The trip to Albania is here and my mother has been anticipating it as she is joining me on this one. We have our itinerary set but we each had something that we didn’t expect that would be a hinderance to us while on it. A few months ago my mom injured her ankle and it still gives her issues although she’s seeing a doctor about it. I know she’s worried about being able to keep up when on tours but if we have to go slower, we’ll go slower and if we need to take a break we’ll take a break because I don’t want her to overexert herself. And then there’s me somehow I got sick early last week (Tuesday) and I’m still feeling it. I thought I just had a seasonal cold due to the weather being very up/down but I think me having night sweats last night proved that I might have covid. I’m better than I was initially but the cough still has a grip on me.

I’ll catch you up to speed about our travel day and then we’ll get into activities for the day. We flew out of Dulles (IAD) with Austrian Airlines and thankfully even the main cabin seats had a bit more leg room than expected which made it a little more comfortable (it was an 8 hour flight). We both tried our best to watch movies on the plane (I failed and slept during each one). The meal was good which was a beef stew and the breakfast I passed on which was a scone. We had a layover in Vienna, Austria for about 4 hours. The regional plane was not as spacious but thankfully it was only about an hour from Vienna to Tirana, Albania.

Passport control was easy to get through but they have a new electronic system in Europe where they don’t really stamp your passport anymore (but since my mom asked they stamped ours). Finding the taxi in their app here called Patoko took longer than it should but when we finally did we headed for our Airbnb. The outside of the buidling looks rough but inside the apartment is actually quite nice. We could tell the cleaners had been there as the smell of cleaning supplies lingered. So happy to finally be here but yet so hungry at the same time, we walked to a nearby restaurant and had a late lunch/early dinner. We attempted to go to a pharmacy to get me some medicine but they were closed (so I ended up taking a Benadryl). We did a short grocery run to the store across the street from us and went back in for the evening.

As soon as we got back in I stripped and hit the bed. All I wanted to do was lay down, get some sleep and try to get my breathing under control in the hope that it would help with the coughing. My mom showered and took a nap. We both slept for some hours until suddenly I had a coughing fit. My mom made some warm drinks for me and gave me some Tylenol and I went back to sleep. I woke up again briefly and was sweating but ended up falling back to sleep. Then a coughing fit really woke me up to where I had sweated even more. I got up and showered and changed pajamas and took some puffs from my inhaler. All the while my mom is giving me juices, water and teas to help. It sounds like I didn’t get much sleep but I got enough.

My mom felt as though we should bypass the walk we have scheduled for Monday morning and I told her no, we’re still going to go. It was only a 2 hour walk and by now my cough wasn’t as persistent or intense. We stopped at a pharmacy on the way their and I got some cough drops and medicine. We met at our meeting spot Amo Sushi but got turned around trying to find it. It was a group of about 11 of us with people being from the Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine and DC (a guy named Brian was from DC). Brian said he quit his job and was getting his MBA in the fall; until then, he’s traveling around from country to country. Our tour guide Hera gathered us all together and off we went.

We stopped by a bunkart (bunker) and learned that Albania has 175,000 bunkarts. They were used mostly during the communism era here which lasted from 1945-1991. Near it were pillars from a prison and a piece of the Berlin wall on the opposite side. We learned that there are a lot of underground tunnels in Albania but not everyone has access to them (only the top of the top). A couple of things I learned while on the tour were:

• There’s a lot of Italian architecture in Albania
• Durres was the first choice as the capital of Albania
• Albania’s name in Albanian is Shqipërisë
• The mayor of Albania Erion Veliaj, is currently in prison for corruption
• Many know of Albania because of the protests of 1997 due to the pyramid scheme

As we walked we came across a church called the Resurrection of Christ Cathedral and went inside. The detailing of the paintings inside are always nice to see. We went to Skanderberg Square where we saw different areas of interest like a puppet theater, the Albanian National Museum (which is currently closed due to reconstruction-slated to open in 2028), the I love Tirana sign, a building that emulates a face and a statue of said person’s face. Nearby was the Castle of Tirana which is basically an open area mall/food court that goes from one end of the block to the other. We ended our tour by the Pyramids of Tirana across from our starting point.

My mom needed some time to sit so we did and then went to a bank ATM to get some leke which is their currency here (they also take euros). We walked back to our Airbnb and ate the rest of our food from yesterday as we had a few hours before our cooking class later today. Then we decided to lay down and rest until it was time to get ready for the next activity. Once we were ready, we were easily able to get a Patoko taxi to our cooking class location and Sindi was right there waiting for us. She escorted us to the area in which we’d be in. We were the first to arrive and were told that three more were coming.

A woman from the United Kingdom and Poland came in and then after while a woman from Hungary/the US. We all had our own set stations to work at as we prepped things along the way. We’d be making a traditional Albanian dish with beef, a spinach and cheese pastry side and a cinnamon cookie for dessert. There was so much food leftover that we got a chance to take our leftovers home. We chatted a lot along the way and had and incredible cooking experience all while enjoying some wine that Sindi’s dad made and some Raki (which as soon as she said it burns going down and that it helps for a cold/flu/sickness I knew I needed some).

A room full of cooking women but we had a great time sharing experiences, laughing, learning and cooking. It was clear that picking this experience on this day at this time was the best choice. There are photos and videos to remember the experience by. By the end of it I was about 4 raki shots and 3 glasses of wine in so once back at the Airbnb I had to sleep it off a bit (my mom bought two bottles of wine and one bottle of raki-one bottle we’ll likely gift our Airbnb host and we’ll drink the rest). On the way in as we got out of our taxi my mom saw a tragic thing, a cat was run over by the one behind us. My mom said it’s face was run over and all I could see was it flailing around in the street until it stopped and just lay there not moving. That was tragic as so far we’ve seen more cats than dogs.Once we got back in my mom and I chatted a bit and then it was off to our rooms for the night. Today has been a good first day here in Albania.