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.
My favourite modern conveniences are hands down toastie makers and underfloor heating.
(I have neither right now but had both recently and I miss them.)
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.
Arrived in Sarande, a seaside town that is quiet at least at this time of year. Explored the area, sat by the sea, ate Albanian food at te Beoua.
A walk up to Lekursi Castle with views over Sarande and towards Ksamil.
JavaScript variable scoping will be the death of me.
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.
Ooooh I'm close enough to Greece again that cafes have freddo espresso.
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.
I'm going hiking without my laptop for a couple of days, back on Friday.
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.
I took many more photos than those in this post.
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.
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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:
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.
In reply to: https://www.albaniandailynews.com/index.php?idm=40429&mod=2
Albania has banned walking outside after 6pm? Apart from just making people stay inside more, I don't really get it. But uhh sure. Everything is fine.
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!
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.
Sometimes you just need spicy rice for breakfast.
(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..
I really want ramen but I don't want to buy individually packaged single-portions of noodles. What do?
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:
Food is so good.
Booking.com auto emails saying "[destination] is calling your name!" that used to come at least once a day have now stopped, which is good of them.
