26th August - Lezhë

12 hrs of sleep later, I was feeling surprisingly refreshed, despite the quantities of rakia ingested the previous evening. Beti apparently was working today and so I should go look for her in certain cafe. This is what the note she left for me said. So, as I wandered out the door, I was struck by the rather nice views from her apartment. I found it also heartwarming (well, throat burning would be more accurate) that there were several long rows of grape vines, who only purpose as far as I could ascertain, was the production of rakia. Hmmm, Albanian has a way of growing on you. 

 And then you are forced to use one of these 'toilets'. Unfortunately, I have become somewhat of a veteran of these things, having pooed (or as I now prefer to say "laying a deuce") my way from the Italian Alps to the Ukrainian lowlands. So, left to wonder what stupendously pyroclastic bowel movements could have possibly cracked a piece of the ceramic off, I headed further into town. I quickly realised though not large by any means, Lezhë was large enough to prevent me from chancing upon the cafe in which Beti was apparently ensconced. My plans foiled I resorted to asking a passerby, who (instead of stabbing and robbing me, as people who have never visited Albania are wont to describe the tendencies of its inhabitants) took the time to lead me directly to the cafe in question. Thank you random Albanian man. So, after finding Beti, we went back to the head PC office. 3 computers and perhaps it was just my newness to the scene, but it didn't seem like a whole lot of work was being done. But that is my general impression of Albania, so perhaps they had just smoothly slotted into how things were done (or not) here. So, after some time we dropped into a local bar, invited for some rakia (what else?) and I decided that it would be impolite to refuse an offer for my new favourite drink.

After the drinks ,as we headed home, picking up a few ingredients for dinner, I noticed an interesting  phenomena, which Beti explained to me and it cultural ramifications. So, a little bit of brief history first for context. Cue wikipedia link here: Albania. So, rather incredibly attractive women wander the streets (rather like the Italians and Greeks do in the evening, albeit in more picturesque settings), dressed in an extremely revealing manner. However, Albania is still very conservative, so they wont actually sleep with anyone they don't intend to marry. One one hand sucking at the teat of the American media and on the other retaining cultural values from 200 years ago. Makes for strange viewing in the evening, no wonder the men are having some problems. Anyways, we went back and had some food and proper European Absinthe (with wormwood). Have you heard that you are supposed to somehow filter it through sugar and then add some fire? Well, it still tastes bad...