Tour Guiding in Tirana

Weekend of September 14th-16th 2018

Friday night we went to the mall to eat dinner at Veranda, a patio restaurant that looks out over the city. The food is really delicious and different from most Albanian restaurants (like skewers with cantaloupe, mozzarella and prosciutto) . The beers are good and the margaritas are not so good. The view of the city as the sun sets is incredible.

We enjoyed our evening until the mosquitoes and gnats showed up in swarms; then we knew it was time to leave. On our way out I stopped in the bathroom and much to my surprise it was communal (I've come to learn that these are quite common in Albania) It consists of one male stall and one female stall both in the same room. It definitely threw me for a minute but hey it's nothing I can't get used to. The one thing that I am having a hard time getting used to though is the automatic bathroom lights. They're controlled by sensors and apparently just doing your business isn't enough "sense" for them, so needless to say I've had the lights shut off on me more than my fair share of times. The first time it happened I was really alarmed and worried that the power in the whole restaurant had gone out. I got up off the toilet to grab my phone so I could see and ironically enough the lights turned back on. Now, after some extensive trial and error research, here are a few things I've learned:
1. some bathroom sensors have a larger scope than others, so when in a stall with this type you can wave your hands above your head like a mad woman and the lights will turn back on
2. some sensors are overly sensitive and require you to get up and wander around the dark stall with your pants around your ankles for 20-30 seconds before the lights will go back on
3. and some sensors (the best ones of all) have just stopped working altogether and therefore leave you in the dark no matter how many mad woman waves and Beyonce dance moves you try to seduce them with
Because of this, I am now fairly confident in my abilities to use the bathroom in the dark and will start advertising this as a fun fact about myself when I return home to the states. Until then, here's what we did with the rest of our weekend-
Because Mark is a wonderful husband he agreed to come into school with me on Saturday to help me finish setting up my classroom. Little did he know that because of my broken wrist "helping me set up" quickly turned into "Mark setting up". All things considered, I think it turned out pretty damn great (if I do say so myself).

As a reward for all of Mark's hard work, I treated him to dinner at a local castle. Yes, you heard correctly: a local castle. That's a thing around here. And Mark happens to be obsessed with them so I figured he deserved a little indulgence after all of his hard work. Anyway, this particular castle was unique because it had these big circular balconies jutting out of it. In each balcony was a private table and in order to reach it the waiter had to walk down a long private wooded walkway. It was incredibly delicious and there was more food than we ever could have hoped for. It was definitely a Saturday evening done right.

Sunday's weather was gorgeous so we decided to do some sight seeing around Tirana. As we wandered we came across our first (of many) soviet bunker. I had never been inside a bunker before, and while this one was quite small, I found the idea of entering quite intriguing. After climbing in we found that the gun mounts were still attached (apparently this is something I'm supposed to be excited about).

During our self guided walking tour we also stumbled upon 'the pyramid', a historical landmark here in Tirana. While there's a lot of debate surrounding whether or not it should be demolished, the pyramid does tell an interesting story. It's symbolic of communism because it was built in honor of Enver Hoxha, an Albanian leader who believed wholeheartedly in extending the values and ideologies of Stalinism. It remained a museum for many years, but in 1991 was converted into a convention center because Albanian ideologies and beliefs began to shift away from communism. The pyramid has changed hands several times since which has caused it to come into a state of disrepair, including broken windows and graffiti covered walls. The pyramid is representative of the many times Albania's leadership has changed hands and of the conflicts that has brought the country. However, Albania has withstood the test of time and while some of the old policies aren't beautiful to look at, they have helped shape Albania into the country it is today. I vote for the pyramid to stay, if for no other reason than the fact that it has been turned into the biggest, steepest, most slippery slide in Tirana. I'm so coming back once my wrist isn't broken!

As we continued our journey we came across the famed "I <3 Tirana" sign which even shows up as a pin on google maps (so it must be important, right?).

Scoping out all of these "local hot spots" made our walk to lunch enjoyable, however, a girl's gotta eat at some point, so I stopped our terrifically Tirana tour guide from taking any more detours and instead insisted that he take us directly to lunch. We had a lovely meal with octopus, traditional albanian stuffed peppers, breadsticks in olive dip and albanian meatballs, at SkyHotel, which has a restaurant multiple stories up that provides a gorgeous, sweeping view of the city. On our way home we decided to walk along the river that cuts through the center of the city; it's barely wider than ten feet across in some places, yet there are bridges that span it.

The man made lake with the fountain is much, much larger and always a sight for sore eyes (and sore feet!) after a long walk because it means we are getting very close to home.

