Week in review: 4th - 10th April

Still in covid isolation most of the week; mornings okay, but fatigue hitting like a ton of bricks in the afternoons. Tested negative on Saturday.
Crocheted a tea cosy.
Worked on BODS and Woodland Trust and logistics for May CoGM though. Seem to be more productive with covid than not.
Made ugali, or some approximation thereof, from maize flour.
Had Max for a day.
Then Lowenna for the weekend. Max came to play as well and they are too cute together.
Did loads of work in the gardens, including giving my footpath garden an overhaul with mushroom compost.
Almost caught up with season 2 of Picard and watched a couple more Uncanny Counters. Read a lot of Ender's Shadow.

🏷 life food vegan week in review ods crochet covid coronavirus covid19 health garden lowenna max bods

Sun 10th of April 2022 at 11:59pm (+01:00)

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Week in review: 28th March - 3rd April

Finished The Lefthanded Booksellers of London. Resumed and finished The Overstory; it's a hard read. Started Five Ideas to Fight For but so far that's just making me as mad as twitter does.
Purple sprouting broccoli was ready to harvest when I got back. Two new inside tomatoes have appeared on the scraggly monstrosity I should have kicked out ages ago but didn't.
Covid finally arrived in my life. Presumably from London. Sealed myself in my flat and ordered groceries for delivery like it's 2020.
Worked on planning application document scrapers for Woodland Trust and i18n stuff for BODS.
Crochet slippers are not going well, so sidetracked on a tea cosy and a scarf.
Very sensible episode of the DID Rubric podcast aired.
Cooked and baked some things.
Watched Raya and the Last Dragon, both disney Atlantis movies, and Treasure Planet.
Share offer extended for the co-operatively owned wind farm being built on the West Coast of Scotland. If you're in the UK you should really check it out.

🏷 life food vegan week in review ods crochet covid coronavirus covid19 health ripple environment wind farm lockdown

Sun 3rd of April 2022 at 11:59pm (+01:00)

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rhiaro 2020: I have exactly one 35L backpack of stuff, am attached to none of it, and the idea of more is horrifying.

[ [ pandemic ] ]

rhiaro 2021: would you like to come and look at my collection of oil paintings in the flat that I am renovating?

(I don't actually have a collection of oil paintings.. yet.. I'm thinking about buying a couple though.)

🏷 life digital nomad covid19 coronavirus pandemic

Thu 10th of June 2021 at 10:35am (+01:00)

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It is honestly hilarious how many of the voucher options for taking part in the UK gov's covid test survey thing are for travel! Hotels.com! Eurostar! Lastminute! The list goes on.

🏷 life uk covid19 coronavirus

Tue 5th of January 2021 at 11:12am (+00:00)

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2020 in review

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 end of the year.

I spent 6 nights in total sleeping on public transport (long distance buses). Apart from that I slept in 25 different places. I spent the most time in short-term rental accommodation - in Albania and the UK - which was 246 nights. I stayed with family for 52 nights, friends (including couchsurfing and housesitting) for 34, in Vipassana accommodation for 11 (but moved rooms twice..), hostels for 9 nights, and hotels for 8 nights.

Not the most effective year for travel. I'm pleased I was in Albania in March when the European lockdown hit, because it meant I was stuck in a sunny place, in a nice apartment, right by the sea. I try to avoid touristy hotspots or 'seasonal' towns in the main season, so I was also very privileged to enjoy Sarandë in the middle of summer but without the usual masses of tourists.

After overstaying my Albanian visa, I did make an attempt to get overland to Greece, and considered trying for North Macedonia. But ultimately I finally had to return to the UK; the unpredictable border closures (oh and the rampant coronavirus) meant travelling overland was next to impossible, so I had to fly.

In total I spent 1 month, 1 day, 7 hours, 9 minutes and 25 seconds in transit (this includes walking between places), logging 82 journeys. I took 34 train journeys, 34 local or long-distance bus journeys, shared a rental car 3 times (I didn't log car trips with friends and family), bought metro/tram tickets 3 times, took 2 ferries, 1 cable car, 1 taxi, 1 flight, and bought a bicycle!

When I wasn't on the move, I spent:

7 months, 23 days, 7 hours, 2 minutes, and 46 seconds at home;
1 month, 18 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes, and 10 seconds on an adventure;
22 days, 3 hours, and 12 minutes in a meeting;
10 days, 17 hours, 1 minute, and 21 seconds with logging off;
5 days, 20 hours, 30 minutes, and 19 seconds out getting food;
4 days, 5 hours, 13 minutes, and 8 seconds at an event;
4 days, 4 hours, 6 minutes, and 59 seconds out exercising;
14 hours, 33 minutes, and 36 seconds in my office;
6 hours, 16 minutes, and 31 seconds doing a medical thing;
3 hours, 18 minutes, and 7 seconds in a talk or seminar;
and was out helping with something for 27 minutes, and 5 seconds.

