Spring Sunday in Albania

The cloudy day turned out to be very pleasant once we left Tirana for lunch outside of the city. My friends, knowledgeable of new places springing up everywhere, wanted to try a new restaurant on the road that leads to Elbasan. There is a distance of 40 miles to that city, but we didn't have to go very far out of Tirana to reach the establishment they wanted to try.

It's a brand new, huge place, well equipped with all sorts of facilities: from a small park for children, to several terraced bars and pizzeria outdoors, as well as pools, and separate housing for lodging guests.


This entire complex, with manicured green lawns covers a vast area that is enclosed by a rustic, old fashioned stone wall.

The above main building contains an incredibly big indoor restaurant furnished in good taste and served by an efficient staff. Interesting iron works decorate various gates, doors, and all the windows of the restaurant.

The food was very good and excellently presented - my main dish was a perfectly cooked medallion of beef in a creamy green pepper sauce that melted in my mouth!

Children were playing in the nearby small park that contains also an old, "grizzly looking" bear. Pacing in his cage he knew that visitors would toss him fruits and bread that the restaurant supplies on the side for everyone's enjoyment to feed the animal.

Some of these facilities will be in full swing during the summer, but, even today, while we have 63F degrees temperature, most customers are eating outdoors.

We decided to have desserts and coffee somewhere else along the road, but it was impossible to find parking. We went by several places, but most restaurants, bars, and pizzerias were all doing a booming business!!

Closer to Tirana we finally found a place my friends like for its excellent coffee, but it's tucked away in the country side and it's reachable only via a narrow unpaved road. Here too we found lots of people lounging around, and we spent a pleasant afternoon chatting and savoring espressos along with freshly baked desserts in the calm and sunny outdoors.

We were located on a hilly area, not too far from the National Cemetery in the back (towered by the 'Statue of Albania' pictured above), but from the front, in the distance, we could also see all the way across most of Tirana, crowded by high raises everywhere!