Private Tour to The Past of Communism in Tirana With Food Tasting

We will meet at the Skanderbeg Sq. which is the Tirana's city center. Here you will catch a glimpse of the range of influence from different invaders on the city's culture & architecture.

The National Museum will be our first stop. If you have a soft spot for the past, here you will learn about the history of a land that has been inhabited thousands of years ago (even before the Stone Age). Walking through the pavilions we will go from the beginning to today.

COFFEE STOP!
After immersing in the past, we will come back to the present and have a coffee - Albanian style. The Fortress of Justinian or the Castle of Tirana is a 700 hundred year old castle from Byzantine-era. A site where people would fight with swords and guns turned into a chilling spot for locals and travelers, full of restaurants, cafes, art shops and more. A must-visit in Tirana.

Now it starts to get interesting!
The former anti-nuclear bunker of the Ministry of the Interior is a relic of a distant and obscure period of years ('44-'91). Built during the 80s, it would serve as a shelter for high-governing officials of the era in case of a nuclear or chemical attack. It was designed to survive nuclear attacks, with walls made of double concrete.
Nowadays? An ongoing-project, a museum where all of the rooms built for the people who would live there are turned into historical and artistic exhibition rooms, with pieces of information and art installations from the communist history of Albania.

(The Boulevard of Tirana - Part 1/3)
As we walk the streets of the Boulevard, we will discuss about what we saw inside the Bunk'Art, make comparison with other countries (Eastern and Western) , we will talk about where the country is today and more.
A weird structure, the Pyramid of Tirana, or the Enver Hoxha Pyramid was built as a museum dedicated to Enver Hoxha, the supreme leader of the country and the ruler from '44-'85. His daughter was an architect and a co-designer of it.

It has had many lives after the fall of Communism in '91 - as a cultural center, a NATO base, a National Television headquarters and more. Nowadays it is under a long construction which will turn it into an IT center for the youth with a focus on computer programming, robotics, and start ups.

(The Boulevard of Tirana - Part 2/3)
Strolling through the Boulevard, we will reach the 'Post-Block'.
The ‘Post-Block’ is a Memorial to the Communist Isolation with relics from the past. It was built by the artist and former regime dissident and Fatos Lubonja and the artist Ardian Isufi. It contains three main elements:

1. The bunker is in its original position, guarding the main entrance of the segregated residential block where the late dictator Enver Hoxha and the most senior communist officials lived from 1945-1991.

2. The concrete supports are from the Spac labor camp, the most notorious labor camp of the regime, where thousands of political prisoners suffered from 1968-90.

3. The brightly painted wall is a piece of the Berlin wall, a symbol of the separatism that regimes bring to people.

(The Boulevard of Tirana - Part 3/3)

The Block - leafy, colorful, vibrant, trendy, touristy, the heart of Tirana's nightlife, one of the most famous and expensive areas. A bar in every corner, pubs, cafes, fancy restaurants & boutiques, and more - nowadays.
As for before, during our beloved dictatorship era, it was a closed 'block', a protected precinct for the regime's elite.
Here we will walk around what used to be the highest officials neighborhood and also by the villa of Enver Hoxha, which we will be able to see from outside (it's not open for the public).

Experience the Albanian traditional cuisine!
After all the immersion in another world, in another age, in another reality, we will come back once again to today's Tirana. Normally, I want all travelers who visit Albania try some traditional flavor and cuisine. That's why we will stop at a traditional restaurant in the Block (Blloku) area and enjoy some deserved local food:)
After we fill our bellies, we will have our last stroll to the hotel you're staying in or at the starting point of the tour and greet each-other goodbyes, maybe to meet again in another day.