you know maybe i don't say this enough
but i've always loved visiting places
that fly under the radar
you learn a lot about yourself when you
go someplace new
it's kind of a beautiful thing to be
surprised by the things that you find
this is about a series of adventures i
had in one of those places
a super underrated little country in
eastern europe
and i'll explain why i'm sprinting from
a mob of geese i promise
along with my friend thomas from yes
theory we saw things that really blew my
mind
the things that i experienced in this
little corner of the world taught me a
lesson
on expectations and the beauty of the
unknown
[Music]
so here's the thing you need to
understand about albania it's ranked
after iran in terms of number of annual
arrivals
feels a little bit like a forgotten
little country with a very complicated
past
even in these little parks there are
bunkers
only just a generation ago this was a
part of the world that was riddled by
war
but the exciting thing is that the
country is getting a chance to reinvent
itself now
and move forward this is my first time
in the balkans
welcome to albania man god dude
[Laughter]
oh my god we're gonna have an amazing
week we're gonna have an amazing yes we
are
can i can i join in on some of this this
is what did i do to deserve this
is that for you that's for me but
whatever you want it's for me now
not just kidding with our stomachs full
we embarked on a little road trip
through the country
i like to go to places where i might
have maybe negative preconceived
notions or i have like very little and
i'm just excited to go and
find out something that i didn't know
about the world because it's so easy to
have
a fixed idea of what the world is like
what people are like yeah oh the people
over there are like that and
people are over here like this so
peaceful too in the morning like
dude i don't hear any traffic obviously
a beautiful spot i feel like but
doubly beautiful because hardly anybody
else
is here to be able to tell stories that
are original or that feel original
you have to do things that other people
don't do
you start telling stories i feel like
when you start making videos it's easy
to
either go for things that you've seen
other people do and then the more you
make things yourself the more you start
to push your own creativity and you want
to do things that
don't bore you and like are are exciting
so what's the deal with no seat belt
i mean if we follow this cliff we're all
going to die anyways jeez
i'm sure people have died here
he's literally slamming into that tree
right now like it's cool to be surprised
oh my god he is it's also sometimes not
cool to be surprised and sometimes i
feel like i
don't know how to navigate that super
well
with myself it's almost like you need to
cultivate sort of like a mentality of
i'm gonna continue to be learning about
who i am
over time thanks for uh thanks for
convincing me to come out here
this all started with a text i felt like
i had both positive and negative
surprises about myself and my decision
making
and my beliefs if you will even over the
last like year
things shifted and then something i took
for granted or something i thought i
knew about myself turned out to be
not true
deep into our second night in albania we
arrived at a very special farmhouse that
embodies this new spirit of reinvention
that is popping up around the country
okay this is awesome so i've been
incredibly impressed with
albanian hospitality so far they've been
so welcoming here the food has been
delicious
i mean look at this place this has
really made me rethink the places that i
want to travel in the future because
this country was really not that much on
my radar and
i feel like it has just as much if not
more to offer than many of the other
places that we see so often on social
media
or online the people here seem really
eager to share
their culture with the world this hotel
is super super awesome the place that i
had spent the night was special for a
few reasons
it's also one of the best restaurants in
the country the brothers who created the
place
also bought a nearby former prison where
they now make wine
meat and cheese among other things and
this has transformed the local community
look at this cheese right next to you
man like [ __ ] love was put into making
this
you can see it it's focused on doing
things locally and shining a light on
what albania does best
oh my god there was an era of calm that
morning until i began to hear a strange
sound
do you hear that
you and i like to control situations
yeah
there are so many of them and yet here
we are in albania
in a way because i hold such a tight
grip on my daily life it's nice to have
like
be thrown in an environment where i
can't like it's unrealistic for me to
try
and then i have no other choice but to
let go you're forced to let go
through the environment oh my god
oh my god
there's definitely moments when you make
decisions and you you feel like you're
following a sense of intuition and then
you get there and you're like okay this
is
this is tricky now and i made this
decision so i have to own the
consequences
it's tough to balance that when you're
like okay this was definitely my fault
it's almost like when you feel
uncomfortable about something if it's
like pushing your limits
to a certain extent if you will right
because there is such thing as too much
but pushing the limits is oftentimes a
good sign
like some level of fear yeah is usually
a good sign
it's like this is something to explore
this is something you dig deeper in yep
you excited about this there's i'm very
excited there's like
bunkers submerged by water the lagoon
goes up and down this guy who built
these
were like was so obsessed that he also
wanted them in the lagoon
to protect from invasion coming from
that way wow an extra level of security
there's this author adventure his name
is jedediah jenkins he says routine is
the enemy of time
and uh his biggest fear when he turned
30 was that his 30s would just fly by
like he was going to get this routine
and yeah you know he said he spent time
with
around older people and you know in
retirement homes and whatnot and they
just say like wow i feel my
like my life just flew by yeah it's like
a blink of an eye and i was 80.
