After our delicious lunch, we decided to go back to some of the sights we had visited in the morning and explore them in a bit more detail.

We started off with the Orthodox Cathedral – the church of the resurrection of christ. On the way, we passed a statue, but I can’t find any information about it.

The Orthodox Cathedral opened on June 24, 2012, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the revival of the Albanian Orthodox Church. Outside, there is a small Chapel of the Nativity to one side and an impressive bell tower to the other. The cathedral is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the Balkans, with the dome being 32m above the ground and the bell tower 46m tall.

The original Orthodox church was built in 1865 and was built where Hotel International Tirana now stands on  Skandenberg square. It was shut during the communist times and completely deteriorated. The new cathedral took around 10 years to build. Inside, there are some beautiful mosaics, frescos and icons, while the dome is shaded in blue with a central painting of Christ Pantocrator. The church has its own radio station, named “Ngjallja” (Resurrection), which 24 hours a day broadcasts spiritual, musical, informative and educational programmes and lectures, and also has a special children’s programme.

From here, we found ourselves back at Skandenberg Square, and we took some more photos.

There were a lot of what looked like European hornets around one particular area where some water had spilt.

The square is the main plaza in Tirana and covers around 40,000m². The initial square was built by the Austrians in 1917, but when Tirana was named the capital of Albania in 1920, the population of the city increased, and plans were drawn up. During the period of the monarchy (1928 – 1939), the square was a roundabout with a fountain in the centre.

We wandered to one of the small parks to see the Friendship Monument, which commemorates the friendship between Albania and Kuwait. Kuwait has been investing in Albania since 1993, and the monument was established in 2016. It has the flag colours of Kuwait’s state.

We walked past another interesting sculpture outside the Plaza Hotel.

Our next point of interest was Kapllan Pasha’s tomb. Kapllan Pasha was an Ottoman administrator of Tirana, who died in 1819. The tomb was built in the early 19th century, but today is empty, as Kapllan Pasha’s remains were later exhumed and reburied in Istanbul. However, the tomb itself remains and is protected as the only remnant of the mosque that first stood here in 1614. The rest of the mosque was destroyed by bombings in 1944.

We walked down to the main Assembly / Parliament building in Tirana. Access was closed off, so you couldn’t get too close. It was originally constructed to be the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Labour Party during the communist era.

One of the guards started chatting to us, and we heard all about his family history, and he even showed us photos of his family on his phone. He was very friendly.

We walked past the old castle wall again and had a quick look inside. It was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside and there were a lot of small shops and places to eat inside.

We also walked past a structure called ‘The Cloud’. This art installation was installed in 2016 and is a multipurpose social space  with some seating and protection from the elements.

St Paul’s Cathedral is a very modern building that was only completed in 1999 and consecrated in 2002. St John Paul II laid the cornerstone during his visit to Albania in 1993.

The inside is also very modern, with some large, vibrant stained glass windows.

The next thing we saw was the Tirana Peace Bell. This bell is made from the bullet shells from the bullets that were fired during the unrest in 1997. The conflict lasted from January to August 1997 and was due to the collapse of the pyramid schemes where Albanian citizens had lost more than $1.2 billion. Large amounts of money had been syphoned by the government to fund the schemes. Over 2000 people were killed during the unrest, and a new government was formed.

We had been recommended a Raki bar called Komiteti, so we made our way there. It was a really nice bar with a huge selection of different raki’s.

We tried a couple of different rakis each. My favourite one was the honey and cinnamon, even though it was quite sweet. We met a little furry friend too.

On the way back to our apartment, we stopped off at the Pepper Lounge, which was in our street. We ordered a couple of double g&ts and later found out the cost £20 each – crazy prices! We did contest and complain about the price, but we ended up having to pay it.

Once home, we got changed and headed out for dinner. Nicola’s taxi driver had recommended a restaurant just at the end of our road called Juvenilja, so we went there. We both ordered baked meatballs and a bottle of the house red. Both the food and the wine were delicious.

On the way home, we passed the Irish pub and both of us fancied a Guiness so we stopped off. Unfortunately, the pub had not had Guiness available for the last 3 days, so we ended up with a baby Guiness instead.

And then it was time for bed.