16th and 17th of November, 2020.
After finding a hotel which fits price and commodity to Ben, I take a room for us with two single beds. Until we manage everything in the room, get settle and I take a shower, it is midnight already. I am exhausted. Travelling at night, and in such slow speed, it just made this travel seems to be happening for seven days and not just seven hours. And to make it worse, I have migraine, of course. In such a stressed day, full of things happen, I could not expect less.
The room is too cold. The AC it works in a horrible way (just to prevent costs, of course) turning off just a few minutes after being on and then keeping off for a long period. I get a bit cold during the night, even though I am wearing my sweater and the duvet is good.
In the middle of the night I get this huge stomachache. Just as in the times I got food or water poisoning. The same symptoms. And of course if I do not throw up or make this go away, my migraine it will also not go away. I drink salty water but nothing happen. After hours I manage to sleep and the migraine passed at least. But I cannot think of something else which could make me sick apart of the plum conserve Angie gave to me. Everything else I ate the day before was something I also had eaten in the farm. And the water was still from the farm. The only different thing I had it was the plum conserve, with some bread, just before going to bed because I was starving.
Ben wakes up super early and remain awake. Later he would tell me it was too cold for him to manage to sleep. Around 7 o’clock he wakes me up to tell me he is going to have breakfast and if I want to come with him. I definitely need some more hours of sleep after the horrible night I had, so I say I am staying in bed a little longer.
I get up around 8.30 a.m. I do not want to miss breakfast, of course, but also I like to eat slowly. I was hoping for a buffet type of food but unfortunately it is not. They bring to your table an omelet, tomatoes and cucumbers, white Balkans cheese, one small sausage, some bread, butter and jam. Plus one beverage. It is OK and can full fill you but I would rather a buffet, where I could have some fruit, cereal, muesli and yogurt…
Ben wants to stay another night here. I believe he is just tired of so much driving yesterday. He says it would be nice if he could have some relaxing massage. For what he told me of his travels, he always do some massage wherever he goes. So I ask the man responsible for the morning shift (later I would figure he is actually the owner) if he know of a massage place we could go or if he knew some masseuse who could come here. He say something about calling the hospital but also about waiting for when his colleague comes.
At some point I go for a walk and when I come back the same guy say something about the people are coming. I think it is a bit weird because I would like to talk to them first, arrange the deal and stuff, before they come, but I also think it might be OK. Ben is taking a nap when they knock at the door. I wake him up and open the door to the owner and a couple. No one of the three speak a reasonable English. But what we figure at the end is: they work at the hospital, not as professional masseuses, so they are especialized in traumas not in relaxing massage. But the guy even say he could give Ben a massage but Ben wants a woman and not a man. So after I apologize a lot to all of them (even though is not my fault) they leave.
Not long after that Ben decide he wants to go for a short walk. “It will be good for my leg”, he says. So I go with him, of course. There some nice walk to do around Kukes, I mean, short ones just around town. I am sure there are some nice hiking too. At the beginning I am alright but after we sit for a few minutes to rest, my stomach starts to hurt again. The pain is increasing slowly and I hold as much as I can but at some point I tell Ben we have to go. I cannot wait until we get back to the hotel so I ask in a Costa Coffee on the way if I can use their bathroom. I say it is an emergency. And it is. So my suspicions from last night are confirmed and I got some kind of poisoning. When I come out of the bathroom, Ben ordered a cappuccino and he asks me if I want something. I tell him that I am sorry but I cannot stay, it is better if I come back to the hotel. I am feeling much better but I do not want to risk. So we take the coffee to go and reach back.
I take a anti-biotic once we are back to the hotel. Ben has them. He says that one today and another tomorrow it will be enough. I feel much better and the diarrhoea stops.
Ben decides to have dinner at the hotel. The food is not that good. Neither mine or his. The desert it is though: I order 3 leches for us! I loved, of course, but Ben also liked.
The plan is leaving tomorrow morning after breakfast, which we have together this time. We live the hotel around 9 o’clock and arrive in Tirana before noon.
As usual, there is a lot of traffic to get into the city. At the hostel, I talk with Claas and he says he does not have any room available. Apparently now that he is closed, the few guests he has (5 or 6 I guess) are staying long term and paying for the whole room, including the dorms. I do not know what to say about the fact that I saw the private room empty though. I decide I will stay here no matter what because I do not want to give more expenses to Ben. So I come back down and tell him we have to find him another hostel. He says he likes to stay in hostels so there is people to interact. But when we are driving to the one Claas recommended, Ben gets uncomfortable with the tiny street he would have to drive through and decides it is better if he just stay in a hotel, preferably in a main street so he can find and park easily. We decide to check at theHotel Mondial, just 2 blocks away, in the main street. They have rooms and the price is acceptable for Ben. He find a parking spot just outside of the hotel, which is great.
We book him in and I help him to get to his room. I find a massage place just two blocks from the hotel, but they do not have the prices online so we have to walk there to check. They do have masseuses at the hotel but at 40€ an hour. Absurd! At the Deluxe Spa, we discovery it is 20€ an hour and they have availability right now, so Ben decides to get himself two hours. He even ask me if I want to do also but I kindly refuse. Before I leave, we make and appointment to meet at the hotel at 8 p.m. for dinner. I suggest we go to Leke, the restaurant we always suggest to the guests in the hostel. Now I will finally be able to try it.
The dinner is alright. I just feel to confuse about what to order and honestly as a vegetarian I do not think there are too many good options. The food is good and the service is alright. Ben also enjoy his order. But unfortunately they do not have a lot of things from the menu, which is bad. Ben decides we should have a red wine so he order the most expensive, a local one. Laugh. Of course is not so much, something around 20€. And it is not so good either, we both agree with that.
When everybody one the restaurant left, I was wondering why. It was when hit me: I remembered someone in the hostel told me there is a curfew going on Tirana, and everybody should be at home at 10 p.m. Damn it! I tell Ben we have to go because is almost 10 o’clock. We are very close to our places but since Ben cannot walk fast because of his leg, it will take us some time to get in there. I start to freak out a bit, thinking the police will charge us a huge fee or something, mainly when I see police cars around. But there is some people still on the streets. I drop Ben at the door of his hotel and run back to the hostel. Luckily nothing happen.
During these few days of travelling, every time Ben had some change from the restaurant or pay toll, he gave me the small Lekes and said I should keep it, to pay or buy something small when we needed. Now I have some considerable money and when I ask him about he say I can keep it. It is not a lot of money but it is enough for me to buy my pills (I would run out soon in UK and would not be able to get more, so I was kind of freaking out with that); one new underwear (since I stupidly forgot one of the two I have in A.’s house); to prints all the documents I need; some food for the day at the airport in Tirana, night at the airport in London, morning in London and way to Leeds; and even maybe (finally) a new earphone.