that's such an absolutely terrifying
thought
at the end of the video he says you know
i want to get to 80 and be exhausted
and be like wow that was that was so
much on top of this bunker
here in this
lagoon if you will they've done a great
job
of protecting whatever it is they want
to protect
from sort of enemy invaders for a
country that's been
occupied so many times
oh yeah i know for sure for sure i mean
look at this dude
wow this this is the opposite of
inviting if you will
[Music]
what you're sacrificing in a sense is
like
productivity and efficiency yeah right
because it is
the opposite of efficient to say
[ __ ] it i'm gonna throw myself into
something i completely do not know
what i mean and this is where i get
really concerned about this obsession
that i think our generation has with
productivity and output and efficiency
is that you get locked in on something
that works
[Music]
the bunkers we were exploring they're
scarves from a difficult past
a man and a regime that tried to squash
vulnerability and emotion
the things that make us human the
dictator
yeah here instead of dealing with his
fears
and dealing with whatever he had going
on he got more and more paranoid and
built
like a bajillion bunkers i feel like
that that is exactly the wrong way to
deal with
your your emotions yeah this is what i
hate
heights you've seen that i have a huge
fear of heights you don't do well with
heights dude
i don't i'm not i don't do great with
heights either
oh yeah that's you all right
i'm really bad at nights i've done two
videos on it already
this [ __ ] just like makes me sick to my
stomach but i'm not saying
no to experiences i'm just like okay i
just need a little longer than you do
because otherwise i'll never work
through it oh my god
yeah i just go back to thinking about
how the buddhists always talk about the
middle way
in a certain respect i do have a better
sense of who i am right
and i think that is reflected in like
what i'm doing and the risks that i do
take
yeah and then another regard it's sort
of like i am just as insecure
and doubtful as probably ever there's
certain things that you can't change
and those are easier to accept like when
there's insecurities that are changing
like losing relevancy
like i feel like that's a bit of a
paranoia that's like what if
like this stops being my job you know i
mean what if people stop caring about
what i mean
yeah like i don't want to have to i want
i would want to choose
if i don't want to do this anymore i
wouldn't want to have to you know
insecurities that you feel like you can
affect
are almost harder to deal with because
you always feel like should i be doing
something about this
you know yeah and having the boundaries
then you know to then decide okay i'm
now taking a break or i'm doing
something else
yeah and i don't need to be permanently
worried about this everything fades
over time yeah it's amazing
i mean i think about how differently i
view this country and also this part of
the world
now after a few days here yeah than i
did
last week and i think that's so cool
it's so much easier to have
really amazing spontaneous experiences
that are actually quite positive
when you go in with zero expectations
thank you for the love and passion
i wanted to thank the guys at yes theory
and especially thomas for inviting me to
do this
it was an amazing adventure if you
aren't already familiar with the channel
yes theory you have to check it out they
have
a fantastic channel full of wonderful
videos they're going to be doing a video
on
this trip on their channel as well it's
going to be coming out a little bit in
the future
it's going to be probably a lot longer
and more in depth i will link to their
channel down below
check it out now while i'm on the topic
of recommendations i wanted to talk
about
one of my favorite newsletters which is
morningbrew and they happen to be the
sponsor of this video as well
i have become an avid reader of their
newsletter i actually look forward to it
every morning
it comes out monday through sunday and
it has become
one of my main ways of keeping up with
business and tech related news morning
brew has been insanely helpful in
following along with inflation trends
and understanding what's going on in the
world of crypto
it has inspired some of the innovations
that i have made on my own
newsletter it's well written it's funny
and it's not the endless
mainstream media cycle it's free and it
takes like 15 seconds to sign up to so
you can click on the link in the
description below to subscribe
thank you morning brew for sponsoring
this video and thank you to all of you
for watching
and i'll see you guys soon
you