Posts between 2020/01 and 2021/01 (346 out of 346)
(Star Wars RoS spoiler)
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I'm reading all the theories about the hacky ending change of RoS and I know on close inspection the editing is totally fucked, but my (apparently) controversial but strongly held opinion.. I was so happy that Ben Solo just died instead of the happy ever after that everyone seems to want. Seriously. I'm extremely bored of characters always being paired off in all media ever. For every new SW movie I've been dreading it happening to Rey. I was enjoying a lot the weight given to her non-romantic strong and loving relationships with those around her. More of that. If anything, I was hoping for the development of a caring sibling-type relationship between Ben and Rey. But also Ben Solo was a jerk. Rey deserves better. And we're swamped with the idea that people (especially women let's be honest) need a [single, male] romantic partner to complete them. Ugh. So yeah. Good.
I am very cold and a bit sick. Planning tons of stuff next week anyway from bed and assuming I'll be better tomorrow cos I really don't have time for this shit.
New Year's Eve with my new friends from CouchSurfing. We watched Putin's speech and stayed up all night talking and playing games like jenga and charades. I slept (eventually) in a bed shaped like a car.
At the weekend some of them came to Misi for breakfast; we walked around the village, then took a trip to the lake at Dagyenice. We (they) built a fire, roasted chestnuts and made tea, and played with the local ducks and dogs. It was a wonderful afternoon.
I missed the coast, so went to the sea! Via a 4.5 hour bus ride from Bursa to Ayvalik. There, via CouchSurfing, I met a beautiful cat and a beautiful human who let me stay in their home for a few nights, even when my plans went slightly squiggly due to weather.
Ayvalik is lovely and I came so close to staying there instead of Bursa, and may have made a slightly wrong choice, but now I know I can go back for longer in the future.
I reconnected with another couchsurfer who I'd met in Bursa, and we walked the two hours or so around the coast to the island (connected by bridges) of Cunda, which has a charming seafront and view of Ayvalik. It was very windy and gloomy, but that made coffee at the other end all the more welcome.
The ferries were still running from Ayvalik to Lesbos! Only a few a week, and the one I wanted to take got rescheduled due to wind. Anyway I made it, Eleni (from last year!) met me in Mytilini, we ate pancakes, then took the bus to Petra where I stayed again in my favourite seaview room where the ocean rolls constantly. The next day I worked from there, then went to stay at Eleni's house in Filia and hang out with her family. We ate many good things and I'm so grateful for random connections that turn into lasting friendships :)
Return ferry to Ayvalik where the weather was beautiful again, a day of working with a sea view, a nice breakfast with my host, and a return bus to Bursa.
The Bursa 1326 Panorama Museum, which is a big dome painted on the inside with a scene of (I think) the founding of the city. It's surprisingly cool! Entry is 5tl (less than €1) and there's all kinds of interesting cultural stuff inside the building too. When I went in there was a traditional drum and dance performance happening.
I also wandered past the Ataturk House museum, and through Kulturpark and Merinos.
I finally went up Uludag on Bursa's epic cable car. It takes about an hour, with a change half way. At 105tl (about €16) it's expensive but well worth it. The views are incredible (I managed to get a clear day), and it's a relaxing ride. If you pick your times well you can get a cabin to yourself. I spent a few hours at the top, wandering around through the snow, watching people ski and sled, and drinking tea in a cosy cafe. It's a ski resort at the top with a lot of hotels. If you're less lazy than me, there are some wonderful hikes as well that can quickly take you away from the bustle of the touristy area. And chairlifts to take you to the very peak.
I hate how Turkish bus stations are such a hustle. Like you're surrounded by bus company reps all trying to talk you into taking their next bus to wherever. As if you've turned up to the bus station without having already decided where you're going and when. I mean occasionally, sure, but it can't be often enough to justify the amount of effort they put in.
My last days in Bursa came all at once. I squeezed in some more museums - the Ataturk House (which is nice to visit but has no signs or information, just furniture and pictures, and took me all of 5 minutes to go around); the Archaeology Museum (which has plenty of info in English and is as good as archaeology museums always are); the Textiles Museum at Merinos (which is in an old textile factory, and incorporates a lot of interesting social history about the local industry as well as technical information and old machines); and the Immigration Museum (on the top floor of the Textile Museum; not much in English, but fascinating exhibits all the same).
I worked from Good Call and At Kafe. I spent my final night in Gorukle at the meeting of Bursa Speaking Club, saying farewell to all of the amazing people I met this month. I stayed over at Juli's and in the morning Fatih came over to make us delicous soup for breakfast. What a sendoff!
In the Mado cafe by the bus station, I discovered a vegan ice cream menu; they didn't have any of course. The last thing I did before I got on the bus was eat cig kofte... of course.
Sofia is one of my favourite cities to do nothing in. I've only ever spent short stays here, and did a walking tour the first time for an overview. There's probably tons to do really but there's nothing obvious so it's easy to just chill out and rest in nice cafes. Which is what I need this weekend. (To start to recover from Turkey, Country of Lovely but Socially Demanding Extroverts.)
At a cafe in Sofia, the biggest cat I've seen, possibly small tiger, has made herself at home on me. My legs are numb, and at one point she wrapped her arms around my waist under my hoodie and stuck her claws in. I guess I'm never leaving. Btw nothing makes me happier than this exact scenario.
I'm in Cologne Airport again. It's one of my favourite bus stations. Good signage for buses, seating, pretzels and coffee, power and wifi (mostly), and warm fuzzy memories of all the other hours I've spent here between unreasonably long bus rides.
Nightbus from Cologne to London, breakfast in London, then a train from London to Manchester for a day and a half of Co-op stuff, and eating of course. Then onward to Edinburgh.
I spent a weekend in Sofia to break up my bus journey from Turkey to the UK. Just chilling, cafeworking, and eating, with a visit to the Museum of Earth and Man which is full of shiny rocks. Food at Edgy Veggy, Sun & Moon, Dreamhouse and Satsanga.
Then the long haul to Cologne, via Arad, over a couple of days.
I convened a gathering of some people close to KitB, to treat him to a fun long weekend before his imminent wedding. The concept of a 'bachelor party' is pretty gross, so we called it a Stag Don't or the #kitparty. On the first day we stayed in Edinburgh, ate at Snax and ConsiderIt, and went to the Camera Obscura. I didn't have high hopes, but it turned out to be awesome. The views from the tower are great, and the silly museum of illusions is surprisingly good. We most enjoyed the Vortex and the Hall of Mirrors, and ended up spending more than 2 hours there.
Then we all took a train to Dunkeld & Birnam, a little village an hour and 40 mins north of Edinburgh. I fell in love with the place. It has hills and waterfalls and vast ancient forests, and a secret vegan food scene. We walked around the area, ate a lot of course, and chilled and played board games in our hostel (Jessie Mac's). On the 25th we cooked ourselves a Burns Supper. I'd definitely consider moving there.
My sleep cycle has been all over the place last couple of weeks due to travel and events and timezones, but my super reliable body clock still woke me up without an alarm at 0914 this morning - one minute before standup.
In 2018 I travelled all over Europe, mostly alone, and got to know myself better than ever. 2019 was a continuation of this, with a few unexpected twists, new lessons, and reinforcement of things I discovered last year.
I posted logs or photos or blogposts to my site 4,974 times and posted 9,032 individual photos.
tl;dr
Continued to travel around Europe; visited lots of new places, and returned to places I know and love.
Met a few wonderful new people. Kept in touch or reconnected with many others.
Tested the limits of my sociability.
Did contracting work as well as my day job, but not enough to add up to full-time.
Went out of my way to attend RWOT conferences twice.
Looked after other peoples' pets.
Took a detour to visit Elizabeth in Zimbabwe for 2 weeks (broke the no-fly rule).
Had a rhino-related near-death experience.
A long, hot, Balkan summer; swam in the sea often, got a lot of migraines from the heat.
Learnt to read Cyrllic with ease.
Returned to the UK for Co-op and family stuff.
Did more exercise than last year. Not that the bar was high.
Overcame a bit my aversion to fire, through necessity.
Goals for 2020: more of the same really. But with more solitude.
Words
I wrote 321 things. On my site I posted 261 short notes or commentary with photos, and 60 longer articles. I also logged non-blogpost writing 34 times. These all comprise approximately 95,722 words in total (52,001 off-site). That's a mean of 262.25 words and 0.88 posts per day. That's less than last year; missed my 'write more' goal.
I stopped in a total of 22 countries; I visited 12 countries for more than a couple of weeks, 5 of which I had never been to before, and passed through (with a stop of 12 hours to 10 days) 10 others (3 new). I failed my goal of not flying at all, having taken an unexpected trip to Zimbabwe in May, but within Europe I stayed ground- and water-bound.
Short stays: Albania (new, 8 nights), Bosnia (9 nights), France (3 nights), Hungary (4 nights), Slovenia (3 nights).
Transit-length/single day stays: Andorra (new), Austria, Italy, Monaco (new), Serbia.
I spent 17 nights sleeping in transit (on buses, ferries, trains, etc). Apart from that, I slept in 62 different places. I spent 151 nights in AirBnbs, 60 nights at friends' places, 57 nights in short-term rental accommodation, 37 nights in hostel dorms, 24 nights with family, 10 nights in hotels, and 9 nights shared AirBnbs or hotels covered by work.
In total I spent 2 months, 10 days, 14 hours, 9 minutes, and 12 seconds in transit (this includes walking between places), logging 201 journeys. I took 109 bus journeys (local and long-distance), 16 long distance trains, and 18 ferries. I bought tickets for local bus, tram or metro 27 times. I also travelled by boat 6 times, took 12 taxis, and made 8 journeys in a car (either hitchhiking or a ride with a friend). I took 4 planes: two each way to Zimbabwe and back. I utterly failed to ride a cable car in 2019. I'm not sure where all those taxis came from.
When I wasn't on the move, I spent:
6 months, 15 days, 4 hours, 26 minutes, and 40 seconds on an adventure;
1 month, 11 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes, and 21 seconds at home;
I still work 3 days a week with Open Data Services Co-operative! Go me for keeping the job, and enjoying it. Co-op life involves a lot of meetings, and if you're comparing this year to last year, see above, you can see I spent considerably more time in meetings. I ended up going to more Co-op events in the UK than expected, again. Usually because they lined up with other reasons to go back.
I also contract approximately one day a week for Digital Bazaar, working on things related to the Decentralized Identifiers Working Group. This came in bursts, with busier times being during and after Rebooting the Web of Trust conferences. W3C WG and CG meetings add to my meeting count.
Code
This is my Github commit log:
Github counted 783 'contributions'. This was 62% commits, 19% code review, 4% issues and 15% pull requests. I can't be bothered to list all the repos. This is a little bit less than last year. There are absolutely no patterns. Obviously you can see NaNoWrimo in November.
Stuff
I purchased or otherwise acquired something on 879 occasions, spending a total of approximately €12,898.77. I used 14 different currencies (TRY, GBP, EUR, BGN, USD, RSD, CZK, MKD, HRK, BAM, ALL, PLN, HUF and Zimbabwean Ecocash). This is an average expenditure of €35.34 per day, €248.05 per week, or €1,074.90 per month. I logged 1,340 meals or snacks, an average of 3.7 per day.
This includes most donations to charities/organisations/people, gifts, and buying other peoples' food or bus fare, but I didn't log it all well. This does not include ATM fees, bank fees and loss through currency conversion or the GBP diving.
I spent €3,006.08 on transit/transport and €5,080.86 on accommodation. I spent €849.34 on groceries, buying them 120 times. I bought food that was ready to eat on 339 occasions, spending €3,367.91; 78.2% of the time this was in restaurants and 22.7% to take away.
On 85 occasions I got something for free. I expensed €2,455.32 of stuff for work. The most expensive thing I bought was Asus Zenbook 14 (Cex) (€856.14) and the cheapest thing (which wasn't free) was Toilet use at old tree place (€0.15). I spent on average €14.67 per time.
I came in well over budget. I added a setting to sloph so I could track purchases I expensed for work without them adding on to my own expenditure totals. I used this for my new laptop as well (I didn't expense it, but it doesn't come out of my normal montly budget). Even excluding all of that (€2,455.32 worth), I spent €898.77 more than would have been ideal (about €75/month extra). It's easy to see how though. In August I spent about €300 in Split, feeding Dave and Juri on whatever their hearts desired, and another €100+ on my travel and accommodation there. August + Croatia (Split, of all places) + two kiddos with a taste for fancy seafood, steak, beer and ice cream = bankrupt big sister. That's okay though, it meant they could enjoy their holiday without worrying about money, because - despite my warnings - Split was more expensive than they'd expected as well. The other half of that was another €400 on flights to Zimbabwe, which was sort of offset by staying with Elizabeth and low cost of food there. Whenever I meet friends for a meal who I know don't have as much disposable income as I do, I pay for the food. Finally, I gave quite a lot away; to people begging on the internet, and IRL. I bought several strangers' bus or train tickets and if I have it, give cash to anyone who asks me for some, which I'm hit and miss at logging.
My gut feel was that I spent more on accommodation than I probably should have - €5,080.86 in total - more than last year's €4,175.61, but this still averaged out to less than €500 per month, so that works out. I spent a bit more on eating out than last year: €3,367.91 compared to €3,012.56. So I guess what really did it was transit: €3,006.08 compared to €1,891.64 in 2018! Is the cost of things going up? Am I getting lazier and taking easier/faster options instead of cheaper ones? Am I leaving it last minute to book and missing good prices? Probably a combination of these.
January: solitude and the sea
I started the year where I'd ended the last one: on the island of Lesbos, Greece. From there I moved to Syros, and spent even more time alone (besides the company of a fluffy cat, Zizi). I slowed right down; my apartment was comfortable, I had a proper toastie maker and a source for vegan cheese, and it was easy to be lazy. I had a good view of lightning storms over the bay. I did manage to join a local hiking group though, and went out with them a few times to explore the island.
Arriving in Athens was a shock to the system. A huge city after two months on quiet islands. I socialised; I met people from Mastodon and friends-of-friends in Exarchia squats, and Jane and Felicity came to stay with me for a week. This helped me to ramp back up a bit for impending conference chaos. I dyed my hair light green, with purple roots.
From Greece I took the direct route to Barcelona - two ferries (Patras to Bari, Civitavecchia to Barcelona), three buses (Athens to Patras, Bari to Napoli, Napoli to Rome) and a train (Rome to Civitavecchia), with as little time in Italy as possible. My first Rebooting the Web of Trust conference was great and productive. It was nice to see old friends from the W3C Standards circuit, and make some new ones. After that I made my way back east overland via the sceneic route: stops in Spain (Girona), Andorra, France (Nice), Monaco, Slovenia (Ljubljana), Hungary (Budapest).
I met up with Felicity again in Krakow for a bit. I love Warsaw, and was super happy to have the opportunity to stay in a squat there as a guest of someone I met in Athens. I made the snap decision to visit Elizabeth in Zimbabwe, and fly out of Vienna. The stars aligned, and H (who I met at the Vipassana retreat in Austria last year) and B invited me to house- and pet-sit for them for two weeks in the woods of Dubravka, near Bratislava, in their homemade container house. Water came from a spring in the woods and wifi came from taking a tram to Bratislava. I took a few daytrips to Vienna as well.
I stayed with Elizabeth for two weeks in Harare, Zimbabwe. Bussing was not feasible, so I had to break the no-fly rule. I got chased by a rhino, lost Elizabeth's sunglasses and almost died, but it was worth it. I dyed my hair bright green. I returned to Europe and made a beeline to the Adriatic coast, socially exhausted and in desperate need of some alone time.
I lived in a tiny studio in a small town on the Montegrin coast, a few minutes walk from the sea. Which came in handy as the temperature skyrocketed, and my AC cost extra so I didn't use it. I swam almost every day, and dried off in the sun, getting heat-induced migraines far too often. I daytripped to different cities in Montenegro, and at one point got lured to Sarajevo for an extended visit as well.
I reunited with Aida again for her annual yoga retreat on the island of Iz, just off Zadar in Croatia. This time I explored the island more, and meditated in the pyramid every morning. I was the only non-Bosnian speaker (though my time in Montenegro increased my level of ambient understanding greatly, that is, if someone interjected a conversation with "does she understand?" I could understand enough to say "no I don't"). We did TRE too, and a few of us took a wee boat to a wee island to swim naked.
I transited through Albania, stopping at Dubrovnik (ugh) on the way, and spending a week in Skoder which was lovely, and a weekend in Tirana.
In a misguided attempt to reduce the sun-induced migraines, I moved on for my next long stay to the landlocked city of Skopje, Macedonia. The upshot of this was I was perpetually too hot with very little opportunity to jump into water to cool down though. The city center has fountains for frolicking in, along with other general weirdness. I hiked to the nearby canyon for swimming and kayaking in its icy depths was a great relief. So was going to the air-conditioned mall to see movies.
A full 50% of Skopje's vegan restaurants were closed during my planned visit, so I extended my stay further into August in order to visit them. And also because I planned a couple of extra trips out to nearby places, and my house in Skopje was a good base to keep. I went to Pristina, Kosovo for a couple of days. I trekked to Sarajevo again, to pick up my new laptop from a colleague (and see friends of course), and then to Split, Croatia, where my brother and J were holidaying, so I could pay for all their food (half a month's budget in 4 days.. *poof*). And squeezed in a trip to Lake Ohrid too, for hiking and swimming.
I went to Bulgaria for the last week of August, better than not going at all, because the city of Plovdiv had been calling to me for no particular reason for months. It's lovely, and I had a restful time. Enough to charge a little before the next batch of conferencing. And I dyed my hair pink, purple and blue.
Prague, I can take or leave. But RWoT and the first ActivityPub conference were there, so I planned to stay a month around those. Since my last visit, there are even more great places to get vegan food, and I had a lot of fun organising the rebel conference dinners. RWoT was cool, we advanced some Encrypted Data Vaults work, and I got to see old friends again; and more at APConf.
Prague also has a good connection to London, with the RegioJet bus.
Two Open Data Services Co-op events had been scheduled a week apart, and one more got set up a bit later when it looked like I'd be coming back for them. In between work trips to Nottingham, Sheffield and Stirling, I visited family in Lincolnshire and Brighton, and friends in Edinburgh.
I made it to Bulgaria in time for the start of National Novel Writing Month, with an urgent need to deflate after two hectic months of people and moving a lot. Sandwiched between week-long transit through Varna and Burgas, the 'big' cities of the coast, I found a lovely apartment with a sea view in the resort town of Obzor on the Black Sea Coast. Resort towns in the off-season are the best; there's nobody in them, nothing going on, and the beaches are gorgeous and empty. My hosts had a tiny but powerful dog who I looked after for a while. Other than walks on the beach, or occasional bus trips to other coastal towns, all I did was Co-op work and writing. It paid off: I wrote more than 50,000 words of Quest for Brothers! My first NaNoWriMo victory in 10 years.
A long weekend in Istanbul removed the inditimidation factor that has had me always avoiding it; it's busy but quite manageable, with good public transport, and really great historical touristing opportunities. I took a ferry to Mudanya, near Bursa, and stayed in a small, old village called Misi (or Gumustepe) outside of the city. From my house I could hear chickens, goats and the Mosque. But the house was too big and too cold and the wood-burning stove and I did not get along. I moved to another house, around the corner, with central heating, but it wasn't warm enough for me to sit still in there all day. So I spent more time in the city than expected, which was busy and smoggy and so enormous; but the two vegan cafes were warm and friendly. I looked for meetups on CouchSurfing, and found the Bursa English Speaking Club, and people weekend-tripping to Uludag mountain. I joined them, and got roped into social event after social event, including New Year's Eve, until I somehow had some new lifelong friends. Turkish people are inspiringly hospitable and welcoming; I was blown away time after time.
This is the third year I've done a comprehensive summary from my logs, so now I can make a comparison table!
2017
2018
2019
Posts total
4,656
4,817
4,974
Photos posted
n/a
9,520
9,032
Coffees (total / mean per day)
471 / 1.3
431 / 1.2
484 / 1.3
Nights on transport
n/a
31
17
Nights with friends
n/a
56
60
Nights with family
n/a
24
24
Time in transit
1mo 13d 23h 15m 45s
2mo 26d 6h 56m 21s
2mo 10d 14h 9m 12s
Time in restaurants
17d 2h 37m 3s
21d 17h 44m 22s
26d 16h 16m 9s
Time exercising
4d 9h 26m 58s
2d 1h 10m
2d 20h 8m 10s
Time in meetings
3d 1h 28m
6d 4h 45m 59s
19d 0h 13m 12s
€ per month
n/a
923.39
1,074.90
€ accommodation
n/a
4,175.61
5,080.86
€ per night accommodation
n/a
11.44
13.92
€ eating out
n/a
3,012.56
3,367.91
Words
~159,492
122,401
95,722
Topics (by tag)
237
217
153
Countries visited
13
24
22
New countries visited
4
13
8
Nights in the UK
~month
34
37
It sure felt like I travelled a lot this year, but I spent less than half the time sleeping in transit. Maybe that's how I spent so much more on accommodation? Time with staying friends and family was about the same. I did more exercise! And spent even more time in restaurants! As well as in meetings, as previously discussed. Fewer new countries visited I guess means I'm running out of new places to go in Europe... Not really, still plenty left, it was just circumstance.
