Tirana & Lake Bovilla

The capital greeted us with a dramatic thunderstorm ⛈️ — the perfect excuse to go underground into Bunk’Art 1, a massive five-floor bunker built during dictator Enver Hoxha’s communist rule. Albania is packed with bunkers (we spot them everywhere!), but it was fascinating to finally step inside a big one.

Once the skies cleared, we got to enjoy Tirana properly. Cosy cafés, leafy parks, good food and believe it or not, clean streets 🌳. We're glad we decided not to skip Tirana after all, this was a refreshing change of scenery.

We also ventured north to Lake Bovilla, which supplies Tirana with drinking water. Fun facts we learned the hard way: 1) the road there is basically one giant pothole, and 2) that doesn’t scare off the crowds. But once the daytrippers left, we basically had the place to ourselves. To get some extra thrilling views of the lake, we went rock climbing the next morning. 🧗🏼‍♀️En savoir plus