Sleep deprivation seems to be a theme on this journey.
Last night there was a wedding at the hotel we are staying at. Which is nice, and all the best to the newly weds, but first of, the music went on till 2, really loud. Second, what we agreed must be a mentally ill woman started screaming at the top of her lungs at around 1 down on the street - very frightning at first and then just frustrating. Bottom line, when we woke around 8 this morning, neighter me nor Jannie had gotten much sleep.
One of the really nice things about Albania is that they have taken (as i mentioned before) the best of the Italian kitchen and the Greek kitchen. From Italy they have the ability to make good espresso (unlike the places we went last year). So when we woke, i stumbled zombie like down to the resturant and ordered two cappuccinos, they started to fill in for two mornings meals. But I (rather rudely i must admit) said I was only there for the coffee. After getting my caffeine kick starter, I went up and got Saya and Jannie (who were barely awake) and got breakfast. We got roasted bread with butter, jam, honey, cheese and a omelette of sorts (far away from my normal oatmeal start of the day). We went back to chill in the room and play around, something that was much needed for Saya and we did not get out to see the city before noon.
Last night there was a wedding at the hotel we are staying at. Which is nice, and all the best to the newly weds, but first of, the music went on till 2, really loud. Second, what we agreed must be a mentally ill woman started screaming at the top of her lungs at around 1 down on the street - very frightning at first and then just frustrating. Bottom line, when we woke around 8 this morning, neighter me nor Jannie had gotten much sleep.
One of the really nice things about Albania is that they have taken (as i mentioned before) the best of the Italian kitchen and the Greek kitchen. From Italy they have the ability to make good espresso (unlike the places we went last year). So when we woke, i stumbled zombie like down to the resturant and ordered two cappuccinos, they started to fill in for two mornings meals. But I (rather rudely i must admit) said I was only there for the coffee. After getting my caffeine kick starter, I went up and got Saya and Jannie (who were barely awake) and got breakfast. We got roasted bread with butter, jam, honey, cheese and a omelette of sorts (far away from my normal oatmeal start of the day). We went back to chill in the room and play around, something that was much needed for Saya and we did not get out to see the city before noon.
We went to the castle on the hill. Though the old bazaar and up some more hill before getting there. We well into some tourist traps/let our empathy get the better of us. An old man sold us a book he dedicated to Saya (he claimed he was a history professor and the book was about Albanian history - If the book was a bit more thinner it would be called a pamphlet) We got to talk to a very articulate guy who had a heart wrecking story, and some stuff to sell. We went up to the top of the hill, and agreed to buy some of the heart wrecking story guys stuff (a rug) when we would get back down. We where intercepted by a young guy that was very chatty and missing a front tooth. He talked and talked and told a lot of history and showed us the castle and ruins. Its kind of funny how litterateur is inspired by real events. The castle (or some of the ruins) had a crack in it - it was torn over by an earthquake. Much like in Astrid Lindgreens "Ronia the Robber's Daughter". And the castle (which is much like a single tower) was used as a warning beacon, and there are towers like that scattered all over Albania. Much Like in JRR Tolkiens Lord of the rings. It must be some very strange coincidences if the two authors were not inspired by that.
We ended up giving the talking guy a couple of hundreds of Lek for the effort (he tried to sell some postcards afterwards) but we declined. Then we went to buy a rug of that guy down the road, but I blocked up when he said his initial price, which was very expensive, and just wanted to walk away. Which we did in the end, but everybody was unhappy because I do not know the ways to hackle, and that was apparently what was happening. We went back to get lunch after that incident and I think the general agreement is that I do not participate in these kind of deals any more (Jannie ended up buying a rug by her self a short time after). After lunch we went up the the room, and relaxed a bit more and playing around with Saya. We ended up taking a nap. Mine was very short, because there was some very loud construction work going on somewhere in the hotel, and i could not sleep because of it. I went down to the resturant and got another cappucino and found a place in Shkodër to stay tomorrow. We found out the trip will be short (about two hours) with one change of bus. I got up and got the girls after about an hour, and we ended up taking a walk around town. Its a good thing that this stay in this city ends tomorrow, its nice here, but there is not so much to see (There lives about 17000 here). Saya does keep asking where are going back to the other flat (home) and that she misses her grandmother (bedstemor - my mother), Jannies parents as well, and to play in the yard back home. We have - on grounds of that - decided to have three nights the last three places we are staying (Shkodër, Ohrid and Skopje) - so we can spend as much time making sure she as happy and fells good. We also decided to take a taxi from Shkodër to as close to the Makedonian border and a taxi from across there to Ohrid - so that there will be no more then three hours travel for Saya (besides flying) for the rest of this vacation.
We went home and saw some cartoons with Saya and went down to eat. We got a whole backed chicken with a mixed salad. The chicken was quite an experiance. It was not like a chicken back home. It was a bit stringy and the meat had an almost duck flavor to it, there was very little meat on the thing but it was quite tasteful. This have been the first thing that did not seem either very greek or very italian, but just more like common country food like (almost french).
After the dinner we went to get Saya to sleep and I am writting this. A not so eventful day, and that was very welcoming.
Hopefully we will get a good nights sleep today.
Kristian