Alone time
I didn't get as much alone time this year as I'm used to, nor as I need. There were tradeoffs, there always are, but ultimately the pros of travelling completely alone outweight the cons for me. I love having a place to come home to that has nobody else in, and am finding it increasingly difficult to share my space. Nothing beats being able to change my mind about plans at the last minute without having to consult anyone else; deciding where to eat without having to compromise; to stay in bed or go on an all-day hike depending on how I feel when I wake up without worrying about how someone else feels. To bring enough snacks just for me; to budget according to my own priorities; to do only the amount of logistical labour needed for just myself. I have figured out my balance between planning and winging it, and discovered it doesn't always match up with other peoples'. I sometimes found myself taking care of other peoples' tickets or accommodation simply because I got around to looking up the information first. I'm frequently the only person in a group who bothers to look at a map or remember the names of metro stops, so I always end up navigating. It's several times more exhausting than when I'm doing it only for myself, because I have to keep other people apprised as well. And more often than not, nobody else contributes, not without being asked (also exhausting) and even then not effectively or efficiently. Even when someone else is in charge of the day, I can't help but need to know where we are and how we're getting there. If everyone around me suddenly disappeared, or had their memories wiped, I'd be able to get myself home again. It's exasperating that some people aren't doing that automatically. Anyway, enough complaining. All that to say, I'm a selfish traveller, and I know what I want, and I have little patience for other people getting in the way of that.
There's also nothing quite like experiencing the world, new places, new people, without the buffer of someone else. I focus more on my surroundings when I'm alone. And other people treat solo travellers differently. When I'm with other people I vocalise how I'm feeling more; whether I'm hungry or tired or my feet hurt. Which means I focus on it more. When I'm alone, that stuff falls into the background and I'm less likely to remember any discomfort from a day. When I'm eating with others I inevitably end up talking, and lose track of the food. Food is an important part of any experience for me, and I'm disappointed when I realise I'm not paying attention to it. Not that having conversations is bad. Just, tradeoffs.
My compulsion around a tidy kitchen has got worse. If I know there's a mess in a kitchen such that if I suddenly needed to cook something I wouldn't be able to without cleaning first, I have to clean it up, or I can't focus on anything else. Even if I can't see the kitchen. In hostels this often means doing other peoples' dishes, which I don't begrudge; others come and go, it's not a long term thing. If I'm sharing a space with someone else for a while and I end up constantly keeping on top of their mess, then I get annoyed. I know some people just have differently cleanliness standards to me. I've lived with plenty of other people in the past. And my preferred solution is to just not live with other people any more.
Blogging and logging
I stayed on top of my logs, but I dropped well behind on blogging about places and vegan food. I have a few half finished drafts. I was hoping to get them wrapped up and published before this post, but I'll get to them eventually.
Things I didn't do
Some things I thought I'd do this year that I didn't, include:
I didn't spend any time in Ukraine or Romania, and hardly any in Serbia.
I didn't make it to Belarus.
Not spending long in Albania and Kosovo; just transit-length visits.
I didn't attend any Vipassana meditation courses.
I didn't lose my EU citizenship... The Brexit date got moved twice.
I finished neither Of The Moon nor Milo's World, nor Birds. Didn't even touch them.
Things I did do
Some things I did that I hadn't expected were:
Dragged my butt across Europe and back for RWOT conferences in Barcelona and Prague.
Stopped off in Andorra and Monaco.
Visited Sarajevo a few more times than is probably healthy. (JK I love you Sarajevo.)
Flew to Zimbabwe to visit Elizabeth.
Revived my Fairphone 1 with the help of a second FP1 with a working charge port.
Spent a full month in the UK, co-working with my Co-op colleagues, and seeing family.
Changed my winter plans to accommodate a return to the UK in early 2020 for KitB's wedding, and was colder than ideal due to not being far enough south, and smoggy due to not being near the coast, but made some amazing friends in Bursa to make up for it.
I'm continuously astonished and thankful that my travel experiences are always so seamless. Especially as I hear stories of the bad things that happen to other people. I've never been robbed, or left my backpack on a bus. I have incredible luck with finding great places to stay for good prices. When I miss connections, I usually get where I'm going anyway, and don't lose a ton of money in the process. How can this be? I plan well (not too much, not too little), learn about places ahead of time, and am laid back and positive-minded (I naturally forget or downplay negative things where some people - I've noticed - really fixate on them, which affects how they react in the moment, and their perception of how a trip went after the fact). But there's an element of luck with all of this. Fingers crossed it keeps up.
I found a new pleasure this year in familiar places. I passed through a lot of cities I spent longer in the year before (or even earlier this year) - like Split, Sofia, Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Vienna. It's nice to already know the route from the bus station, and where some vegan cafes are and how the public transport works.
2020
Whenever anyone comments on my lifestyle - whether to say they couldn't imagine living on the road, or that it would be their dream - I always say I can't imagine living any other way. It's true. So the easy thing to do for me is to keep travelling. To keep bouncing, month to month from place to place, selfishly looking out only for myself on my own schedule, committing to nothing and no-one that I can't just do online. But for a very good reason, I would stop or put things on hold for a year. Such a reason is currently rearing its head. So the default is to keep travelling, but there's a small chance I might pause.
Going with the default, this year I'd like to spend substantive time in:
Albania
Belarus
Kosovo
Moldova
Romania
Serbia
Turkey
Ukraine
More time in Croatia and Slovenia would be also welcome. Another visit to Greece might also be on the cards. I have a feeling the call to revisit people in places I now know will be strong.
Once again, I'd like to not zigzag. There are no RWOT conferences or W3C meetings in Europe that I know of this year, so they shouldn't be pulling me off track. If Aida runs another yoga retreat in Iz (Croatia), I'll try to go. There's social pressure to visit Ayvalik (Turkey) and Lesbos (Greece) in the spring this year, so we'll see about that. I'll probably need to go through one of the Baltic countries to get a visa for Belarus, so I might spend some time in Latvia or Lithuania.
Again, I aim to complete least one more Vipassana meditation retreat. It's cheating to add this as a goal right now because I registered back in October for one in February in Switzerland, but it hasn't happened yet so I guess I could still fail to go.
I want to log my journeys properly, with start and end times, and make a visual map of countries I've visited. I have the backend data to do this, but the logging is arduous. I've also started work on a timeline view of my logs; maybe I'll finish it!
I've gotta stop staying in places where AC and heating cost extra, or are ineffective. Though I avoid AC unless I'm dying; actually I'm more likely to head to places this summer that don't get so hot so that shouldn't be an issue. I definitely will be triple checking the heating situation when I'm likely to be cold though, because I've been freezing in my home far too often this year and it just ruins everything. Also I need to remember to check the location of the fusebox at every place I stay before there's a power outage. And sort out a backup wifi option before that's an emergency too.
I've got to invest some of my savings into something. It's not that I am particularly interested in making the number go up, but the money I have sitting uselessly in the bank right now could be being used by someone to do some good in the world. There are lots of investment schemes for giving loans to co-operatives, housing projects, social enterprises etc. I'll be looking into that.
I've got my new backpack, a 35L RiutBag, which I'm excited to downsize my life into. It's hopefully small enough to go at my feet or over my head on a bus; not having to pack it under gives me one less thing to worry about, or potentially forget.
I had no idea that being Best Man meant helping to write the vows in an etherpad from different rooms at midnight before the ceremony BUT HERE WE ARE (facepalm).
Time for a trek to the other side of the country for KitB and M's wedding. I took the train to London (dinner with TomSka) then nightbus to Penzance. I picked up (or they picked me up) some of Kit's family members (including Pedro the poodle) and we picked up pasties and boxes of other wedding stuff, and drove it to St Austell.
The venue was a beautiful grand house on the beach. I took my Best Man responsibilities as seriously as possible, helped with unpacking and setting up and organising, did a lot of washing up, made many pots of tea for two dozen people, and most importantly, de-panicked KitB as necessary.
At midnight before the ceremony, Kit was messaging me for help with his vows, mixed with barely coherent notes about all the other things that needed doing the next morning. We ended up working on his vows in an etherpad, and I took responsibility for remembering and delegating all of the other stuff.
There was a great wedding planner to help too with setting up the furniture and decorations. All of the guests from both families eagerly chipped in. It's nice to have a group of people who are keen to have tasks delegated to them, and everything got done on time. I made sure Kit got dressed, and ironed his pocketsquare, and didn't lose the rings. 15 minutes before the ceremony we were both hungry, and had an emergency crumpet in the kitchen.
It seemed all of a sudden that it was time for the ceremony to start. I didn't realise that the Best Man stands at the front with the Groom while the Bride and her father walk down the aisle. It felt like I was giving Kit away. There were about 25 guests. The ceremony was backed by big windows and a sea view, and led by the local registrar and an eccentric family friend. M started crying almost immediately, so I did too.
There were lovely readings, and lovelier vows, and paperwork. We all went outside to throw confetti, then the professional photographers took Kit and M down to the beach.
The meal after the wedding was amazing. A four course vegetarian meal, with the vegan versions being almost identical. I will never forget the rhubarb and white chocolate pavlova. I even got a vegan cheese plate! During the meal there were beautiful emotional speeches. Very emotional. Kit and M's families are so loving and proud of their kids. I wrangled out of doing a speech thanks to Kit's siblings both volunteering instead.
We spent the rest of the evening playing board games. Some people danced. Kit and M had their 'first dance' when nobody was looking (except me, see photos).
At about 7pm we ate wedding cake, and at 9 we had pasties. I ate too much.
The next day some people left, but many stayed. We played more board games, and ate chips. I did a lot of washing up again.
I'm looking forward to the professional photos.. stay tuned.
St Austell to London by train. Food with friends, and wandering around Camden. Almost missed the train back to Grantham because I stopped for a not-chicken sandwich at Temple of Seitan, but worth it.
I am in Switzerland and it is very nice but everything is too expensive.
Also UK border control checked me out but French didn't check anyone in, and there's no border control on the train between DE and CH (very different to crossing by bus, where you're hounded by police every hour and a half). So I dunno if I'm really here tbh?
Head's up I'm going on a Vipassana retreat tomorrow, so if you need anything from me before next month, you'd better let me know right now. I've got most of tomorrow to computer.
I haven't written a post about everything I carry around with me since I, Nomad, when I gave away everything I couldn't carry and left the US for Japan. Since then, I have downsized considerably, and became a bit hooked on the idea. I left the US with a 52L top loading backpack and a 40L side loader. In Malaysia I gained and lost stuff, but gave away more than I gained; in Australia I swapped the side loader with my cousin for a more compactable (and tattered) 35L rucksack; by the time I got back to Europe the 35L was about empty and I left it at a hostel in Croatia. Then I spent eight months in Sarajevo getting more things, winter clothes, awesome boots, etc. The whole lot, filling up my 52L bag, I left to my yoga teacher, and packed the rest into an orange 40+5L I bought for €30 on amazon. I love the orange bag. For a cheap knockoff it's done very well. It's front loading, has an expandable front pocket, lots of places to attach stuff, and I can tighten many straps to size it down when it's not full. It probably has another couple of years of use in it, though it's starting to show wear; one of the straps is splitting away, and it has a lot of soy sauce stains on the inside.
I backed the RiutBag kickstarter last year, after extended questioning and personal video replies from Sarah Giblin, the designer, on twitter. They were due to be shipped in October, when I had a trip back to the UK scheduled anyway. In the end I fouled up putting my address into kickstarter properly, and it didn't get sent out with the first batch. Racing an uncertain brexit at the time, I left it as late as possible to but eventually gave up on the bag and booked last minute travel to Bulgaria. The bag arrived the day after I left.
My Mum unboxed it in a video call for me, and I spent the next few months thinking about how great it will be to have a smaller bag. The orange bag lent itself to downsizing well, as whenever I gained space I could pull in the side and bottom straps. Mostly I ended up filling the space with groceries though.
So when I got back to the UK again, it was time to find out if I'd really managed to lose 10L of stuff. This time I'd have no spare space for homemade Greek fig syrup, loaves of Balkan bread and Turkish soup mix.
pro The RiutBag 35L at full capacity, and folds into a 10L day pack. I'll be using it at full capacity most of the time. con The 10L transformation still seems a bit big on me, because I'm small.
Reservations I had were around how easy it would be to attach things to the outside. This is one of the things Sarah reassured me about, by showing the various clips and buckles on the prototype. However, con they're not really designed for attaching stuff to like a normal backpacker backpack would be, more incidental fastenings intended for the 35-to-10L transform, that are available when it's at full size.
Since one of the main design goals of the RiutBag is to be super secure pro, all of the openings are against the wearer's back. It certainly serves that purpose very well, but sets up a bit of an inconvenience for someone who is used to being able to quickly stuff into and grab from outside pockets con.
However pro there are tall pockets on both sides, made of a very stretchy fabric so a lot can go in there, but they spring right back to flat if they're empty. One will always be for a water bottle, and the other offers many opportunities for holding whatever I couldn't/forgot to pack. They also seal with a popper if the contents don't stick out the top which is a nice touch.
I took it for a practice run over Kit's wedding weekend. It wasn't stuffed full, and I didn't need to attach anything to the outside, nor have fast access to any contents, and it was pretty great. It fits at my feet on UK trains, and National Express didn't try to take it off me to stow when I boarded the nightbus to Cornwall pro.
The main attraction was the laptop compartment which sits against the back (pro good for stability) and zips all the way open for easy laptop access pro without having to unpack, move, or accidentally drop anything else on the floor. I can't stress how great this is. Even cramped up on a bus I can slip my laptop out with minimal fuss, and - and this is the kicker - get it back in again. With my last backpack, to keep my laptop in the pocket at the back, I'd have to unpack and repack an armful of stuff, and it'd usually get stuck on something on the way in, so it was impossible if I didn't have a lot of space. This meant that even when everything I had did fit in the backpack, I'd end up splitting the laptop and stuff into a small daypack so the main bag would go in the storage compartment when in transit. The RiutBag laptop compartment is also divided into two sections, so I can slip my laptop into one and keep my notebook in there too pro without the laptop tearing pages from it every time it goes in and out.
An annoyance that is never going to go away is that con the straps are always in the way of the opening. If I was bigger and they were pulled looser, this would be less of a problem. But I'm not, so I'm always poking them out of the way to pack or unpack.
The waist strap, which is pro detachable - yay - is like a seatbelt, con completely unpadded. Since I'm carrying my fully packed backpack a lot, being able to take the weight on my hips is pretty important. It remains to be seen if this will be a huge problem, but I expect I'll look into customising it with some padding at some point.
All of the buckles are a bit slidey con. The waist strap quickly loosens up as I walk, and tightening it on the fly is uncomfortable. The straps that keep the main backpack straps in place are sliding about a bit too. This was a problem my orange bag developed after about a year and a half of use which made me happy to be replacing it.
The raincover, which is pro reflective on one side to my mother's delight, just kind of came con by itself. It's also con super bulky. con It doesn't even have a clip on it. Most backpacking bags I've used have a little slot for the raincover on the very bottom, and a popper that attaches the cover to the inside of the slot. So you can pull it out and stretch it over when needed, and stuff it back in really easily, and it won't go wandering off on its own. So to keep the raincover I have a new thing to store, in my already newly limited space. In the end I hung my waterproof jacket - which folds into a little pouch - across the back of the RiutBag, and stuffed the raincover inside there. If I'm pulling out my waterproof, there's a good chance I'll need the cover at the same time, so it won't ever be in the way and I should have minimal chance of losing it. Still, I'm concerned there's no way to clip it to the bag when it's on. Hopefully I won't get caught in any particularly strong gusts of wind. I presume the bulkiness of it means it is pro very robust as well. My last one, as nicely as it stuffed away, did also develop some holes and was never properly waterproof. I mainly employed it to deter bus drivers from grabbing non-weight-bearing straps when they went to sling it under the bus; you wouldn't believe how common this is, and I've had several bag straps broken this way.
I backed a kickstarter tier that got me not only the 35L bag, but also a RiutBag Crush and a sling. I'd imagined the sling to be like a running belt, but it's actually prohuge and stretchy and designed to go across the body rather than around the waist. It's pretty cool. I tried out the various combinations of things I could stuff inside it - it takes my hammock and hammock straps perfectly. In the end I packed it full of tea, which was what the overflow flexible front pocket on my last bag was used for. With the sling strap open quite wide, I can clip it across the top of the RiutBag with the poppers that hold it in its 10L form attaching it on either side. It's pretty secure and doesn't flap around, while being really easy to remove. I hope those poppers hold up. I discovered even full of tea, there's still space to stuff an emergency sandwich in there too. I love flexible containers that can adapt to their contents; I'm gonna have more fun with the sling than I expected.
On the other hand, I'm a bit disappointed with the Crush. My last two crush-style backpacks collapsed to smaller than my fist, away into a little pouch with a drawstring loop and a popper clip. I could clip it to a belt, or it could hang on the outside of my main bag for easy access, and I'd barely know it was there. The RiutBag Crush on the other hand folds into its own front pocket, a semicircle about the size of, uh, con my face. It also isn't a negligible weight con, and it takes more time to pack it because it needs folding con rather than stuffing. Worst of all, it has no kind of hook or clip or any dangly things on the outside at all con. Once again, I can't attach it to anything! How can people live like this? Okay so the two zips are still visible, and I've put a carabiner through them, and clipped it to the top of my RiutBag that way. We'll see how that goes. All that said, my last-but-one crush backpack (from Japan) ended its life when the zip spontaneously fell off at a train station in Poland. Its replacement, a Karimor branded one bought new because I was about to go on a hike and didn't have time to shop around secondhand, lasted about 4 months before dissolving at all the seams. The RiutBag Crush is certainly better made pro than these. It also has pro more useful compartments and padded straps. So it'll definitely last, even if I use it for my laptop, but whether its lack of outer attachments or sheer size when folded will drive me mad first, stay tuned.
Above the main compartment, there's a zipped slot which opens into a pocket filling the whole top of the bag. It's a good place to put things you might need to grab without opening the main compartment pro. It seems like a very spacious pocket, but it is competing with space from the main compartment on the inside. The opening is not particularly wide or flexible con, which limits the size of things you can put into it, or constrains wrestling them back out again if you fill it up. And the main backpack straps inhibit access as well. But it is good for not-too-big things that are the wrong shape for flat pockets, and are good to have handy. So far in there I'm keeping:
laptop and phone chargers;
tiger balm;
headphone case (various contents);
sunglasses;
and a spoon.
I tried out my kindle in there, but it's hard to get in and out when there are other things there too. I suppose I could stuff the Crush in there, if I pack things in the right order. There's definitely space left over; the top of the bag is collapsed and I can see the corners aren't being occupied.
On the inside of the laptop pocket are two flat mesh pockets. They're good for flat things that you don't necessarily need access to often or quickly, but it's handy to keep them separate from everything else. In the bottom one:
my second Fairphone1 and spare battery;
my online banking login dongle;
my external harddrive;
and my Unicornium crosstitch (which I will eventually stitch to the pocket).
In the top one, my kindle fits quite well, after I discarded the cover.
On the bottom of the portion against my back, there's a small pocket as well pro. This is a good home for:
my passport;
a pen;
and ibuprofen.
The main compartment is pro a good size. I like that it's square pro, so you don't loose space to curves. And that it's pro blue-green inside. The sheer black of the RiutBag doesn't match my personality con, but at least I know there's colour somewhere. The opening is narrower than the space inside, but not so much so that packing is frustrating. It unzips all the way around of course pro - fully front-opening backpack is a dealbreaker; top-openers are the most frustrating thing in the world when you live out of one.
In here, goes everything else:
hammock;
hammock straps;
clothes;
kitchen;
bathroom;
and miscellaneous junk.
My hammock straps used to be attached to the outside of my last backpack. They're pretty bulky, but this worked well, except for being a pain in the ass to remove or reattach. I discarded some of my miscellaneous junk (I honestly don't know what all this stuff is, but I swear it's all useful enough to keep) and repurposed the little sack that some part of the Riut assemble came in, to hold the misc junk and the hammock straps. I decided to pack them inside instead of trying to find a way to put them on the outside, because there are more useful things I can put on the outside, that I actually need to access regularly (ie. tea), and also because of the aforementioned pain-in-the-ass-ness.
