Balkan car trip 🚘

2 highschool friends and a white Skoda Fabia
7 countries (🇦🇱, 🇽🇰, 🇲🇰, 🇷🇸, 🇧🇦, 🇭🇷, 🇲🇪) and 1750 KM
9 days (6 to 14 April 2024) En savoir plus

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Début du voyage
6 avril 2024
Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Ready for a new adventure!
6 avril 2024, Luxembourg ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Departure at 1.30am for Charleroi Airport.
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
2 hours later!
6 avril 2024, Belgique ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
New airport unlocked!
6 avril 2024, Belgique ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
Flying over the Alps and along the Balkan Adriatic coast.🌄🌊
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Tirana-Albania! 🇦🇱
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
After 8 hours of travel, I am in Tirana!
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
Skanderbeg Square
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
The square is huge (40,000 square km) and is dedicated to the Albanian national hero.

Many buildings overlook the square (including the beautiful National History Museum and the National Opera Theatre). Until 1997 there were also two statues, one of Lenin and one of the dictator Hoxha, destroyed by the people during the 1992 revolution.

With just two euros (or 200 lek) you can reach the square from the airport by bus.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Tirana - Et'hem Bey Mosque
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The Et'hem Bey Mosque is located in the same square.
Completed around 1800, il was closed for many years during the Communist dictatorship.

In 1991 almost 10.000 person entered again to pray, despite opposition from the authorities.

The frescoes and mosaics inside and outside are incredible.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Lunch with local food
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Qofte (spiced lamb meatballs) and boiled liver in a very tasty cheese sauce😋.
To drink a very refreshing local beer and an amazing coffe (super good, italian style).
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Tirana city center
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
The city center is extremely clean, tidy, full of restaurants and tourists.
Almost everywhere shops also accept the Euro and many locals speak Italian, a consequence of the great migration to Italy during the Albanian dictatorship.
Italy is super present here: the majority of turists are italians, near the central square there is the Italian cultural center as well as a representative office of the Puglia Region.

Finally, everywhere in the streets you can see Albanian nationalism with flags in every shop and beautiful graffiti.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 BunkArt 2: Anti-atomic bunker ☢️
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Dictator Hoxha was terrified of an invasion by NATO, neighboring Yugislavia or the USSR. As a result he ordered the construction of over 200,000 bunkers nationwide, some of which still exist and are abandoned.

In 2014 and 2016 two of the largest antiatomic bunkers were transformed into museums. BunkArt 2, specifically, was the bunker used by the Ministry of the Interior.

Outside there is the car model used by the secret police to arrest dissidents, while inside there is a tribute to the many victims of Albanese communism.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 The funny traffic lights of Tirana
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
The traffic lights in Tirana are very paricular.
The red light is a red "T" and also the traffic light pole lights up red or green.

The avenue in the photo leads to the Pyramid of Hoxha, the next step of our visit.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Pyramid of Tirana
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
This concret Pyramid was built in honor of Hoxha 3 years after the death of the dictator. The cost was enormous, especially for a small country like Albania in a great economic crisis at the time.

Ironically, the building wanted by the communist leadership, following the end of the dictatorship, became the NATO HQ during the short war in the near Kosovo (1998/1999).En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Tirana - National Stadium
6–7 avr. 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The super modern (2019) stadium of Tirana.
Inside there is also a bar, where it is possible to drink a good cocktail for just €7.

Inside the stadium is full of shirts of Roma players, team that won the Conference League 2021/2022 in this stadium against Feyenoord.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Tirana Modern & old buildings
6 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
The curious thing about Tirana is the coexistence side by side of super modern skyscrapers and historic buildings from the 19th century.

The city is constantly expanding (especially around the central square) and there are countless cranes.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 Tirana - Car rented and ready to go
7 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
3 high-school friends, one Skoda Fabia, many countries to visit.
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱 ➡️🇽🇰 Driving among mountains
7 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Beautiful snow-capped mountains and rivers.

The streets are very new and relaxing, but are full of people crossing the highway lanes on foot and walking along the sides 🤯 so it is important to pay attention and slow down even if highways are perfect.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇦🇱➡️🇽🇰 Crossing my first land border
7 avril 2024, Albanie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
For me this is the first border that I cross not by plane (excluding intra-European ones).

And the first border and stamp in the passport is that of a country with limited recognition, Kosovo, recognized only by 101 countries. For the others, including Spain, Greece or Cyprus, Kosovo is formally part of Serbia.

Funny moment:
Agent: what is your job
Me: Consultancy
Agent: [he understands call center] Do you want to open or work in a call center in Kosovo?En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Prizren: 2nd bigest city of Kosovo
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Super nice city, the center is quite small but it is a good for stopping and lunch during the Tirana/Pristina travel.
Many had many turists, the internal streets are not paved and the city has many dogs.

The weather was amazing. Super sunny and 25 degrees.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Prizren - Sinan Pasha Mosque
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Another super beautiful Mosque in the center of Prizren.
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Prizren lunch
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Excellent lunch with local food in a local restaurant.
Very tasty cheeses as a starter, chicken in tartar sauce for me and stuffed peppers for my friends.
As usual in this part of Europe, amazing coffee and good prices!

In the table behind us a Slovenian soldier of NATO force still present in Kosovo is enjoying his lunch. The only element that reminds us for a moment that until a few years ago this was a country at war.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Prizren and its military statues
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
The city if full of statues representing the heroes of Kosovar independence.
Kosovo is the second youngest state in the world (2008), and for this reason their heroes wear bulletproof vests and have modern weapons.

Everywhere in the city there are US flags (the US and NATO supported Kosovo during the war) and the logo of UCK (Kosovo liberation army).
If you pay attention you can also see the logo of UCK on the top on top of the fortress overlooking the city (last picture).En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Pristina: the Capital of Kosovo
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
After lunch we moved towards Pristina.
In Pristina casually we parked our car near one of the buildings where EULEX forces operate.

EULEX is the largest diplomatic/military operation ever conducted by the EU. Its purpose is to train soldiers and policemen as well as judges, to stabilize and ensure security in Kosovo, promoting the State of Law.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Pristina - The view from our room
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
From the window of our room it is possible to see the famous national library, realized in brutalist style.

The squares of the Balkan capitals are surprising.
Large, full of children and people, with many shops, restaurants and bars.
But above all incredibly clean and maintained.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Pristina: Radio Kosova building
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
In the city center the radio building stands out: on top of the building the logo of the UCK (National Liberation Army), the Kosovar flag and a writing on freedom.
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Pristina - Cathedral of M. Teresa.
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Even if the majority of the population is Muslim (95%) and only a minority is Catholic (2.5%), in the center there is a beautiful church (partially under maintainance) dedicated to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who was born in Skopjie in an Albanese family.En savoir plus
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Balkan car trip 🚘Leonardo Floridia
🇽🇰 Pristina - National Library
7 avril 2024, Kosovo ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
The buiding of the National Library is considered by many people as the ugliest builing in Europe.

It was realized by a Croatian/Yogoslavian Architect and was inaugurated in 1982 (when Kosovo was still part of Yugoslavia). Probably it is the greatest example of Yugoslavian brutalism and it presents 99 small silvered domes on the top.En savoir plus
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