Name: This Country was closed for 40 years
Uploaded: 2026-01-29T17:18:01.000Z
Duration: 3 min 59 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

There is a country that was closed for 40 years.

Modal verbs - A2

No one could go in and no one could go out.

They have no Starbucks and no McDonald's.

Today we want to take you to one of the most overlooked countries.

Albania is a country that most people don't know about, because for 40 years, it was a secret.

The border was closed year after year after year because there was a dictator.

He banned religion, he banned travel, and he built over 170,000 bunkers like this and this.

With the deepest grief, we inform you, Comrade Enver Hodja departed from our ranks forever.

Then the dictatorship ended, the country started rebuilding, and things started to change.

They turned them into cool things like museums, art galleries and tattoo shops.

In the north of Albania, there is a guy who turned an old bunker into a tattoo shop.

For over 20 years, he's been making tattoos for people.

And in his shop, he has some interesting rules.

Once you get a tattoo, if he likes you, it's free.

And if he doesn't like you, it's expensive.

Peter is just one of many people who started businesses after the dictatorship ended.

They built new stores, new restaurants, and lots and lots of coffee shops.

Turns out Albania has a lot of coffee shops.

They have the highest number of coffee shops per capita in the world.

But with all that coffee, there are no Starbucks.

Well, turns out they like their own food better.

Albania is a beautiful country, not just because there's lakes and mountains and beaches.

It's beautiful because of this, the people.

Even though Albania has a dark past, where religion was banned and borders were closed, the people rebuilt the country, and

It is the country where no one will let you pay for coffee because they are so generous.

It's the country where they say bessa, because they always promise to help you.

And if you ask people what their religion is, it doesn't matter, because here, anyone can be any religion.

Albania is proof that history does not have to define a country.

So we should all stop judging countries from what happened in the past and instead pay attention to how they build their future.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

This Country was closed for 40 years

matter

grief

judge

religion