Work

Work hasn't changed much. I still work 3 days a week with Open Data Services Co-operative. I started trying out different patterns of engagement with internal Co-op-running work vs. development / client work and found that if I spent larger blocks of time on each rather than the 50% split each week I function a bit better. I was fortunate to see my colleagues in person in January, because all of our other in-person meetups were cancelled after that. I'm also fortunate that we collectively acted fast to enstate special provisions when lockdown started: including unlimited paid leave for any reason related to the pandemic and a guarantee not to reduce pay or cut jobs for a period of time. We were also fortunate to not have to transition out of an office like many people did, so for a lot of the time it was just business as usual (besides the baseline anxiety we all had).

I also continued to contract approximately one day a week for Digital Bazaar, working on things related to the Decentralized Identifiers Working Group. As last year, this came in bursts. This year though there were no conferences or face-to-face meetings to attend :(

I joined the W3C Inclusion & Diversity Community Group - which I'd been in before, but was booted when my affiliation changed and I forgot to re-join - and went to some meetings. I also started to get active in the Social Web Incubator CG again, and did some infrastructure/admin for the Credentials CG.

Code

Green squares from github

Github counted 946 'contributions'. This was 64% commits, 13% code review, 6% issues and 17% pull requests. I don't see any patterns or anything significant. As usual you can see NaNoWrimo in November.

Stuff

I purchased or otherwise acquired something on 495 occasions, spending a total of approximately €10,653.71. I used 9 different currencies (GBP, USD, ALL, EUR, HRK, CHF, RON, BGN, TRY). This is an average expenditure of €29.11 per day, €204.88 per week, or €887.81 per month.

I spent €5,021.09 on accommodation, and €1,449.62 on transit. I spent €1,557.15 on groceries, buying them 121 times. I bought food that was ready to eat on 147 occasions, spending €1,589.74; 56.5% of the time this was in restaurants and 42.9% to take away.

I gave €465.99 away in donations, or spent it on gifts (but I didn't log this accurately; only occasionally when I gave cash to people on the street, or my Patreon payments which is about $15/month). I stopped counting donations under my monthly budget, so they are not included in the overall total.

Some things I acquired the most often were food (147), groceries (121), restaurant (83), transport (79), takeaway (63), and accommodation (58).

On 35 occasions I got something for free. I expensed €109.13 of stuff for work. The most expensive thing I bought was One month's shelter in Kirkcaldy (€611.73) and the cheapest thing (which wasn't free) was - just like last year - toilet use in Arad bus station (€0.21). I spent on average €21.52 per purchase.

Money saved on eating out and living cheaply in Albania was rapidly reclaimed by the cost of living (and partially supporting my brother) in the UK. Even so, I came in under my €1000/month budget overall this year.

January: Cold

I spent the new year with new friends in Bursa (Turkey). After staying up all night, I got the worst cold I've had in years and couldn't get out of bed for a few days. The weather was cold and my house was freezing. Instead of going south, I went north back to the UK. First I met my Co-op colleagues in Manchester for our quarterly meeting. Then I arranged and attended a pre-wedding get-together (a "stag don't") in Perthshire. I found out one of my friends needed a kidney, and began the process of finding out how I could donate mine.

All January posts. Weeks in review:

February: Also cold

Then I was the Best Man at K and M's wedding in Cornwall.

I headed back to the continent again, stopping in Switerzland for a Vipassana retreat, and then spent some days with friends.

I had a route south planned through Italy, but diverted through Croatia at the last minute due to the impending lockdown in Milan. A good decision. Little did I know what the rest of the year was bringing.

All February posts. Weeks in review:

The Long March

Not long after I made it to Sarandë, Albania, the pandemic hit Europe. I had been expecting to stay for a month, but when April rolled around borders were closed and curfews were everywhere. I consider myself very fortunate to have been in a lovely apartment, right on the sea, in a fantastic climate. I managed a couple of relatively local adventures, and met a nice expat community.

There I stayed. I got back into crochet, and started baking a lot. As spring set in, I swam in the sea every day.

Finally, in July, my appointment for tests for kidney-donor eligibility was rescheduled to August. I broke the no-fly rule to return to the UK (if not foolhardy, it would have been impossible by land at that point, anyway).

All March posts. Weeks in review:

All April posts. Weeks in review:

All May posts. Weeks in review:

All June posts. Weeks in review:

All July posts. Weeks in review:

August and September: Still March

I spent precisely the last two weeks of my twenties in government-mandated isolation at my Mum's house in the Lincolnshire countryside. Turned 30, and reviewed the last decade. Then I spent a day at Nottingham Renal Center, having lots of tests.