When the Hubby's Away, the Girls will Play

Wednesday October 3rd through Sunday October 7th 2018

Mark left for Chicago at 2am this morning, so I was up getting ready for work alone which was a little weird. After school I had an appointment to meet with our old landlord, Elton, to revoke our apartment contract. Anri, the real estate agent who found us the apartment was supposed to be there as well, but he bailed last minute and left me to fend for myself. I had to sign a ton of documents in Albanian, none of which the notery or Elton could translate for me. I was really frustrated leaving there because in addition to signing those documents, I had to pay a fee that I wasn't aware of. Luckily for me, after my 'Elton Encounter', Liz took me to Billionaire Club for a drink (I don't know why they call it that because it's not any fancier than a regular bar and the drinks aren't any more expensive and the people aren't any better looking) but the beer was good and the patio was comfy so I'm not complaining. Then we went to this awesome japanese restaurant where we split ramen and sushi (the ramen was better than anything I've had in the states, go figure) T top it all off, our bosses, Erlindi and Eda were there, so they treated us to a bottle of hot saki. A perfect end to a not so perfect afternoon.

Thursday
Liz came over after school and we indulged in a bottle of wine and made spaghetti and salad for dinner. I attempted to make fresh out of the oven bread but had a blonde moment and set the oven temperature according to Fahrenheit as opposed to Celsius. Needless to say within minutes the bread was burnt to a crisp. Whoops!

Friday
Today is international teacher's day so our school celebrated by throwing a barbecue. There were grilled meats, salad and veggies and it was all delectable. There was even beer. You heard correctly, beer, at a school function. Our boss didn't understand why we were so impressed by the beer (it was just korca) so we tried to explain to him how in the states there's no way, no how, nu-uh that there'd ever be beer served on school grounds at a school function. Shortly thereafter we heard him tell the photographer not to photograph anyone with beer in their hands. oops.

Saturday
I took the bus all over kingdom come trying to get to an open credins bank. In case you were wondering, out of all of the locations in blokku, none were open. After being out for two hours and having no luck (besides getting to talk to Mark on the phone and discovering a gelato place with 30 cent cones) I somehow managed to get on the wrong bus home. You heard correctly, me, Jaclyn Agnes McCutcheon, direction aficionado went the wrong way on the bus. I hopped off, raced across the street and tried to catch the next one going in the opposite direction. By the time I hopped on I was so frustrated that these two boys took one look at me and offered to get off the bus and walk me home. What? Oh no you don't have to do that. Yes they do said the woman behind me on the bus. Ok then I guess I'm being escorted home by two boys who are no more than 13 years old. Sweet. Also, as we were getting off the bus the woman explained to me that the boys spoke no English, only Albanian and Italian but that they knew where we were going and they'd get me there safely. Oh jeez! What am I getting myself into? Google Translate was heavily employed for the next 25 minutes of my life. I bid the boys farewell and headed into the bakery to pick up sweets for one of my coworker's flat warming parties and then into conad for a bottle of wine. As soon as Liz and I started up the hill it began raining. Lovely. Cary's flat is at the very top of my hill. There are 32 steps up to his building and then 96 steps up to his unit. Woof is it a workout. I was ready to open that bottle of wine halfway up the hill. (I didn't though!) Cary has an amazing view of the city and can see all of the fireworks that are shot off each night (did I mention there are fireworks in Tirana every night?!) After spending some time relaxing with our coworkers Liz and I made our trek down the 96 steps, then the 32 steps and then finally down the wet slippery hill. As a reward for our hard work, we grabbed a drink at one of the bars along the main road.

Sunday
Sunday was the day for the half marathon and 10k run in Tirana. Liz had been training for the 10k so I told her I'd come out to cheer her on. I was in the finish area, but didn't realize the half mar and 10k finished in different places so I missed Liz actually crossing the finish line :( She was super proud of her finish though and after we took some pictures and enjoyed some of the free treats we walked to Duff for a brunch fit for Americans. We had delicious tea in these amazing cups that included a strainer in addition to my sandwich which was cheese, pear, bacon and jam. Duff for the win!

Two Beach Weekends in a Row? I Vote for Vlore!

Weekend of September 28th, 29th & 30th 2018

Mark and I caught a Friday night bus to Vlore, another beach town in Albania. This bus ride was closer to three and a half hours though, with a toilet stop in the middle (thank god). When we got off the bus we were about a ten minute walk from our hotel, so we made our way there quickly. After checking in we set out to find food. The hotel staff was super friendly and gave us a paper map (yay!) labeled with popular restaurants, bars and things to do. We headed straight to a traditional Albanian restaurant for dinner and damn was I impressed. My dish was called tasiapop (not how they spell it here in Albania, but that's how I phonetically understood it).

After, we went to an Irish Pub for a drink.  The decorations were very eclectic and the music was really loud.

We wandered along the ocean to make it back to our hotel a little before midnight. The next morning we had an exquisite breakfast. There were fried eggs with sausages, bread with jam and cheese, tomatoes and chocolate croissants and it was all included in our stay. Damn was this place great!

