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..
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.
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.
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! Read more about being vegan in Albania. 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...
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.
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.
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..
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.
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 🗺 2010 🗺 🗺 🗺 2011 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 2012 2013 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 2014 🗺 🗺 2015 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 2016 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 2017 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 2018 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 2019 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 🗺 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.) 2009 🛪 🛪 2010 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2011 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2012 🛪 🛪 🛪 2013 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2014 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2015 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2016 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2017 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2018 2019 🛪 🛪 🛪 🛪 2020 🛪
All the photos I took from my balcony during lockdown
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.
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 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.
Turned 30. A couple of days around Nottingham: one in hospital for tests of my eligibility as a kidney donor, dinner at Annie's and then the train to Edinburgh. Took most of the week off work, but did some internal Co-op stuff. Edinburgh! Ate lots of good things and saw friends. Hiked along the coast from Portobello to Prestonpans. Crocheted a lot, including a full crochet-in-bed day at the weekend, which was pretty excellent.
Enjoyed having a house to myself. Did some work on the OCDS Data Review Tool. Read A Thousand Splendid Suns. 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. Visited a baby (and grownup friends) in Falkirk and took offerings of crochet. Ran a couple of times and ached a lot. Crocheted some cool patterns to make into a french press cosy. Walked from Prestonpans to almost Longniddry. Walked around Holyrood Park, and along the Union Canal. Saw a few people I haven't seen for a long time.
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.
Ate lots of vegan junk food. Wrote about food in Albania and everything else I did in Albania. 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... Crocheted two things. Enjoyed limited sunshine. Started reading A Close and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (on actual paper). Watched all of season 2 of The Umbrella Academy. Made a silly toy for generating simple unicode charts..