There's a mesh front to the main compartment that zips on pro, and can also be rolled up and clipped away. This is handy if you're half or three-quarters opening it while it's upright to get to something in the laptop section, to stop the contents tumbling out.
Finally, I clipped my running shoes to the buckles on top. The buckles are to help with the 10L version, and they super annoyingly don't extend con. But apart from that it works well. Having the shoes on top-front is better than dangling around on bottom-front like I used to, they get caught on less stuff. Also since the buckles pro aren't being used for anything else (last time they were functional in adjusting the size of the bag, or in the way for accessing the bottom zip), I don't end up having to remove the shoes to do other things.
The great test will be if bus drivers think it's too big for me to take to my seat. It's usually their discretion whether they make you stow large bags under the bus, and I've had mixed experiences with my non-full, strapped-to-compress orange bag. It's definitely small enough, but it looks bigger on me than on a normal-sized person, and all the stuff strapped to the outside might exaggerate that. If I end up having to stow it a lot, I'll have to get really fast at whipping out the Crush and my laptop, valuables and snacks.
I'm off now, to Switzerland and then Albania, back to full time travel with the RiutBag 35L as my new house.
Addendum: My old backpack came low enough to take the weight when I sat down without taking it off my back; the RiutBag doesn't con but pro I took it on the London underground and it's the perfect height to rest on the little padded shelves near the doors without taking it off.
Addendum againdum: By the time I actually published this post I had made it to Switzerland, and indeed the Flixbus people did not stop me from taking it on board. It's a squeeze at my feet, but I only have small legs and mostly occupy the nightbus curled up in a ball so I don't really need that space anyway. It's also a bit tight to get the laptop in and out, but still doable!
Train from Grantham to London (delayed), bus from London to Frankfurt (late), train from Frankfurt to Basel (delayed). A day in Basel, then trains and funicular to Mont Soleil for Vipassana.
I was so proud of myself for having enough foresight to bag a €20 bus ticket from Bern to Bari, and after 10 days offline I remerge to find there's a coronavirus outbreak and an impending quarantine directly in my route. I am supposed to have 4 hours and a transfer in Milan on Tuesday evening. Probably gonna play it safe and reschedule this. Is it an emergency enough yet to just fly to Albania? Nah of course not. Just a small (multi-day) detour through Croatia, no big deal.
(If the risk was getting stuck anywhere but Italy, I'd be more chill about it, but the chance of taking a bus into Milan and not being able to leave? Of all places? Nuh uh.)
London to Frankfurt (cigkofte stop), Frankfurt to Basel, and a day there. Then Basel to St Imier to Mont Soleil by funicular, and 11 days on the mountain at Dhamma Sumeru for Vipassana. The weather on the mountain changed every day, and was always spectacular. The most beautiful grounds of a meditation center I've been to so far.
The OpenActive Modelling Opportunity Data spec is so nice. It's well written, well structured, and all the Linked Data stuff is done properly. I need to refer to it for ODSCo-op work at the moment, and it's a real delight. Similarly the Realtime Paged Data Exchange one is also nice.
Look, I understand if Croatiabus/Jadran Ekspress can't run a direct bus from Zagreb to Tirana, but gotta stop pretending it's direct and making me change twice, begging surly bus drivers for info in the process. Somewhere deep down I knew this, which is the whole reason I wanted to go via Italy and take a ferry in the first place.
Anyway at least the Balkan Adriatic coast is all gorgeous.
A beautiful day in Zagreb; food at Vegehop and Oaza Joyful Kitchen, as well as vegan supplies from Bio & Bio and another new nearby bio store. Then back on the bus(es) all the way to Albania.
I spent my first weekend back in Albania in Tirane. A good opportunity to eat out at Veggies, as well as grab a few more vegan supplies that are less available outside of the city. I found Edinburgh's Chocolate Tree chocolate in a bio store! Then on the bus to Sarande.
A couple of weeks ago I ended up on the wrong train in Switzerland for complicated but totally valid reasons and managed to explain why to the ticket inspector sufficiently well that he let me off, in case you were wondering where my French is at.
Weather on the Albanian Riviera seems to be scheduled around my work/days off. Aka it's hot and sunny when I need to stay inside on my laptop and forecast rain and storms when I'm free to go hiking or to the beach.
A torrentially rainy weekend inside, but the views were still nice. The balcony cover has blue sky and clouds pattern on the inside to make you feel better. Walks into town when there was a gap in the clouds.. cafe working, visits to some old ruins, and a pizza at Limani. Found a bakery that sells somun, and burek with spinach or potato! Good to enjoy by the sea. At the somun with homemade grah.
Went for a hike around the coast to the north of Sarande. There's very quickly not much there. There's a rough road to follow for quite a long way, although the sea itself is only accessible in a few spots because the cliff is quite steep. There are lots of cows, and a few secret beaches.
Hiked from Sarande to Ksamil, along the coast as much as possible. Some of this was trails, some was scrambling through undergrowth or over rocks or through the edges of hotel property or construction sites. Took detours to as many beaches as possible, until energy was low. Here's the train on RunKeeper.
A slow day, recovering from the hike, just exploring beaches in Ksamil (on runkeeper). It's a quiet town with no tourists, beautiful but for unfettered construction and lots of unfinished buildings too. You can swim to the islands, when it's warm enough.
Saw a few people out in masks and gloves, and police were bellowing something through a loudspeaker.
Walked from Ksamil to Butrint, about an hour. No trails around the coast, so mostly just went by road. The ancient city of Butrint is a tourist attraction, and was closed by sudden government coronavirus measures. As if there'd be anyone there at this time of year anyway. A local at a nearby hotel pointed me towards a hole in the fence behind his property. Had thought I might hike around the area a bit and take a bus back, but it quickly became apparent the local buses had stopped running too. On the way back, detours to some other bits of the coast, and other beaches in Ksamil I hadn't been to yet. Route on runkeeper.
Hiked back to Sarande from Ksamil (on runkeeper). Stopped by the beaches I missed on the way down. Found some under-construction super fancy houses and accidentally trespassed. Watched the sunset from my new balcony.
On paper it's a 3 and a half hour hike from Sarande to smaller, even more touristy town of Ksamil. I decided to make a day of it and visit all the beaches along the way. There are so many beautiful ones, and at this time of year, absolutely nobody on them. So in the end, this took more than eight hours (here's the GPS trace) and was exhausting, but worth it.
It's possible to follow the coast for a large part of the way. Sometimes it's interrupted by hotels, but when nobody is around I scrambled over rocks, hopped a few fences, and proceeded on. It was also necessary to plough up a few uneven brushy hillsides in order to reach a trail I was sure would be there..
Did I mention there are a lot of beaches on the way? Some are attached to hotels and bars, but all is quiet at this time of year. Others are coves with little trails or steps down to. And others aren't really accessible at all, except with some rock scrambling.
Part of the way to Ksamil is the village of Manastir, so named for the Monestary on the hill (I presume). To walk through the grounds (it's empty, I think) is a small detour, but a worthwhile one. I lost the trail I was trying to follow from openstreetmap, but there were other trails or easy terrain down the far side of the hill.
It was getting late and I was running out of steam, so for the last stretch I skipped a few beaches and rejoined the road. There is a dirt track running along by the coast through an olive grove in the immediate approach to Ksamil. Ksamil itself has many beaches, and I managed to catch the sunset.
I stayed in 'Apartment Skrapalli', one of a set of small studio-style rooms with kitchenettes. It wasn't fancy, but it was €13 per night, had everything for cooking (including a drip coffee machine and a toastie maker!) and the hosts, an elderly couple who don't speak english, were charming and plied me constantly with homegrown lettuce, lemons, fruit juice (no thanks to raki) and coffee.
The next day I let my feet recover, and just wandered around the Ksamil coastline. There are many separate beaches, and it's possible to go directly from one to the next all the way around, with occasional rock climbing or fence-hopping (GPS trace of the first half, the rest I did in the evening without runkeeper on). Probably only an option in the off-season, realistically. It was wonderfully deserted. There's a bit of a headland that sticks out, with the main road through town going on the inside of it. Following the outer edge is a lovely foot/cycle path.
I hiked on to Butrint (GPS trace). The most straightforward route is to follow the road. You could take the very long, very scenic route around the coast and I'm certain find some lovely beaches, but I didn't do that. It's so worth going though. Under normal circumstances, the ancient city is 700lek to enter. Unbeknownst to me, I had headed there on the first or second day of lockdown, so historical sites had been closed. Fortunately someone who worked at the hotel just before the ancient city saw me passing, and told me about a secret hole in the fence up past his beehives. Having walked all that way I was hardly going to just turn back, and I'm so glad I snuck in. The ruins are beautiful, overgrown with grasses and mosses and wildflowers, embedded in the sides of hills, sitting in ponds of cloudy water, and lining the coast with stunning views. There's a castle - with a museum, cafe and giftshop - at the top of the hill, which I couldn't go inside. But there's plenty more to walk around.
There seemed to be some kind of on-demand bridge ferry service operating to take people across the channel where the lake flows into the sea. On the other side of there is a Venetian Triangle Castle. It wasn't clear how or for whom this ferry was operating though. I saw some people who looked like tourists drive up to the old men hanging around there, and come back. Someone else on a scooter was able to cross. I was too shy to find out more, and a bit worried about getting stuck on the wrong side.
Instead I walked to the end of the track that led in the direction of Ali Pasha Castle. The Castle is on a little island that you can only get to by boat.
I would have liked to explore this little peninsula more, but running out of energy and daylight, I headed back the way I came to Ksamil.
The next day I wanted to explore the area more and take the bus back to Sarande, but during my little outing full scale lockdown was introduced. The local buses were definitely not running. Aching from a lot of walking, I headed more or less directly back to Sarande (GPS trace), though I did stop at a couple of beaches I missed on the way out. One of these was at the Kep Merli Marine Villas, an under-construction cluster of super fancy houses with pools and a glorious beach. I snooped around a bit before getting politely (and confusedly) chased off by some staff who couldn't understand how I'd got into the premises - I had scrambled up the hillside behind Gjiri i Hartës, following a non-trail, then over some rocks for a while, before joining up with a construction-related mud road that wasn't on the map. That eventually joined with a small trail that was on the map, down to the private beach. From there, up some beautiful stone steps to the paths between the fancy villas...
Instead of following the coast the whole way I took the road inland for a while, which runs alongside the lake. I detoured back down to the beach by the river, and followed it the whole way almost back to my flat, but Hotel Visad blocked the final part of the route and sent me back up to the road.
Update: I went again to Ksamil in July, catching the early morning bus out and an early afternoon one back. The beaches started to get busy around 9am, everything was open, and it was like a different place. I did manage to find a quieter spot, and swam out to one of the farther islands. Sitting in a little stony cove there for half an hour, I could imagine, almost, that there was nobody else around.
I'm in Albania, in the south. All reported coronavirus cases here are currently in the north.
After the first two cases a week ago, schools were closed. By the end of last week, tourist attractions, bars and restaurants everywhere were closed. This weekend, no public transport, no non-essential shops, and from tomorrow no non-essential travel of any kind nationally. Only ambulances and freight will be moving, basically. Most of the land border crossings are closed. These are far stronger measures for far fewer cases than the UK has.
So far the streets are quiet, but that's normal in a holiday town at this time of year. I've seen a few people wearing masks and gloves, and all grocery store workers are wearing them. But there's no panic buying, at least in Sarande, and even hand sanitizer is on offer at the supermarket checkouts.
To fly back to the UK I'd need to get to Corfu or Tirana, and while there seem to still be EasyJet and RyanAir flights (but not until the end of the month), currently the ferries and buses are cancelled so I dunno how I'd get to an airport anyway (okay, I do, I'd have to get written permission from the police to be on the roads - as a foreigner with a plane ticket, it's possible - then find someone with a car willing to drive me to Tirana).
I'm going to get some more groceries later, just in case something flips overnight, but I definitely feel like I'm better off here than trying to get back to the UK any time soon. Plus the weather is really good and I have a nice sea view from my balcony. I'll be staying home mostly, or maybe going down to sit on the empty beach, and hoping the internet and power stays on.
This is another in the series of very occasional posts about clothes and shopping because I do this stuff so rarely as to be a novelty worth writing about.
My good friend KitB got married in February, and asked me to be his Best Man. Which was a really good way to make me come to a wedding in winter in the UK when I would rather be in Turkey. KitB also decided we should wear matching suits. The thing about that is, KitB has a well-fed, average-height, broad-shouldered sort of figure, and I am petite, short, with hips and boobs. It turns out your average - or even high end - highstreet suit maker does not account for this scenario.
We took advantage of me being in Edinburgh last October to go suit shopping together to get this sorted out... and we couldn't find anywhere that makes their suits in a range of sizes and shapes. The whole affair is gendered bullshit, that can't conceptualise of a world where people with different body shapes might want to wear the same clothes, because of some arbitrary divide based on genitals. We quickly had to face the reality that we wouldn't find exactly matching suits from the same place. Particularly not in-person, at short notice. But what we did manage to do was get Kit to try on a bunch of things so he could narrow down what he actually wanted to wear at his wedding, which until previously had been pretty much completely up in the air.
At some places, the assistant in the shop put a "men's" small on me and pinned it in a few places to show how it could be adjusted to fit. But in all cases it still looked like I was wearing poorly fitting clothes. There was nothing to be done.
But Kit decided on navy blue and a waistcoat, and I committed the details to memory as best I could. We figured, somewhat dejectedly, that if I could get a navy suit that was close enough and we wore matching ties, that would have to do.
The next day, alone, I hit the charity shops. Secretly I was a bit pleased we didn't figure this out from a proper suit shop, because I hate buying things new, and I also hated all the prices. In one morning I wrapped up the bulk of the outfit from charity shops on the Edinburgh bridges:
I bought a totally rad shirt with lightning bolds on for £3.50 from Cat's Protection, although this was subsequently been overruled by my mother in favour of a normal better-fitting white shirt from Matalan (£7).
I tried on a few navy blazers, and splashed out a whole £15 in Cancer Research for one branded "Hobb's London", after double checking I could return it if the colour wasn't right.
I picked up almost matching and well-fitting (unusual cos I have traditionally had an awkward shaped butt) navy trousers from Save The Children for £3.99. They are M&S trousers, and even have pockets! Real ones!
While I was out, I couldn't help but notice just how many Kit-sized navy suite jackets, trousers, and even waistcoats were around in the charity shops..
That felt like a success, and now all I needed was a waistcoat. I checked out some non-second-hand highstreet stores, but nobody has navy waistcoats apparently.
I was also determined to have totally awesome shoes, since I wasn't allowed to express myself through any other aspect of the attire. I suddenly wanted smart shoes with brogueing (I learnt this word after I knew what kind of shoe I wanted) - I've never had a reason to wear them, and can't justify them for fun due to the limits of my backpack lifestyle. I have tiny feet and incredible luck at secondhand awesome shoes. I've seen the kind I want everywhere, so I had zero concerns about finding some. On the first day of trying I found some I loved in the British Heart Foundation in Boston, but they were a light brown and kind of scruffy and my mother said they wouldn't work. I found some absolutely gorgeous shiny dark burgundy ones somewhere else, but they were a full size too big.
The following week, I visited family in Brighton and dropped into every charity shop and vintage shop I passed. My Mum dug out a navy waistcoat in a vintage store. It wasn't perfect but was as close as I could imagine getting. It has a round neckline, and we wanted a V, but my mother is a miracle worker with clothes so that didn't deter us. It was £12.
Mere days later while teh fam were flying kites on the beach, I ran off for 10 minutes to look in charity shops on Skegness high street. The first place I looked - British Heart Foundation again - were shiny grey size 3 Oxford brogues (I don't know anything about shoes, this is what I have been told they are). They were on the large side - I reckon they're really a 3.5 or 4 - but they fit well enough. They were £4.99.
Kit was in charge of buying matching ties, which thankfully only come in one size and shape for all genders, with the only caveat that they can't be silk (because they are made by BOILING little BABY worms ALIVE). In the end, he got them from Etsy, but handmade in Cornwall.
I was really glad to get that wrapped up before leaving the country, and left all this stuff at my Mum's house. She turned up the trousers and jacket sleeves, and adjusted the waistcoat so the necklines matched, and added darts so it fit around my boobs properly. And she covered the buttons in the waistcoat so they matched the jacket. When the tie and pocketsquare arrived, she turned part of the pocketsquare into a matching hair scrunchie too! Thanks Mum <3
Total cost (including extraneous lightning bolt shirt): £46.48 (and some of my Mum's time, which is priceless).
When the day itself came, nobody noticed that Kit and I weren't wearing exactly the same shades of blue. I was in charge of making sure Kit got dressed on time, and successfully ironed both of our pocketsquares.
I did my important wedding duties, which involved not losing the rings, and putting on a good social face whilst holding a champagne glass of fizzy elderflower juice.
We had a good time photoshooting on the beach under an appropriately dreary sky.
All of the good, high resolution photos are by the official photographers, Sea & Salt Photography Co., though I've scaled them down and cropped them a bit.
My office, for at least the rest of the month and probably longer depending on how things go. Not the worst. I can see two islands today I've never seen before. I think fewer cars around must mean the air is clearer.
I wish I was one of those people who gets more productive during a crisis. Like, distract myself by burying my head in work. But I'm not. So you know. Sorry coworkers.
Having trouble to stay focused even when I'm not working. Doing some crochet while I'm taking a TV break occupies my hands so I'm not constantly tabbing over to twitter or the news.
It's totally normal for me to not go out for days at a time, and have no meatspace contact with people. I usually have good control over the compulsion to constantly rotate through all online communication channels, but the last few days this has gone out of the window. Some wisdom from coworkers about this yesterday; perhaps it's because the world is changing so fast in the background. It's hard to just carry on in default mode right now because when you check back in on the world it's more vastly different the longer you leave it. Will adjust to this eventually, I guess.
Using some of my precious vegan cheese supplies on delicious lasagne (with garlic bread and salad) and pizza (with homemade sweet potato and potato chips).
We're having a few more and more intense Co-op meetings than usual at the moment, but they're all about how we can best look after each other under the current circumstances.
It's overcast today, very still, and eerily quiet. No cars, no people, barely the sound of waves breaking. A couple of lively nests of swallows live in the building across from me, and sometimes I hear a cockeral crow or a dog bark.
Last week the curfew changed to going outside between 6 and 10am and 4 and 6pm only. On Friday evening, another update was issued, cancelling most of the weekend: From 1pm Saturday to 5am Monday, nobody is to go outside at all. Nobody seems to know what Monday will bring.
Last night I made falafel, based on a recipe by Jack Monroe. I approximately doubled the recipe, and didn't measure or weigh any of the ingredients; subbed the fresh herbs with carrot tops, and threw a clove of garlic in. Delicate application of water and flour to the final mix and it was pretty easy to get them to hold together. Delicious!
Had an unproductive, anxiety-fuelled week with lots of co-op meetings, as coronavirus exploded around the world and the Albanian government keeps switching around and strengthening its curfew measures.
Pretty sure I will not be returning to the UK any time soon. Borders closed, flights cancelled, internal transit halted.
Caught up on some blog posts and made lots of tasty coping food.
Spent too much time on twitter and news sites.
Started crocheting a poncho.
Felt extremely grateful for my job, my naturally reclusive nature, my balcony, view, and the weather here.
The problem with the new curfew (outside hours 5am to 1pm), besides the obvious, is that most days it takes me hours to psyche up to go outside to get groceries or whatever. No way I'm gonna be able to do this by lunchtime.
(Sticky rice cooked with vegetable stock and tumeric. Tofu fried in olive oil with garlic, paprika and black pepper, then veggies thrown in: mushrooms, red peppers, peas, sweetcorn, green beans (last 3 from the freezer). When the water has reduced from the rice, mixed all the veggies in to cook together for a couple more minutes. Drizzled soy sauce and hot sauce. Coffee is balkan/turkish style.)
if anyone wants to airdrop a crate of baked beans to Sarande that would be super cool. Supermarket own brand acceptable. Heinz, whatever, I'm pretty desperate. Branston, however, unacceptable.
I know it's not the isolation olympics, but wild to see UK people freaking out about 'lockdown' when they can still go out at any time, ride trains and buses and drive cars between cities..
Some pressure to 'take advantage' of the non-curfew hours to go out and take a walk, but I don't need to and wouldn't on a normal day, so why now when going outside should be restricted to essential trips? Stop projecting restlessness onto me, I can sit still in my chair all week no problem.
