hello and welcome to the Edges of Earth, my name is Brock. i spent about 11.5 months in Albania. and so today, i basically want to give you a few travel tips.
i want to give you some ideas about what it costs inside of Albania. and i also want to give you my thoughts on safety in the country.
now, hopefully you can hear me. it's super windy outside. i basically have nowhere else to go to shoot this video. so bear with me.
and also you probably can't see my face. i don't think so. how about now? yep, that's sort of better. i have no idea. hopefully you can see me. hopefully you can hear me.
so as a point of reference, i'm from the united states. i'm only going to compare and contrast from an Americans perspective, i suppose.
let's talk about expense. overall Albania is not expensive compared to the united states. just to give you a brief rundown: food, you can buy some snacks for like 20 cents.
usually snacks in that country are bread related. they generally eat a lot of bread in Albania. fast food, such as something called a Sufllaque, that seemed to be about a $1.80 us across the country.
there are some places that were cheaper. there were some places that were quite a bit more. but that just seemed about the average price throughout the country.
if you want to go to a nice restaurant, you could spend about $12 and get something quite nice. even the presentation of the meal would be nice. this would be considered an expensive dinner in Albania.
i didn't eat out very often, i'm just not that type of guy. but when i did, i was always surprised how cheap the bill was. again there are more expensive restaurants i'm sure you could drop $30 us dollars on a meal somewhere in Albania.
maybe even more than that. but a nice place it seemed to be about $12, on average.
in terms of accommodation, i would say the average hostel that i stayed in was about $9 dollars. i found some for $7. i found some for $15. but the average seemed to be about $9.
the average hotel that i stayed in was about $18, including taxes. again, you can find things for cheaper and you can find significantly more expensive. but i seem to find the most amount of hotels around the $18 budget.
and that was using the internet such as airbnb… hotels.com. if you go directly to a hotel, you can probably save a couple dollars because they're not paying commission. but i never…i never did that.
long-term accommodation for a month: i stayed quite a while in a couple different apartments. and i think one of them, i paid less than $300 usd.
and it was a three-bedroom apartment, two bathrooms, huge kitchen, living room, three balconies, and it was in a nice part of town. so that at least gives you an idea.
and it depends on what time of the year and if you're in a tourist area, or not. there's a bit of a range when it comes to this.
for example, i talked to a woman who lives in Sarandë.. she rents a nice house in that area. and she said she pays about $175 u.s dollars per month. but she's a local. so that gives you at least an idea.
so if you get the local price, it's even cheaper than what you're seeing online. if you're just an average traveler going for a week or two, yeah, you can probably use the online thing.
but if you are like me and you kind of stay for a long time, yeah, you might meet some local people and they might help you find even cheaper options than what you find online.
in terms of a sim card, they're easy to get. i paid about $10 us dollars per month. and that got me 6 gigabytes of data for 30 days. when i did that, i had a lot of wi-fi at my house, so i didn't need it on my sim card, very much.
almost every restaurant that you go to, wi-fi is available. it's just… it's just everywhere. so wi-fi is really easy to get when you're there. but if you just need it on your mobile, there are bigger packages that you could get for relatively cheap, and i'm sure you'll be just fine.
the cost of transportation varies a bit. you can take public or private buses here and there. and to be honest, the price varies based on where you're going. it's not just about the distance.
you must remember some places from point A to point B is flat, so it's going to be cheaper. some it's completely up the mountain. And some, it is completely down the mountain. so it just depends on so many different factors.
it's hard for me to say how much it cost per kilometer. i have paid $10 us dollars for 50 kilometers. significantly cheaper than the united states. this one is kind of a hard one to give you a price.
but trust me, it's significantly cheaper than anything that you would pay in the united states. let's talk about safety. now, safety in Albania is interesting.
i talked to so many people when i was there. i asked elderly men, elderly women, middle-aged men, middle-aged women, and children… both boy and girl.
i asked them all the same question; do you feel it is safe walking around in Albania, during the day or during the night, in the city or in the countryside?