During a window of eased lockdown, I spent more time in Edinburgh, house-sitting and visiting friends. Expecting to need to stick around for kidney donation, but needing to be by the sea, I made plans to move to Fife for a bit.

Then my friend got a kidney from another source. This was great news! I could leave, but.. European unpredictable border lockdowns made travelling more complicated than I fancied, and family concerns made me want to stay in the UK for longer.

All August posts. Weeks in review:

All September posts. Weeks in review:

October to December: Life in Fife

So I rented a flat with a (medium-distance) sea view in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and my brother moved in with me. I bought a hammock stand again, and had to get a bit of furniture. Fortunately the secondhand shops and Freegle network are here are great! We went on loads of hikes, and enjoyed surprisingly glorious weather and a coastline that leaves me regularly breathless. Bonus: I started to meet the local eco communities here, and have really fallen in love with the place.

My Mum has sold and is in the process of moving out of my childhood home. So I'm glad I got to spend some time there earlier this year, as lockdown means there's no way I'll be able to go back again before she hands the key over to new owners. I'm not that sentimental about it, anyway. I might have been not long ago, but these days I am an unfeeling orb of detachment :)

I took lots of time off in November to make more time for NaNoWriMo, and though I didn't end up writing much, having more time to rest after an a hectic and/or anxiety-filled few months was amazing.

Discovering newly available headspace, I stood for election in the W3C TAG, which turned out to be one of the most competitive elections ever. At the time of writing, voting is still open.

It got cold quite sharply mid-December, but an advantage of being in Scotland over Turkey or Greece at this time of year is that the housing is actually designed to handle it.

Renting for and feeding two has taken me regularly over budget in the latter part of this year, but it was offset by how little I spent in Albania. I'm working on a plan to rectify this in the medium-term.

All October posts. Weeks in review:

All November posts. Weeks in review:

All December posts. Weeks in review:

Reflection on 2020

Compared to the past

Maybe next year I'll make this table into a pretty chart.

	2017	2018	2019	2020
Posts total	4,656	4,817	4,974	4,394
Photos posted	n/a	9,520	9,032	6,017
Coffees (total / mean per day)	471 / 1.3	431 / 1.2	484 / 1.3	462 / 1.3
Nights on transport	n/a	31	17	6
Nights with friends	n/a	56	60	34
Nights with family	n/a	24	24	52
Time in transit	1mo 13d 23h 15m 45s	2mo 26d 6h 56m 21s	2mo 10d 14h 9m 12s	1mo 1day 7h 9m 25s
Time in restaurants	17d 2h 37m 3s	21d 17h 44m 22s	26d 16h 16m 9s	5d 20h 30m 19s
Time exercising	4d 9h 26m 58s	2d 1h 10m	2d 20h 8m 10s	4d 4h 6m 59s
Time in meetings	3d 1h 28m	6d 4h 45m 59s	19d 0h 13m 12s	22d 3h 12m 0s
€ per month	n/a	923.39	1,074.90	887.81
€ accommodation	n/a	4,175.61	5,080.86	5,021.09
€ per night accommodation	n/a	11.44	13.92	13.72
€ eating out	n/a	3,012.56	3,367.91	1,589.74
Words	~159,492	122,401	95,722	59,593
Topics (by tag)	237	217	153	156
Countries visited	13	24	22	6
New countries visited	4	13	8	0
Nights in the UK	~month	34	37	177

Exercise was up but transit and eating out was down... for some reason. Sarandë and Kirkcaldy got labelled 'home' pretty quickly, as is my Mum's house (where I grew up), explaining that massive bump. I started logging long hikes as 'exercise' so there may be a historical underreporting error rather than an actual increase in exercise. Because I certainly dropped the ball on running and yoga this year.

At this time last year, I was looking forward at 2020, expecting to either visit many new places around Eastern Europe, or go back to the UK to donate a kidney. I was not expecting to stay virtually stationary, make a potentially significant career move or find somewhere to invest all of my savings. Everyone who had plans for 2020 found their lives completely upended this year. I've got off pretty damn lucky.

Though I find myself pining for travel and idly browsing wikitravel or airbnb every few days, I also appreciate the extra mental energy I've gained from not constantly planning and moving. I am grateful for having been able to see friends and family this year, and in particular for being able to spend more time with my brother than ever before. I can hardly believe my good fortune at the geography and community I find myself amongst in a place I chose to move to fairly arbitrarily.

I've been able to live more closely in accordance with my values here: minimising waste and shopping locally. This can be hard in the Balkans, when there are limited grocery options, fewer recycling facilities, and old ladies at markets who force upon you plastic bags at every turn. It's also harder when moving frequently as I'm less able to buy in bulk. Shortly after moving, I got a supply of empty jars from Freegle and friends, and shop almost exclusively at the zero-waste shop in Burntisland, and the local high street market. Okay, I go to Morrisons as well, but only for absolute necessities (and cheap vegan cheese. Nobody's prefect alright).

