9.9.22

We woke up to moody grey skies. I slept like a log again, John was kept awake by dumper trucks at midnight. Then he was hot and got up to put ceiling fan on which went click click click and sparked when he tried to change the speed. Then it was too light so he made a curtain for the door with a blanket. Then he was too cold.

I was just glad we had twin beds and missed all this palaver.

We said goodbye to our lovely host and set off to find börek. 2 circuits of the one way system and we found some.  It’s funny how there’s so many different shapes that contain cheese.

We decided to make our way to the suspension bridge that we planned to visit yesterday before running out of steam. It was just over 30 minutes away.

It started to rain and we ended up picnicking in the car until it was dry enough to risk it.

By the time we braved the steep rugged path down it was throwing it down, so sadly we didn’t go right across.

Some people were unloading their car and off to have a barbeque!

I spent ages googling for inspiration for our next activities, looking mainly at malls, which seems a minefield as so many but the word mall brings up everything from furniture shops to closed buildings!

As we got closer to Tirana there were patches of blue in the sky, so we headed towards Tirana Grand Park where there are various cycle and walking routes.

The park is beautiful with a huge lake in the centre and we walked the whole path around it, stopping under trees during showers, stroking dogs, eating ice cream and feeding ducks.

Next it was time to find somewhere to spend our last night. We opted for Villa 57 as the location was good for the centre of town.

The standard of driving here is generally dreadful, but we’re used to that from Turkey, but in Tirana it’s made worse by the sheer volume of trafffic. In a population of not much more than 3 million most are behind a wheel in this city and determined to cut up as many people as possible, roundabouts are a whole new challenge, with no rules or indicators. Somehow we pulled up outside with the car still in one piece.

The room was grim, but only for one night, it would do. John just needed a while to chill before we went off to find food and get over the 2 flights of stairs with the bags.

I was confused about our room, it was nothing like the picture online, which was actually of room 204 that was open when we passed it on the first floor. I began taking photos and comparing the list of stated facilities with what we actually had.

John went to the loo..

The seat was cracked.

On our way to get food John saw a guy by reception and explained we have some problems. He was instantly aggressive and came to see what was wrong. It’s a cheap room he said, what do you expect? I tried to explain that we’ve been here a while and stayed in nicer cheaper places but he just kept mimicking me and telling me to be quiet.

John told him not to speak to his wife like that. He said these things had just happened in the room and he couldn’t repair anything and to get out if we don’t like it. He was then screaming at us to go. Get out!!! A few minutes earlier he maintained he didn’t know any English.

We decided to just go out and eat but then John said we might get back and find all our stuff on the doorstep, so we went back and said we will go. He stood and watched while we packed, gave me our money back.

I took some things downstairs and could still hear him shouting at John.

I videoed him coming downstairs, until he tried to grab my phone out of my hand. As we got in the car he shouted Fuck You.

So glad this didn’t happen on our first night.

The search for somewhere else began, luckily we didn’t book the next one we saw as it was in the middle of a ghetto. We may have found our wheels missing the next day. Then we made our way to Hotel Alen 2.

The room doors were open but no sign of anyone. It all looked fine, so we made a booking and left the car and went in search of food.

Yet again our search was difficult finding real restaurants is virtually impossible and as we were starving we settled for.. Drum roll… Pizza, and a mushroom, cheese and tuna panini, both were excellent. We collected cakes and ate ice cream on the way back, after all it is our last night.

The guy at Alen 2 was very pleasant and the room was all in one piece, result!

What a day!, Thats 3 confrontations in 10 days, wow, these are very hot headed people!! Maybe his dad is the taxi driver and his mum is the car park lady.

Maybe we couldn’t live here after all. In 11 years in Turkey we’ve had 2 scary road rage incidents and 1 row with the electric company for cutting us off and forgetting to reconnect us.

Hoping for a better day timorrow 😂😂