New Apartment, New Passport, and More to See in Tirana

 

I was not going to miss that last place.

As has become my habit while in Tirana, I arranged for a week in the new place to start the day before I had to be out of the old place.  This allowed me to take my time to pack and clean up without having a gap between the usual 10 or 11 a.m. checkout and the 2 or 4 p.m. check in.

This time the cab ride was an easy one. The host sent me a link to an easy to find restaurant.  We pulled up and not 5 minutes later, the host appeared to take me to the entrance to the building located next door to the restaurant.

The new digs are small, not as ‘eclectic’ as the last place (which was obviously someone’s home – not my favorite places to stay), and doesn’t have all the amenities of the last place.  But it’s functional, clean, bug-free, and in a great location.  I can work with this.

I do like this city.  I’d even go so far to say that it’s good enough to put Albania on the list of places I can live after Türkiye and Cyprus (Portugal ain't never leaving the top of the list). The only reason Tirana is at the back of the list is because the city is landlocked.  I really need to be by the ocean now.  

But at least this new apartment puts me closer to the lake.

There's no swimming, which sucks because of the heat, but it's still a nice place to hang out.  There's a trail that goes all the way around (about 4 miles) and other trails that connect to the wooded part of the park.  Good exercise and great views along with some ducks wandering around.

And now for part two of ‘Daphne’s Trip to the American Embassy in Tirana, Albania’. 

It had been about 2 ½ weeks since I’d applied for my new passport and I received an email telling me it was ready to be picked up. Nice.  I was concerned for a while that the current state of my home country would lead to delays, but nope.  Cool!

I walked to the embassy, showed them my passport, and let them know that I received the email.  “Did you print it out?”  No.  The email didn’t say to print anything and it specifically said I didn’t need an appointment.  “Okay.  Wait until we call.”

More waiting in the hot sun.  At least this time when I got to security, I was a seasoned vet.  I already knew to take out my USB drive, MP3 player, and phone.  Went through security thinking everything was gravy when the guy came over and asked to see the umbrella in my bag.  Okay.  Though you obviously already know it’s an umbrella.

Then he wanted to see my keys, asking to take off the little light on my key ring.  Are you kidding?  It’s a light!  I barely remembered it was on there and even had to confirm later that the thing still worked.

Then he wanted me to take a sip from my Yeti. 

What. 

It’s water, my dude!  It’s the same container of ice water I carried through with no issues the last time.  Because June is hot as balls in Tirana and I drink a lot of water.

Sigh.  I sipped the water.  Look at that.  I didn’t poison myself.  What do you want to see now, the filling in my f889ing tooth?

Finally, they let me through to the other building.  After checking in, I sat down to calm myself.  It’s not a big deal.  Bureaucracy sucks, but what are you gonna do?  Eyes on the prize and keep the blood pressure in check.  And remember, this embassy trip still beats having to go back to the states.

After a few minutes, I was called back to the same guy I’d spoken to before.  He smiled and said, “that didn’t take too long, now did it?”  Nope.  And for that I was grateful.  A quick inspection of the new doc led to me signing it while he punched holes in my old passport.  Then I was on my merry way.

Phew.  No worries about too few pages in this baby.  I ordered the one with double the pages, the expiration date is now 2035 instead of 2032, and it is so shiny!

They Can't All Be Gems

 

Time to move to a different part of the city.  At the very least, Tirana is a great city to stick around in while I wait for my passport to come back.  It's also easy to haul all my crap from one place to the next as there are taxis everywhere.

Unfortunately, Albania has the same problem with addresses that Portugal has.  The only info I get from the Airbnb website comes from the owner of the place and that info is spare at best.  I can only tell the cabbies what I’ve been given and we both end up having to figure things out from there.

This move is the third time that the cab has brought me to the approximate location.  And this dude kept passing the place before he would let me out.  Even after we’d stopped at a second location and I’d paid him, he insisted that I get back in because our GPSs hadn’t quite synched up.

Dude, while I appreciate your dedication to get me to the right address, please let me out of the car.  I’ll figure the rest out on my own.

He did drop me off near the near place, but it still wasn’t near enough.  Once he left, I kept trying to orient myself based on the pictures provided by the host, but I just couldn’t find the place.  My confused tourist vibes came to the rescue again as a passing man on the street was able to point me in the right direction.  Seriously, if he hadn’t helped, I’d still be lost.