100% of people in my almost one year stay in Albania said yes. 0 people said that they felt scared walking around by themselves. yes there's petty crime. yes people do steal. it exists everywhere.
but generally, it's a safe place. and that's a wonderful thing. because there's a stigma about Albania from the late 90s when things were insane and crazy and there was a lot of anarchy. and and the collapse of communism, and all these crazy things happened during that time.
so there's a lot of stigma because those people were desperate at that time. they went to many countries and did a lot of bad things to survive. so there's a stigma about Albania.
i must say, my experience in Albania completely safe. i walked during the day. i walked during the night. i walked in the countryside. i walked in the city. walked in the mountains alone. i went everywhere. and i literally had 0 problems.
i will say the only thing that you should be concerned about, just a little bit, are the dogs. now dogs in Albania are everywhere. they're wild. they're street dogs. they live in the city and they just roam everywhere.
so you can imagine when there's no control over these things, they start to get territorial. not just between the other dogs, but between dogs and people.
i've seen them get aggressive when you walk too close to their food source, which is the garbage can. so be careful i've seen a lot of dogs barking and chasing.
and i've talked to a lot of people who have bicycled all around Albania, and they said that, you know, going up and down mountains. you have to be really careful if you see a sheepdog.
just try to go as fast as you can… pass them or avoid them as much as possible because they are trained by the owner to protect the sheep from sheep thieves. so therefore, when they see another human, the dog automatically thinks that you're going to steal the sheep.
and they'll they'll chase you. and i'm sure people have been bit before. luckily i haven't heard any of those stories. but just be careful! they can get really aggressive.
so to be honest, in Albania the only thing that made me concerned in my entire year trip there, was the dogs.
usually when i go to a place, i always ask “where shouldn’t i go?” “are there places that i shouldn't go?” and really, i didn't get much response with this except when i went to Shkodër, which is in the north… kind of by Montenegro.
i asked the man where i should or should not ride my bike and he said “ah, on this map don't go here or here they're both the #1 and #2 most powerful mobster neighborhoods in the area.” that sounds terrifying.
and he says “yeah, well don't be too scared.” he said “if you go through there, most likely someone will stop you. most likely they do have some type of gun with them. but they won't hurt you.
once they know you're a foreigner and you're just exploring, they're going to let you go and say ‘yeah it's not a problem.’ “ what they do apparently is make sure you're not a gang member or a mob member from a different mob, because then it could cause conflict.
something like this. i don't know how it works. so i just stayed out of that area. but that was something that someone told me. i don't even know what to think about that. gangs do exist, but apparently, they don't really go after foreigners very much.
so the last section, i want to go over some travel tips and some interesting observations that i've seen. there's 0 order, so make sure you pay attention and go through the whole thing. i did not put them in any order whatsoever.
so like i mentioned before, dogs are everywhere. generally if you're walking around and you see a dog with a tag in its ear, there these big orange tags, i think it means that they've been vaccinated. but at least there's ownership to that dog.
generally i feel those were the ones that were tame, friendly, wanted to be pet, touched, and and stuff like that. they were fine. i never seen any aggressiveness from them. it was the ones without the tags that seem to cause the majority of the problems.
so if you're nervous, and not sure if you should get close to that dog, if you see a tag, there's a good chance you'll be fine. but it seemed to be about 50% of the dogs had them and 50% didn’t. so there you go.
sims; like i mentioned before… the price. but they're also easy to get. literally you just walk into any carrier and give them your passport, and they'll type it in. and in less than 5 minutes, later you walk out ready to go with a sim.
it was very convenient. i must say there's been other countries that i've traveled in… it's an absolute nightmare to get a sim. so in Albania, it was simple.
one of my favorite things about Albania, is the people. the people are super, super, friendly, honest, and nice. there was only one man who took more money from me on a bus ride. that's it.
