Traveling to a Country that was Closed for 40 Years

[Music] today i'm exploring a beautiful little country that for 40 years was ruled by one of the world's most paranoid dictators the most repressive and bloodiest regimes of contemporary history thousands of microphones were hidden across the country in order to detect any activity viewed as unlawful traces of this dark period are everywhere under strict communist rule for over 40 years and completely shut off from the rest of the world this country's ruthless dictator enver hoja built over 173 000 bunkers in preparation for a massive war that never came but in just the past 30 years after hoja's death and the fall of communism it's quickly been rebuilding itself into a vibrant eager new country and for the youth the story of the bunkers we'll be diving into today is luckily nothing but a distant past welcome to albania i first heard about the albanian bunkers when i came across an article of a guy who had remodeled one of these bunkers into his own personal tattoo shop this sparked my initial curiosity towards the history of these bunkers and the further i went down the rabbit hole of albanian history the more i was drawn to it you see after traveling to the kurdish region of iraq afghanistan and mauritania i've become fascinated by countries with complicated pasts that often don't get great reputation in the media i find that these have some of the most inspiring beautiful and much more nuanced stories out of anywhere else in the world so as i was looking into contacts in albania a yesterday subscriber elena reached out to me on instagram she introduced me to her boyfriend who runs drive albania a small tour group that offered to take me around the country for a full week and to make this travel film happen i brought my filmmaker friend corey that many of you are getting familiar with by now i also invited one of my most recent new best friends nathaniel from the channel nathaniel drew who creates amazing content around seeking mental clarity as we share a common thirst for travel and discovery needless to say we were excited to go on our first trip together so with that much of a plan we got to albania and the first stop of the trip would be to get tattooed in an ex-communist bunker hello welcome to albania and i believe that our special guest has just arrived so good to meet you too wait what's our first stop of the trip so because it's a bit outside of the city we have to head off there first at the bunker at the tattoo bunker and i guess get tattooed i've been responsible for too many people's first tattoos and i feel terrible i feel like i feel like we're guilty about it [Music] you don't have any tattoos right yeah i don't i don't so i don't know um i don't know we'll see it's really hard to pressure me into something i feel like i just don't i don't like rushing stuff what the [ __ ] did i just do man this is so crazy i can't believe that the first thing we're doing is a tattoo it's literally 10 a.m yeah yeah 10 a.m tattoo not enough alcohol yeah [Music] all right the adventure officially [Music] begins picking our tattoos how far away from the place seven minutes seven minutes pick hurry up hurry up and pick your first tattoo come on guys welcome to catch marcus the two [Music] [Music] oh my god [Music] it just got real my heart's pounding a little bit [Music] uh why is that good you know because you know his reaction you know i like you you're cool [Laughter] jesus what are we drinking right now [Music] rocky how strong is this fish what time is it it's like 11 am right this is a good time to drink 55 percent alcohol cheers cheers wish you guys the best i hope i was looking real close he didn't serve himself a time but i was like bro drinking and doing these steps like really that's part of the package i think like that's i think he looks in my design for a second he's like yeah [Music] okay let's do it [Music] what's up yes siri nation this tattoo is the tattoo of dawn and it means breakthrough like the start of a new of a new phase all right first tattoo is done [Music] ah okay [ __ ] yeah that looks awesome you know it don't tell my mom congratulations first tattoo thank you very much sir what the [ __ ] did i just do man this is so crazy dude i've been in this country like not even 24 hours thank you so much for starting our trip all right man good luck man good luck to the future too we're tied it up now let's start the [Music] trip [Music] okay we've arrived at a lagoon about hop on this boat we have an expert with us who is very well versed on history of these bunkers and we're going to try to ask you some questions while on this boat [Music] [Music] i'm gonna stop here yeah we're gonna stop here and we look inside the bunker great you know this was uh probably the most paranoid country in europe when it comes to a north korean style of past the bankers were the symbol of it can you tell me a bit about why the bunkers were built in the first place their first construction started when enver hoja decided to break with the ussr he thought that you know like he needed a good amount of defense and that's when the bunker start in the end of the 70s albania used to spend 30 percent of its gdp on defense my parents say that all we did is work for the bunkers you know at that time you will be oppressed you will lose your freedom your prosperity because that's what they told us all the time like oh you guys are very lucky because we're living in a prosperous economy and we're building socialism and there's going to be