Up next in 10
IS THIS ALBANIA'S MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY? | why you should add Gjirokaster to your Albania itinerary!
Sep 6, 2023
Full tour of Albania's most beautiful city! We hope this video inspires you to add Gjirokaster to your Albania itinerary. Ask us anything in the comments! We are always happy to help :)
Gjirokaster, Albania stole our hearts! We visited a lot of beautiful towns during our 2.5 month trip throughout Albania, but this town was really special. It has a beautiful bazaar, an incredible castle and delicious restaurants! You can end the day enjoying a drink with the most epic views too.
Let us know what you think about Gjirokaster, and don't be shy if you need to reach out with any questions.
Thanks so much for watching our videos and for being here. See you next time :)
XO,
Aimara & Gordon
★ VIDEO CHAPTERS:
Intro 00:00
Gjirokaster Castle 01:14
Albanian Foods! 04:47
Gjirokaster Bazaar 09:30
Skenduli House 10:56
Final Thoughts 14:26
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Welcome to beautiful Judo Kaster
0:19
We're officially in the historic center of Judo Kaster and this place is so cool
0:23
It's one of the most famous cities in all of Albania for the unique style of architecture
0:28
So it's a very important city during like the Ottoman rule of Albania for centuries like important generals lived here
0:33
So they have very huge like Ottoman style mansions And as you can see like they call this the stone city because everything has this like very unique like stone
0:41
Construction so everything is like layered on top of like stone pieces And even the roofs of these old houses are like layers of stone like which you can see here already
0:48
It's super interesting to see I love all these like different alleyways where you can get lost and like the architecture is like so interesting
0:53
There's also a ton of traditional foods that you can have here in Yudocaster, so that will be part of our day too
0:58
And try some local Yudocasteran foods. But for now our first stop is the most famous place in Yudocaster and that is the Yudocaster castle
1:06
So we have to go back up the mountain. Take a shot every time you say Yudocaster
1:10
How many times did I say it? 17. Okay, you guys are going to be wasted
1:23
We are now on top of the castle and this is easily the most iconic structure in all of
1:34
Gidocaster and it is just massive. It just dominates the entire landscape and you can basically see it from anywhere in
1:40
the old city. It's super impressive. And right when you walk into the castle, there's this massive hallway of just giant stone arches
1:46
and then you step outside to this platform where we are now and you just have like the most incredible views of geocaster the old city and also like two different mountain ranges in
1:54
the valley you can even see our apartment next to the soccer field down below it's a really nice
1:58
spot just to sit down and relax it's nice and breezy up here too we're now in front of an old prison cell where the ottoman empire kept a teacher who taught in
2:14
geocaster in the local albanian tongue which was forbidden from the ottoman empire and it's very
2:19
very creepy. It's like cool and breezy. It's very very dark. I need to go with the flashlight
2:27
You see how dark it is? Literally you can't see anything. It's like zero natural light. After this
2:33
we're going to visit another prison because there's a ton of very interesting prison history here at
2:36
the fortress. That's next. Let's get out of here. It's creepy. It's so creepy. Let's go
2:49
So within the castle there's a separate museum that goes into the history of Kido Kaster
3:11
and within that museum there is the prison. And I told you there was a lot of interesting prison history here at the castle, and I wasn't
3:16
lying to. This prison was used during the communist dictatorship by Enver Hoxha, so they kept intellectuals and other people against the regime in this prison
3:26
Actually, Enver Hoxha is from Dirk Hester, and they don't like him
3:32
That's crazy. These were actual cells where they kept anyone that was against the communist dictatorship
3:37
intellectuals, artists, and freetlingers, imprisoned here. Also, during World War II, the Italians and the Germans used this as prisons to imprison the Allies
3:48
A ton of history here This place even though it feels super weird and the energy is so heavy like the whole area parts of it are like under construction but like nothing is close so you can
3:59
basically just like roam and like walk wherever you want even in parts where it seems like it's
4:05
closed and that you're not supposed to be there. But you can. I like the no rules in the castle
4:11
the castle and museum were amazing but we spent absolutely way too much time there and we could
4:19
have spent more time it's just beautiful with the views and everything 100 recommend that place but
4:23
now we're so hungry and because girocaster is super famous for some traditional albanian foods
4:29
don't slip we're gonna get some albanian lunch we need to eat because we're hungry
4:33
Jiro Kester is very dangerous. The city of stone has some slippery steps
4:40
You have to definitely bring comfortable shoes. Forget about heels, sandals, just be prepared
4:45
That's true for Albania in general. Shkipri, slippery shkipri. We call it slippery shkipri. That's our inside joke
4:51
Shkipri is Albania in Albanian. It's very slippery. It's shkipri. So Jiro Kester is a pretty popular place with visitors and one of the good things that comes
5:01
with that is that there's a ton of like traditional restaurants that are very good so we had like
5:05
five or six with perfect reviews that we could choose from but we ended up here in this old black ottoman house and we're trying three different dishes that are typical to yedocaster
5:12
this one is imam bayubi i think it's like a different like stuffed eggplant than we've had
5:17
with like tomatoes and onions it smells really good and i can't wait to start eating i think
5:21
that's why i'm talking so fast so i'm just trying to get everything out so i can start eating because i'm very hungry cut it cut it imam bayubi the rice balls oh the rice balls Chifky
5:31
Chifky, yes. Chifky, chifky. Chifky. Chifky. This is also very typical to judo caster and it looks really good
5:41
I don't know if it's hot. Mmm. Very good
5:52
I think I want to dance to almenia music or almenia music
5:57
I don't know what this is. Very good. There's a tomato sauce. The onions are like perfectly sauteed. Very delicious flavor
6:04
You should try something. It's dance worthy. Are you happy now? You are hungry
6:21
I am. Very hungry. It's 2pm and I have not eaten so...yes. 3pm
6:28
But you have... It's medicinal beer. Judging. I have crabs. Now we're gonna try the..
