Since Mark was away (he sneaks back to the States way more frequently this year) I had to play. Friday evening my coworkers and I got together for happy hour to bid farewell to one of the international teachers (on to bigger and better things!cheers mate 🍻) After drinks Erin and I checked out the Tirana street food festival that was set up in Nene Teresa Square. We ate falafel pitas, that despite being tiny were quite delicious, while enjoying some live music (good music is good music, even when it's not in English) One of the mind blowing things about the fest was the use of electronic cards for payment. Upon entering you had to put a deposit down in addition to the amount of money you wanted to spend in order to receive the festival card. All of the food and drink vendors then scanned the card to deduct the their cost. For a country that barely accepts credit cards and still uses paper pencil for all legers this was extraordinary. I was super impressed and also completely surprised. Cheers to Friday surprises folks 🍻
Saturday Erin and I went to a winery about 25 minutes outside of Tirana called Villa Shehi Winery. We were a bit surprised to arrive to find the winery vacant, because I called ahead and booked a time. We were also surprised to find that the only woman working there spoke no English because when I called ahead the man on the phone spoke English no problem. Hhhmmm... I called to make sure we were at the correct winery and came to find out the truth. The Shehi vineyards are run by a family that lives in Tirana. On weekends the husband stays in Tirana while the wife spends time at the vineyard. Ahh. It all makes sense now. Maybe just give her a heads up and let her know she's got two Americans coming for a visit next time, bro. There was no tour of the vineyard like we'd expected, but the views were beautiful and so was the weather so sitting out on the terrace was perfect! For the wine tasting we were served small individual bottles of red, a large pour of white, a large pour of Rose and then to finish us off, a tumbler of walnut raki. In addition we were served meat, cheese, bread and some of the freshest olive oil I've ever tasted. About an hour before dusk, three men arrived, clearly foreigners. We were as shocked as the wife to meet other visitors, so we invited them to join our table (I needed someone to drink my raki after all!) We got to chatting and found out that the boys are law students from the states traveling to Albania to participate in a week long corruption conference. Albania desperately wants to join the EU, but among other things, one of the reasons they're being blocked is the rampant corruption that is prevalent throughout the country. Albania is receiving foreign aid and assistance to help navigate this issue, which is where the foreign boys come in. Their University partnered with an Albanian University for the semester. Each foreign student teamed up with a local student to explore a different facet of corruption, and possible solutions. This was the boys' first full day in Albania before the conference started. The most fascinating thing about chatting with the boys was finding out the local perspective on corruption and how it differed from our foreign perspective. If Erin and I weren't working the following week I think we definitely would have attended one or two of these conference presentations. Since the boys had just arrived we invited them to join us for a traditional Albanian meal at Juvenilja, an authentic family style Albanian restaurant in Tirana. The boys invited their professor to join. Most of the people we meet in Tirana are teachers so it's super fun meeting people with a different purpose, especially the professor (kind of a teacher, I know!) He'd partnered with Albanian universities in the past to work on similar projects, which meant he had perspective from over the years. The afternoon twisted into something we couldn't have imagined but in the end it was a lovely way to spend our Saturday.
Sunday I kept myself busy by cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. There was a small quake in the morning so I was prepared to leave at any moment, but was really glad I didn't have to. Mark got home in the late afternoon and I had planned a date for us that also doubled as a birthday celebration for Joey. Love ya bud. First, massages at our favorite spot. Then, a drink at Colonial because it's tradition (this time around it was rum infused). After, sushi at SALT (which was fabulous) and finally dessert at chocolitaliani. Yum! What a fun way to end the weekend.
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