at the very least is like 800 years old, but potentially older. Oh, it’s raining. It’s raining. I think we’re officially standing on the castle roof. I got to say, this is not an experience that I’ve ever had before. I’ve never stood on the roof of a castle before. No. And it’s actually very unique castle build because it’s literally is very flat. It’s been reused as a prison as you can see. So, it got rebuilt as a prison. Interesting. Do you think it’s haunted? It may be haunted. [Music] Sarah, do you want to come stand on the edge with me? No. No. No. No. Come stand on the edge with me. No. No. No. No. Come. No, it’s fine. Oh, do you want to come stand on the edge? My legs are already tingling from here. No, it’s okay. Thank you. No, baby. Go back. I don’t understand why they build this pathway, but then it ends. And well, you can jump on the side. I had the dress. So, I’ll wait. You can wait me upstairs. I’ll see you later. Pull shorts up and Yeah. No, no. Huh? Okay. No. No, I’m just being loving. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think we’re reaching the peak of the castle. Yeah. And the tippity top. Do you want to go in the hole? Oh, that looks a little bit dangerous. Yeah. No, maybe not. Yeah, you can feel me going in. Oh, someone blew the bloody doors off. Yeah, it’s just a wall. Maybe a big drop. Well, I await you outside. I’m the king of the world. Wow. It’s crazy because you can see this castle from almost every view in Jurroastra from like almost every single vantage point looks onto this castle and then you come up onto the castle and you can see all of Jurro Castra. It’s like you can look up and they can look back. This is now the tippity tip of the castle. You can’t go any further than this. I mean, you can. Oh, you’d fall. I would want to. [Music] I think there is a small chapel up here. It’s so pretty. It looks like there is a hidden garden. I always have to follow in Sarah’s footsteps. She always gets filmed. Oh, wow. It really is pretty. It’s like a little fairy tower land in the middle of the castle. When you walk through a castle that’s made of so much stone as this one, it’s kind of takes you back a little bit to be surrounded suddenly by so much greenery. I wonder how old these trees are. Like they’re literally built not as old as you. You turned 32 yesterday. [Music] Imagine if you were living here when you were a kid and this was the kitchen and your room was in the other side of the castle and when you’re hungry at night you have to walk here in all this darkness with just a torch with some fire to check for some cookies. I reckon the kids had people bring them cookies. Yeah, because they were scared to come here alone. So, I guess that now we just missed the other side of the castle and we’re going to walk. Oh my god. We’re going to walk underneath all the archers and it looks so cool because there are What’s this again? A cannon or a missile launcher or something. They’re cannon that are pointing towards each other. I think there is a ghost. I think there is a ghost. That light is flickering. I think the light might just be broken. I don’t know too much about cannons and heavy artillery, but it looks like each gun is a different make, design, model. I don’t know, but each one is different. But they all look like they’ve come through the years, which is really cool. What’s this? I don’t know, but there’s a tank behind you. Oh, wow. It’s a Sarah size tank. I can fit properly inside this one. It’s baby. Actually, we just read this black and it’s an Italian Fiat. This tank. This was the prelude to the FIFA 500. Oh, there’s a pigeon. Oh my god. What the Pigeon. There’s a pigeon in the field. So, if you come outside this part and you walk along this pathway in between all of these super super old cannons, we’re going to get to the bit of the castle that I was kind of secretly excited to see. And that is this US war airplane. War airplane, is that what they’re called these days? That crash landed here in Albania in the 1950s and then they decided to put it here on display at the castle. So after actually reading the information plat next to it. It crash landed in 1957 in Albania or emergency landed. And there are actually two stories depending on who you believe. The Americans say that it was on its way to Italy or France and it got lost in fog and then running low on fuel had to make an emergency landing in Albania. The Albanians at the time on the Trana radio said that it was a enemy US spy plane that they forced to land here and then they captured him as a prisoner of war. So you can believe whichever story you want. Down these dark stairs was one of the castle’s Ottoman era prisons. Another was located just past the folk festival stage. I’m a big girl. I can do this. Turned 32 yesterday. There is a nice breeze