6:42
I'm using my hands to open it, but it's like lightly fried rice balls and like the green oat is dried mint
6:48
And sometimes it can have like cheese and meat inside. This one seems to have meat
6:53
but it's still very good the mint is awesome that's very unique like the dried mint with
7:09
fried rice very cool I like it it's like refreshing and savory at the same time
7:16
So we originally wanted to order this dish called Meatballs Pasha. I'm running the menu
7:26
But they didn't have it so we ordered these meatballs with a yogurt sauce
7:30
And this region, Jirocaster, is super famous for like the farms. Like you saw the farm video, like there's dairy, I milk the cow and the sheep
7:37
So they should be great yogurt. So they have a lot of dairy products here. I think this is like quite unique that they serve meatballs with a yogurt sauce on top right Mm Let see
7:53
Mm. You're going to love this. The meat is like so well seasoned
8:01
I don't know what's in it. Herbs, I taste mint. I see and taste cucumbers, cucumber with yogurt
8:07
One of the best combinations in the world. And this is like, I thought it would be like colder for some reason, but it's like a hot yogurt sauce
8:16
This is excellent. We are going to order more food here. All three dishes have been really, really good
8:23
We ordered more food. This is Albanian favorite. Stopped peppers with rice and herbs
8:31
We have had this a lot. If you come to Albania, you definitely have to try this
8:35
But the real star of the show is this. A local dish from Jirogastro
8:43
It's a local cheese. It's deep fried and covered in honey and sesame seeds
9:10
Mmm, that's good. Tastes like something familiar that I can't think of
9:17
I don't know. I too liked it
9:30
That was very good. Five stars in here. Odaha Menutra SNL. And the best part is that we're already at our next stop
9:40
That's typical folks. I love it
9:51
We are now at one of the most popular spots in town. This is the 500 year old bazaar
9:55
It has been beautifully restored in the old Ottoman style and the buildings are really, really nice. It used to be a very important center for trade
10:01
So Gidocaster was like a regional trade hub. Now it's a little bit more like tourist shops and trinkets and like cafes and stuff like that
10:07
It's still very nice. There's like a ton of good restaurants and like bars and stuff like that and a nice place to walk around
10:12
It's also like nice and compact so easy to see like take pictures. We're gonna go check it out do a little circle around the bazaar
10:38
This is the walls
11:00
you see we're coming with no king there are also two holes at the both sides of the door and they are
11:07
hello hello welcome to our beautiful ottoman house that we just got let's give you the grand tour
11:15
so the ground floor is only for animals so they come through that door that i enter and they leave
11:19
the goods and then they sleep outside this way we have the storage room they will keep like certain
11:24
fruits here, packing, wine, all the good stuff. This way we have the refrigerator
11:31
It's a natural refrigerator because we're like very sustainable so we don't want
11:35
to consume a lot of energy So this is for me to use preserve for food So the house has three levels The one that you just saw is for animals the middle level is for winter and the upper level is
11:49
for summer. Let's go show you the middle level. I thought this was your house. Yet you don't quite know the way around
12:05
We haven't paid the full amount yet. So we don't have access to all the laws
12:12
You haven't done what? Paid the full amount yet. This way we have the dining room
12:20
This way we have the guest room. These beds are from the communist rooms. But the most interesting part of this room is this way
12:26
Because sometimes we receive guests that we don't know and they're not allowed to see my face
12:31
This is the room that I use to peek on them spy on them and see how many people are here so I can count who needs reiki, who needs coffee
12:39
And then I send Gordon here because I'm not allowed in this room right now. This is just
12:43
for the video. And then I send him here to bring the stuff for the guests
12:48
You spy on people from there? Oh yeah. A lot of crazy stuff happens here. The invisible woman
12:55
Yeah. Those are the little steps that I use to spy on my guests. If you stay here
13:02
I'm looking at you. To meet the s. But I will be watching you
13:09
There is also a toilet function in toilet. How does it function
13:15
You just go in there. Let's go upstairs, which is the summer area
13:20
My favorite. So this is the summer part of the house where a lot of our gatherings happen during the summer
13:33
We have a beautiful view. This way we have the honeymoon suite
13:38
This is exclusively for newlyweds so they, you know, grow the family
13:45
This way we have a fancy guest room. This one has a private hamam that you are required to use before you go to bed
13:51
And this wraps up the tour of the house, wraps up the cultural part of the video, and now is..
13:57
Happy hour! Happy hour time! I don't know what... Is it a day or two
14:04
Mina, no judging. Let me see it. It's 5.45. We're late. I was helping
14:10
I hope I got that. That was your face. I hope I got that. It was your face on the camera
14:20
Let's get the 5.45. This is how we end our perfect day in Jedogaster
14:36
With a glass of wine, a beer, beautiful sunset, a view. Today was awesome
14:41
was awesome it was a cool day yeah i don't know if we did any justice honestly to this town we tried
14:47
it is really really beautiful like the buildings are stunning the views are incredible pretty chill
14:53
right like yeah exactly just one pro tip though if you do come here for like two or three days i
14:57
think it is worth it to stay in like the old city because like the views when you wake up would just
15:01
be incredible and just like the overall vibe is like really here we were saving money and staying
15:05
like in the core of town which is nice too like you get like a local vibe but it's worth it to Yeah, for sure if you can, stay up here because it is very different from life down there
15:13
We hope you like it. If you have questions, let us know. And yeah, thanks for watching
15:17
Thanks for watching! Don't forget to subscribe
#Architecture
#Restaurants
#Travel & Transportation
#Tourist Destinations
#Historical Sites & Buildings