Located down this sketchy looking alley, I wondered (not for the first time during this journey) what I’d gotten myself into.  Each of these places seemed to get worse than the last and, despite the homey looking pictures on the website, I had my doubts about this new place.

Turns out I was right to be apprehensive.

Everything in life is a matter of tradeoffs.  That holds just as true for apartments.  I wasn’t crazy about the last place compared to the first place I stayed in Tirana (nice place that I could see going back to). But the new place actually makes me long for the last one.

The last place:  8^th floor apartment best accessed by a creaky coffin-sized elevator, but the building was in a good location.

The new place: located on the first floor, but hard to find.  Getting to the main road requires a risky shimmy between parked cars and on-coming traffic.  The coffin-like elevator would be replaced with a coffin-like shower stall (more on that later).

The last place: great views, but noisy as it overlooked a busy intersection.

The new place: quiet, but no view.  And dark even in the middle of the day.

The last place: very little cookware, busted stovetop, and no microwave, but spacious.

The new place: ample cookware, microwave, and the place is a decent size, but it’s still missing basic items like dishwashing liquid and toilet paper.

The last place:  beautiful shower with no curtain/partition.  I chose not to wash my hair that week for this reason.  I already made enough of a mess just cleaning myself.

The new place:  enclosed shower, but it was a tiny corner model.  I washed my hair on my first full day and can’t count the number of times I hit my elbows in that thing.

And the clincher: the new place has a broken toilet seat.

I encountered this issue in Cyprus and made the same assumption I made then.  Whoever cleaned the bathroom knew of the issue, but didn’t bother to fix it. Just allowed it to be a nice surprise for the next sucker -- I mean guest. 

I let the host know so she wouldn’t accuse me of anything.  To her credit, the day after I texted her, she had her husband and a plumber come by to fix it.  So, a point to her.

Still won’t be enough points to put this place in the positive.

The dining chairs are very uncomfortable.  I couldn’t sit in them too long or my ankles would start to swell (one of the side effects of my HBP meds).  That only left the sofa on which to sit – a sofa that is way too close to the ground and murder to get out of.  My knees are not happy.

The patio door was open when I arrived.  If you’ve been reading the blog for a minute, you know my issues with Europe and screens … and my issues with bugs.  I spent the first night in a strange bed getting repeatedly stung by mosquitoes.

The water heater in the bathroom leaks after a shower.  The flushing mechanism for the toilet is tricky – the thing made noise for hours before I realized that I had to jiggle the push button to reset it. 

I hate this place.

The one nice thing I can say (other than the responsiveness of the host) is that the refrigerator is big and tall.  The lower part doesn’t want to close, though, unless I really push it. 

Yeah.  I don’t think I’ll be extending my stay in this place either.

But there is something I’ve been enjoying in every apartment: they don’t show commercials on Albanian YouTube!  That is so refreshing as I spend way too much time watching videos.  In every other country I’ve been in, any video longer than 8 minutes will have at least 3 commercial breaks.  It is truly insane.

One last note; the Albanian word for the day is Shqiperise (written without the accents).  I kept seeing this word everywhere with no idea what it meant.  Then I realized that it’s also on the local currency.  It’s the name of the country in their language. 

Albania!  Who knew?

Adventures Continue in Tirana

 

Summer has hit Tirana right in the face.  The days are sunny with record high temperatures most days (high 80’s to low 90’s F).  That doesn’t stop people from getting out in it.  The city is still just as busy as always.

Something I noticed while walking the streets.  Even in the heat, most women don’t wear shorts.  Lots of airy pants and tops and a surprising number of all black outfits make them look a lot more put together than me, the sweaty tourist.  Also, most of the younger ladies have long straight hair.  Really long, like to the waist or beyond.  Impressive and very pretty.

And now an account of ‘Daphne’s Trip to the American Embassy in Tirana, Albania’.  When I originally scouted out the location of the embassy, I figured I could go into the lobby and get more info on getting more pages in my passport.  Nope.  Security is so tight that you can’t even enter the building without an appointment.  I waited until I returned to the apartment to look up the requirements.

As they did not provide services to add pages, turns out I’d have to get a new passport.  The cost would be a $130 and would take 2-3 weeks for the doc to come back from the states.  Pretty standard for getting a new passport while in the county except I wouldn’t have to fly back there to wait for it.  Just hang around Tirana for an email telling me that the embassy received the passport, then I can go pick it up.

