Derek and I had a sweet little trip to Europe’s forgotten corner, but my favorite country. Our original flight was canceled but thanks to us getting to the airport three hours early we were easily moved to another flight, somehow getting us to Tirana at our original time.
We landed exit row seats so Derek’s long legs had plenty of room on our seven hour flight from New York to Rome.
I was so happy to see all our bags arrived with us and as promised, friends of a friend picked us up at the airport. Thanks to lots of sleep on the plane we skipped jet lag and got right on our new time zone. (We are now eight hours ahead of MST.)
Derek and I headed back to the airport to pick up his brother, who decided to join us on this awesome adventure.
The three of us jumped on a bus and headed to Durres to find our new home. The first house we looked at was a two story home about a ten minute walk from the beach. We found out our landlords would be living above us so that immediately turned us off. By time we finished looking around it had started raining and had got dark.
We starting walking in search of a taxi to take us to a hotel for the night when we met our first angel.
A clothing store was open so we walked in and asked for a taxi. The father and son, called their friend and offered us an espresso while we waited. They asked us where we wanted to go and we let them know we needed a hotel for the night. They offered us a room above their store but it didn’t have heat. They then asked us if we wanted good, real good or the best hotel in the city…can you guess which one we wanted? :)
The warmth of Hotel Aragosta was a welcomed feeling. We had dinner and then headed up to our room. Derek lingered at the front desk and asked the young man on duty if he knew of any places for rent. He said he’d make a few phone calls and see what he could do. He made good on his word and him and his cousin picked us up at 10 a.m.
Staying true to Albanian tradition, we went to have coffee and to get to know our two new friends.
Flori and Isli let us know they lined up two more places for us to go look at. Both were furnished and right in the heart of Durres and right on the Adriatic Sea. By the end of the day we knew where would be our new home. We fell asleep happy knowing we would soon be settled in.
The next morning we took the bus back to Tirana, gathered our luggage and hired a mini van to drive us home.
Our new landlord, Ledio, has been an answer to my prayers. He’s helped us with at least one hundred things so far. He’s so patient and helpful. He knows English and he’s lived in the U.S. so he understands us and we understand him. We’ve already been to coffee a few times and he’s come over for tea and dessert as well.
Getting the internet hooked up today was the whipped cream on top!
We’ll be posting pictures and calling family. And we’ll go to bed with smiles on our faces.
As our day comes to an end I want to remind you of some of the things that we usually don’t stop to be thankful for in the U.S. but are very valuable no matter where in the world we live.
Hungry for More, Monique Alvarez p.s. If there are typos, spelling or grammar mistakes in this post don’t worry about. Those are the kinds of things I’ve worried about for FAR too long. It’s time to just get it out and who cares if it’s not perfect, it’s from the heart!
4. Running water
5. Hot water
6. Communication (Internet, phone etc.)