coming from down here. We like to hear the positives about prisons. Oh my god. Go in. I’m not going to go. Go in. Go in. Look. Look. You’re not even going to go in. You’re not going to even Oh yeah, I’ll go in. Come on then. Oh my goodness. Oh. Oh wow. Okay. You coming in? No. No. You’re not coming in. I’m just going to do this. You know what is insane? That you know there is no light right now and it means that people that were here, they have no lights at all. They were probably kept in the dark. Yeah, that’s a a type of torture as well. I am so sorry for them. How’s the view from up there? So damn good. Is it worth me coming up? Yes, definitely come up. I can imagine that there were more layer. Right now there is everything is destroyed but I think that all of this were a small little apartment that people were living in. Nowadays there is nothing left. But down there we can see the prisons. It still baffles me a lot in Albania when you go to a lot of historic monuments and attractions like this that they just let you walk over them. Most other countries I’ve been to would be preserving them, I suppose. Maybe I shouldn’t walk on them. I think you you were just walking on the frame of a house. Yeah, the foundations, but it’s like back in Mexico when they let you walk on some of the ancient Mexican uh Yeah, those ones. Yeah. Can’t go in this bit. This bit has been preserved. Maybe it’s more dangerous. Yeah, I was thinking that. Yeah, I think some part of the roof went down as well. So, probably for safety for sure. I think the hole down there, you know, that kind of like triangle shaped was the toilet. Well, that’s a big drop. Oh, it’s probably windy on the mic. It looks amazing, though. Do you not have intrusive thoughts about jumping? Yes. Don’t just think like what would it feel like to fall from this height? I think we all think about that, but I don’t want to give in. So, over there is the center of Juracra Bazaar, and then we walked down here to the center and then explored all of these roads. We haven’t really gone any further down here though. There’s a whole lot of jurash there we haven’t seen yet. It’s very funny because from here you cannot understand how viby down there it is. Down there is way more beautiful than seeing from up here. I was kind of hoping we would get to go into this clock tower and climb it to the top. It looks very much closed. It looks very much closed. I’m not sure if it’s possible to enter a certain time of the day. It looks quite well preserved. So I would be surprised if you don’t. [Music] again. I can’t see anything in go. That’s not funny. You prick. You can go this side. Okay. This side. There is more light. Go down there. No. Go down there. No. Maybe you can go. Go down there. No. The Lord the the guys on YouTube want you to go in. It’s okay. I can watch it from here. Oh, I think the baby. Oh my Jesus. Besides the museums that I think are closed at the moment cuz it’s a bit late. This is the last place for us to go in the castle. How do you feel about finishing the castle? Accomplished. It’s been quite a journey. I think we’re spending about 2 hours here and it’s huge. But honestly, it’s beautiful. Well taken care of. And I feel like this is probably the most castle looking castle that I’ve ever visited. I don’t know if maybe it’s because of his shapes or or his size. Oh, we arrive at the another gate that is closed. So, this is the end. Stunning. It would be nice if we can just walk down to the city from here, but we have to go back up. We have to go back up. It’s so far away. I just relax it. Nice to see you again. We promise that we will come here. Go to the bridge again. No. No. You go. Okay. Found it. Okay. Yes. Yeah, we found it. Great. Okay. What do you prefer? You prefer here. You prefer up up. You’re good. Always good. Sorry for my but I lost big night last night. Are you sure? Oh, this is why everyone puts it on the chair. Oh, thank you. But anyway. Anyway, this was a welcome drink. He said try it. I think it might be similar to what you had in the coffee shop earlier this morning. It’s exactly the same things, but to me is like alcoholic. No, I think it’s just very strong. Oh, delicious. Delicious. So, obviously we walked back up out the castle and we have now come to Tavana Traditional Kadashi. Kardashi, which is the dude that drove us to the bridge earlier and his brother, he works here. So, we were planning to come here anyway and it was just serendipitous that he picked us up and was like, “Do you want to come?” We were like, “Yeah.” So yeah, it’s got a lovely outside area that we’re sitting in now. And it’s also got an inside area if you prefer, but we want the breeze because we’re hot and sweaty from the day. Thank you. Amazing. Thank you. Enjoy. Thank you so much. So our friend from the car