They did require paperwork, of course.  My first attempt to fill out the form online stalled for some reason.  Then it took me a couple of attempts to fill out the payment info.  I made the appointment online and was then told I needed to print everything out as the embassy had no printer.

Why?  They regularly deal with tourists and immigrants who might not have access to a printer.  Why make me wander around the city looking for one?  Eh.  Because it’s still the U.S. government.  That’s why.

The day of my appointment arrived and I’d scoped out a place to print all my info.  The lovely man who ran the copy place didn’t even charge me for the 10 pages I printed, just handed me back my USB drive and waved me off when I asked what I owed him (thanks again, sir).  I headed to the embassy, got redirected from one entrance to another, waited in a short line outside to confirm my appointment (the lady didn’t even need the confirmation they’d asked me to print out, only asking for my passport), then waited some more outside in the hot sun.

Once I finally got inside, I was suddenly at the airport again.  Security took all my electronics (phone, MP3 player that I forgot was in my bag, and the USB drive), putting them in storage before waving me through the scanner.  At least they let me keep my Yeti full of water as they sent me back outside through a small courtyard to another part of the building.  Flashed my passport again to another assistant then waited in the overheated sitting area to be called.

When it was my time, the Albanian man behind the window was very nice as he asked how he could help me.  I gave him all the paperwork, including the receipt for my online payment, and the spare picture I had from two years ago when I got my most recent passport.  Barring any issues, I’ll have the new doc in a couple weeks.

Traveler’s tip:  I picked up a tip that it was a good idea to have an extra passport-ready picture with you while traveling, just in case.  I’m very glad I followed this advice as it saved me the trouble of trying to find a photographer and paying for more pics.  Also good to carry a copy of your birth certificate and passport/ID.

I extended my stay in the place for a few extra days which was all I could book as the place was not available.  Otherwise, I would have booked it for the rest of the month.  It’s a nice place and you can’t beat the location.

But, alas, I had to leave.  At least it was easy to catch a cab since at least three are parked outside of the building at all times.  A quick $5 ride and I was left to find the new place and … yeah.

The elevator is the size of a coffin, barely big enough to fit me and my bags.  The doors are stupidly slow, the elevator clunky as it takes me to the 8^th floor.  

The apartment itself is a mixed bag.  While a nice size and cheap, the kitchen is woefully understocked.  No microwave (the listing lied), no corkscrew, or small cooking pot.  The stovetop is gas (yay) but the burners don’t work (seriously!).  Fortunately, the stove was functional but that’s all I could expect.

I got so seduced by the pictures in the listing of the lovely tile work in the shower that I failed to notice that there is no curtain or partition.  Showering means just nakedness, an open window, and free-flying water.  Great.

Sadly, I can’t hear the call to prayer on this side of town.  What I do hear (constantly) are honking cars. The apartment is on the corner of the building overlooking an insanely busy intersection.  Rush hour is absolutely nuts with the pedestrians, motorcycles, and emergency vehicles trying to turn directly into oncoming traffic – it is a mess.

So, no. I won’t be extending my stay in this place beyond a single week.  Hopefully I can get back to the other side of town.

Tirana Exposed

 

Green is the name of the game in Tirana.  There are trees everywhere.  One of the things l always liked about Atlanta’s skyline is that it is heavily dotted with wild trees.  Tirana is even better with that.  The buildings are kinda worn down and built all atop each other, but the vibrant bursts of green brings it all together.

My first night in town, I had a yummy pizza at a place right across the street from my building.  I ordered a strawberry basil drink and watched my waiter go out the front door and pick the herb from the little box just outside.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

After a good night’s sleep, I headed out to the grocery store I’d scoped out in the basement of the mall (love that about European malls).  I was a bit early and the doors weren’t open yet, so I began to wander around. 

The city, again bustling with people, reminds me of so many other places.  The red rooftops of Portugal, the mosque of Türkiye, and, oddly enough, the tree lined streets of D.C.  I haven’t been to that city in decades and yet I sensed a bit of it in Tirana.

Speaking of trees, I passed this gorgeous café on my wanderings. 