I'm not sure if I've particularly missed eating out. It was quite a significant hobby when travelling, but since I also love to cook I haven't noticed much. I get takeaway from the local vegan-friendly cafes here sometimes because I don't want them to shut down. I've resisted the urge to look up how my favourite vegan places around Europe are doing because I expect to be distraught and find out lots of them are gone for good.

Last year I wrote that I wanted to start logging my journeys properly and generate a map. In the last week of this year I finally found time to tinker with sloph, and have done it! Data is up to date for 2020 and a smattering of existing logs from the past. It helped that there wasn't a huge amount to backfill for this year.. When I'm low energy I'll be filling in gaps from previous years, using my ActivityPub C2S-ish travel logging client.

2021

I hestiate to make predictions! Realistically I'm probably not going to be able to travel again until I can get a covid vaccine, though it worries me a bit how long that might be. And my brother isn't going to be able to go back to Japan any time soon I don't think. So I'll make the most of my time in Fife for a while longer. I've signed up to volunteer at the local community kitchen with Greener Kirkcaldy - I really hope that can start this month.

I'm going to move again, not far, but closer to the sea and further from town.

Whether or not I get elected to the TAG, I forsee my W3C related activities increasing a bit. I'll probably do more to help with infrastructure of the Credentials CG, and take a more active role in reviving the Social Incubator CG in coming months.

Hopefully as the vaccine gets taken up by the most vulnerable it will be safe to travel locally again, and I can hop on trains to explore more of Scotland. Even better, maybe I can spend more time with friends who I am now finally in the same country as.

🏷 travel life hacking week in review #cooplife w3c 2020 covid19 coronavirus albania uk sloph nanowrimo zero waste quantified self digital nomad ods year in review

Mon 4th of January 2021 at 4:48pm (+00:00)

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I missed the first shitscape of a UK lockdown this year. My brother just told me how he traded rice for toilet paper at one point. Exciting!

🏷 life lockdown coronavirus covid19 uk

Sat 31st of October 2020 at 10:09am (+00:00)

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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.

🏷 life coronavirus covid19 uk scotland running

Thu 20th of August 2020 at 6:15pm (+01:00)

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All the photos I took from my balcony during lockdown

🏷 travel life lockdown coronavirus covid19 albania

Mon 3rd of August 2020 at 9:54pm (+01:00)

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Week in review: 27 July - 2 August

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.

🏷 sloph albania uk covid19 coronavirus crochet ods #cooplife week in review vegan food life travel

Sun 2nd of August 2020 at 10:24pm (+01:00)

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Overstaying in Albania

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.

There's not a ton to do in Sarandë besides chilling out on the beach, but that's part of the charm. There's Lekursi Castle on a hill overlooking the bay, which is worth climbing up to. And on the adjacent hill is the Monastery of the 40 Saints, which Sarandë is named after, offering similarly good views and ruins. There are quiet coastal trails to hike to the north of the town and rolling hills inland towards Finiq village.

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 through a 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!

Next time...

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...

🏷 travel albania sarande lockdown coronavirus covid19 tourism castle beach

Fri 31st of July 2020 at 3:01pm (+01:00)

Post created with https://apps.rhiaro.co.uk/no-ceremonies-are-necessary

Intermission

Breaking news: I'm back in the UK.

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.

🏷 travel life coronavirus covid19 flight uk

Tue 28th of July 2020 at 6:12pm (+01:00)

Post created with https://apps.rhiaro.co.uk/no-ceremonies-are-necessary

In reply to: https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/07/border-2

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.

🏷 coronavirus travel albania greece

Thu 2nd of July 2020 at 12:00pm (+02:00)

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.

🏷 coronavirus albania travel covid19 greece life

Mon 29th of June 2020 at 7:35pm (+02:00)

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.

🏷 covid19 travel life coronavirus

Mon 15th of June 2020 at 5:55pm (+02:00)

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.

🏷 covid19 coronavirus life introvert lockdown

Mon 4th of May 2020 at 2:43pm (+02:00)

coronavirus (16 out of 33)

Week in review: 4th - 10th April

Week in review: 28th March - 3rd April

2020 in review

tl;dr

Words

Travel

Work

Code

Stuff

January: Cold

February: Also cold

The Long March

August and September: Still March

October to December: Life in Fife

Reflection on 2020

Compared to the past

2021

All the photos I took from my balcony during lockdown

Week in review: 27 July - 2 August

Overstaying in Albania

Where?

Where else?

Practicalities

Food

Next time...

Intermission