Isolation in Sarande: photos of the sunset from my balcony, the floofy doggo on the balcony in the next building, and the little bit of beach in front of my building. Some gratuitous spinach byrek by the sea when I went into town for essential things like a SIM card.
Isolation Kitchen begins in earnest! I bought a loaf tin along with masses of baking supplies I haven't really bought since I started travelling, so I could fully commit.
Featured here:
Ad-hoc buddha bowl
Turmeric spicy breakfast rice
Khinkali (Georgian dumplings, filled with mushroom or potato)
Chocolate coconut cake (sugar free) for the Co-op's 5th birthday
The last of my vegan cheese on another lentil lasgane
Lemon and poppyseed drizzle cake (sugar-filled)
Bean-burgers, made from mashed white beans, carrot, carrottops, and red onion; coated with dry mix of semolina, paprika, turmeric and salt before frying.
I use psql and/or interact somehow with a postgres database about once every six months, so because of how my brain (fails to) store information it's a brand new and exciting experience every time. This time also involved a docker-compose network, for added spice.
Albanian government introduced a system of asking for a permit by SMS 24 hours in advance of going outside, only for important reasons. Curfew still 5am to 1pm. I didn't leave the flat at all.
Worked on memorious crawlers for UK politician declarations of interest.
There's a distinct lack of any vegan specialty stuff in Sarande, including just plain tofu. I can get sugar free soy milk though, if I trek across town to the big supermarket, which I did. Then it's a case of curdling it with lemon, and pressing it with a cheesecloth (or... a pillowcase). It was very soft and a bit crumbly. I might think of it as cream cheese rather than tofu next time, and be happier. I immediately mushed it up with turmeric and spices to make scramble.
I tried to make a facebook account so I could join an expats group to ask for information about visa extensions and stuff. I was blocked for ages on not having a phone number, and finally caved and put my new Albanian number in. Then it wanted a photo of me to verify I'm me (compared against what??). And now the account opening is 'under review' and I can't use it yet. At the same time I found an email address for some Albanian authorities and long story short it's literally taken less time to get an Albanian visa extension approved than it has to just open a facebook acount smh
I found this recipe for 'bacon' made from banana peel and just had to know. I made marinade from soy sauce, red pepper paste and paprika. The first time - alongside tofu scramble and mushrooms - was a hit, although a bit on the salty side. I reused the marinade, diluting it a bit with water and orange juice, and adding paprika. It went great in BLTs, and on top of tomato rice too. Since I get through plenty of bananas, and it's no trouble to make, this is going to become a staple! It works best when the banana peel is pretty brown, and the oil is already hot so it fries fast and bubbles a bit. It spits a lot when first dropped in the pan though.
It's funny how Morrissey died a few years ago but still seems to be putting out music. I suppose I should listen to it at some point, but there's no point in giving a dead person any more money for it.
This week's food adventures; I found myself with an abundance of spinach, most of which got eaten with pasta and was not interesting enough to photograph.
Spur of the moment microwave chocolate pudding and chocolate custard, just like Mum used to make.
Banana peanutbutter cake with caramel and coconut.
Pizza (with spinach).
Saag aloo (and dahl).
Amazing lemon pie with a shortbread crust. The filling was just lemon zest, soy milk and cornflour (turmeric for colour).
Cauliflower 'wings'. Maybe not as crispy as they should have been, but still tasted good. With cabbage salad and quinoa.
Bean burgers, not as good as last time. I used courgette instead of carrot and they were too wet so I had to add lots of flour.
Banana pancakes with leftover homemade caramel. Light and fluffy.
Witnessed much drama from the balcony around someone locking the gate that joins my building's carpark with the building next door. It's a useful shortcut, I am annoyed along with the rest of the neighbourhood. I call it gategate.
Got SSL working on my digital ocean droplet with the nginx reverse proxy docker setup. After putting it off for literally 3 years!
TFW you want to check the docs to make sure you understand something properly but the reason you need to understand it is because you are writing the docs and there are no other docs.
Open Data Services Co-op usually get together in person quarterly. We weren't able to this month, for obvious reasons. But we replicated our usual style of gathering online this afternoon, and it was positive and productive and I ended the day crylaughing with my colleagues. Even though we spend tons of our times in video calls on a normal day, somehow the video call replacement of our in person gathering still stood on its own as a special event. I'm super appreciative of my colleagues who sorted the agenda and planned and facilitated sessions, and just in general of all of them <3
Lockdown restrictions loosened a little bit and I went for a longer walk, into town then back the 'scenic route' which took longer than expected and gave me sunburn.
Crocheted one sleeve of my sweater and one handle of my bag. Will I finish either? Anyone's guess.
Watched a lot of Stargate. Finished season 2 of The Durrell's.
Cooked a lot. This week's cake was flapjack. Utterly failed to make English-style pancakes. They need more work to veganise than American ones.
ODSCo-op substituted our in-person meeting (which we call CoGM for co-working plus OGM) with an online one ('NoGM') and it was fun.
Had lots of meetings and internal Co-op work, but did some OCDS stuff too.
Really not been up for engaging my brain much. Everything is exhausting. Anything that isn't immediately achievable I lose focus on quickly. I haven't even been reading books. I'm so frustrated with myself that I've done no writing since lockdown started either.
That thing of reading about other peoples' lockdown experiences and realising that it's not very different to my regular life, that many introverts are having lately.. but more specifically I'm discovering that meeting friends regularly in-person is a huge part of life for most people - and I guess was common for me too at one point - but that I completely went without since I started travelling and just got used to my friends and family being almost entirely online (aka in my pocket) for years now. I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just that it's interesting seeing people adjusting to it (or failing to) and I don't even remember having much of a period of adjustment, it was quite natural for me. Maybe I'm just an antisocial asshole. I love all my friends and family, really I do, even in pixel form. Maybe this is why I spent so much time in my teens and twenties, eventually seeping into my academic work, fighting the idea that online is 'not real life', etc.
I finally finished my first ever crochet jumper! The holdup was being indecisive about putting sleeves on, but eventually I put half length ones (because typically I roll sleeves up to my elbows anyway). I started with this DROPS Design pattern, but started messing with it at once: I changed the hook size, yarn weight, sized the smallest size down a bit because I wanted a tight fit, changed the flower motif for dragonflies (which took an hour of crochet maths and pattern sketching on paper), changed the main body stitch from a loose double crochet with gaps to the trinity stitch because I like the tension, look, and it's a fun stitch to do a lot of. On the bottom edge I did some little puff stitch 'flowers' too. My sized down version only took about 170g of yarn :o which is less than 2 balls. It fits well, is perfect for temperate summer evenings, or keeping warm in my very heat-proof apartment, but a bit too cosy for wearing out in the sun (even without the sleeves - which is what made me decide it needed sleeves in the end).
Learned some new crochet stuff from patterns from 1944.
Made an extravagant lemon pie with blueberries and dark chocolate, among other things.
Started crocheting a summer top, half from pattern, half from my head.
Learnt the spider stitch which is tricky and takes 3x as long as a single crochet, but has a nice texture and fun once you get the hang of it.
Pondered future travel... Albania announced opening borders on the 18th of May, which gives me 10 days to leave the country before my visa is up, but not sure where else will let me in yet.
Yesterday I left my pizza dough to rise pretty much all day and it turned out soooo good. I also think I may have used more yeast than I normally do, and I didn't oil the tray I baked it on because that usually makes it soggy - and it didn't stick anyway. Normally it doesn't rise much in the oven, and is either very slightly over- or under-cooked, or sometimes both... still functional as a pizza base and if you were eating it and weren't a pizza base connoisseur you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it, but I know it's not perfect. Anyway, last night's was perfect and I hope to always repeat this in future.
Some burgers failed to hold together so I called it sloppy joe and proceeded (with homemade bread). After the mix had chilled the next day, with a bit more flour, I turned it into burgers.
A highlight was french toast with batter made from semolina, cinnamon and rice milk. With homemade syrup.
Made a really good chocolate cake. I wanted peanut butter frosting, but ran out of vegan butter. It goes really well with fresh cherries though.
Wrote some scrapers for UK MP and counciller registers of interests.
Did some DID editorial and registries stuff.
Actually worked quite a lot this week, but also spent at least an hour per day anxiously checking local news sites for Albania and surrounding countries to try to figure out wtf I might be able to do at the end of the month. Results: inconclusive.
Travel restrictions lifted a bit, so.. small roadtrip up the coast, to the mountains. Driving through the towns along the Albanian Riviera presented lots of places to stop on the way back. The roads is windy but mostly well maintained, except for occasional sudden cobbled bits or abrupt narrowings. Many cute villages built into vertical hillsides. Amazing views.
A hike through Llogora national park. Climbed Maja Thanasit, from where you can see Italy on a clear day. It was not a clear day. Could barely see the sea. The mountains are beautiful though, and the air was fresh and cool. The trail was well marked, for the most part, and terrain was easy to moderate. Loop on RunKeeper.
Post-hike trip down to the nearest beach.. Back down the intense mountain side switchback of Llogora Pass, and back up again, popped my ears and gave me searing pain later that evening. It passed eventually, though a week later my hearing still isn't properly back.
The beach at the bottom of the pass is Palase, but it was lined with a construction site and wasn't very accessible. The next one along is Drymades/Drimadhe. Very little there but probably busy in a non-pandemic summer season. Overcast but cool enough to swim.
Waking up in the mountains again, surrounded by cloud. A short hike to Caesar's Pass, where Julius Caeser marched his armies in pursuit of Pompey (GPS trace); views intermittent.
North to Orikum, through the valley village of Dukat. The beach at Orikum is long and white and empty. The bulk of the town is inland, so it's quite peaceful on the coast; a bit desolate in fact. Then south again, back down the Llogora Pass for the last time.
A detour for a walk to Gjipe beach, which is accessible by boat, along a narrow winding canyon path, or a long winded but gently sloping coastal path (I took the latter - GPS trace). It's a beautiful small beach, which I could have spent longer at, but night was drawing near.
Onwards to Himare, where I met some cute small doggos, fellow stranded travellers, and a mediocre pizza. Himare is a seaside town, perhaps the heart of the Riviera for tourists, and very Greek. People speak Greek in the streets, and fly the Greek flag all over. There are three beaches and a lovely boulevard. It's backed by mountains, and there are excellent hiking trails around.
Hike from Himare to Jale beach via Livadh (GPS trace). Spent a lazy morning in the hostel due to heavy rain, chatting to the volunteers (also stranded travellers) and the wee doggos. The sky cleared with enough time left in the day for the hike to Jale beach around the coast. It's a nice trail. A long stretch is across Livadh beach, in the next bay around. Got to Jale just in time for the rain to come down again, and hid away in the only beach bar open to wait it out. It didn't stop, so in the end I just had to get soaked returning to Himare, where I was greeted by a finally clear sky and warm sunset.
A few minutes drive around the coast from Himare is Porto Palermo, a quiet bay with a castle on a little island. For 200 Lek I got to explore it, plus a rapid and hard to follow, but enthusiastic, description of the castle's entire history and use by Ali Pasha Tepelena from the guy selling tickets. There are a few signs inside, and pictures. There is also a nice little-used beach nearby.
Borsh beach is the longest one on the Albanian Riviera at about 7km. It has lots of hotels and restaurants along it, but nonetheless feels quite calm. Perhaps it was because the season, delayed by pandemic lockdown, hasn't really started yet. There are also bunkers and caves.
Borsh village is divided into three parts: the upper (Hori), middle (Vanja) and coast (Shkalle). Apparently they don't like each other.
It is early in the tourist season anyway, and everything has been stunted by lockdown. A roadtrip along the Albanian Riviera revealed many quiet places - in some cases altogether deserted - along with grateful guesthouse and restaurant owners.
The Riviera stretches between Sarandë and Vlorë and is characterised by glorious beaches and charming villages situated in the mountainsides overlooking the sea. The road is in good condition and winds along with amazing views and some breathtaking cliffedges and sharp turns. I didn't manage to check out every single beach, but I saw plenty. There are lots of castles too, and places of historical interest.
I didn't get as far as Vlorë, but did stop in Orikum, the seaside town just to the south. There's a really long beach with (mostly closed) restaurants and bars all along. I can imagine it would be a bit of a party scene during normal times in the summer. It was pretty desolate though. Photos of Orikum are here.
The Llogora Pass is a steep switchback road towards the north end of the Riviera, with Palasë beach at the bottom and Llogora national park at the top. The national park is a different world, with pine forests and cool mountain air. There are plenty of well marked hiking trails, as well as Cesar's Pass, where Julius Cesar's army marched. I stayed in a friendly guesthouse in the woods. The owners run a restaurant with delicious homemade pasta, and kept bringing free dessert. I hiked to the top of Maja Thanassit (GPS trace, photos) and to Cesar's Pass (GPS trace, photos). Visibility was not good.
Palasë beach is renowned for being gorgeous but seemed to subject to a large construction project and not very accessible. The next one down is Drymades. Not a lot there, but nice sand. The next town over is Dhërmi, which is absolutely charming; white houses and cute windows set into the mountainside. Vuna a bit further down is also picturesque, a smaller version of Dhërmi. I'd spend more time there in future.
Gjipe beach is nestled in the base of a canyon. There are a couple of different trails to get there from the road. One is longer but gentle and runs along the coast. The other is more.. exciting.. along the top of the canyon. I took the former (GPS trace). As I arrived on the beach, a couple of other people turned up in a canoe, which is the other way this place is accessible. There's a hut there renting canoes and paddleboards, and a campsite, so I expect there's more action here normally. But for my visit, it was peaceful; here are more photos of Gjipe beach.
Himarë is the 'captial' of the Riviera, as a medium sized town right on the sea instead of up in the mountains. It has a nice promenade, and lots of restaurants and shops that function all year round. There are several beaches and you can follow the coast around quite a way for different vibes. Interestingly the main language spoken there is a Greek dialect, and there are Greek flags flying all around. There's also a castle on the hill overlooking town. I stayed a couple of nights in the hostel, which had no other guests, and was hosted by two stranded workaway volunteers and two small friendly dogs. I didn't get the impression there is much to do in Himarë itself, and on one of the days it rained heavily so I just bummed around the hostel. They had a massive abundance of orange trees so I made fresh juice every day.
When the rain let up I hiked from Himarë to Jalë beach, via Livadh. It's a really nice coastal hike with a variety of terrains and foliage, and the long beach of Livadh to break it up (GPS trace). Of course as soon as I arrived a torrential downpour began again. Eventually found an open bar and sheltered there with hot coffee and chips. Gave up on waiting for the rain to end, and got wet heading back, but made it in time for the clouds to part and a beautiful golden sunset on the beach in Himarë. Photos of the hike to Jalë and back.
The next stop around the coast is Porto Palermo, home to a castle of Ali Pasha. I was surprised, pleasantly, to be sold a ticket to enter and have a fast, mumbled guided tour with a comprehensive history of the entire place in mostly comprehensible English. It's worth a visit, and the views are lovely too. Here are photos of the Castle at Porto Palermo.
In between Porto Palermo and Borsh are many other little beaches to stop at. But at some point, they all start to look the same. I also skipped Qeparo village which I'd read has some amazing ruins in the mountains. Maybe next time. Borsh itself is in three parts; upper, middle and lower. The middle is the main bulk of the village with shops and restaurants. The beachfront has restaurants too, and lots of hotels. The beach at Borsh is the longest on the Riviera. I walked a good chunk of it and it seems to go on and on (here are photos of Borsh). It seems like it should be possible to walk all the way to Lukovë along the beach. Given a couple of days. There are lots of ruined bunkers. I stopped in the village at the Waterfall Restaurant for a coffee; I would have had a pizza but they'd only just opened and weren't ready for that yet. The setting is pretty unique - tables are among small cascades of water. It's loud, but in a good way.
Borsh Castle is amazing. The road towards Upper Borsh is a bit sketchy, but there's a tiny bit of parking at the bottom of the castle hill, and the trail leading up to it is surprisingly well maintained. It's a complete ruin and there's no fee to enter. The views are incredible, both inland towards the mountains and out to sea. I'll let the photos do the rest of the describing.
The road back to Sarandë winds away from the coast and passes through the villages of Lukovë, Shën Vasil and Nivicë. There are lots of tracks leading off to more secret beaches that are worth investigating one day... (boat tours will take you to some of these from Sarandë in the summer).
High above the Borsh coastline is a castle! It's ruined and free to enter, after climbing a surprisingly well-kept winding path. The views over the coast and mountains are incredible. Definitely one of my favourite castles.
Along the main road, in middle Borsh, is a restaurant set over a series of small waterfalls, Ujvara Veranda. It's loud but very cool, and a great place to stop for a coffee (freddo espresso!), which I did.
Finally, back to Sarande for a night in my own bed.
Just 20 minutes drive outside of Sarande is the Blue Eye, Syri i Kalter. It's a natural spring over 50m deep - divers haven't yet found the bottom. It's incredibly clear and blue and cold. There are distinctive beautiful blue dragonflies there.
Permet is a small town, two hours inland from Sarande. They have "everything besides the sea", they say, and it's true. A clear blue river runs through the center, with rocky beaches on each side. There's a big rock, which you can climb for fantastic views of the town. It's cooler than the coast, surrounded by mountains. The town center is full of cute cafes, nice restaurants line the river, and it all comes alive at night.
A short drive or a 3 hour hike up the mountain from Permet, you find the thermal pools of Benje. They're not hot, but they're not cold, so very nice to sit in for a while. There are 6 pools, artificially made around the natural springs where you can soak up different healing minerals (apparently) and enjoy the mountain views and air.
After an evening visit to the pools, I returned to the town for dinner at Trifilia, which featured many 'wild' 'mountain' things (cabbage, herbs..)
A hike across the top of the canyon at the Benje, which none of my photos capture the epicness of. Once away from the main pools, there are no people at all. After a couple of hours (GPS trace) is a serene spot with small waterfalls and naturally forming pools (though these are cold).
Back at the thermal pools, but further into the canyon - where most people can't be bothered to venture - can be found smaller thermal pools. Stayed here, had a picnic and a soak, until almost sunset, before returning to Permet for dinner at Antigonea. Finally fasule! And some delicious mountain herb byrek. The waiter, with all good intentions, tried to bring a fish on the house.. People are so friendly.. it's the thought that counts :)
Last stop: Gjirokaster. An historical mountain town about an hour away from Sarande, with a massive castle (400 Lek, plus 200 more for 3 museums inside), a beautiful twisty old town, and a totally different vibe from the coast. Lunch at Taverna Traditionale, which was amazingly friendly and delicious, fresh from the oven, and included vegetarian kofte! And a specially made byrek with spinach and no cheese on the house, and some free fresh fruit for dessert as well.
Përmet is a small town, two hours inland from Sarande. They have "everything besides the sea", they say, and it's true. A clear blue river runs through the center, with rocky beaches on each side. It's possible to scramble down. It's icy cold, but shallow edges mean it's nice to paddle when the sun is out. Down there were local youths lounging in an intimidating group, but friendly to say hello and ask 'where from?' and offer weed..
In the town center there's a big rock, which you can climb for fantastic views of the town. It's cooler than the coast, surrounded by mountains. The town center is full of cute cafes, nice restaurants line the river, and it all comes alive at night, even immediately post-lockdown, with lots of children and elderly people in the streets and outside restaurants.
There are no hostels. I stayed in Hotel Ramis which was pretty much empty, in a small room with a nice balcony overlooking the river. The owners didn't speak English and were surly-friendly. Breakfast was salad and bread and local jams. Përmet is known for 'slow food', even hosting an organisation to promote and regulate it, whose sign you'll see on several restaurants.
Two slow-food restaurants I tried were Trifilia and Antigonea. Trifilia has an outdoor terrace, and friendly staff who understand vegan. The highlight there was wild mountain cabbage salad. In Antigonea, by the river, I was delighted to find fasule, dolma, and byrek with wild mountain herbs. The waitress offered complimentary fish (this poor fool only ordering salads and side dishes?!) and raki too which I politely declined.
I went twice to the famous bënjë - thermal mineral baths. They're a short drive or medium-length hike up the nearby mountain, into the canyon. The first evening, there were quite a few people there. The water was not so much hot, but it wasn't cold so it was comfortable to climb right in whatever the weather. There are several pools each supposedly with different healing properties. The two main ones are by the distinctive Ottomon bridge at the beginning of the canyon. Further in there are more pools that fewer people venture to. The springs are natural, but the pools themselves are manmade, with stones building up the edges and plastic lining them (under layers of mud) to keep the water in.
In the morning, there were fewer people, but still not zero. Before it got too hot I hiked along one of the trails across the top of the canyon. The views were incredible. No photos can capture the epicness of the canyon. The trail was varied, with some overgrown narrow paths, steep up and steep down, as well as wide roads with no shade. Then stopped to read for a while near some beautiful (cold) pools where the only sound to be heard was the trickle of the water. There had been something here once - there was an abandoned hut and some walls. But no other hikers came this way.
