ALBANIA, PUEBLOS CON ENCANTO, KORÇË | ALBANIA #2

And 45 minutes after leaving the entire Pogradec area I arrived at the next city Where I'm going to spend the night is Korce which looks very promising it has a historic old town so It has to be really cool I have a few hours of daylight left so I'm going to make the most of it I just finished Park here in front of the hotel where I'm staying well hotel the hostel it's called Bucina He Barde so we'll see it's super central which is what he was looking for There is a small one Parking here right in front of the hostel where you can park so nothing I'm going to leave the car here Suitcase I'm checking in whatever it takes let's explore this place I'm at the airport The room where I will be staying tonight as you can see from the outside also has a rather medieval architecture which is the building and inside it's no different In fact it's also a kind of museum all the corridors are filled with photos storical aspects of the city of Korce are very good very interesting it is known as the e city of serenades serenades because here they sang a lot a bit like Romy and Julieta well people men would lean out of the balconies to sing and such if the Grater if that's the case then okay all that doesn't exist anymore these days but okay it still goes on Knowing that nickname and the room where I'm staying as you can see it's a little small but Okay more than I need I have here a couple of beds and here is the bathroom with the shower So I'm not going to change and we're going to visit Korča a bit Starting the visit with the city I have a cathedral right behind me you've already seen the hostel where I'm staying and it's located right next to it The Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ which is an Orthodox church is indeed the cathedral The largest Orthodox church in all of Albania which I think was finally completed in 1997 or so It was built before yesterday but this is because there was another church here before that collapsed Well they tore it down around 1967 by the Communist Party that was around then well Here it has been a communist dictatorship for more than 40 years then under that regime well They removed this type of religious symbols then well it's an impressive cathedral It has a Greek style as you can see and this is because Greece was one of the main vestors in the construction of it In front of the cathedral if you cross the pedestrian crossing tha You will reach a small boulevard just ahead which is called San Jorge Boulevard or the name in The Albanian name for Senjergi or San Jorge is the main avenue here in Corça They are good the usual restaurants shops souvenir stores and so on and we will arrive Finally I'll just go down this street and see what I find Now it's today it's Saturday so well today there should be some ambient music It was mentioned earlier that Albania lived under a communist dictatorship for many years and well I want to give you a bit of historical context I'm not going to tell you everything at once because otherwise It can be very heavy Albania was a communist dictatorship for almost 50 years since end of World War II until the early 1990s and here is a very well-known personal name It is important to note that Enver Hoxha was essentially the dictator who led this country throughout its history That time until he basically died Throughout all this time Albania has been one of the e most secretive countries in the world but at the level of for example North Korea but even worse because today North Korea can be visited but even if only in groups and suc Albania could not be visited it did not accept anyone from outside it did not accept tourists it did not accept bu It was a country that was completely sealed off where people couldn't even enter or exit completely communist in the sense that there was no type of capitalism was rejected there was no private property no one had the houses they lived in did not belong to anyone the cars were Prohibited more than just for some high-ranking officials and so on which made Albania It has been stagnant throughout this time This has caused a major shock when it was opened to the world because even the Albanians were unaware of wha It was passing in the world and vice versa because of this inability to transfer formation between both parties that is why there are so many traces of all this e time of this communist era At the end of the avenue is a panoramic tower Free of charge you will have to climb a few flights of stairs and you will see a view panoramic view of everything that is the city of Corcha the truth is that it is a very beautiful view If You're coming in the evening which is even better because of the type of light it gives on the buildings The truth is that it's really great The city isn't very big especially the old town It's a historical site that's very worth visiting but it's good to spend a day or so there and that's great In fact the hatred towards Enver Hoxha's religion was so great that he was actually born into it Muslim but such was the rejection that during that time people could be seen praying for them They could be detained and tortured even so In fact there were also for example things that were forbidden Men were forbidden to wear beards their hair had to be short and here comes the part where One of the points like the one I mentioned before of tearing down some religious symbols Like the church that existed before it collapsed in 1967 and that was Enver Hoxha's dictatorship rejected all religious topics In fact it became the first country in the world to officially At least not anymore Today a large part is atheist well really it's a population tha He doesn't care much about religion but anyway mostly in any case 50% more or Less would be Muslim due to the Ottoman influence history which I will also tell you about gradually I'm already in the bazaar area and it's really cool this atmosphere is awesome everything is just like that It's a cobbled street everything already has the entire medieval architecture all the little shops In such places especially for souvenirs and the like there are restaurants and bars but it's a very nice atmosphere He has been waiting for it to get dark to see the whole area lit up I have bee In a café here one of the many that are around called Sophie's Coffee or the Sophie's café The truth is it's very good for a place like this cozy and local it's really nice What I love is that I'm seeing people not many because it's May but all the ones I see are All Albanians that's what I love meaning I don't mind seeing a lot of people as long as that people sea local because I feel like I'm living the life of a local and now I'm feeling these days well these days today that I am living the daily life of an Albanian so that pleases me I really liked the place I ordered a cake that was a mix like raspberry and a Lemon mousse it was super tasty and a coffee with milk same thing I think both things have affected me It's really good value around 3 euros or so considering it's a tourist area so no problem I wanted to imagine if I ended up somewhere remote so nothing it's more or less okay It's getting dark so I'm going for a walk with all this illuminated and little by little I'll go I need to rest because I arrived very late yesterday and have slept very little let's see if I can recover tonight And here next to the Orthodox cathedral I showed you earlier you also have a sky bar that is a building with a restaurant on top that is also a very good option if Do you want to have dinner or eat somewhere with great views of the whole city I'm going to go Closing this chapter for today I have really enjoyed it the first day here in Albania has been amazing I liked this first full day it seems like a very safe country right now the people are quite friendly The truth is that I've met people who are really willing to help who try to teach you that where to go giving you advice and the truth is that I have felt that I have been treated very well so I'm really happy with this I've loved everything I've seen so nothing else let's see how it is tomorrow