🇦🇱 Albania in Sunlight and Dust: Where Love and Colour Begin
Travel Journal – by Meru
✨ First Impressions
The first time I travelled to Albania, I didn’t know I’d return three years later to marry here — surrounded by drums, music, dance laughter, and light.
It’s a country of contrasts: wild mountains and gentle beaches, chaos and calm, history and modern glow. Everything moves at its own rhythm — and somehow, you find yourself moving with it.
🌊 Sea and Mountain
We went from Durrës and Golem to Vlorë and Ksamil. The sun-washed turquoise waters of Ksamil were unforgettable, and the mountains near Vlorë felt enormous and still. In Tirana, the horse ride at Mount Dajt gave us the city stretched out below in green and gold.
☕ Coffee, Chaos & Culture
The coffee shops are always full of men — smoking, laughing, debating, unhurried. I always wondered — do they all work, or is this the national sport? The espresso is strong and rich, poured with care.
Albania feels deeply masculine, yet something new is unfolding. Women there seem strong and proud, alancing a culture that’s still quite traditional but changing fast — as if the whole country is waking, stretching into its next light.
🍊 Markets and Colour
We walked in the bazaar markets, we picked pomegranates, oranges, and figs straight from the trees.
The colours are simple but bold — ochre walls, sea-glass blue, sun-burned pink. They remind me of Italy, yet rawer, freer, less polished — like a brushstroke that never needed correcting.
💍 Our Wedding
Three years later, we returned for our wedding — The week before the wedding was full-on. Guests kept arriving, there was music and we were dancing in the car park every night. It felt a bit like Slumdog Millionaire — chaotic, colourful, slightly mad, but totally fun…Then the wedding day arrived. Everything was just perfect. The ceremony at beach was stunning, 250 guests, drums, a palace celebration, we danced in a line, hand in hand, until night folded into morning.
It was love and colour and rhythm all at once — everything I adore about Albania.
🎨 From Sketchbook to Studio
Back in the studio, I still feel the Albanian light in my palette: terracotta, mint, sea-blue, fig-green.
Each painting whispers something from that journey — wild, honest, imperfect, beautiful.
✏️ Travel Notes
Favourite spot: Long beach for long waks
Palette: terracotta, mint, sea-blue, fig-green
Taste memory: warm burek & cold pomegranate juice
Music: the wedding drums echoing
Budget: around €30–40 a day — simple, generous, delicious
🗺️ Places We Visited
Durrës – long beaches, silver morning light
Golem – quiet seaside cafes, soft evenings
Vlorë – where mountains meet the sea
Tirana & Mount Dajt – the view, the air, the ride
Ksamil – turquoise waters and island calm
🌺 Closing Thought
Albania is not just where we travelled — it’s where I learned that beauty doesn’t need perfection.
It lives in rhythm, colour, and the honest noise of life.