I did a circle, retracing my steps to get back to the grocery store and had to stop again to just stare at it.  While I was standing there, gawking like a goober, some random guy sitting at the café drinking his coffee beckoned me in.  I hadn’t planned on eating breakfast out but … okay!

This is the Millenium Garden Café and it is all about the vibes.  The bar is in the middle of the outdoor space with chairs all around and living green things everywhere.  It’s like dining in a treehouse.  So cool!

I was eating my Royal Breakfast

when something fell on my chest.  I assumed it was a leaf … until it stung me.  Only as I brushed the object away did I realize that it was a bee.

Huh?  I’ve never been stung by a bee in my life.  Why did this one decide to sting me?  I didn’t even see it before the pain so it couldn’t have been anything I did.

I took the stinger out and noticed the bee flopping around on the ground.  That just made me paranoid that something else might attack me.  Bugs do love me after all.  As the area on my chest began to swell, I checked my face for any other signs of reactions, taking deep breaths to make sure my air passage wasn’t closing up.

I finished my meal, picked up my groceries, and got back to the apartment.  By then the redness had disappeared, but the welt remained and would occasionally itch. That sucked, but at least now I know I’m not allergic to bees.

This body has never been runway ready (and never will be), but it is strong.  I am always grateful for that.

*****

The country’s currency is the Albanian Lek with a current exchange rate of 86.8 Lek/1 USD.  English is widely spoken which is awesome.  As I mentioned when I visited Montenegro, I still have too much Portuguese and Turkish in my brain to process any other language.

Fun fact:  the Albanian word for hello is pershendetje.  There are some accents on the word that I can’t do with this keyboard. 

Yeah, no.  Sorry, Albanians.  There are Turkish words that are easier to say than that.  Now that’s saying something.    

Something I’ve noticed while walking around the city.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that Albania is a very pale nation.  Despite that, not one person stares at me like they’ve never seen a black person before.  They’re too busy minding their own business.  Hell, I stare more at the rare black person that I see. 

There are places in the U.S. that would have me getting strange looks for “not belonging there” despite being born in the country along with my parents and grandparents.  This speaks more to the bone-deep racism of my home country than to the progressiveness of the Albanians.

This place is almost a little too convenient. Cafe culture is big here as it is across Europe and there are multiple shops within feet of the apartment.  Along with all the random trees, there are several parks and playgrounds amidst the traffic and mountains as well as one huge park about a mile from my place.  The building below is the arena that is surrounded by restaurants and shops that are open even if there's no event going on. 

The university is nearby as is the American Embassy. I sought out this building because I'm running out of pages in my passport.  I thought the only fix was to return to the states, something I absolutely dread.  Turns out, the embassy should be able to handle it.  I initially thought that I'd at least have to get a cab to get to the place, but nope.  It's about a 10-minute walk from the apartment.  Unbelievable.

(I haven't gotten the passport situation settled yet as I have to make an appointment first.  That should be interesting.) 

Coming back from brunch one day (an Albanian breakfast which was pretty tasty),

I went on the search for a bookstore.  It was in yet another mall that was even closer to the apartment than the one I visited before.  It’s mostly empty, though, which makes me think that it’s an older mall and the other is the big draw.  But this is the one with a bookstore that has a decent English section.  It also has a supermarket on the first floor.

Books in hand, I was heading back to the apartment and noticed that a pharmacy was open.  On a Sunday.  Not only did the pharmacist speak English, but she carried my pills.  They weren’t as cheap as in Türkiye (still the winner in the drug Olympics) but they’re close.

Are you kidding me with this?  Is it just me or is this place kind of awesome? 

It’s very impressive considering where the country was just a few years ago.  This video on the country's history came out just as I arrived in Albania.  It was eye-opening.

On to a New Country

 

Alas, that time has come again.

It's time to leave Portugal.  I am so tired of writing that phrase.

But there’s nothing for it.  I’m still trying to get the store to be profitable.  I published an eBook last month for anyone looking to start their own solo travel journey Amazon.com: Have Fro, Will Travel: Tips for the Solo Female Traveler eBook : Squire, D J: Kindle Store, but still no sales yet.  And until I can get the money coming in, I can’t secure my visa.  I’ll have to remain nomadic for now. 

I have no interest in returning to the states, even for a visit.  All this travel might necessitate one, though.  More on that later.

