border-2
type: Note
content: 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.
published: 2020-06-29T19:35:00+02:00
tag: coronavirus
tag: albania
tag: travel
tag: covid19
tag: greece
tag: life

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: 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. Made food..
name: Week in review: 15 - 21 June
published: 2020-06-21T23:59:59+02:00
tag: ods
tag: nodejs
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: albania
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: life
tag: hacking

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: An up and down week of not knowing whether or not the Greek border will open for Albania. Getting frustrated at nodejs. Tinkered a bit with sloph posting apps. Crocheted a lot. I can do a chainless foundation row now! Easily? I couldn't do this before. Did it with a half double crochet. Realised I can just make doughnuts. Made them twice. So good. Can't believe I never did this before. Watched/rewatched Man From Earth, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moneyball... Stargate. Swam in the sea. It got really really hot. ... i dunno, i lose track. my brain is fried.
name: Week in review: 22 - 28 June
published: 2020-06-28T23:59:59+02:00
tag: ods
tag: nodejs
tag: hacking
tag: travel
tag: albania

border
type: Note
content: 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..
in reply to: border-2
published: 2020-07-01T07:33:00+02:00
tag: albania
tag: travel
tag: greece

border-2
type: Note
content: I don't want to jinx it but ~ there's a rumour ~ that they're letting people across the border anyway today so apparently we're gonna try?!
in reply to: border
published: 2020-07-01T10:37:00+02:00
tag: travel
tag: albania
tag: greece

border-3
type: Note
content: Still in Albania. 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.
in reply to: border-2
published: 2020-07-02T12:00:00+02:00
tag: coronavirus
tag: travel
tag: albania
tag: greece

overstaying
type: Article
content: 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…
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Overstaying in Albania
published: 2020-07-31T15:01:48+01:00
tag: travel
tag: albania
tag: sarande
tag: lockdown
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: tourism
tag: castle
tag: beach

storm
type: Note
content: 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.
published: 2020-07-05T10:49:00+02:00
tag: albania
tag: weather
tag: travel
tag: life

week-in-review
type: Article
content: Packed up and cleaned my flat. Roadtripped to the Greek border.. and back again. Unpacked. Had a little jaunt with Albanian police thanks to walking past the buses with my backpack. Came to nothing. Not a very productive week; a bit of nodejs. Attended most of the DID WG remote face-to-face. Swam in the sea.. Still a heatwave. Did paddleboard yoga. Enjoyed a storm at last. Made more doughnuts. A bit of hacking on sloph apps. Watched Shanghai Fortress and Big Fish.. and Stargate.
name: Week in review: 29 June - 5 July
published: 2020-07-05T23:59:59+02:00
tag: hacking
tag: albania
tag: yoga
tag: life
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Finished the terrible merlin book. Didn't have to move flats at the end of the week; small stress removed. Started S3 of Dark. Went to Ksamil for a morning on the beach. Got my APish food posting client working again. Did nodejs stuff, sadface. Made more doughnuts, burgers, a lemon drizzle, other things... Did paddleboard yoga.
name: Week in review: 6 - 12 July
published: 2020-07-12T23:59:59+02:00
tag: albania
tag: hacking
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: sloph
tag: food
tag: vegan

week-review-13--
type: Article
content: Swam a bunch. Generally trying to make the most of Sarande. Did paddleboard yoga. Went a few times to Salad Farm, especially when home internet went out. Worked from balcony, on OpenActive nodejs stuff. Got some of my ActivityPubish posting clients back up. Refactored a lot of shared functionality into a library (ERH). Made tasty food, including agar agar adventures. Watched lots of Stargate and a whooole bunch of movies.. Almost finished my crochet cardigan. Made plans to leave Albania..
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Week in review: 13 - 19 July
published: 2020-07-19T23:59:59+02:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: hacking
tag: food
tag: week+in+review
tag: ods
tag: albania
tag: nodejs

week-review-20--
type: Article
content: Worked way too much on Open Active. Ups and downs with nodejs. On schedule if nothing explodes in my face, but things keep exploding in my face. Swam a lot, it was really hot again. Ate in Salad Farm a bunch. Jellified a ton of stuff with agar agar. Went into the hills to try to see the comet (didn't though). Baked some good stuff. 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. Also finished attaching sleeves to my crochet cardigan. Hiked up to the Monastery of the 40 Saints for wonderful Sarande views. 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.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Week in review: 20 - 26 July
published: 2020-07-26T23:59:45+02:00
tag: albania
tag: sarande
tag: open+active
tag: crochet
tag: ods
tag: week+in+review
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: hacking
tag: travel

