Once upon a time, not so long ago, a friend of mine started begging me to go to a place named Thurje17 (that means Hashtag17 in Albanian). I had never heard about that place before, but, unintentionally, scrolling on Instagram, I realized that everyone had been there except me. ‘Brokenhearted’, I thought about how I could not know a place everybody else knew, and a place with such an interesting name, too.

Better late than never they say, so, very intentionally, the next thing I did was to enjoy my uniquely composed smoothie at Thurje #17. When I firstly saw the smoothies and milkshakes on Instagram I was able to taste them just from the pictures. The whole composition and the way of serving at Thurje #17 are a big plus, since both of them accompanied by the pale colors on the walls around the café make me feel like I’m taking a break from reality and I’m allowed to spend some peaceful minutes locked in a beautiful fairytale. We all love ‘partying and smashing and crashing’ but when it comes to ‘inner peace’ no one says no! 

P.S. Did I mention that I tried matcha for the first time at Thurje #17? (Not many places offer matcha in Tirana).