Nature & Culture
In Tirana itself, there is not much to do with Nature.
For the nature part I went outside Tirana.
At the end of the page I will tell you a little bit about the history and culture of Albania.
Kanionet e Osumit:
During my drive to the Kanionet e Osumit, Mother Nature spoke to me in a big way.
Wind, rain, hail, snow, thunderstorms and sunshine.
It was a 10:00hr. long trip that I will never forget!
This place is about 03:00hr. drive from Tirana (according to Google-Maps).
But since the weather conditions and potholes in the road increased significantly, the ride took me a total of 02:00hr. extra driving.
If you do the math on this story, it means that I spent a total of 08:00hr. in the car and 02:00hr. of enjoying nature.
Yes you are right when you say that I'm crazy, but believe me....
It was definitely worth it!!!
Search for Kanionet e Osumit:
Google-Maps is very useful while traveling, but it cannot always give you 100% correct information.
Many of you will find this irritating, but in my opinion it's the opposite.
Because you're going to other places you didn't had in mind, it can be a very nice surprise.
My goal was to get to the canyons, but not in the way it actually was.
After a 04:00hr. car ride, I was getting stressed out because the sun tried to hide behind the mountains and I still hadn't found what I was looking for....
Until at some point I had parked the car at the side of the road to recover from the car ride.
From that moment I got out of the car I started walking for a bit and heard water flowing.
Purely out of curiosity I went to take a look, and my search started further by the
sound I heard. I was realy lucky to stopped my car at this area.
By looking at the pictures I will take you along with my search to the ¨Kanionet e Osumit¨
(Photo 1 is the spot where Google-Maps did not give enough info, by photo 2 I had found the water).
Nice and smooth drive with the car:
I'm so glad that I'm traveling by car!
If I only use public transport, I would never have the oppertunity to see these gems of a landscape.
Hope you can enjoy them as much as I do when I look back at these pictures.
Did you know?
Photo 1:
Did you know that it's very common to enjoy this type of authentic live performance with traditional Albanian music, while eating outside?
(You can see the video on the page: ¨Food¨)
Photo 2:
Did you know that 172,000 of these small bunkers were built throughout Albania?
The bunkers were placed on a direction that each bunker could protect the other one nearby.
They were built at the point when there was no more peace with the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1967.
In total, only two people fit in one bunker.
Photo 3:
Did you know that in every country I've visited, it was raining for 70% of the time?
A little bit of rain doesn't kill me, because in The Netherland we are getting used to it .
Traveling is not always about sunshine.