We walked through town to a lovely little market and continued on our journey to the rental agency.

 We planned on seeing the monastery in the sea and kanine castle. We needed a car to do both because it's "off season" so companies aren't currently booking any tours. First we went to the monastery. I was very nervous the whole ride because Mark was driving a stick shift car and the only experience I have with gears resulted in me breaking a wrist. We made it safely to the monastery but had to park next to a huge heap of garbage. Trash is a big problem in Albania because littering isn't frowned upon, in fact, it's engrained in many people's heads as the easiest way to rid yourself of unwanted papers and plastics.

Anyway, we were able to see two bunkers hiding in the hill before we crossed the bridge through the water to the monastery.

The monastery is on a small plot of land that has chickens. Some of the buildings were locked, but the small church was open and there were candles burning inside. (We weren't allowed to take pictures on the island with the monastery, so these are photos of the bridge and countryside surrounding it.)

After crossing the bridge back to the mainland we decided to stop to use the toilet. There were a lot of signs along the twisty forested road pointing to hidden resorts and restaurants. We turned down one of the side paths and followed it down until it dead ended into the ocean. There was no resort or restaurant here, but there was a campground. We found outdoor toilets that weren't glamorous but did the job. Before entering the toilet I heard something in the grass and I asked Mark what it was. He said it was nothing and hurried me into the bathroom. When I came out of the bathroom he told me not to look in the grass and to walk to the car- he'd meet me there. Once he got back to the car he told me there was a snake in the grass and that he wasn't going to tell me when I came out of the bathroom because he knew I'd freak out and not let him use the toilet. Anyway, we both made it safely back into our vehicle. There was only one problem now... Mark couldn't figure out how to shift the car into reverse. There were metal bars in front of us marking the parking stalls so reversing was our only option. Shit! If we didn't figure this out fast the snakes were going to descend upon us and start demolishing our car piece by piece until there was nothing separating us from their venomous fangs. Thank god for google. Mark had the car reversing in no time and our lives were spared from the snakes. We used our handy dandy paper map to locate a seafood restaurant and headed there for dinner. There were two full fish on the menu that our waiter recommended although he wasn't able to tell us the difference between them, so we decided to try both. They were really delicious and while they were way smaller, they definitely reminded me of the fish I got hot off the grill while I was in Thailand.

After filling our bellies, and the kitty's who was sitting under our table, we got back in the car and drove up the mountain to kanine castle. By the time we arrived the castle was closed, so we walked around the grounds at the top and took a few pictures.

The plan was to watch the sunset from the top and then drive back down the mountain but the twists and turns we endured on the way up were a bit much for me and I was really scared to do them in the dark so Mark drove us back down almost immediately after we arrived. We then continued along to drop the car back off at the rental agency. They were shocked that we were back so soon. We decided to stop at a few cafes to break up the walk back toward our hotel. We stopped at a really nice outdoor place with big tv screens and yummy snacks. We then continued on to a bar on the pier that jutted out into the ocean and finally ended our evening at an outdoor patio along the sea that was overcrowded with locals. It was a beautiful night to spend outside, safe and sound on the ground.
We got up the next morning and had another fantastic hotel breakfast. Then we spent some time sunning on the beach. Because it's off season there was no one working the chair rental so we were able to sit in chairs with an umbrella and a table for free. We watched the ocean waves wash in and out as the sun rose higher in the sky.

We had pizza at a local cafe and then hopped on the Vlore bus that took us to the station for buses bound for Tirana. We were early so got to enjoy a quick coffee before boarding. During our ride we stopped at a gas station so I assumed it was time for a bathroom break but no such luck. The driver would not allow me to get off the bus even though we were stopped. Mark took out the deck of cards and tried to distract me for the next two and a half hours by playing go fish with me. By the time we got off the bus I was racing to find a bathroom. Surely a gas station would have a bathroom. That's like a universal thing, right? Wrong. Well, unless you consider a bathroom with no light, no toilet paper and no toilet seat a bathroom. This was not Asia. I was determined to find a proper bathroom. Mark found a bar that was three stories up so we raced with our backpacks and thank goodness. This bathroom had a light, a toilet seat and toilet paper. Woo! Albania for the win. We had to take two buses home from this area, so by the time we arrived it was after 7. Luckily for us we came home to no power. What? Why? Mark looked for the fuse box but couldn't find one. He went downstairs and played with the communal apartment fusebox but had no luck.

We knocked on our neighbors doors only to find that they had power, so I texted our landlord. He wasn't sure why we were out of power, but did let us in on a very important secret: the fusebox in the apartment was hidden behind a painting on the wall. Thanks, Elton. Forty five minutes later the lights were on, but everything in our fridge was spoiled.