There were more people in the pools by the time hiked back. I walked further into the canyon, at some point giving up and wading through the water with my trainers on because the rocks were too uncomfortable for bare feet and there was often no easy way through without getting wet. I lounged in some of the pools further into the canyon until the sun started to go down.
Spent the week off working on the v-stitch sweater which was super satisfying to work up, then finally seamed the two parts together. I really like it. Started on some shorts to learn a version of the pineapple stitch. My yarn and hook were wrong so they're too big, and obviously so lacy as to be only beach-appropriate, but it was a good exercise.
After a week off, I missed my oven. Well, maybe I missed the cake it produces.
I immediately made a peanut-butter-and-jam cake with cherries from the mountain roads near Gjirokaster, and local jam from Permet.
An experimental spinach and mushroom quiche with semolina batter worked really well. Vegan quiches are always with tofu, which I can't get here so this is a good alternative.
Banana cream pie, which didn't set at all, hence only photos of it in the dish.
Really good sag aloo.. and usual comfort foods.. fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, bananapeel bacon sandwiches..
Peanut butter cookies with cherry jam in the middle.
My local supermarket has arbitrarily and suddenly stopped stocking yarn. I had so many crochet plans, dreams about the colours I knew they had, and am feeling quite devastated. I do know this is not the worst thing happening in the world right now. But crochet has been going far towards keeping my head in a good place these past months. Hopefully I can find a new supply, but I'm going to have to walk a lot further for it. But I'm not getting my hopes up because this is a small town and the supermarkets probably all seasonally rotate their stock at the same time.
A great carrot cake with lemon cream frosting started the week, and lasted all week!
A good pizza. I tried to make 'omelette' type things with semolina, but they turned pink (no idea why) and were more like burgers instead, so I made bread rolls and rolllllled with it.
Getting out of the house a bit more, because the Watch Fixing Man kept telling me to "come back tomorrow". Found and swam at some new small beaches. Located new yarn supply! Sampled freddo espressi in several coffee shops. Freddo espresso is best espresso. Crocheted socks.
Thought about going to Montenegro instead of Greece, but their entry restrictions currently require you have a residency permit from one of the countries on their okay-list, even if you haven't been anywhere near your country of residency/citizenship, so long story short I can't.
Worked on some of the more tricky aspects of storing and presenting data that's been scraped over and over again and might be duplicative.
Had lots of meetings.
Kept going into town because the watch-fixing-man told me every day to come back tomorrow.. which gave me the opportunity to drink lots of freddo espressi at the cafes that are open now.
I worked way too much this week, and got up at 0630 to finish some stuff before today's Co-op meetings, so to enforce taking the rest of the afternoon off... my building's wifi went out. Then the water.. and then the power.
I have started a new crochet project. And went to the beach.
A new crochet project, labelled 'intermediate', alternating rows of Y-stitch and shells which is interesting, and I love my new 3.5 crochet hook... but it's coming up way too small so I'm going to have to abandon it.
A couple of trips into town for byrek and freddo espresso. Swimming from the rocky beach near home, and the nearby pier of Santa Quaranta. Normally at this time of year the pier would be packed; lined with cars down the middle, and packed on both sides with sunbeds and umbrellas. But the hotel resort is barely open, the sunbeds aren't even out, and just one or two people come to sunbathe on the pier.
Worked a bit too much, on the rather enjoyable Open Register of Interests aka. "declared." project. Got better at postgres.
Learnt alternating rows of Y stitch and shell stitch to make a nice crochet pattern.
Two days later realised the thing was coming up way too small, so I'm going to have to abandon it and start again. I'm using the wrong yarn - but it's a bit mysterious because if anything it should have come up too big. I guess doing it with crochet thread would make it looser and therefore bigger? Not sure how to salvage. I might apply the same stitch to a more simple pattern.
Went from being offered a ride to Greece the day after tomorrow and having to come to terms with suddenly leaving Sarande, to finding out the Albania-Greece land border is staying closed until July 1st actually, within the space of an hour. Rollercoaster. I'm exhausted.
And on top of that, nobody can give me a straight answer on whether I count as an EU citizen for the purposes of mid-pandemic border crossings.
Crochet projects this week (that were actually finished): a 'peace sign patch' and a wave stitch headpand. I also started a yellow summer top but for some reason haven't taken any photos of that yet.
I met Banksy the dog and had the first hummus I've had in WEEKS at Salad Farm across the road.
Went to the beach, for sitting around and swimming, and out for early morning byrek and cafe working when the internet went out on a work day.
Aaaaand paddleboard yoga! At 7:30 in the morning. I didn't even fall in, and it was a beautiful day so I rented the board for an extra hour to pootle around the bay some more.
Ran out of sugar so I made sugar free banana chocolate cake, just like the old days. And at the end of the week, a courgette choc chip cake, which did have brown sugar in.
Other highlights.. a shepherd's pie, mushroom risotto with hazelnuts, stuffed aubergine Albanian style, and vegetable tempura.
Got offered a ride to Greece a couple of days after the border opened, started prepping to leave, then the border didn't open; prepped to stay another 2 weeks.
Coronavirus cases are rising in Albania, SURPRISING NO-ONE exactly two weeks after they lifted many of the restrictions.
Against my basic instincts, I did go out a lot this week because everyone is acting like everything is back to normal and it's easy to get swept up in. Probably should stop that.
Some of the going out was to work from cafes because my internet went out though. I'm back on nodejs stuff again..
Also did a bit of editorial work on the DID spec, and hacked on sloph apps (it's been a while).
Watched Fargo and Jaws (and Stargate Atlantis).
Swam in the sea and sat on the beach.
Crocheted some things.
Went to a paddleboard yoga class! I didn't even fall off. It was early in the morning and the sea was so calm, but still ridiculously warm.
Fighting an ongoing war with local mosquito population, which is managing to move in droves into my flat even though I keep all the bug nets on the doors and windows closed all the time. I'm very good at catching them in a wee glass and putting them outside, but they thank me by whining around my head at night and eating me.
Got a haircut!!! Communicated with "bzzzz?" and hand gesture. Then the lady was spontaneously inspired to plait the hair that was left and it looked really cool.
Did you know you can just make doughnuts?! I mean, I knew it, and I can't believe I never actually did before. Just... 2 cups of flour, a couple of tablespoons of sugar, half a cup of plant milk and some yeast; knead, and rise for 2 hours, then shape and fry in an inch of oil for a minute or two on each side. Actually incredible. I coated the first batch with brown sugar (although it doesn't stick well, even when fresh out of the oil), and the second batch with cinnamon and brown sugar. One I ate smeared with cherry jam, and another with melted dark chocolate on top. Holy cow.
Also had a good pizza and chips, and some great curries.
On Friday the Greek Deputy Minister of Civil Defense said the Kakavia land border with Albania will not open. Today a "spokesperson for the Greek government" said the Kakavia land border with Albania is on list of border crossings that will open. I still feel like it's sort of a complete 50-50 chance if I'll be leaving Albania this week. Makes it hard to adequately buy groceries. And plan my work schedule. And.. maintain my sanity.
I did waste like 3 hours this morning researching alternatives. Or maybe it won't be wasted! Who knows at this point.
It's not looking good. Albania dropped from the EU's official 'safe' list, and a minister saying Kakavia land border is not ready due to incomplete disinfectant tunnels..
I finally got around to taking a photo of (almost) everything I crocheted during lockdown. Just in time to leave most of it behind.
I played with some new combination stitches, and really like an openwork lace one that looks like spiders or palm trees. Decided to combine it with the alternating shell and Y-stitch rows to adapt a cardigan pattern; that's the green in-progress one.
Picked up more soft yellow yarn to finish a summer top, which actually fits properly and is really nice. I'm keeping this one.
All the border guards were very nice. The Albanian side let us go double check with the Greeks if they'd let us across before they stamped us out which was good of them. The Greeks said they'd love to let us through but Angela Merkel says they can't. They were just letting Greek citizens over at the moment, not even EU. It's very frustrating that with an EU passport I could fly to Athens from Albania, but not cross the land border. I'm not sure what to do next. Going to take a break from thinking about it for a few days.
Storm!! Thunder, lightning, rain! Big waves! Actual breeze! Long overdue after the last stifling, still, sweltering couple of weeks. Opening balcony doors all the way to welcome it in. I feel better already.
Got up really early and took the local bus to Ksamil. It's about a 15 minute ride, and the bus wasn't full, but nobody understands how to wear masks properly. It's 100lek (0.80eur).
Walked over the hill for a view of the lake, before heading back into town for coffee by the sea. Even by 8-9am it was pretty busy. Shoved through some crowded beaches to find a quieter spot, without loungers and umbrellas, then swam from the shore to one of the furthest out islands. Swam for about half an hour. Sat on a small empty beach that was only accessible by sea, and with the main beaches out of sight, could have imagined there was nobody else in the world.
Swam back, then went for pizza. Puzzled for a while over where the cafe would cook the pizza - figured their kitchen must be just out of sight. Half an hour later a pizza guy on a scooter turned up. It was a decent pizza though.
Found out I can stay in my flat for another month cos the next people aren't coming, which is a weight off cos trying to move this week would be stressful. On the other hand, as someone used to moving approx every one month, really starting to feel the 'how can people live in the same apartment/house all the time' feeling. For years? Seriously. It's weird.
I mean, I understand it, I don't need anyone to explain to benefits or appeals, it's just if I try to imagine committing to any one space for a long period of time... shudder.
Gradually improving my burgers. Red beans make everything better. I think I stop them falling apart when they cook by chilling the mixture, coating in cornflour before cooking, and frying as hot as possible in not too much oil. But it's still a bit hit and miss. The contents are mashed beans, plus whatever diced sauteed vegetables I have to hand, typically.
This week's special treat was nachos with a great bean chilli.
Also I made bananapeel bacon a few times, more doughnuts, pancakes and an excellent lemon poppyseed drizzle.
I ill-advisedly bought a jar of agar-agar today. It was expensive, and I do not have much time to use it up in. Neither do I have much experience with agar-agar. The plan is just to jellify a new liquid or combination of liquids every day for the forseeable future. So please, bombard me with recipes and tips.
(It was the shock of finding agar-agar in Albania that made me buy it tbh. Just to see if it was real. I also got silken tofu at the same time. I don't want silken tofu, I'm desperate for firm tofu, but you take what you can get.)
Having acquired agar agar, I now have a mission to jellify all things. So far:
Sour cherry juice
Coldbrew coffee; cubed, dropped into almond milk.
I also added it to bread pudding, but ate it too fast to wait for it to set.
Also fancied up some doughnuts with cherry and lemon frosting. Dumped silken tofu on top of tomato rice under some roasted veggies. A good pizza, and nice simple chilli tomato spaghetti.
Making the most of Sarande (still). Some lovely tranquil swims, finding new secluded beaches, weekly paddleboard yoga, and some visits to Salad Farm across the road.
Just some more hot AF days in Sarande, balcony-working when the breeze allowed, sitting in the sea the rest of the time, and snacks at Salad Farm and Te Beqoa.
Salad Farm roasted cauliflower is amazing, by the way. (But needs to be modified to be vegan.) Also in true American style, the lemonade is bottomless.
An evening hike up to the Monastery of the 40 Saints, which Sarande was named after. It's 200lek to look around, if there's somebody there to take your money, and mostly just ruins but the views over the city and the sea, and towards Ksamil to the south are lovely.
As promised, I jellified various things using agar agar.
I mixed it with almond milk to make delicious creamy puddings. They are topped with watered down apricot jam, also mixed with agar to make jelly.
I made a three layer loaf-jelly with cherry, lemon and apple juice, and suspended apple pieces. It tasted good, but the layers didn't stick together well, and the cherry and lemon layers merged a bit.
But the most exciting thing was attempting to make blue dye from red cabbage. The first stage is to boil the cabbage to make a purple syrup. Adding bicarbonate of soda - just a tiny pinch - makes it fizz up and change colour to blue. But too much, and it goes green. I added too much because the potion like fizzing was so exciting. A drip of lemon juice takes it back in the other direction, with just as much exciting fizzing. Eventually I got the balance more or less right to create this teal-blue which lightened as it set (no photos). It's not the vivid blue you'd get with artificial dyes, but it definitely looks unnatural which is what I was going for.. I added the dye and agar to sugar water to make a pretty boring-tasting jelly.
Improved what my /eats and /stuff pages look like.
Finally finished all of Stargate Atlantis. So I watched all of all Stargate during lockdown. Except the movies. Will it never end. I like it but I can't believe the sheer volume.
Started on a page that lists all my blog articles by title, which really is just highlighting how I've only been communicating by week-in-review and photo posts for a while now. Need to step my article writing game back up.
Finally finished a cardigan I started ages ago. I made up the overall pattern, just putting together some stiches I like that look like butterflies and spiders/palm trees. I made liberal use of half double crochet which is my favourite basic stitch, and had just enough yarn for sleeves that reach almost to my elbows.
I flew back from Tirana, because travelling overland would have been next to impossible, not to mention rather foolish. The flight was early evening, and through a beautifully clear sky. We followed the Adriatic coast, which I know well from having spent literally weeks of my life bussing up and down it. Over the Alps, which were grandiose and snow-capped. France was quite flat and boring, but still very clear. The Channel had lots of boats on it. And then we approached a wall of grey, obscuring all beneath it. Aha, this must be England. We descended, and dark churning clouds on the horizon, backed by a red sunset, was a burning apocalyptic vision. Outside the airport the sky haphazardly threw handfuls of cold water at anyone unfortunate enough to be standing under it. I put on a jacket for the first time in months. And felt... welcomed.
Lots of people have said they're happy I'm back (maybe they're just being nice), but I'm quite sad about it. I'm back for specific and worthwhile reasons, but as I posted the last of my Albania photos this afternoon, while looking out at a mostly grim, overcast sky, I wondered if I have made a terrible mistake. I haven't. I'm not back, it's just an intermission. I'm confident that the nomadic life across continental Europe I love will resume sometime next year, albeit limited by the pandemic and brexit.
The next few months are uncertain in new ways. I don't really know where I'll be for the bulk of my time here yet.
But in the meantime, I will be spending precisely the last two weeks of my twenties in government-mandated isolation in rural Lincolnshire. Gorging on vegan cheese.
I've been to Albania a couple of times in 2019 for short visits, or on my way to somewhere else. I was looking forward to spending time on the coast, so finally in March 2020 I managed to head out for a month-long stay. Or so I thought. Not long after I arrived, the coronavirus lockdown began. As 3 months approached, I emailed local authorities and quickly obtained a visa extension 'until travel restrictions are lifted'. After a while commercial flights from the capital to some other countries started to run, and I wasn't sure how long I could push my overstay (usually, the fine for overstaying is €500 per day!). But lots of expats kept telling me it would be fine. Around the 4 month mark I was stopped by police in town and asked for ID, and fortunately had my printed visa extension email on me, which was enough for them, so then I was less worried. In the end I needed to head back to the UK for other reasons, and stayed in Sarandë for five months in total.
For the first few months of lockdown, everything was closed and there was no public transport, so I wasn't able to see much of the country. Later when inter-city travel restrictions lifted I took a couple of cautious road trips.
In any case, there were definitely worse places I could have been stuck.
Where?
I spent most time this year in Sarandë. It is a smallish seaside town, quiet in the off season, and a little smelly and loud in the town center from an excess of construction and road traffic. After a week in the center I snapped from this, and managed to move south to the outskirts. It's also smelly in the more rural outskirts from locals burning trash. But at least it wasn't so loud. My new place was right in front of the sea, close enough to hear the crash of the waves from the balcony, and a short scrabble from a little rocky beach that was mostly empty until July.
There was no disadvantage in my opinion to being a 30-40 minute walk from the town center. When running, the local buses stop nearby. There's a surprisingly well stocked supermarket very close, and plenty of restaurants and cafes. Which would have been nice, if everything wasn't closed for most of my stay.
It's easy to find a cheap (€150/mo up) and decent (nicely furnished, sea view) place to stay here, in town or outside, for medium-term lets depending on season. Most of this town is empty apartments, of varying quality. Skip Airbnb and contact some of the local estate agents who manage many short term or holiday rentals, or look for facebook groups for expats and locals if you're into that sort of thing.
In Sarandë there's a small but busy and friendly expat community. I met more of them when the lockdown restrictions lifted. Often people arrange to eat out in groups, watch movies, go for hikes, and there are a disproportionate number of yoga classes. Bob's bar, American Blue (aka the Balkan Education Experience), is one of the major expat hubs (and also has great wifi speeds). Hang out there and you'll be integrated into the community in no time.
In June, things started to open again, but on a much quieter scale than normal. By July most seasonal restaurants and private beaches were up and running, and local tourists were visiting at weekends. 'My' beach started to see more people, even early in the morning. But I'm told it has been absolutely nothing compared to the tourist season in a normal year. I'm quite lucky to have been able to enjoy the weather and the sea without the usual crowds.
On calm, warm days it was lovely to swim from my beach to Secret Beach, past the Santa Quaranta pier. Secret Beach is not at all secret, that's just the name of the cafebar built over it, though you can climb over some rocks to get to a more sheltered part. The other direction, towards the public beach in south where the river flows into the sea, also makes a nice swim. Before the crowds came and they started charging for umbrellas, jumping into the sea from Santa Quaranta pier was a good change of scene too. And the flat rocks between the Santa Quaranta hotel beach and my beach were slippery and mossy and can be used as slides to get into the sea. Getting out again can be a challenge. There's a small pool there too where the sea washes in and out of which is nice to sit in, and standing rocks in the water to paddle and clambour around.
Since it was lockdown for most of my stay, I appreciated that I was in a place where I didn't feel like I was missing out on much by staying inside all the time. I got to know my immediate surroundings very well. Here is every photo of the beautiful sea and sky I took from my balcony. On the balcony of an apartment in the building next door, lived an enormous beautiful fluffy dog who I called Fluffydog. We would sit and watch the sea together. Fluffydog only barked at night, very very occasionally, and sounded like two plastic cups being hit together. Another regular auditory presence was Chickendog, a huge alsatian who lived in a seaview kennel near the entrance to my building, so named because a family of chickens lived with him and they were often seen together. And then there was Boop and Borp, the two guard dogs of Hotel Visad who greeted me loudly every time I went to my beach. Eventually they started to recognise me, and stopped barking just to stand and wag their tails. I could often hear them all night though. Later on in my stay I met Banksy, who was attached to the Salad Farm cafe across the road. Banksy is very sweet and would bring other peoples' trash that he wanted to eat, but needed human assistance to open. He chases cars, which is not healthy.
A short drive out, along a well-signposted road, is the Blue Eye, Syri i Kaltër. It's a natural spring of unknown depth, with crystal clear waters and sapphire-blue dragonflies. You can't swim, and there's no hiking around as far as I can tell. There's one restaurant and one hotel nearby. It's worth a visit, but don't plan to spend all or even half a day there. It's on the way to Gjirokastër though..
The Sarandë port also, under normal circumstances, provides fast access to Corfu all year round. The ferries stopped at the first sign of lockdown though, and didn't restart again while I was there.
Where else?
Sarandë is wonderfully placed for access to Ksamil and Butrint to the south. The former has beaches galore and islands you can reach by swimming. The latter has an ancient city and secret beaches if you venture far enough. They're hike-able from Sarandë (3.5 hours to Ksamil if you march straight there, or 8+ if you stop at every cove on the way..) but there's also an hourly bus (100 lek each way). You can read about my hikes to and around Ksamil and Butrint here.
Sarandë is also the end of the Albanian Riviera. I had the opportunity to follow the coastal road north to discover many beautiful towns and villages with gorgeous beaches, hills, castles. It's worth stopping in most of them. Borsh has miles of sandy beach (and a fab castle); Himarë has a lovely promenade and great hiking around; in between Jalë and Dhërmi are more coves and beaches you can only get to by boat or scrambling. I wrote more about a roadtrip along the Riviera.
At the top end of the Riviera is the Llogora mountain pass, an intense switchback that made my ears explode at the change in pressure. The Llogora national park is a different world to the coast, with alpine forests and cool air. There are miles and miles of hikes, with marked trails, and some lovely guesthouses to stay in. See photos of some hikes in the Llogora national park here.
For another change of pace, I went inland to visit Përmet and Gjirokastër. Përmet sits on the Vjosë river which is a bright crystal blue, and you can get down to sit on the rocky beach or paddle. It's a small town that seemed to come alive at night. The town is a moderate hike or a short drive from the Langarica canyon which has really beautiful hiking trails. Oh, and natural thermal springs. The water is not hot, but it's not cold, and the various different pools supposedly have different minerals for various healing benefits. Here is a post about my trip to Përmet.