out of the entire experience in 11.5 months nobody tried to cheat me. everyone was so honest, and kind, and friendly. and i must say, that it's very, very, refreshing.
i've done a lot of traveling, and i must say, people generally go after foreigners and they really try to take advantage of you. not in Albania. i mean, i'm sure it exists, but i never felt it. not even once.
if anything, it is opposite. in the beginning, people would sometimes come up to you and, like, talk to you… and i'm just waiting for them to expose why they're talking to me.
it's usually money related. oh, become your friend, become your friend, and really what i want is this. or i want you to buy this. or i want money. no. if people come up to you and talk to you, it's literally genuine… which is a unique thing.
because believe me, this doesn't happen in every country. so i must say, the people were genuine, they wanted to help you, they were kind, they were honest.
i met another American living in the neighborhood with me, and he said; “yesterday i went to the gym to buy a gym membership for two months”, because he was going to stay there for two months.
and when he walked in there, obviously there was a language barrier. the man asked him where he was from, he said i'm from the united states. he says oh my god. he said you come here every day! no problem!
you do not need to pay a membership whatsoever. just come every day for two months. so i thought that was interesting. there have been other stories that i've heard where Albania’s have been generous, overly generous.
i don't know if it's specific to the united states. so many times, so many Albanian people have been super, super, kind and friendly, and just genuine.
mountain tea. you have to try mountain tea. so apparently every day when people wake up, they drink mountain tea. it's kind of a thing in Albania.
since i left Albania, i must say, there's other nearby countries… Greece and Turkey and Montenegro. i've heard those countries also have this same tea.
i know they have it because i tasted it, I smelled, it i've seen it. it's the same tea. it might go by a different name in those countries. but in Albania, it’s mountain tea. try it it's illegal to mass export it out of the country.
so when i tasted it, it was a it was a tea that i've never experienced before. and i've had a lot of tea in my time. it was a unique taste. it was pretty good. so definitely try mountain tea when you get there.
if you're trying to use google maps to find things, awesome, go for it. try it. use it. there are things that are on google maps. but there's a lot of stuff that just isn't on google maps.
and so if you don't see it on google maps, it doesn't mean that they don't have it in your town, village, or city. it just means that you probably have to ask any local.
and then if they don't know, they'll probably call a friend and say “hey, do you know this?” or ask their neighbor for you. there's a pretty good chance they have it in the area, it's just not on google maps.
so you'll definitely have to ask some locals to find certain things.
everybody smokes! if you're a smoker, awesome! if you're not a smoker, like myself, get prepared. smoking is everywhere!
and if you hate smoking, Albania is going to be a bit of a rough country for you. so many people smoke. men and women and the occasional child you'll see walking around smoking.
the unique thing about it is that they will smoke everywhere. like you'll be in your taxi, they're smoking. you go to a restaurant, everybody's smoking. you go to a supermarket, there are people who have walked around in a supermarket smoking.
small convenience shops, smoking. i've even seen when you go into a pharmacy, the pharmacist is sitting there smoking while he's selling you vitamins. smoking is everywhere. so get used to that.
there are signs that say no smoking here. so there are some businesses who just don't allow it, or don't want it. but generally, smoking is everywhere.
one thing i thought was kind of interesting was coffee shops. coffee shops are not just for coffee. they're for alcohol. it'll say coffee. it'll show like a coffee symbol. coffee shop. cafe.
generally you can buy coffee and alcohol at the same time. i remember going in at like 8:30 in the morning.. to go to a castle nearby. and so i had a cup of coffee.
and i swear, the older gentleman just next to me, they were all drinking shots. shots of something called Raki. that's the local… it's kind of like a vodka type thing.
early in the morning, people drink sometimes, apparently. and alcohol is in coffee shops. so that’s… that's cool.
transportation, we talked about price a minute ago. i must say, getting around in Albania is super simple. like, everything is quite organized.