communism soon which would be a society where you would work as much as you could and you take as much as you needed so you know like real paradise but for sure they were lying to us and the thing is that for most of us there is no other way of information they cut us from any kind of communication with the world thank god this has become history and there is good lessons to learn from that i believe that right now what i want especially western europeans to know is that if one day albania will join the big european family we will bring a beautiful a few beautiful things like our nature our mountains our tradition our food you know our energy this is a young nation and there is need for that in western europe now there's beautiful traditions from this country there's beautiful lessons to be learned from this country thank you so much tony what my dream is since many many years now is to be able to one day convert these into into rooms you know hotel because i know that there is a big market for unusual stays and unusual hotels and you know how cool would be to spend the night in here [Music] everywhere you go even on relatively new and modern kind of built out places you find these bunkers hidden a little bit everywhere as communism came to an end in albania the 173 000 bunkers suddenly became abandoned we're arriving at the coast one two three four bunkers right there three right there it's just so crazy and such a beautiful place has had such a troublesome past oh oh my god this is way more intense than i thought you just said oh the big guns were in here but this was a cannon that was this size you're small compared to during communism though the average of these bunkers would have every day there would be a soldier holding guard even if there was no real threat the ex-dictator was so far annoyed he would hold every bunker active constantly all the time most of these bunkers were built on public land but some ended up on private like these four and are now up to the owners of the land to decide what to do with them how are you how are you good to meet you speak italian no italian you speak italian okay okay [Music] oh my god i love this guy so cool right now we're standing on top of four massive bunkers and now you know kind of realizing that every single local here has very mixed feelings about them yeah i don't want you to talk about them some people want you to talk about them yeah some people want them to be reused some people want them to be destroyed it seems to be like uh something people are just sick of hearing about yeah and some people are like let's we have to keep them because this is a reminder to never do this again this country was dealt like a really shitty hand we were being told last night at dinner is like the people here have had to build a lot of like thick skin yeah traditions that keep them to keep them linked together yeah yeah oh don't do this man don't do this i'm so bad at heights are you all right i'm really bad at heights i would try to turn around so that you're like spin your body around completely like come with your legs like back like backwards like that yeah you'll be okay oh my god down to that one down there you're good yeah you can hold here pull here yes there you there you go okay boom you did it oh man did you film that whole thing no it's so embarrassing i appreciate that though he got down thank you of course such a good height oh my god i don't know what my deal is yeah you're good i have a feeling like in the back of your mind you're like no no no let's get him skydiving or something like oh yeah no no no that's what we're gonna do we're off-roading right now what are we doing here very remote villages to check out what that looks like [Music] so what's the deal with no seat though we need to follow this cliff we're all gonna die we'll all air jordan they run out of coffee at the coffee shop so he's just taking us to his house and he's offering us to just make us his own coffee and then he's just walking you're kidding me and everyone is so friendly how do you know this guy i don't oh you've never met him no dude what hey so we don't know these people no nobody knows anyone here they're just inviting us oh my god they didn't even hesitate they didn't think about it they're just like yeah yeah come on [Music] how [Music] [Music] a new photographer is going to be born in this village we handed her my camera i'm shaggy from scooby-doo i definitely need a haircut i wish i had a camera i could give her it [Music] the heaviest camera [Music] oh my gosh [Music] [Music] we just experienced that was the sweetest moment i've ever experienced um she just hugged you like eight times and i'm officially shaggy from scooby-doo did you see the willingness that they had to share everything they were just like take our alcohol take our coffees take our turkish delight it's like normal albanian hospitality is like really important it's the reason why i travel man moments like that we need to get somehow the address of this village and i like i will ship i don't know if amazon ships here she doesn't know my name she thinks i'm shaggy dude this we had the dog we had the dog too i got the dog the dog and the mystery band or whatever it's called the mystery bus we have the food [Music] what if i'd been completely wrong about this place initially thinking our trip would be limited to exploring these abandoned bunkers we were starting to feel energized by realizing how much more there truly was to explore in albania we have been staying at this beautiful hotel