June 5, 2024

It is always a nice feeling to open this blog, feeling overdue for a post, wondering how many days of recounting I owe, and finding the most recent post not too distant into the past. That is the case now! What a relief. 

I feel like it’s been a minute since I’ve begun a blog with “I sit in ___ airport”, so just to keep you on your toes, I sit in the Athens Airport right now, awaiting a flight to Singapore, where I’ll have 9.5 hours to get around, explore, and get back to the airport before boarding for Bangkok. I’ve had tighter layovers in which I’ve seen a city moderately, though perhaps not as alien as this. I’ve been writing lots of poetry recently, so forgive any waxing…lyrical, shall we say. 

The last few days have definitely been on the chiller side. I walked off the beers from Sani, soaking up some sun and gratitude on the hill Gorica (of Pod- fame). It was a nice evening, and I got a nice early night. My bus the next day was a plain affair, nothing out of the ordinary. I walked almost an hour through rain in the morning to get to the station, and outside of a quick stop at a rest area that had a free pool table (had to sneak in a quick frame), I can’t remember any noteworthy details. 

My destination, however, is more than worthy of writing home about. I was only there for a day and a half, but Tirana might be one of my favorite places I’ve visited. the city layout is a really charming mixture of wide, spacey boulevards that let the city breathe and cramped alleys and maze-like streets with narrow sidewalks that make it impossible to avoid intimate contact with daily life (not that you’d want to, I met lots of great people!) The food is an interesting mixture of Greek cuisine and the more former-Yugoslav style I’ve been getting used to. It’s fascinating, I’d never think of Greek and Yugoslav foods as being remotely similar, and they are pretty damn different, but they’re so close in proximity, and it makes total sense that Albania should be a bridge between the two. There’s also a big Italian influence, being so close to Puglia. That night I tried to attend a comedy show at a little bar, but the comic was a no-show:( Instead, with a friend I made at the hostel, Scott, I bopped my head to a free and really good techno set in a big park near the city’s main square, Skenderbeg. Skenderbeg is really cool, a huge smooth marble space with a gentle peak in the middle which makes it difficult to really get a feeling of perspective going. 

On my full day there, I spent the morning and some of the afternoon in Durres, a coastal port city very close to Tirana. I felt lots of Italian influence, hearing lots of it on the sidewalks and even having a few spotty conversations here and there. I met a really nice older guy spectating the same game of dominoes as me (the classic lads pack of older Mediterranean gentlemen tanned to oblivion, sipping beers on a Monday afternoon), and traded some Italian with him, very good fun. I walked down to a beach I’d found on google maps and sunned myself for an hour or so before meandering through the charming city center and finding my way back to the bus. That evening I walked around Tirana a while longer and had a delicious dinner. I had lots of Kofte, some bacon-wrapped chicken maetballs, some cheese-stuffed meatballs, some delicious mushrooms, and a served-spitting oil iron dish of feta, peppers, and lamb that was delectable scooped up on some bread. I also tried Green Fanta, apparently an Albanian thing, which tastes of green apple. 

Yesterday I woke up around 3am, got a taxi to the bus station, and spent most off the next 15 hours sitting in the same bus seat, save for a couple hours at the Albania-Greece border. It was a touch hellish, but the scenery was really beautiful, including a nice stretch in view of Lake Orhid and a gradual progression into more arid lands., and a sharp drop off in mosques at the border.  Sorry Ottomans:/ I met Hans, a 19 year old German fellow on a gap year, just starting his first solo travel. We left Tirana at 5am and arrived in Athens at 9pm, with only one hour of time difference. I chekced into my hostel and beelined for a well-rated Gyro before turning in for the night. This morning, awoken by a snoring alarm clock that genuinely made me think someone was strangling a cat in the alley outside, I took in a nice tour of Athens. I was here a few months ago, but still, wow, what a cool city. So chaotic with fascinating islands of tranquil history, so easy to get lost and turned around, especially in my relatively sleep-deprived state. 

The next chapter of the trip is REALLY on the doorstep now. I still can’t really believe that I’m going to be spending the next two months in East Asia of all places. I can only smile, be grateful for the insanely good luck I have to lead this life, and forge on with no expectations other than my own positive attitude.