I didn't stay long in Gjirokastër; enough to look all around the castle and the museums inside, which are worthwhile, and to have a delicious lunch. I think it'd make a good base for a longer stay, if you can stand to be away from the sea (more photos of Gjirokaster).
In the north of Albania, I visited Shkodër last summer, which was definitely one of my all time favourite cities. It has lots of history, a beautiful lake, and a pedistrian- and cycle-friendly city center. It's a common stopover for people embarking on Balkan mountain hikes to the north. It's considerably cheaper than Sarandë. But so is everywhere.
And of course, the capital, Tiranë, is an interesting place. I've passed througha couple of times but never for more than a long weekend. I mostly walked around the center, ate at the one vegetarian restaurant, and hiked between bus stations. There's lots to see though in terms of museums, architecture and historical buildings. There's also an artificial lake, and it is in close proximity to good mountains. It's a short drive or bus ride from the seaside city of Durrës. I'd really like to spend more time there, but not at the expense of all the other places to visit in Albania..
Practicalities
Public transport is haphazard but pretty frequent across the country, and well-used by locals. You'll struggle to find information online. In most cities, just turn up to the bus station and ask around. There might be signs. They may or may not represent reality. In Tirana there are several bus stations all located very inconveniently far from each other and the city center, serving different parts of the country, or international routes. Look up the latest on wikitravel, I'm sure anything I write here will be out of date soon enough. The buses themselves may be large coaches, but are more likely to be little minivan things, even for long journeys. They are cramped and hot and only have limited luggage capacity.
Currency is Albanian Lek, ALL. Things are cheap, even by Balkan standards, and Sarandë is the most expensive place by far. Many places don't take card, or they might try and fail. Most ATMs charge extortionate fees, but Credins Bank did not for my TransferWise card.
Languages people speak will vary depending on where you are of course, but I've mostly encountered people speaking very good English, or if not, willing to try and smile and point. On the coast, you'll find people who speak Greek and/or Italian as well. It's been quite hard to pick up correct pronunciation of Albanian greetings by listening to locals, because people clock foreigners at once and say 'hello'. As with anywhere, you should at least learn to say thank you and hello in Albanian..
I don't normally get local SIM cards unless I have a particular reason to. In this case, once lockdown started I was unable to go to cafes for backup wifi, and I needed for a while to be able to send SMS to get permission to go out. Fortunately phone shops were considered essential enough to be allowed to open. Vodafone however would only do topups and not sell me a SIM. ALBTelecom claimed I needed a residence permit to buy a SIM. But T-mobile have a bunch of monthly packages for good prices. I had to show ID to buy it, but could only pay cash. Initially I got 10GB of data, plus tons of local and international minutes and SMS for about €16. I topped up a month later with 1.5GB plus 20 international minutes (and essentially unlimited local minutes and SMS) for less than €8.
I haven't any problems with wifi - bar very minor dropoffs for a couple of hours at most - at any of the places I've stayed so far though. The local supplier for Sarande (1-click.al) is reliable and speeds are good, so it's great for digital nomadding.
Keeping up to date with local happenings during the pandemic, AlbanianDailyNews and Exit were super helpful.
Weather is very different between the north and south, mountains and coast. It probably all evens out in the summer, but if you're in Albania in the winter I definitely recommend Sarande region.
There are a lot of stray dogs, big ones, but by and large seem more friendly and calm in Albania than a lot of other countries. They generally ignore you, but might walk with you for a bit. Feed one once and they're your best friend for life. Once I was escorted all the way home from town by Scabbydog, a limping, scrawny, pockmarked thing, because I was walking with someone who had been with someone else who had given the dog sausages in a completely different part of town some weeks prior..
Food
Eating out in Albania, outside of Tiranë, does not offer as much variety as even other parts of the Balkans. International cuisine is is not abundant. But that's okay, because Albanian food is delicious and tends to be made from fresh, local, seasonal produce. Options are more limited if you have a restricted diet, and to eat at Albanian restaurants a lot as a vegan can get repetitive. It's cheap though!
Other than pizza-pa-djäthë, my go-to was stuffed aubergine and stuffed peppers. They have both been slow baked; the aubergine is stuffed with itself, and a rich, herby, tomatoey mix with garlic, peppers and onion (patëllxhane të mbushur or Imam bayildi); the peppers are filled with rice. In theory either could be with meat, but they were the vegetarian option at every single place I ate around the country. It's definitely better to ask for no cheese though, just in case. To be honest, I have never been disappointed by a stuffed aubergine, and could happily eat it every day.
Bakeries are good and cheap. Byrek - phyllo pastry - with spinach is easy to come by. In Sarande my favourite was from Furre Kosova by the bus station.
Occasionally I found fasule, some sort of white beans in stew or sauce. Stewed or grilled vegetables and potatoes were simple but tasty side dish I could combine into a meal. I also had some excellent side salads (and some soggy ones), fantastic bread and the next best chips (chunky fried potatoes) after those in the UK!
Before I got the message to go to the UK, I was half-heartedly thinking about planning a move to Macedonia. The small town of Pogradec is near the border (walking distance, from the south of Lake Ohrid) and I'd definitely have liked to visit on the way. There's the lake, and not a lot else that I can see. It looks peaceful.
Vlorë is the Big City just up the coast from Sarandë. It has beaches and a beautiful lagoon, as well as being a major port, and residential areas trail off away from the coast into the mountains.
Everyone drinks Korçë beer. It's inland, nestled in the mountains, and I've heard great things.
Berat is a famous (by Albananian standards) mountain town, the City of a Thousand Windows. I almost went there on my road trip, but they had a spike in coronavirus cases so I decided not to. It's a shame though. There's a lovely hostel, and guesthouses with amazing views.
The longer you spend in a place, the more you realise there is to see, and the longer you need to stay...
The Estonian Digital Nomad visa is cool and all but the income requirement of €3.5k per month means it's only for one kind of digital nomad. I've met many digital nomads who teach English (or other languages) online who would be excluded. Even in tech, those who work for nonprofits or other public-good type organisations, and for companies in regions with lower market rates, part-time workers and freelancers with variable income are all not going to make the cut. Pretty disappointing.
Hmmmmm find the most efficient and least complicated way to recursively walk a large nested javascript object and change certain keys in certain cases orrrrrr change the whole thing into a JSON string and do a find-and-replace?!?
During five consecutive months in Albania this year, plus shorter trips last year, I have done a lot of eating in Albania. Mostly I cooked for myself, because a large chunk of that was during the coronavirus lockdown. But when things started to open up again, I did eat at restaurants a few times. I'll round up some of these experiences here.
It's worth noting that 'vegan' is unlikely to be a well-understood word (though some places do know it) but 'vegetarian' is fine. Don't assume that because you start ordering a bunch of vegan dishes, and asking to remove cheese from some things, they'll get the gist of your requirements - be specific about everything. I never had a problem modifying dishes in restaurants, and waiters in touristy places spoke good English. Personally in the Balkans I don't ask too many questions about butter, and like to imagine that since oil is cheaper it is probably used for cooking most of the time. I also look for traditional recipes online for local dishes to get the impression if they're probably vegan before I go somewhere to try them, so I don't have to have too detailed a conversation about it in a restaurant. But that's because I'm conflict-averse and socially awkward.
I drank the tap water in Sarandë and experienced no ill effects. You might hear otherwise from other people. Lots of locals and expats alike buy 8L bottles of water for home (which are very cheap). A better option to both of these, if you have the opportunity to drive into the mountains, is to fill containers up with fresh mountain water from a roadside spring. They're easy to spot and well-used.
Eating out
Traditional Albanian food is limited for vegans, but what options there are typically consistently delicious. Vegetables are fresh, local and seasonal, and Albanians have a habit of baking things for hours using lots of fresh herbs.
One thing I quickly learnt the hard way in Shkoder was that cheese is such a fundamental ingredient it hardly bears mentioning, either on menus or by waiters who are otherwise describing dishes in great detail in perfect English for you. It makes as much sense to mention the cheese as it would to mention the plate the meal comes served on. So always always ask for without cheese - pa djathë - even if you can't see how cheese would have a place in what you're ordering. Trust me, it does.
Getting vegan options at Albanian restaurants (not grill places) usually leaves you with stuffed aubergine (patëllxhane të mbushur or Imam bayildi) and stuffed peppers as main dishes, and a variety of salads plus chips/fried potatoes and grilled vegetables as a side. It's enough to make a meal. I love the stuffed aubergines most of all - they are rich, herby, tomatoey goodness - and the stuffed peppers - packed with gooey sticky rice - are really good as well. In theory, either of these could be stuffed with meat, so it's worth to check (asking "vegetarian?" should do the trick) but I never found a case of this in practice.
Less consistently available, but still not uncommon, are things like potato, okra or green bean stews. You might also find fasule - white beans in a tomatoey sauce or as a thick soup, which is one of my favourite Balkan-vicinity dishes. You may also come across 'wild cabbage' or 'mountain herbs' (or 'wild mountain cabbage herbs' or other combination) which are ambiguous greens that I never pass up an opportunity to eat. If you're really lucky, you'll find dolma.
In my experience, ordering the fried potato side dish in restaurants resulted in the best chunky, handcut deep fried potatoes I've had outside of the UK. Just like I make myself. But I have heard reports from people expressing disappointment in getting served frozen fries, so this might be hit and miss and I just got really lucky.
You could pick something up at a fast food place. Anywhere that has souvlaki can probably throw you together a vegetarian or 'meat-free' souvlaki (even if it's not on the menu), which is going to consist of fries and salad in some chunky pita bread or a wrap (remember to ask for no cheese or tzatziki). Not the most compelling meal, but it'll be fast, cheap and filling.
Look out for bakeries (furre) and byrek places. Byrek is a flaky filo pastry in layers with some filling. They're delicious and hearty and dead cheap (50-100 lek for a big piece) and probably made with oil and not butter, though I'll admit I haven't thoroughly canvassed the bakeries for this information. You can find them filled with onion (gross.. I mean.. if you like that sort of thing..), spinach (yum! and spinaq in Albania is easy to recognise and pronounced the same as English. As ever, do check for cheese though to be sure, sometimes they hide feta in there) and I've seen signage for potato byrek (patate) but never actually found any available. Many Albanian restaurants will also have byrek on the menu, likely translated as 'spinach pie'.
Apart from that, all pizza places have a veggie pizza (sometimes called 'country' or 'garden' if you can't find 'vegetariana') which you can ask for without cheese. If you're there for a while, you can try a few places to look for the best combination and coverage of veggie toppings to optimise your pizza-pa-djathë experience. My tactic was just to look on tripadvisor for pizza places with good reviews, when it wasn't a case of just dropping into the nearest pizza place I found. I don't think I had any of the truly baffled looks from waiters that I had in Bosnia when ordering cheeseless pizza. Perhaps Albanian waiters are just more polite.
Beverages
If you drink alcohol, you'll be plied with local raki wherever you go. This varies from good quality stuff to literal paint stripper, I gather, so beware. There are several local beers which are generally cheap and people seem to enjoy them.
The cheapest coffee to buy to prepare yourself is Turkish style, that you make in a dzezva/cezva/briki (I dunno what they call this in Albania actually). In Sarandë there's a place that will grind it for you fresh an seal it up (Benn Kafe, opposite the big Alpha supermarket).
In restaurants, espresso is the cheapest. It can be 50lek, it is usually 70-80, you should cry if it's 100 or more (but you're probably paying for a view). I've rarely seen Americano on a menu. In the south, at least, they have freddo espresso, which is my favourite espresso format. You're looking at 150 to 250 lek depending on location, and they are usually large with a double shot of coffee and a thick head of foam.
I always take my own bottle of water because besides hot drinks and alcohol, everything comes in plastic bottles, including water. If I forget I'll order tea, but it's usually just cheap teabags which makes me grumpy too. Unless you see mountain tea on the menu - then get that! It's local and delicious. Some places will give you a glass of water with your espresso, but don't count on it. Surpringly few places had fresh juice - always orange, always expensive. I'm in shock that nowhere does limunade (diluted fresh lemon juice) which was my go-to in Bosnia and much of the rest of the Balkans.
Read on for specific restaurant recommendations for the places I visited.
Groceries
In terms of groceries, options are limited. In Tirana and tourist hotspots like Sarandë, even small shops will have plant milks, but be prepared for these to be expensive, dust-covered and possibly out of date. In Conad supermarket in Tirana (and presumably other cities with Conad, but I don't know for sure) there's a brand 'Valsoia' which has cream cheese and margarine. It's expensive and tiny. You might also find some tofu. I discovered late in my stay in Sarandë that the Vitam (BITAM) Greek brand of margarine is 100% plant-based, and isn't so expensive and is available everywhere, so that made baking better going forward. But I'd be surprised if you find solid vegan cheese, seitan, or any processed meat substitutes anywhere in the country (if you do let me know!).
But if you like to cook, then there are lots of things you can do with amazing cheap local vegetables, and dried beans, chickpeas, grains and pulses which abound. The markets are fantastic, and supermarkets and bulk stores offer many dried things by weight, without plastic, as well.
I found flaxseed easily and cheaply, but whole not ground. Coconut oil and tahini are available, but are very expensive and in small jars.
It's worth mentioning Neranxi, a catering wholesaler with stores in Tirana and Sarandë at least. They have lots of imported goods that you can't get anywhere else (miso! agar agar! giant bottles of tabasco sauce!) and sell grains, seeds, dried fruit and beans etc in bulk.
Tirana
Tirana, as the capital, has the best selection of veg-friendly things. There are tons of juice and smoothie bars, and bio stores with decent grocery selections. I'd check happycow to see what's handy for you. If you're passing through Tirana to go to a more remote part of Albania, it might be a good idea to pick up some supplies before you leave.
There's one fully vegetarian restaurant as far as I know, Veggies. It's expensive for Albania, and the menu is a pretty diverse mix of foods from different cuisines (but not Albanian) and uses lots of 'superfood' type things. It's obvious which things are vegan, and the food is good and portions are a decent size. When I've been - at normal evening meal times - the vibe has been strange, with no other diners, and the waiter/chef has nothing to do and nowhere to hide while you're eating, so it kind of feels like you're being watched.
I have also eaten at Çoko, where they know what vegan is and the falafel 'burger' (it's really a pita) is alright and comes with lots of toppings. They also have fancy juice, outdoor seating, and it's on a lively street. There's no point in me including the photos because it was dark and you can't make anything out. Portions were substantive enough that I had leftovers.
Oda is a traditional Albania restaurant with absolutely delicious veggie options. I tried some of everything vegan, basically, which are all the traditional Albanian things I listed earlier.
Shkodër
With mostly Tirana and the Riviera to compare to, Shkoder is seriously cheap to eat out. I was there for a week.
My first meal was avocado toast at Stolia. Despite having communicated very effictively with the waiter, I thought, it came with cheese on that was not mentioned anywhere. I picked it off and got on with my life. I think this cafe is a bit fancy, but it was a really nice space.
At Shega e Egar they knew what vegan is and were able to suggest or adapt dishes for me. One one visit I had a vegetable ciabatta and fresh juice. Another time I had a substantive smoothie. It's also a really nice space, with outside seat, and upstairs too which has power and is a bit quieter.
The hostel I stayed in (The North Hub) partners with Manifatura, the pizza place next door. Hostel breakfast is there, with a couple of almost vegan things on the menu that they will adapt for you (and I took my own plant milk for the museli one day). Since it was handy, and there was a hostel discount, I had pizza there a couple of times too.
I ate Albanian food at Peja Grill, which had enough options that I went back twice. They also had good fresh juice, including lemon. Staff were friendly and I chilled out with my kindle there for a while.
Several people, from the walking tour guide to hostel workers, recommended Pasta e Vino. I'd definitely go back again as there are several vegan-when-cheese-removed pasta dishes on the menu, and the orecchiette with aubergine and cherry tomatoes I ate was incredible. It's one of those meals I still think about, a year later.
Sarandë
All year round
Lots of places in Sarandë are only open in the summer/tourist season, so check on that before you get your hopes up about going somewhere. I called this section 'all year round' but really I can only speak for the March to May portion of the off-season.
Ask anyone for "that cheap Albanian place that's really good with lots of veggie options?" and they'll say Te Beqoa (tuh-betcha). There are two branches, one in town by the park, and another to the south on Rruga Butrinti (the latter only opened this summer, and I don't know if it will close over the winter). The mostly vegan veggie selection is the biggest I found in one place in Sarandë and it's all super delicious, hearty and so cheap. I dream about the potato stew. They have other stews with aubergine, peppers, beans, all rich and tomatoey. They have stuffed aubergine and peppers, of course. They have a great fasule soup, and serve everything with chunky white bread. They also have a salad menu, including a pickle plate which I love. Most of the food is made in advanced and available for viewing in the counter. The staff encourage you to have a look and point at what you fancy. This also means service is very fast. Staff are friendly, and the wifi works well. The only drawback is they don't have tea or coffee, and only provide water in bottles (unless you make a small fuss about plastic, and then you might get a free glass of water which has been poured from a larger bottle so that's a bit of an improvement). If you're not cooking and on a budget, this is a safe bet for a place to eat dinner every day. It's also super popular with locals, so open in the off-season.
My favourite bakery in Sarandë is Furre Kosova, by the bus station / park. Their spinach byrek are the best, and they have a great bread selection, including bread rolls that are just like my all-time favourite Bosnian somun. The lady who works there became a regular friendly face, as I'd stop there whenever I was in town.
Another place in town that's open in the off-season is Bulla's Corner. This is just fast food, but they have a no-meat souvlaki on the menu for 150 lek, and will happily omit cheese and tzatziki and add ketchup instead. It's just fries and salad, but the bread is nice. Not amazing, but a good fast option if you're starving and had enough byrek already this week.
I got a no-cheese pizza from Piceri Alfa one time. I thought they'd be good cos they have a big pizza oven. It was 1000 lek and very mediocre. Don't bother. A veggie pizza should be 300-600lek.
Limani is a popular and spacious restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating sticking out on the water in the center of town. You can't miss it. It's slightly on the pricier side, but it's one of the only places that takes card payments. The service is very good, and the food is really good too. I've tried pizzas, salad, freddo espresso and fresh orange juice there, and had bruschetta for breakfast once (I ate that before remembering to take a photo). It's pretty popular with expats and foreign tourists, so you'll here a lot of English spoken if you hang out there for a while. There's loads of space so I didn't feel intrusive working on my laptop, the wifi is good, and you can sit right by the water.
Summer / tourist season
Things were slower to open up than usual this year because of the pandemic. On the other hand, if not for the pandemic I wouldn't have been stuck in Sarandë and wouldn't have got to try any of these places at all.
Salad Farm is out of town on Rruga Butrinti, which is inconvenient for lots of people but conveniently for me I lived across the road. It's 'traditional Californian' food, and run by real Californians. They grow and pickle a lot of the produce themselves, or aim to, and also use recyclable materials and minimise waste as much as possible. Their officially vegan dishes are a falafel salad, or falafel and hummus wrap, but in fact almost everything on the menu can be veganised. In the case of most of the salads this just means removing the meat and/or cheese because the bulk of the salad and dressings are vegan already. These salads are enormous and have lots of interesting things like curried wheat or noodles or fruit or avocado or beans.. so veganising them isn't a huge loss at all. The wraps are with a fresh homemade flatbread. The lemonade is fresh too, and bottomless in true American style. Almost all of the smoothies can be veganised, as they have coconut milk and soy milk on hand. You can also get a pint of coldpress coffee if you need wiring up for the day! My favourite thing of all is the roast cauliflower; it isn't vegan by default, as they use egg to stick the breading on - but just ask, and they can change this out for whatever other tasty liquids are on hand, in my case a mix of fava water and coconut milk. It's super delicious. Salad Farm is also a nice place to work, indoors or outdoors, and has a friendly local stray dog called Banksy. Vegan desserts coming soon? Stay tuned.
Almost across from Salad Farm is Bake'n'Grill. Not the most appealing name from a vegan perspective, but it was in the base of my building so when they opened late into the summer I thought I should try eating local. Their daily specials menu has baked vegetables on it, but they only do one of the things on the list per day and it wasn't baked vegetables when I dropped by. Instead, they offered to make that tomorrow's daily special just for me. So I ate a really nice lightly spicy penne arrabbiata, some salad and chips, and they brought a plate of fresh fruit as a complimentary dessert. The next day I returned for the baked vegetables - stuffed aubergine and peppers of course - which were delicious. And they gave me fruit again too. Their fresh orange juice is expensive but a big glassful. So there isn't a ton of options here, but the staff are very nice. I wouldn't go out of your way to visit, but if it's in the vicinity you could do worse.
