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Saturday 14 April 2018

The Final Countdown. Day 14: Istanbul - Tirana

Today we left Turkey for Albania, and another new country for both of us!

Checking out of our hotel wasn't a problem - we are getting good at repacking. Getting to the ferry terminal wasn't a problem on the tram, and neither was buying the ferry ticket. In fact, everything just went smoothly. We got on the ferry, made our way across the Bosphorus, waved goodbye to Istanbul and got on the bus to the airport.

We had intended to grab the e11 to the airport instead of the e10 because it's less windy, but the e10 was sitting there and there were plenty of seats, so after being bother by a lady wanting us to buy water from her we decided to just jump on. Traffic was horrendous to begin with, but we had left loads of time so this wasn't a problem.

Our driver started off very tentative but his driving free ever more aggressive and we arrived at the airport a bit before we were supposed to. No hassles!

We knew what to expect of security this time and sailed through the first security check. Checkin and bag drop was also a breeze, no irritating questions. Through second security - again, nothing! And then we did the unthinkable and got Maccas again for lunch! I got something quite spicy Avila Tabuk burger (I don't know how to pronounce it) and Dan got the Daba Daba burger mostly because it sounded funny which turned out to be fish.

Nothing of interest to report for the wait in the airport or the flight. It wasn't full, so Dan and I got the row to ourselves as our neighbour moved to an empty row. Oh! When we were going through security a family had been pulled over ahead of us trying to take in there weird cylinders covered in paper and plastic, they had 3 or 4 of them and were saying they only hold 1L each. The security was trying to explain to them that they can only take in things less than 100ml and it should have gone in their checked luggage. The father kept trying to tell the security to "come with me come with me" to the gate and accompany him so he could take them with. God knows what they were filled with! We didn't see the conclusion of this argument.

After the flight we emerged through customs looking everywhere for a sign with our name. We couldn't see it. I did a few laps to see if we had missed it somehow. We were on the verge of turning out data on (at a charge) to contact our apartment when a man walked in holding a handwritten sign saying Daniel Garland. Phew! We followed him outside as he paid for his parking space and then into his taxi - which took us by surprise. No matter, we jumped in and were away.

Not long down the street and still inside the airport grounds our driver stopped and made us get out and get into another taxi. This was weird. This new taxi had his meter running Altho the guy was far cheerier than the one we had before.

He seemed to have a little command of English and so explained that there had been a mistake with the other driver. Also we were the first passengers in this car ever because it was brand new! We drove into Tirana through quite a traffic jam and emerged the other side.

We are staying in Choose Balkans Apartments which have Apartments all over the city. Ours is lovely, with a washing machine and drier (omg, clean clothes at last). Our hotel lady met us and took us inside, she was very young and lovely and had printed a map for us, and explained all the different points on the map. She then invited us to the office for tomorrow to try some home made raki (remember about a week ago in Turkey??) and we bid our farewells.

Clean clothes was the first order of the day, and as our apartment had a washing machine we threw a load on. Thankfully we had brought with us some washing detergent, and voila! Clean clothes on the morrow. I can't wait. Things were getting a little dire...

As we are in an apartment, we will make our own breakfasts and lunches to save money. Our first stop then needed to be a supermarket. Our first attempt turned out to be quite lacking so we returned to the apartment, googled again and found another. We found this one and it seems that they don't stick fresh fruit and vegetables! But we found bread and a few other supplies that would get us through breakfast and sandwiches for lunch, and deposited these back at our apartment.

Next stop: dinner. I had researched this already and had a short list of places to try. One was about 10 minutes walk from our accommodation called Tek Zgara Tirane II which was supposed to be a cheap eat, although technically everything in Albania is a cheap eat! On the way, we passed Tek Zgara Tirane I, but I insisted we keep going just in case.

As we walked, we passed what felt like 20 pharmacies, just lined up one after another. Another thing I noticed, and loved, as wall the children playing soccer in the streets. The streets themselves are generally really narrow, room for a car *just*, and hanging power lines everywhere. It's rough, but there's a charm to it. There's graffiti everywhere, but it seems to be positive affirmations, or proclamations of "We don't give a fuck".

We arrived at the restaurant and took our seat, our waiter speaking a bit of English. Looking at the menu, it luckily had pictures of all the dishes, but god only knows what they actually were. Wine we could decipher, and it was cheap, and so we ordered a half carafe for 300LEK (about €2.50) and asked if he had any recommendations on food. In the end we ordered his recommendations; the chicken wings and some amazing cheesy red meat thing that arrived sizzling

, and some steamed vegetables. The whole meal was delicious and Dan and I barely spoke as we devoured it. Once we were close to finishing, we ordered another carafe of red wine because it was tasty and so cheap.

Buzzing, it was time to return to the apartment and hang up our washing. And here I am, probably too drunk to be writing this and getting ready for bed - we will do a walking tour early in the morning so it's time to settle in.

Until next time
x

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