depending on the size of the city, there's going to be one bus station. and if it's a big city there might be, you know, 3 or 4. so you'll have to ask someone which bus station to go to, to get you to the place that you want to go… because you don't want to go to the wrong place.
generally, you go to the auto-bus station, super simple. all of the signs are written with roman characters. so a,b,c,d. you can read where they're going. and ask anyone, they'll point you to the correct bus.
and you just get on it, you pay them cash, and then you go to your destination. super simple. the only difficult thing are local buses, because there's not always bus stops.
let's say you're in a city, and you want to go to a different part of the city, there's probably local buses that will take you there. but the hard part is finding out where that bus stand is.
you will have to ask a local, and not everybody speaks english… obviously Albanian is the main language. so one thing that will help you is if you go up to anyone nearby, you just say “auto boos” and then say the name of the place that you want to go.
and they'll point you to where you need to wait. and then you just stand there. sometimes it's next to a tree, so you might see one or two people standing under a tree. and you're like ‘what are they doing having a siesta?’ nope.
they're waiting for a bus. there's no label. no sign. nothing. just go to that spot and wait. a bus will come. and then make sure you know the name of the destination or show them on the phone, the name of the destination so they can read it.
you say ‘here’ and then they'll say ‘ah, no problem’. give them cash. but it's super, super, simple. everything is organized and convenient. the only limitation is you don't speak Albanian.
don't drink the tap water. this is what everybody says. and it's true. don’t. i even stayed at that nice place that i was telling you about, for several months.
and they said ‘yes it's safe to drink the tap water. don't worry. it's fine.’ i still didn't. i always bought big containers of water. and you can find these jugs of water everywhere. it's really easy.
but just to do a test, i put the the tap water into the the coffee maker, i guess [electric tea kettle]. and boiled it for a while. and sure enough, at the bottom, it just completely calcifies. i mean like calcifies at the bottom.
that's how much junk is in their water. the 'clean' water that they say is 'clean'. so don't trust it. only buy bottled water.
everything in the country is basically cash. so you can go to some supermarkets and pay with your debit or credit card. you can go to some restaurants pay with your debit or credit card. yes it does exist.
you do see signs. but generally, it's a cash society. so what i always do, in any country, is super simple for me...i just go to the ATM, withdraw money. paying cash. super simple.
and the last and final major tip i want to give you is this: and i'd say this is the biggest tip of them all. when you withdraw cash from the ATM, you want to go to one bank. one. it's called Credins bank.
c-r-e-d-i-n-s. Credins bank why because they're the only company that doesn't rape you, yeah? every other company takes money from you as a, like, a surcharge.
they'll take a percentage or they'll give you a bad exchange rate or something. so definitely go to Credins bank. i must say, i've never been charged once from them.
i'm a foreigner so my bank is international. but they don't charge me anything whatsoever to withdraw money from their ATM. so definitely go to Credins bank.
so overall i absolutely loved living in Albania. i never intended to go there. but because of the restrictions around the world, from the year that everybody knows, i had very limited options to go to, and Albania was one of those options.
and so i went there, and i'm very happy that i did. it's a cool country. i never would even have known about Albania, had 2020 never happened.
so yeah, i mean compared to other countries that i've been to, this place was organized, friendly, hygienic, affordable, and rather beautiful. i mean mountains are everywhere and the coastline of this country is amazing.
if you're looking for an adventure in a beautiful country full of kind, caring, friendly people... Albania is definitely a place to visit.
so anyway that's it. hopefully this gives you an idea if you're trying to plan and go to this country. and now i'll tell you where i'm at. you can't see very, well but i'm in Turkey.
i am in southern Turkey on the coast. i don't know what sea this is. let me look because i literally have no idea. what the hell? what is this?
this is the mediterranean sea. if i look that way about 550 kilometers, i will see Cairo, Egypt.
anyway so that's interesting. that's it. hopefully you enjoyed. hopefully you learned something. thank you all for watching. remember, your time is running out... start living! take care.