Pizza Roel is mostly appealing because the outdoor seating is on the sea-side of the road, with lovely views across the bay. Their pizza is alright too. They have two veggie options which are, let's be honest, basically the same, with the usual selection of grilled vegetables (it says 'pumpkin', by the way, which is a common mistranslation of courgette/zucchini, before you get your hopes up about pumpkin on pizza..). Their freddo espresso is really good too, as are their prices.
I went for a nice dinner with a group of expats at Haxhi. The menu was set for the large group, but I checked beforehand there would be plenty of vegan-friendly things available, and sure enough I was easily stuffed up on tasty food. They even included a traditional dessert, hashure, made from farro (wheat) and walnuts. It's vegan! I ate a bunch before I realised it had walnuts in, and suffered through the resulting headache later that evening, alas. I'm not sure what the regular menu looks like at Haxhi - it had caught my eye becuase of it's nice decor previously, but does appear to be fish-focussed - but the family who run it speak good English so probably you'd figure something out.
You can get lemon sorbet at Kayak, in town.
Përmet
Lots of nice traditional food options in Pëmet, but I was only there for two nights. I ate wild cabbage, mountain herbs soup, fried potatoes and stuffed aubergine at Trifilia, and dolma, fasule and wild herb byrek at Antigonea. Both great options.
Along the Albanian Riviera
The best place I ate on my Riviera roadtrip was the homemade ravioli at Guesthouse Alberti in Llogora National Park. They have a spinach one as well as tomato and rukola and it was sooo good. They also have a variety of other pasta dishes, as well as salads and fried potatoes.
I ate a bizarrely good pizza on the beach in Borsh, at Ciao Borsh. There's probably nothing else worth mentioning, either to try or to avoid. You can check /eats for May and look for restaurant names in brackets if you really want to know everything.
Gjirokastër
I only spent an afternoon in Gjirokastër, but it gets its own section because my lunch there was so good. At Taverna Tradiçionale, a mostly vegetarian(!) restaurant who understand vegan. I arrived in time for their stuffed aubergine and peppers to be fresh from the oven, piping hot. The spinach byrek they had just made was with feta, but they managed to conjure some cheese-free up later and it was on the house. I'd also heard a rumour (aka read on happycow) that they had vegetarian kofte (meatballs) so they made that for me too! It was basically herby doughballs, but still exciting. And they brought fruit sprinkled with cinnamon as a free dessert.
A vegetarian specialty of Gjirokastër I'd have loved to try is qifqi - rice balls - but unfortunately these are bound with egg.
I made Chocolate Covered Katie's zucchini muffins with courgette from Mum's garden, replacing her apple sauce with almond milk, using normal white flour, and caster sugar. Mine look completely different. They could have done with 5 more minutes in the oven. Delicious and gooey though.
Found a packet of ramen at the back of a cupboard and enjoyed my first ramen in months (with Fry's polonly not-sausage (!! <3), tomatoes from H's garden, peppers, edamame, garlic and chillis from Mum's garden, peanut sauce.
And tried to bring a bit of Albania home with stuffed aubergine and pepper...
An improv headband, because I found a tiny ball of nice aqua yarn with gold an silver flex that I really wanted to do something with. And a 'mandala' cardigan in mermaid colours, big enough for a very small person..
Did lots of OpenActive nodejs stuff.. and finally finished! The bulk of it, anyway. And then actually started to take some time to think about Co-op stuff again. I've been drafted into the Resilience Group rotation, which is the emergency subgroup who think about how to keep us all functioning during current crisis..
Made exciting plans for when I can come out of isolation next week...
Homemade lasagne sheets with beetroot from the garden (made by Mum, not me) and compiled into a delicious vegan lasagne with beans and salad also from the garden, and homemade foccacia too.
I left home aged 18 to study for a BSc in Web Technology at the University of Lincoln (UK) because that was what I liked to do for fun. I didn't have much of a plan or a goal, and haven't ever since. I spent my twenties with one thing leading to another, not trying to steer myself in any particular direction. I don't think I ever had an image of what life would be like when I reached 30. I am privileged and fortunate to be where I am.
When I turned 20 (2010), I was at work in London, doing a 3 month Google internship. I chaired a team meeting for the first time ever. It was a small group, some of whom were on video in Zurich and Vienna. (They didn't know it was my birthday.)
When I turned 21 (2011), I woke up before dawn and took a hot air balloon flight over the Nile in Egypt with my sister. We were on a 3 week overland trucking trip through the Middle East.
When I turned 22 (2012), I was sick and stayed in bed at home in Edinburgh with Kit, a bit sad at not being on a coach to Birmingham with the kids doing the Young Rewired State hackathon whom I'd been mentoring all week.
When I turned 23 (2013), I was in Birmingham, helping out at the finale hackathon weekend of the Young Rewired State kids programming week.
When I turned 24 (2014), I was in London. I spent the summer there working on Semantic Web Stuff with industry leaders at the BBC.
When I turned 25 (2015), I was visiting my Mum in Lincolnshire on the way home to Edinburgh, having attended my highschoolbestfriend Polly's wedding a couple of days prior.
When I turned 26 (2016), I hung out in Boston (US) cafes by myself, and in the evening ate blueberry pie in Veggie Galaxy with my friend Ned (who didn't know it was my birthday).
When I turned 27 (2017), I was at work as a software developer for OCCRP in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Nobody knew it was my birthday until I found out two of my colleagues had their birthday on the same day, so we all went out for drinks in the evening.
When I turned 28 (2018), I was alone in a high-ceilinged studio apartment in Tallinn, which I had moved into the day before. I slept in with a headache and stayed home all day.
When I turned 29 (2019), I had coffee on Trebević mountain, went for a drive through the Bosnian countryside with my friend Edin (who didn't know it was my birthday), and ate krompiruša in Sarajevo old town.
Turning 30 (today), I am at the end of the two week mandatory isolation period at my Mum's house in Lincolnshire, having just travelled back to the UK from Albania where I was 'stuck' for five months during the coronavirus pandemic. What's next?
In the last decade, I graduated from university 3 times, with a BSc(Hons) Web Technology, MSc by Research Interdisciplinary Creative Practices, and PhD in Informatics. I studied at the University of Lincoln, the University of Edinburgh and MIT. I won some awards and prizes that don't mean anything. I helped to start two companies that didn't really go anywhere. I worked at Google and the BBC; in media & comms at the University of Lincoln Students' Union; tutored for Edinburgh School of Informatics and Edinburgh College of Art; got my dream job working on web standards with Tim Berners-Lee at MIT and W3C; freelanced until my PhD took over; spent time in a kitchen at a vegan cafe in Malaysia; worked with investigative journalists in Bosnia; joined a co-operative to work on open data for public good.
I taught myself Python, sufficiently that people paid me to write it. I learned to cook and bake, and then all over again without eggs and dairy. I learned some sign language, and forgot it. I learned to knit, and forgot that too, and to crochet, which stuck. I stopped swimming, and took up running and yoga. I sucked up my fear of public speaking to cope with conference presentations, but never found a way to enjoy it. I discovered Vipassana meditation. I fell in and out of love. I started writing five novels and have finished none of them. I volunteered with reuse initiatives like Freegle and the SHRUB. I mentored kids learning to code, and set up a club for them in Edinburgh. I ran university societies like Lincoln CompSoc and Edinburgh SocieTea; organised and helped out with conferences and hackathons; coordinated events and meetups. I published some academic papers; contributed to open source projects; co-edited W3C Recommendations.
I haven't been sick or had any major injuries. I neither found nor lost religion. Nobody close to me has died, gone missing, or been imprisoned. I didn't gain or lose any large sums of money or assets. I owned neither property nor land. I didn't become fluent in any new languages. I haven't learned how to grow vegetables, or figured out how to consistently keep plants alive.
I feel like I have been several different people over the last decade. My values and principles have evolved. I used to want to change the world; now I want to leave no trace. I went from being infatuated with the tech industry, to despising it. I went from a wide-eyed naive Google intern to an opponent of surveillance capitalism and advocate for decentralised social media. I stopped obsessively writing paper journals, went through a social media oversharing phase, then started logging all kinds of stuff on my own website. I went from hating coffee to loving it (via a drinking it sweet and milky phase). For a while I enjoyed and was very good at being in charge, organising, coordinating things, running the show. Now I prefer to be behind the scenes or watching from the sidelines, invisible, unknown. I met several people who changed the course of my life in very discernible ways, and countless others who influenced and moved me more subtly. I committed to only buying secondhand material things (2010), became vegan (2014) and swore off flying (2018). I adopted a homeless parrot (2010), who moved to Scotland with me (2011), then was left in the care of other people when I moved to the US (2015). I dreaded my hair and shaved it all off. I went from being afraid to travel, to jetting around the world for academic conferences, to giving away everything and living out of a backpack for 4 years (and counting). I went from loving winter to needing the sun. I went from deep attachment to places and things to shedding it all and itching to keep moving. I overcommitted, overachieved, multitasked, got involved in everything; burnt out, and built myself back up focussing on one thing at a time, expecting nothing, promising nothing. I learnt to love to be alone.
All around me, the world has changed, and stayed the same. Everywhere I have travelled, things are samesame but different.
I have nothing profound to say. Who and where will I be in another ten years? It doesn't matter.
Since travelling is at the forefront of my mind, and what I have the most comprehensive records of, I made some charts about it. Maybe in ten years, I'll make charts about different things.
New countries by year
From August 10 2009 to August 10 2020. Colour scheme is by continent, you can figure that out.
2009
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2011
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2014
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2015
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2016
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2017
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2018
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2019
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2020
Flights per year
From August 10 2009 to August 10 2020.
Icons of the exact same colour are part of the same trip. Shades of blue are work/conferences; shades of red and orange are leisure; shades of purples are work and leisure combined; shades of green are specifically to visit family or friends or to fulfil social obligations.
(Holy crap I flew a lot. The first flight in the chart, on the first day of my 20th year in 2009, was the first flight of my life, so this represents all 106 flights I've ever taken. I'd never have guessed that number if you'd asked me to estimate.)
I was born in a hospital, but since then I've spent almost no time in one. Until Wednesday this week, when I achieved lots of exciting medical firsts. Don't worry, I'm healthy! Which is exactly why I'm finding out if I'm eligible as a kidney donor. I had blood taken for the very first time.. and then the second, third, fourth and fifth times. In between I was injected with something radioactive (GFR tests, to measure kidney function). I had a chest x-ray, an ultrasound (confirmed: I have two kidneys! Good to get that one checked before they bother with the rest), an ECG (when they stick little pads with wires attached all over you, and the output is a printed chart with squiggles on), gave them a urine sample, and tons of blood work. Besides finding out immediately that I had the right amount of kidneys, I'll get the results in a couple of weeks. In between blood tests I read a book in the sun in the hospital garden, which was very pleasant.
For the first blood test, I was helpfully distracted after they found out it was my first ever time having blood taken. Later on I found it more helpful to look at the needle than look away, so when it stung or ached I could see why (in one case, because she was wiggling it around a lot). It was also interesting to see the different ways different people took the blood. I have no idea why this is. One time, the person wiggled the needle a lot and pumped the uh.. the thing where the blood goes, and it took quite a while. The next time, a different person stuck the needle in a slightly different place and it spurted out really fast and was done in a couple of seconds.
Two days later, my right arm which had two needles in is bruised around the vein and a bit tender, and my left arm which had 4 needles is much less bruised. Not sure what variable causes that.
The sort of scariest part of this is that I might find out I have some condition or internal fault that I had no idea about til now.
The process is coordinated by someone with the job title 'Live Donor Coordinator', who is in charge of making sure the donors are well and of sound mind and that donating is the right thing for them to do. My one is very friendly and reassuring. They're very picky about taking healthy kidneys out of healthy people and won't do it if there's even the slightest chance of something going wrong.
I thought I'll post about this process, which lasts months, since it's a pretty novel experience for most people.
Arrived in Edinburgh! The sun graced me briefly with its presence. Haggis and tattie scone roll from Snax, doughnuts from ConsiderIt, pizza from Sora Lella. A warm but grey run across the Meadows to Holyrood and back.
ConsiderIt doughnuts and chips powered a 5.5 mile walk along the coast, from Portobello to Prestonpans. Curry from Noor in the evening, followed by spontaneous knitting/crochet circle..
That feeling when you're in a non-hierarchical co-op and you've been given a mandate to do something that potentially affects everyone and there's no-one to sign off or approve it. No-one to defer to. You just have to decide how you're doing it and get on with it. It's good but also scary.
I made some tiny mermaid themed shoes, and delivered them and the mandala shawl to their intended recipient, who giggled at them, kicked the shoes off at once, sucked on the shawl's picots, and everything fit perfectly :D
I love wearing a facemask. Keeps my nose cosy and warm (important in Scotland), and nobody can recognise me! Bonus: went running by the canal the other day and didn't swallow a single midge.
Crochet cafetiere cosy from two different squares from thelavenderchair.com. They were super fun to make, I learnt new stitches like drop hdc/dc/tr and ways to combine basic stitches that are really pretty, and I got better at corners. I slip stitched them together along one edge, and then all the way around, and attached tiny poppers (clumsily, sewing is not my strong suite) to hold it in place around the handle. It keeps the coffee warm!
Propped up the Edinburgh vegan takeaway scene to the best of my ability. Ate amazing food from Seeds for the Soul, Biff's Jack Shack, Black Rabbit, ConsiderIt, Holy Cow.
I found a really nice flat to rent in Scotland and called to arrange a viewing and it was already taken over the weekend. Then I looked at a tenancy application form which has many questions about address history I can't answer helpfully and remembered about utilities and internet and stuff and now I'm lowkey stressed out about the whole concept of renting in the UK and yeah, moving once a month between hostels and short term lets in the Balkans is vastly preferable.
Seven and a half mile walk along the best part of the East Lothian coast (GPS trace, from Seton Sands to Gullane Point. Very windy, but no rain. The beaches are epic. (Then pizza from Sora Lella.)
Misc Edinburgh from just over two weeks in Bruntsfield and Newington. This place still takes my breath away, in all weathers. Featuring Holyrood Park, the Meadows, the Union Canal, random bits around town. Food from Seeds for the Soul, many ConsiderIt doughnuts, Biff's Jack Shack, Holy Cow, Black Rabbit, Sora Lella, Noor, Beetroot Sauvage (that vegan fried egg!!)..
I made more mandala squares and slip stitched them together in two pairs. Then went back and forth lengthways to make them into hand warmers, with shells on the ends. All improv, but worked pretty well! They're kind of chunky, so good for winter. A present for J.
Got results back to say my kidneys and other relevant body parts function as they should, and I'm the best blood type, so in principle I'm eligible as a kidney donor. Still more stages of tests to do though.
Read Good Omens.
Watched The Endless which was actually better than expected and has.. layers.. so I want to watch it again.
Back on the train down to Lincolnshire, reunited with Dave and J!
You know that feeling when you're on top of everything and know exactly what needs to be done but when you open a text editor (or whatever the tool is you need to work) it all sort of dissipates?
The sun just came out, pointed itself right at my face. I can't see my computer screen any more, so this is a win all round. I'll just be basking until it goes away again.
I went on some nice evening flat Lincolnshire runs. I taught J chain and single crochet, and by the next day she was churning out masterpieces. I made the cat butt coaster, for my brother.
It has been amazing to have J cooking for us for a couple of weeks. We were treated to vegan Japanese feasts, night after night. Aubergine with miso sauce, inari, fried tofu in shiitake sauce, mapo tofu, Japanese curry, okonomiyaki, nikoman, yaki udon, and more.
I chipped in a few times with doughnuts, apple cake, lemon drizzle cake, hummus, lasagne, pasta, curry.
Chips on the beach at Sutton-on-Sea. My chips were from Alford, because both Sutton-on-Sea chippies cook in beef dripping and are aggressive about it when people express their unhappiness with this on TripAdvisor (partly because one also offers a lot of veg*n options but still cook them in beef dripping and don't seem to see a problem with this).
I spent as much time as possible in my dinosaur onesie, and J thinks this is kawaii. So I made her a tiny version of myself to take back to Japan. It's been a while - years - since I did amigurumi and then I only dabbled. The dino was quite complicated but I followed a fantastic video at ClubCrochet and it took about 2 hours (twice as long as the video).
Did lots of internal Co-op work but not really enough OCDS work.
Read Trading in Danger and The Girl With All The Gifts. Enjoyed both. Surprised by the former, as it so starkly contrasts with all of the Becky Chambers stuff.
One thing I love about travelling on a monthly cadence is that if I stay in a place that is unpleasant or uncomfortable or annoying in some way, it doesn't matter cos I'm not there for long. So I'm thrilled to find Scotland have encoded this in their tenancy laws! There's no minimum lease period now, you just pay one month's rent ahead and have to give 28 days notice. This is so empowering for tenants, and makes flat hunting a lot less stressful.
Have I mentioned how beautiful Edinburgh is?! Of course the sun only came out on the days I had to stay inside and work, but I did manage to have lunch and go for a run around Holyrood.
Breakfasts from bbl (who have an amazing vegan deli these days) and doughnuts from ConsiderIt.
We must send so much information to the letting agency, enough to steal our identities! And it's so complicated to get it all together. Oh and money too. More money! And it's urgent!! Send it right now!!!
And they will send the tenancy agreement "shortly" (hours ago, still waiting). The electrical and gas safety certificates are "to follow" (days ago, still waiting). Oh and by the way they don't work on Fridays or at the weekend, or after 5pm.
Made seitan from vital wheat gluten and gram flour. Krispie cakes with stale cocopops (these are vegan now apparently), choc chip muffins (not pictured), miso soup, inari, maki..
Had to call the bank (HSBC) yesterday. Did all the security clearances and stuff. Extra ones cos I don't call often and had forgotten most super secret codes.
"Is it Miss or Mrs?"
"Uh.. Dr."
"Okay then. Next we just need to... can I call you Miss or Mrs?"
"............ you can call me Amy?"
The operative did proceed to call me Amy after that, but I'm even in the banks records as Dr (finally). Anyway can we just normalise gender neutral and not-marital-status-related honorifics please? Or just like, names. Which is what they're for.
I'm gonna be in and out of APConf today and tomorrow, starting in a couple of hours. While the live video bits are full, the talks are all prerecorded and available to anyone, and there's chat on SocialHub that everyone can join in with as well.
I'm extremely multitasking so won't be 100% available but do feel free to ping me or loop me into any conversations you think I might be interested in and I'll do my best to keep on top of things.
I got a letter from my electricity provider addressed to "Ms". The letting agent had passed on my details to them, and I had only ever given the letting agent "Dr". I wonder where in the chain it got mixed up. I wonder what it'd be like if I had a more gender-neutral first name?
Moved to Fife. Settling in with some sunny days and rainy days by the sea. Nice beach walks, Enjoyed the Friday market and zero-waste store Grain & Sustain.
Started and finished Victory Conditions; started Cold Welcome.
Went to Edinburgh with two backpacks of stuff. Picked up some more household donations/lendings from K&M and moved into a flat by the sea in Kirkcaldy.
Took part in #apconf; did a live Q&A after the prerecorded keynote panel about the history of ActivityPub which was fun, as well as listened/joined in with some of the ad-hoc sessions.
Went to Edinburgh to pick up vegan deli not-meants from bbl, more house stuff from K&M, and my wee brother from the train station.
Not a very productive week work-wise; had a migraine and lots of life admin and new-flat stuff.
A big essentials shop at a local zero-waste store costs more than twice as much as the same at my nearest big supermarket. I am happy pay to try to break the cycle of plastic, and to support a small local business instead of massive chains, but it's still infuriating. And I'm grateful to have a local zero-waste store in the first place. But ugh. Fix it, world.
Dave and I took our laptops to the rocks at Seafields for a bit. It was nice for a while but not long before we were rained off. We could see the cloud looming from a way off so we managed to pack up before we got wet. It rained on us on the walk home, then was sunny again by the time we got back. Obviously.
Later we tested our local chippy and found it excellent.
My ostensibly local and quite expensive fruit and veg box arrived, along with a loooot of plastic. Disappointing. I can't seem to find a greengrocer anywhere near me in Kirkcaldy. Might be going to Burntisland for veg at this rate..
Dave and I hiked from Kirkcaldy to the Wemyss Caves and back. It was a gorgeous day. Dysart and West Wemyss are seriously cute. We saw lots of seals basking in the sun, and met a nice cat. There are gorgeous smooth sand and craggy rock beaches, as well as multiple castles en route. In the Wemyss Caves are 1500 year old Pictish rock carvings. We found one, but will need the guided tour for the rest. We got ice cream and chips in East Wemyss and limped home, after 16 miles in total (GPS).