I told myself that I would not return to Türkiye as my fallback position.  Yes, it’s familiar and comfortable for me to go there, but there are plenty of other places to visit that do not fall within the Schengen Zone.  After already being in my three favorite countries this year (Cyprus, Türkiye, and Portugal), it was time to try somewhere new.

I had heard good things about the capital city of Tirana, Albania.  It was supposedly very supportive of tourists aa English is widely spoken (Americans are so behind the rest of the world in their grasp of other languages).  The country is not in Schengen, no visas are required for Americans, and, at least according to one website, U.S. citizens can remain in the country for up to a year on their passport alone.  Cool!

There were some worries in making my new plans.  I couldn’t get a direct flight from Faro Airport but managed to get one that only took 6 hours with one layover.  The problem with that is the flight was at 8:30 a.m. and Portimão is an hour away from the airport.  I was nervous about finding a ride at 5 a.m. to get me there in time. 

Some of the sites I studied for my upcoming trip said that while I wouldn’t need a visa, Immigration would want to document my housing, check my account balance to make sure I had the roughly 50 euros a day to remain, and they’d want to see my return ticket.  Damn, would they want a blood sample as well?

I prepared as much as I could for the trip, but I was at a loss for the recommended proof of vaccination.  I lost that card from the CDC months ago.  No one has asked for it during my entire journey and I was hoping that would remain the case.

I wasn’t sure if this new country would carry my medication.  For those who don’t know, Albania is located north of Greece (in Schengen, carry my pills) and south of Montenegro (not in Schengen, do not carry my pills) so I wasn’t sure where it would fall in the spectrum. 

I have gotten very spoiled lately as each of my favorite countries carries my pills with no issues.  I’d allowed the supply to dwindle down to less than a month's worth.  I spent my last full day in Portugal stockpiling pills just in case.  I also explored a new part of the boardwalk that I missed out on the last time I was in town.

(I do love this city.  I’ll have to resist the urge to go back any time soon as there are so many other cities to visit in Portugal.)

Moving day arrived and … went off without a hitch.  I easily found an Uber and got to the airport in plenty of time.  I got on the plane (Bye Portugal!  I’ll be back as soon as I can!), headed to Stuttgart, Germany (Hey!  A new country!), made a way too long visit to Passport Control, then boarded the plane to Albania.

Landing in the airport after 1 ½ hours (and no food since they nickel and dime you for everything on Eurowings), it was time to go through Immigration.  After a very long wait that made me nervous … I sailed through with no issues.  The guy just looked at my passport, stamped it, and sent me through.  I didn’t have to answer any questions or provide any other info.  Whew.

I LOVE it when I expect a hassle and don’t get one.  And I still have the ticket I booked to get me back to Portugal in 3 months.

I was immediately reminded of Montenegro upon landing as the same mountain range is shared with Albania.  After being handed over from one taxi guy to another, I finally got a ride into the city.  My driver was from Egypt and spent most of the long trip speaking to someone on the phone in Arabic.

Traffic made the 45-minute trip take over an hour.  Just like in Montenegro, there’s only one major highway and both lanes were completely clogged.  In addition to that, the driver’s phone showed a different route than the one I got from the Airbnb site so we ended up going to the wrong address first.

The streets of Tirana are just as narrow as those in Türkiye.  Multiple times we had to back up on a street because there was another car coming directly into our way.  Add the pedestrians and bikers and parked cars and I was wincing through most of the trip.  I will hand it to these drivers though, they know what they are doing.  They are highly skilled at managing the streets.  I’m also glad that I don’t have to navigate them in a car.  Walking looks dangerous enough.

The host of my new home for the week had another lady meet me at the cab, saving me the trouble of having to contact anyone.  Awesome.  The lady showed me in, very carefully pointing out the features of the place.  This is a nice size apartment.  The pictures did it justice.

After she left, I got unpacked, set up my computer, and headed out for a meal.  I hadn’t eaten all day and was starving.

One thing I will say about Tirana – this city is hopping!  The streets are busy, there are tons of pedestrians, bikes everywhere, and cafes full of people.  This was a warm Wednesday night in late May, but you’d think it was a Saturday with as many people that were around.  Just walking around to get my bearings before it got dark, I found several restaurants, pharmacies, a park, and a mall within just a few blocks of the apartment.

And then there’s this. 

A little touch of Türkiye in Tirana.  There’s even a kitten hanging around and multiple calls to prayer!  Love that!