whose entire mentality is to blend the old with the new this is one uh old political prison we have something uh 400 family bring the food here so to make economy for the family to stay there it's so important to take the images of the of the farm of the countries of the village and to make new for the younger generations this is one good step to to invite the young generations to come back the room of jesus how long do you keep the cheeses in here 60 days 60 days yes 2 months [Music] they have hundreds of geese and they're all walking in unison and we have about 10 seconds before the geese are gonna roll up on us and then i realized it was a goose and not a duck dude [Music] i [Music] one of them just laid an egg oh my gosh after a very random yet eventful encounter with hundreds of geese we were arriving at the bittersweet end of our trip where on our last stop we rewinded the clock two thousand five hundred years at the castle of barat only to realize that these bunkers were only the most recent trace of albania's heavy history the castle haven't been conquered by the romans and then the ottomans is now standing as a representation of what albania has gone through for thousands of years that despite continuous war and oppression the albanian people have held each other together through traditions and culture that have outlived it all you'll see the church greek orthodox church and the mosque and the entrance are facing to each other that is completely on on purpose and the square between them is called the square of friendship that means so after the prayers in the evening everybody to their own religion they come out and and hang around and socialize together it was very very important and every uh house of god is going to be close to each other to serve the purpose of not dividing the country using religion well uh if we could made it to the top this all started with the text where you go hey dude you down to get tattooed in an ex-communist bunker i was like i'll consider it albania was not at all what we were expecting a country that i'd initially been drawn to for the history of its bunkers i quickly realized had been short-sighted of me as we explored its castle's diverse landscape and met its people we were amazed to find so much more thirty years have passed since the fall of communism in this country and after a few decades of struggling to recover from it they are growing day by day as a young and ambitious nation ready to share their beautiful culture with the rest of the world as for the future of these bunkers i think that's obviously for the albanians themselves to decide but i believe that reinventing and reclaiming the past to transform it into something new as tony had suggested can have the two-sided advantage of remembering the past while taking ownership of it to create a new future making travel films like this one and taking you around the globe alongside me to expand our shared understanding of the world is truly my life's dream i want to plan the seed of curiosity for culture the way that bourdain did in previous generations and i feel immensely grateful for this opportunity here today because no matter how much you hear about a country in the news or in pop culture you can't properly judge it until you visit so my friends here's to many more adventures to come and of course to seeking discomfort we'll see you next week thank you so much for watching and before we go we have an amazing surprise where we've partnered with omaze where you can enter a chance to win an electric tesla powered porsche that is right here can i open my eyes open your eyes that's the car dude no way yeah are you serious oh my god dude oh my dude i love you so much oh my god dude this is amazing eric people can enter for a chance to win this car it's not it's not for you thank you so much i don't think you understand this one-of-a-kind tesla-powered 1969 porsche 912 is definitely one of the most unique cars i've ever driven on the outside it looks like a vintage 1969 porsche 912 but under the hood is completely modernized it has a fully electric 300 horsepower tesla motor that goes 0 to 60 in just 5.5 seconds which we immediately experienced when taking it for a spin that's crazy dude i can't believe it someone in our audience is getting this car not you so for your chance to win as electric porsche 912e go to amaze.com yes theory and enter now the best part is that every donation supports the work of the peterson automotive museum which is a non-profit organization specializing in automobile history and related educational programs so hurry up that's omaze.com yes theory go there and donate and good luck hopefully you'll be the one winning this beautiful car hey hey that's my car i just won that give me back my car he's a freaking liar these youtubers are all 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Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 1,890,758

Rating: 4.9785476 out of 5

Keywords: yestheory, seek discomfort, yes theory strangers, yes theory travel, yes theory subscribers, getting out of your comfort zone, Amazon FBA, bunkers, albania bunkers, this country was ready for war, albania tattoo bunker, albania tattoo, traveling to the least visited country, yes theory traveling, yes theory afghanistan, yes theory iraq, traveling to the happiest country in the world, yes theory communist, yes theory albania, albania travel, beautiful places in europe, explore

Id: q_BCdZUxRI8

Length: 23min 15sec (1395 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021