earlier who was working here, he’s gone now unfortunately, but he ordered this for us as a starter. I think he said it was meatballs, but this dude just said it was tomato, potato, confused. I’m not sure. Anyway, and I also got a slab of goat cheese. This is a lot of feta for me to eat alone because Sarah’s not going to touch it. No, I don’t like it. Oh, it falls apart in your mouth though. It’s really good. It’s a meatball. Lovely. M. That’s really good. I’m glad you added that onto our order. It’s very nice. Hello, precious. Thank you for taking for the team. Yeah. So, we’ve both been pretty basic when it comes to this meal. We’ve gone for a traditional chicken fillet because we’ve had so much Albanian food over this weekend and last week and the weekend before and the weekend before. We just fancy something a little bit more plain. I agree. I agree. Yeah, it’s good. Oh my god. The flavor is very different from the chicken that we had so far. The spices, it’s so good. It’s so salty but lovely to you. I give it to you. [Music] While we’re finishing dinner today in Durac Castro, we just wanted to reminisce a little bit about Albania because this is actually our last vlog here in Albania. We spent almost 3 months here. It will be 3 months by the time we leave. We visited the country top to bottom and Albania has blown away all expectations of what it possibly could have been. I was thinking about it and I feel a little bit melanchonic to live and at the same time for you. Thank you. And also sad because I think that Albania is such an underrated country. Every day more that we are spending here and the more we talk with locals, the more that we submerge oursel in the culture, we try their food, we visit their towns and their region. And the more I realize that I cannot believe that Albania was never in my radar before we decide to come here. And it’s crazy because it has beautiful mountain towns like Jerichastra and Barat. It has amazing lakeside towns like Scodra. It has the hikes up in the Albanian Alps. It’s got waterfalls. It’s got canyons. It’s got the Albanian Riviera with the beautiful like moldies blue water. It has everything to offer. And I think, correct me guys if I’m wrong, but I feel like it has this stereotype of being kind of like dangerous or like very Soviet somehow and full of gangster and stuff like that that might push people away, but it’s completely not like that. It’s so safe as well. It’s the safest country. It’s safe together with like Thailand that we’ve been and everyone is just so welcoming and happy to share their culture and their country with you. Please, please do yourself a favor. Come here and see with your eyes because honestly, if I have to cheerlead for a country right now is Albania. Mhm. And if you enjoyed our Albania series or this video, drop us a like. That’d be great. Subscribe if you want to see more travel adventures. Next week, we’re going to be in Montenegro. And then after that, we’re going to be in Bosnia and Herzavina. And we’ll catch you next week with another video. See you guys. Talk to a stranger. Oh my god, we found there. I think it’s just I don’t think he’s Come on. He’s famous, right? I saw it on Google Maps. I was like, what? Mission achieved. You got to go in a stroke, bro. No, it’s okay. I don’t But I’m very happy that we saw it. Wait, don’t go from behind. Go from Good morning. Oh my god. You happy? Then he’s like, “What the hell?

Gjirokaster is one of the most popular cities in Albania. After hearing so much about it, we took a trip from Tirana to the stone city! One of the best places in Albania, this travel vlog shows off the amazing architecture, views, and hidden spots within Southern Albania’s favourite destination. Join us as we guide you around Gjirokaster to explore Gjirokaster Castle, Gjirokaster Bazaar and more!

#albania #travel #balkancountry #albaniatravel #gjirokaster #gjirokastër #thingstodoingjirokaster #gjirokasterguide #albanianfood #albaniatourism #albaniantrip

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*USEFUL LINKS:*
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*CHAPTERS:*
00:00 Every Albanian told us to come here…
00:42 Gjirokaster Bazaar
05:53 Nostalgia Tunnel
09:22 ‘Hey Albania’ traditional sweets
12:00 Obelisk of Education
14:16 Traditional Albanian Lunch
16:55 Stone Rooms 1850
18:04 Catching a fun lift
20:06 Zara (the kindest Albanian lady)
24:16 Ali Pasha Bridge
26:29 Gjirokaster Castle
37:00 Restaurant Kardashi (a promise fulfilled)
39:26 Reminiscing about our time in Albania
41:40 DULE THE DOG!!!
After exploring Berat, we continued our Albania travel journey to Gjirokastra! This albania travel vlog highlights the amazing castle of gjirokastra, and the beautiful albania scenery in south albania. See why this historic destination is a must-visit!