Disclaimer: I've starting posting things out of order. I haven't been as diligent about my blog as I'd like (I blame Mark for this 😉), but my goal is to catch up before we leave for our two week winter break trip. Starting with our date night in Tirana.
Have you ever had a chocolate massage? You read that correctly, a chocolate massage. Mark has been working a lot of overnights this week to try and get his guys here in sync with his guys in Chicago. I knew he needed a distraction, so when I started doing research and found a spa that offered chocolate massages I had to book them. To start the evening we met at Colonial Cafe Cocktail Academy Tirana, a bar with a speakeasy vibe that was beautifully decorated for Christmas. The temperature wasn't nearly as brisk as earlier in the week so we were able to sit in their outdoor space. You read that correctly. We sat outside to enjoy a drink on the 14th of December. And enjoyed ourselves while doing it! (All restaurants/bars have patios in Tirana because people LOVE to be outside. I know people love to be outside in Chicago too, but the second the weather turns patios close and people head inside. Not here. People bundle up so that they can still enjoy the patios. I thought they were absolutely crazy at first, but it's starting to grow on me. At least when the patio we're sitting on has heaters and is enclosed in a clear plastic casing 😊) Anyway, this place had a HUGE menu of cocktails, so I chose to try a rose infused vodka drink with flower petals and Mark tried a Pisco sour, both of which were delicious. Cheers to finding a yummy drink spot!
Then we headed to Golden Spa Relax for our chocolate massages. We had a lovely room with warm heated tables and holes for our heads (if you followed my post regarding our first round of massages in Tirana, you'll know that these things were lacking) And then, sure enough, they massaged us for an hour using warm melted chocolate. Apparently, chocolate firms the skin, moisturizes and improves your health, but all I really cared about was that it made me smell DELICIOUS. After our massages we were brought into the relaxation room for tea. Overall it was a super fun experience and I would highly recommend this spa to anyone who wants a chocolate massage (or a regular one!)
After massages we went to Yamato, a local Japanese restaurant. We had spring rolls, sushi and ramen, although not the ramen we ordered (our waiter came to our table and said "this isn't the ramen you ordered but it's ok, yes?" and put it down in front of us. "yep, yep I guess it's ok bro.")
Because we're old our goal for the night was to make it to the bus stop before the buses stopped running for the night at 10pm. We were so proud of ourselves for making it by 9:55pm #lifegoalsat30 but after waiting for the bus for 20 minutes we had to accept defeat and hail a taxi. The little bit of Albanian we've learned got us a taxi for a fair price (we used to pay $5-7 to get home, but tonight we paid $3) however, it also led to the taxi driver assuming we spoke Albanian fluently and attempting to speak to us the whole way home. One would assume he'd realize after multiple questions and flubbed attempts at answering that we were not, in any way, equipped to speak his language, but damn was he persistent. I closed my eyes and left Mark to struggle silently in the front seat. When we arrived, I wow-ed our taxi driver with one of my favorite Friday phrases-fundjavë të këndshme- (have a good weekend) and he gave me a wink as if to say, "I knew you were the albanian speaking one all along." 😀
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