So - Tirana…Albania…let me try to remember! We are in our lovely hostel which is super trendy, we wake up feeling cool which is such a treat. We head out looking for breakfast and this is not super easy as people don’t seem to do breakfast the way we do here. I’m seriously on the prowl for a good coffee so we start walking towards the Blloku which is a trendy area with shops and bars etc. During communist times it used to be an elite area reserved only for leaders and politicians etc.
We find a lovely cafe called Sophie’s or something like that and they have a play area and good coffee and while perhaps not breakfast by our standards, I’ll eat a good ham and cheese sandwich any day. Its already super hot by this time and we enjoy the little bit of AC before we head out into the heat to stroll around.
We really enjoy the area, nice tree lined streets, lovely boutiques and restaurants and bars. It’s not super fancy and the streets and sidewalks are not pristine by any means, but we feel safe and comfortable. I actually am wishing we had a bit more time here - its really a neat place and the people here are fantastic. So friendly and helpful, I just get a good feeling.
We try to exchange some money and are able to do much of it except for several thousands of Serbian dollars which we have had no success exchanging since we left Serbia. At least we are able to get rid of some Romanian and some Croatian and the small Serbian bills.
By lunchtime or so, we can take the heat no longer and head back to the hostel to sit by the air conditioner in the cafe and drink cold drinks and play games etc. Its like high 30's here...its tough! Dave picks us up some Burek style pastries for lunch and we just enjoy lounging.
We then decide we should go do some more sightseeing so we head out to the Museum which is honestly a lovely surprise. It costs us about $1.50 each to get in and although not grand or big, I’m truly taken by many of the lovely paintings in the gallery. I’m not much of an art connoisseur by any stretch (although I just finished the Goldfinch which I really enjoyed and inspired me to learn a little more!), but the large war pieces were colourful and energetic and showed such confidence and excitement for life ahead. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this visit.
After the museum it started to rain a little which we were honestly begging for, but it did not last, we strolled around the streets looking at architecture, visiting the main turning circle and status, Independence Sculpture and so on. We finished by walking across a large park on our way to find a nice place for a drink when we realized that Fiona had lost her darn shoes again….let me back up. We brought the carrier for Fiona on this trip instead of a stroller. We figured a stroller would be useless on cobblestone (which would be everywhere) and would take up lots of room. The carrier has been great, but she tends to fall asleep in it as she only goes in when she’s tired. When she falls asleep, her feet relax and off go her flip flops! This has happened to us several times and we have found the shoes each time and you’d think we would learn - BUT NO! Off I go searching back to the point that she went into the carrier for the lost flip flop (found the first one right away). It is found! Hooray and so our beer was well deserved at the cafe we found.
After our drink we walk back to the hotel and relax a little and get cleaned up for dinner. Looking in the little tourist guide and online we pick a place for dinner and as were leaving, we ask the hostel if its any good and which way to go and they say - no no! You must go to this other place…a bit of a drive but its great and true Albanian food.
So we get some cabs and off we go. We honestly haven’t a clue where we are being taken - its dark and we are now on the highway and seem to be just driving into the distance, but we finally come to a beautiful castle looking building and there is a true Albanian restaurant set in an outdoor garden which is lovely. The kids play in the enormous playground and even find some english speaking kids - huge novelty for the other kids and they are missionaries from the US and don’t get many english speaking kids to play with. We have a nice dinner and then get cabs called to take us back.
All of this would have been lovely and pleasant, except that we forgot where we were and got too comfortable and forgot the cardinal rule when taking cabs in places like this: YOU MUST NEGOTIATE CAB FARE IN ADVANCE! I learned this lesson a long time ago…but we got lazy. So when we arrived at the restaurant and the guy says 1000 - even though the meter say 500 - we say what gives and he shuts off the meter and says “no…its 1000”. This isn’t big bucks or anything, but the principal of it bothers us of course. We settle on 800 in the end. On the way back, we think we are smart, we say we will only pay 600 - well they don’t want to take us for 600. We are in the boonies, I don’t think we have a choice, it takes FOREVER to negotiate and then they are not even sure where we are staying and so on and so on. We settle on 800 in the end to take us back. This makes us feel better somehow. I’d rather pay the 800 and tip him the extra 200 which we do.
Its bedtime now - Fiona has been asleep for sometime now, so we make our way up and to sleep.
Robert leaves us here - we though he was to come to Skopje with us, but the days were a bit muddled and so we had to rearrange his flights and get him home from Tirana. He leaves at 4:30am tomorrow morning - yikes!
Our transfer is set to pick us up at 8:30am tomorrow…we are headed to Macedonia!
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