Walked to Dysart through Ravenscraig to buy furniture. Slight furniture moving accident requiring bandages for my thumb. Thankful to tolerant bus drivers who let us on with a desk and a bedside cabinet.
Then a walk to the other side of Kirkcaldy to pick up a Freegle desk, which it turned out we also could not carry home; more bus driver gratitude necessary.
Still more moving house admin to do, somehow.
New lockdown restrictions in place in Scotland, but the more severe ones don't apply to Fife.
Not got a lot of work done (blaming house moving).
Spent waaaay too much money, on secondhand furniture (just the bare minimum really) and grocery stocking up. At least I came in under budget for the past few months so I have some leeway.
Made handwarmers, which Dave promptly borrowed and stretched.
Brief trip to Edinburgh to meet some geese, see friends, and get hauls from New Leaf, Starlight, and the bbl vegan deli. On the way I stopped at Burntisland for more things from Grain and Sustain.
It's not very often I have a cooking disaster so complete as to render something inedible, but today I reached into my cupboard of unlabelled jars of white powder and tried to thicken my creamy mushroom and not-bacon sauce with bicarbonate of soda instead of cornflour, and let me tell you folks, not recommended.
A nice Freegler offered me some things I need, but was in Glenrothes. Glenrothes is only one stop on the train, and right next to the Lomond Hills, so I thought I'd make a day of it and go for a hike before picking up the stuff. But also it turns out Glenrothes doesn't have a central station, but is in between two that are quite far from town.
Dave and I started the hike at Markinch station; one hour to the Pitcairn Center which was the 'real' start of the hike. We walked through woods and fields and ascended East Lomond (aka Falkland Hill). It was perfect hiking weather; overcast and not to warm and not too cold, and all the beautiful autumn colours are out. There were some people dressed as knights filming swordfights in the carpark near the base of East Lomond, and a few small families out for a hike as well.
We descended the steep way, and made a loop back to the Pitcairn Center, with only a slight detour off the trail through some bushes. This took three and a half hours, which was longer than I expected.
Then we marched south for another hour, around Glenrothes town center, to pick up our Freegle items (and met a nice doggo called Duncan). Fortunately nothing heavy. After that it was just 45 minutes back along a cycle path to Markinch for the train home.
The hike itself was perfect, but the extras at the beginning and end totally wore us out; 17 miles in total. GPS trace here.
I made myself some handwarmers, which Dave promptly borrowed and stretched. So I made Dave some handwarmers. He wanted fingers on his too which is quite fiddly. Good use of small scraps of yarn.
I borrowed a chromecast, but it turns out these days you need a mobile app to set it up, and the app can't proceed without allowing google access to your location.
(Last time I used one - many years ago - you just used a browser addon and the same wifi network..)
So uh.. An HDMI cable will do just fine then I guess.
My Mum is a big slow-cooker user, but it's something I never picked up. I've got one at the moment, so I'm trying it out. But I love the hands-on-ness of cooking, so I keep wanting to check on my stew, poke it with a spoon, etc..
My brother keeps complaining that I won't let him have cling film, but doesn't seem keen on the compromise I offered: he can use cling film, but when he's done with it instead of throwing it away he has to keep it all in his room forever.
My brother says he can't tell the difference between when I'm "off work" and when I'm "working" which I suppose means I have my life-work balance about right.
(I think it's come as a surprise to him quite how much I actually procrastinate.)
A walk from Kirkcaldy to Dysart through Ravenscraig, followed by some lounging on the vast damp expanse of Kirkcaldy beach, and lunch and a Nice Sit Down in a good chair at Anderson's cafe.
I'm psyching myself up for nanowrimo by reading the nanowrimo tag on my site.
I'm planning to write something altogether new this year. Some proper scifi. The frustrating thing is I did a bunch of character and setting brainstorming a few months ago I'm sure on paper and I can't find a trace of it. I usually photograph or type up things from notebooks before I throw them away and I've looked everywhere. Guess I'm starting that over.
For tonight's entertainment my brother shaved the back and sides of my head with his beard trimmers. Seems pretty much fine. Only I made the rookie error of not covering my clothes. I have tried to vacuum the hair out of my trousers but it is impossible.
A dear wish of mine is for Grain & Sustain to stock BBL vegan deli 'meats' and to get a peanut grinder so I don't have to go all the way to New Leaf in Edinburgh for peanut butter. Then my new life in Fife will be complete.
Misc homemade food from the last month. Bosnian grah and somun (not quite right but pretty close); Japanese curries; slowcooker stew; comfort foods... pizza, seitan doner kebab, mac 'n' cheese, chips, pancakes; chickpea flour omelette; bean burgers and homemade bread..
Woke up at sunrise cos the clocks went back. In the afternoon I ran from Kirkcaldy to Pettycur Bay with a pause to look at the pretty town of Kinghorn (GPS trace). Rain threatened ominously, but actually held off. Some brisk wind and some warm sun. Really nice trail.
It's TPAC breakout week! I'm sad we can't do TPAC in person, but excited that I can join some sessions and some random IRC watercooler channels and imagine I'm seeing everyone around.
Toasted sandwich presses are my favourite kitchen appliance that I could absolutely never justify buying (because basically the same effect can be achieved with some combination of one or more of toaster, microwave, grill which I usually have access to), though I have chosen short-term accommodation purely based on presence of a sandwich press. Anyway some kind Freegle soul gave me one today. My life is complete, I need nothing more.
I am absolutely floored by the Ethical Web and Consentful Communications panels at TPAC. I hope the recordings are easily available cos there are so many people I want to share these with. Visions of hope for a better Web!
Another hike from Kirkcaldy to the Wemyss Caves, this time with an extra leg to Buckhaven. We did a guided tour of the Caves by a member of the Save Wemyss Caves Society which was super interesting in terms of ancient and local history. Learnt both about the Picts, and the local gangs..
A run to Seafields (GPS trace) and some time sitting on the nearby beaches when the sun was out. Becoming convinced Fife has its own microclimate, although you've gotta take the opportunities when the clouds part cos they most certainly do not last.
When I'm at IRL W3C face-to-face meetings my dreams are full of the participants every night for like a week, and it took longer to get started but turns out online ones are the same.
I have really enjoyed the DID WG not-face-to-face meetings this week. I still feel pretty lost in most of this, but looking back to almost two years ago when this started, I have learnt so much about so many topics I wasn't expecting to ever know anything about because of this work. I appreciate everyone in this group.
Unending gratitude to manu and others at Digital Bazaar for supporting me - financially, educationally and emotionally - to work in this stuff in the first place.
(It's been challenging at times, but not as emotionally fraught or generally stressful as the Social Web WG was. Maybe most of that is because I've grown since then, though, and also because it hasn't consumed my entire life like SWWG did..)
My brother walked in on me draining some chickpeas I'd left to soak so I took the opportunity to explain to him the various exciting properties of aquafaba and he nodded and smiled and backed away saying "...I'll just leave you to your alchemy."
Attended the DID Working Group not-face-to-face meetings (a good time!).
Fell ever further behind on nanowrimo, but kept plugging away.
Invested in a bike helmet and lock...
...went cycling! With some random friendly locals, during a torrential downpour (not really random, it was a Greener Kirkcaldy community bike ride, but I was the only one who showed up).
Attended a Social Web Incubator CG meeting and got some stuff done for a vocab collaboration with the DID WG.
Hike along the beach from Leven to Upper Largo, then inland, up Largo Law which was a slippery muddy vertical lurch. Said hi to sheeps on top. The sun came out at the perfect time, then disappeared for good. Lundin Links and the Largos are really cute. Nice beaches, cute holiday cottages. Lots of golf courses. GPS trace.
In recent weeks I'm getting slightly more interested in... stuff... tech stuff. And feeling more able to take things on than I have in long time. I think this means I might actually be recovering from the Great Burnout of 2017?
But hard to test, because I'm also taking a bunch of holiday from my day job this month, and I haven't had to think about travelling/travel planning since August, so maybe that has freed up some areas of my brain that were busier than I realised before.
Walked to Burntisland from Kirkcaldy (GPS trace) the back way. I was scoping it out as a cycle route, but the last third is completely inaccessible to a bike (at least with my level of ability) even when the paths aren't completely flooded (which they were). Stopped for a nice lunch at The Fix, and wrote for a bit, then picked up groceries from Grain & Sustain. Train home with a full backpack.
The caravan behind my flat got set on fire at midnight. Photos show the plume of smoke shortly after 6 firepeople put it out. I was too slow to capture the tower of flame.
Reading about the Bosnian elections is inexplicably making me homesick for the Balkans. It's all the random pictures of Sarajevo and little mountain towns I guess. It's nice that something positive in politics might be happening somewhere in the world, anyway, for a change.
As the family 'computer person' I just spent 2 hours trying to help someone with a mail merge and JFC it's so hard?! Even with purely google tools. I can't believe things haven't moved on since I last knew how to do this, in the early 00s.
Misc sunrises from my window. This week has had bright clear mornings and rainy grim rest-of-days.
Except for Thursday, which was clear all day, though freezing, and in the evening the sky and sea were vivid, almost glowing. I've never seen it so intense.
Between us, Dave and I have made various tasty pasta, noodle and rice dishes over the past few weeks. Dave is also getting into making 'omelettes' with chickpea flour.
I made a keto-friendly cauliflower rice dish with tofu and almond sauce.
We both made bread, and Dave's was way better than mine even though it was the first time he ever made it and had to sub in some wholemeal flour cos we ran out of white. We used the bread for burgers, sandwiches, and with soup.
I made a chocolate cake with blackberry coconut frosting.
Just enough rice leftover for a sushi roll yesterday lunchtime (and a Gregg's not-sausage roll, the two best rolls).
Walked to Burntisland today along the coastal path to pick up supplies from Grain & Sustain. Rain swept along the coast at one point, but timed it (totally on purpose of course) so that it was going in the opposite direction to us and we just passed through it for a few minutes. Almost got wet feet on the tramp across Burntisland's enormous beach. Then, because it's Sunday and the train schedule is silly, also walked back. Glad to have Dave along to carry the groceries. A lovely sunset and bright moon. GPS trace, 12 miles total.
Weather was all over the place this week, so no long walks but a few nearby beachwanderings.
Less brain fog than I've felt in a long time.
Persuaded Dave to make bread for the first time ever and it was better than any bread I have ever made. I made a cake.
Wrote more javascript than is probably healthy:
to fix bugs and add features to Credentials CG minutes publishing infrastructure;
to help a friend send multiple hundreds of emails under a set of bizarre constraints for her job, using google appscript;
to fix/update some DID spec respec plugins.
Some DID spec editorial work.
Thinking about policies and mitigations about redundancy, for the Co-op (the idea is to get this sorted before we need it, rather than suddenly having to deal with it in a time of crisis).
Irretrievably behind on nanowrimo, but had some nice short writing sessions, including on the beach.
An afternoon sitting on the rocks at Seafields with my notebook for nanowrimo. Saw and heard lots of birds, and very few humans. Stayed until I was too cold to write.
A walk through the woods in Beveridge Park, and out to Raith Lake, where again I sat and scribbled until my fingers froze.
Continually impressed by and grateful for the presence of the sun here, even if it's only for a few hours a day.
Dave and I collaborated on bread this week: he did the kneading, I did the rest. Turned out well. Also made burgers from my homemade seitan, and fried it for spicy tacos. Also pictured: roasted veggies with peanut sauce and rice; tantan pho (no questions please, I didn't have ramen) with miso soup and spring rolls.
I helped out with a beach clean in Burntisland this morning, and got one heavy bag of rubbish after 2 hours. The Burntisland beach is immense and gorgeous, so it was a good opportunity to explore it more while the tide was out. I got out to the Black Rock for the first time. Got very wet feet, and there are lots of sinkholes. It was beautiful day.
I met strange tiny sand aliens, who were waving their little arms, waiting for the sea to come back for them..
Dave caught up with me later. We had lunch at The Fix, picked up groceries from Grain & Sustain, then walked around the port a bit while we waited for the train back.
Dave requested a pie this evening so I made one with a cat on it. Look I never claimed to be a pastry artist.
It has red onions, garlic, mushrooms, enoki, brown lentils and tvp inside. We ate it with chips and gravy. Pie prep time vs pie eating time is grossly out of balance.
I have been nominated to stand in the 2020 election to the W3C TAG. If you're a W3C AC representative, you can vote here. Please consider ranking me favourably!
I grew up alongside the Web, and have never known the world without it. Early tinkering with HTML and CSS shaped the course of my life and became a formative part of how I interacted with the world. It is deeply important to me to see the Web move forward as a positive force, and to push back against the surveillance, manipulation, and abuse that are routine across many parts of the Web today.
I hold a PhD in Informatics from the University of Edinburgh, with a visiting year at MIT. My thesis builds on my personal experiences with online communities; I researched self-expression on the Web and how interconnected social and technical systems support or impede online interactions. At the same time, I helped shape the future of the social Web through co-editing and implementing several specifications of the W3C Social Web Working Group. I also spent a year and a half as the Working Group's Team Contact, which familiarised me with W3C processes and politics.
I spent the years since developing software to support openness and transparency for public good. I have worked with investigative journalists and open data activists, facilitating the efforts of civil society groups, governments, and the private sector internationally. I continue this work as a Director of Open Data Services Co-operative, building and maintaining tools that use the Web to promote civic use of data and fight corruption worldwide. I also work with Digital Bazaar on Web standards related to decentralisation, with the goal of enabling a foundational layer of technologies to support individual agency on the Web.
These experiences at the intersection of civic work and cutting edge standards development give me a unique perspective to bring to the TAG. There is no need for trade-offs between participation and privacy, or between community and autonomy, when building empowering Web technologies. My strengths lie in listening to input from a range of perspectives, discerning the common grounds on which to move forwards, and turning consensus into concrete specification text.
The TAG has a great record over recent years of promoting security, privacy, and accessibility as core parts of Web architecture. These are a foundation upon which to build a better Web, but we need to do more. What good is an accessible Web if it is used to spread misinformation and hate speech? Our efforts around privacy are eroded if our digital legacies can disappear overnight because it's not profitable to keep them around. What of the algorithmic discrimination that can have disastrous effects on individuals and communities?
The TAG is positioned to have a broad oversight of W3C standards: how the products of different Working Groups fit together in the wider context of society, international cultural norms, and legislation. We must use this perspective to ensure W3C members empower, rather than disenfranchise, people who use the Web.
As a member of the TAG, I will push for a future for the Web where access and participation are based on meaningful consent. I want to see Web standards work which enables viable alternatives, context-sensitive experiences, and the ability to opt out without missing out.
"I started working with Amy in 2014 as a fellow participant in the Social Web Working Group. Her insight, thoughtfulness, and the quality of her work impressed me enough that I pushed for her to come to MIT as a visiting scholar and eventually to join the W3C team for a time. She is capable and tenacious when it matters, while always being a team player. Most importantly, she never forgets the human side of technical work and the vision of how the web can help the world."
— Sandro Hawke
"[...] Amy's platform shares in a growing zeitgeist (sadly, still in the wispiest of stages) of thinking and reframing from the perspective of user empowerment, privacy, safety, agency, autonomy. Amy's platform reminds me of RFC 8890: The Internet Is For End Users. That's a perspective shift we desperately need right now... for the internet and the web both. [...]" (read more)
— Chris Webber
"I got to know Amy during her PhD studies at Edinburgh, and have stayed in touch since then. She's passionate, articulate, a developer and a campaigner. The TAG is the guardian of both the technical and social
universality of the Web: Amy's technical experience and professional commitment to social responsibility are a perfect fit."
— Henry Thompson, University of Edinburgh
"I have no hesitation in supporting Amy's nomination. As a current fellow WG member and former colleague when we were both on the Team together, I know she brings exceptional skill, knowledge and passion for the Web. Her interests encompass the whole of the Web, both inside and outside the browser, across both technical and social issues; in short: just the kind of person to serve on the TAG."
— Phil Archer, GS1
"Based on my experience working with Amy in the Social Web WG I believe the TAG will benefit from Amy's participation. She listens to all sides with an open mind before forming an opinion and can help drive decision making by clearly capturing and presenting the various options at hands. Amy has a strong background in Web technologies and will be a great addition to the TAG."
— Arnaud Le Hors, IBM
"Amy walks the talk of privacy. Yes, she has been a fabulous editor in my working groups. Yes, she is good at everything she says in her position statement. But on top of all that, she truly acts on her convictions, which will add an experience-based grounding to TAG privacy conversations."
— Dan Burnett, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
"I fully support Amy's nomination to the TAG. She has consistently demonstrated both strong interest and effort in using her wealth of Web-technology knowledge and experience to ensure W3C specifications meet the high bar expected of international standards. She commands her considerable skills with grace, diligence, and respect in a way that
would be considered an asset to any team."
— Dave Longley, Digital Bazaar
"Amy Guy has been instrumental in driving critical work forward in the W3C working groups I have had the opportunity of working on with her. Her knowledge of the web and the ability to bring coherence to open
standards work are valuable. I fully support her nomination to the TAG."
— Kaliya Young, Identity Woman, Co-Founder Internet Identity Workshop
"When I found out Amy Guy was running for the TAG, my immediate reaction was, 'The TAG would be SO lucky to have her.' Working side-by-side with her on the Decentralized Identifiers spec, I have found her knowledge,
diligence, patience, perseverance, and humor to be a joy. She is also hands down the best scribe on the WG. And she cares very deeply about the future of the Web (and the planet)."
— Drummond Reed, Evernym
"Having worked with Amy in multiple community and working groups at the W3C and the likes over the past couple of years, I've come to know her as an incredibly valuable member wherever she is present. Amy consistently demonstrates passion, a great depth of knowledge and a commitment to continuing to make the web a better place. For those
reasons I fully support her nomination to the TAG."
— Tobias Looker, Mattr
"I support Amy's nomination. I enjoy working with Amy, and am regularly astounded by her productivity related to W3C standards. In particular, she has an unmatched ability to cover a high volume of small changes which add up to major improvements in readability. It's rare to encounter someone with the ability to move between high level definitions and use case and low level technical details so effortlessly."
— Orie Steele, Transmute
"Amy Guy would be perfect for the TAG. She contributed extensively to several Working Groups that will be most relevant to the web and society in the coming decades. She is well respected for her technical expertise as well as her leadership abilities for solving problems and reaching consensus. She has broad knowledge and perspectives on how different web technologies fit together beyond the boundaries of any single building block."
Stuffed portobello mushrooms with mac'n'not-cheese, then later with Japanese rice, topped with smoked tofu and stir fry veggies. A hearty barley, lentil and vegetable stew. Chocolate fudge cake with cherries.
Homemade crumpets! Finally. Flour, water, salt, yeast, bicarbonate of soda; a strong beating of the batter, and 15 minute rise. They tasted great, but aren't as bubbly as I'd like. I might try skipping the yeast and adding a little vinegar to react with the bicarb - because my banana pancakes have bicarb and lemon juice in and they always bubble a lot. I was surprised at how easily they came out of the ring once cooked mostly through.
I hope that many people are learning an important lesson about relying on centralised services just now.
The tragedy is the people, real humans, who depend on this shit for their livelihoods. People who are paid by the row for data entry into a google spreadsheet, who need every cent from each youtube view, people who miss crucial email queries to their small business. No tech company should be so ingrained, have that much power.
It's easy, tempting even, for us decentralisation / free software nerds to say ha! Serves you right. But most people who depend on bigtech never had any meaningful choice in the matter. A great many people are working to change that.
If you're inspired today to look for alternatives to google services, check out ethical.net.
Puppy-sat Lowenna. She is a demon, purest evil incarnate. Also adorable. She's quite well behaved, except when she wants to rip me limb from limb. She also wakes up in the night for pee and needs cuddling back to sleep. Nice for a while, but glad I don't do this full time.
Greener Kirkcaldy community bike ride along the promenade, was a nice breath of fresh air. (It's hard to make myself go out on my bike, so making myself go to things like this is good.)
Made a little unplanned trip to Edinburgh, which felt like a scary big city compared to Fife. I'm feeling very attached to Kirkcaldy at the moment, which is a strange feeling I have not had in a long long while.
My brother and I have now lived together long enough that our brains have completely synchronised and we have started saying the same thing at the same time regularly.
Along the Fife Coastal Path from Inverkeithing to Burntisland. A beautiful coastline, incredible views, and ending with a truly spectacular sunset. Who said December in Scotland had to be grim?
Portabello pies, taco bar, udon, homemade bean and seitan burgers, broccoli and snap pea soup, mince pies (Mum's homemade mincemeat, my homemade pastry; an approximation of custard without any of the right ingredients), a roast with gravy and bbl not-meats, a fryup also with bbl not-meats, dahl, Earthy baked camembert..