lockdown-balcony
type: Article
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: All the photos I took from my balcony during lockdown
published: 2020-08-03T21:54:01+01:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: lockdown
tag: coronavirus
tag: covid19
tag: albania

vegan-albania
type: Article
content: 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. Skip to: Eating out Groceries Tirana Shkoder Sarandë Përmet The Riviera Gjirokastër 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 wa…
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Vegan in Albania
published: 2020-08-04T12:57:20+01:00
tag: shkoder
tag: permet
tag: gjirokaster
tag: tirana
tag: sarande
tag: albania
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

week-review-27
type: Article
content: Drove to Tirana, then flew back to the UK :( Commenced the last two weeks of my twenties, in government-mandated isolation. Wrote up a post about the 5 months I spent in Albania. Worked on OpenActive Co-op stuff. Enjoyed Friday off as a the whole co-op was closed for a self-care day. Tried to re-engage with DID stuff I've been dropping the ball on lately. Made a nice list of articles by title on my site. Cooked for and hung out with my Mum. Enjoyed the one day of summer. Did some crochet.
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: Week in review: 27 July - 2 August
published: 2020-08-02T22:24:54+01:00
tag: sloph
tag: albania
tag: uk
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: crochet
tag: ods
tag: cooplife
tag: week+in+review
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: life
tag: travel

2020-review
type: Article
content: In 2019 I zigzagged around Europe and even further afield. I thought this year would either be much the same, or completely different. It was completely different - but in an entirely different way than I what I expected. But that was the case for everyone, right? I posted to my site 4,394 times. I posted 6,017 individual photos into 11 different albums. tl;dr Downsized to 35L. Travel stalled. Upsized in order to occupy a part-furnished flat. I was the Best Man at my friend's wedding. Did one Vipassana retreat, in Switzerland. Got trapped by the pandemic for 5 months in Sarandë, Albania. Returned to the UK for multiple reasons, then stayed. Started the process for donating a kidney, but then wasn't needed any more. Decided on something to invest my savings into, but still pending. Read a lot and watched a lot of TV. Stood for election to the W3C TAG. Goals for 2021: Make the most of Fife. Spend time with my IRL friends again, IRL. Try to make myself useful in the local community, and online communities. Words I wrote 345 things. On my site I posted 282 short notes or commentary with photos, and 63 longer articles. I also logged non-blogpost writing 29 times. These all comprise approximately 59,593 words in total (9,010 off-site). That's a mean of 162.82 words and 0.94 posts per day. I wrote about 156 different topics, with the most common being life (122), travel (74), week in review (49), food (40), albania (34), hacking (31), vegan (29), ods (27), coronavirus (27), crochet (24), covid19 (21), and uk (16). My NaNoWriMo project was Dumping Sky. I didn't write anything else, or finish any previous projects. Again. Travel I stopped in an all-time nomadding low of 6 different countries, none of which I had never been to before. A long stay in Albania was a goal I overachieved on, with 149 nights in total. Pre-lockdown I spent 13 nights in Turkey, 2 in Greece, 3 in Bulgaria and 16 in Switzerland (11 of these on a Vipassana meditation retreat). And 177 in the UK by the e…
generator: no-ceremonies-are-necessary
name: 2020 in review
published: 2021-01-04T16:48:28+00:00
tag: travel
tag: life
tag: hacking
tag: week+in+review
tag: cooplife
tag: w3c
tag: https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/2020
tag: covid19
tag: coronavirus
tag: albania
tag: uk
tag: sloph
tag: nanowrimo
tag: zero+waste
tag: quantified+self
tag: digital+nomad
tag: ods
tag: year+in+review

albania
type: Collection
total items: 41

https://rhiaro.co.uk/tags/albania
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items: 2020-review
items: vegan-albania
items: lockdown-balcony
items: week-review-27
items: overstaying
items: week-review-20--
items: week-review-13--
items: week-in-review-2
items: week-in-review
items: storm
items: border-3
items: border-2
items: border
items: week-in-review-4
items: week-in-review-3
name: albania
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