Pete's Adventures on the Road

Evening chill-out after siesta Having been in Sarande for around a month now I think we are in a better position to describe what Albania is like, especially now that the 'honeymoon period' is over. First off, I have to say that it doesn't really feel like Europe despite it only being a 2 or 3 hour flight to London. It is still pretty much a developing country and comes with all the things – some good some bad – that come with a developing country. Poverty and homelessness is an issue, but to be honest homelessness is an issue pretty much everywhere you go now, especially in the UK. Here in Sarande it is confined to the promenade down on the beach with a handful of beggars sat down begging for change from tourists until everything shuts around midnight and the police come along to move them. Sometimes you even see them sleeping in the middle of the promenade, perhaps hoping to tug at the heart strings of passers by. Likewise, trash is an issue in the res...

Our lovely toilet complete with toilet paper bin. What evils lurk within? So, as any traveller knows, travelling can be pretty messy, disgusting and well, shitty work. Let's not mince words here. I remember the first time being told of squat toilets and wincing in disgust and then having to actually use one for the first time ever in my life. My how pampered we are in the west to be able to sit down to pee if we so choose. When you think about it though, squat toilets are just a much lower versions of a western toilet, which women are encouraged not to sit on in public spaces due to the germs purported to be on them. So what's the difference? Well, anyways. Toilets around the world are pretty curious things, and I find myself always enjoying a good game of "get to know the toilet". Not in the sense that I suffer from traveller's sickness or anything, as to be honest, in recent years I don't seem to be touched by that unfortunate side effect of trave...

Photo Source One thing that stands out in our travels is often the postal system. Post ranges from excellent to appallingly atrocious depending where you go. In Albania, when we first arrived our landlord, Leo, told us that around the 25th of every month they will come and just throw the bills on the ground downstairs and you have to root through them in order to find your flat number. Great. I look forward to playing musical bills in a few days. Our experience hasn't been with that form of post, although it seems that Albanian delivery drivers have taken a page from the book of Canadian mailmen and like to play the game of "I tried to deliver it, but you weren't in", despite the fact you took the day off from work, and sat in utter silence waiting for the delivery and never once left the couch despite the fact you nearly wet yourself. So they claimed they tried to deliver a package Pete's mum sent us from the UK. Well, tried being the operative word, ap...

Photo Source I see it time and time again when I'm on the road - someone who is also a traveller acting like a spoilt western rich kid brat or worse - a complete  asshole. I thought Albania would be mostly different and until last night, I was right. Sadly, as with everywhere, we finally ran into that group of people that make you cringe at being from a western country yourself, prompting you to apologise in a whisper to the waiter and tip him generously because you feel so bad. Thankfully in most places you don't get lumped in with degenerate dicks of this nature, provided you yourself are not a dick. In some places you do. Laos for example, we visited a small village which had, in its heyday, been utterly destroyed by white, western kids looking for a huge night long party. These days being white in that village gets you either a welcoming or a shunning. It really depends on who is serving you and where. That was my first taste of racism. Not being served purely beca...

Me on the beach in Sarande, Albania When I signed up to essentially a thirty-six hour journey from Edmonton to Corfu, I didn't expect I'd run into any real issues. I didn't, which is good, but the effect a trip like that had on my body and mind was a bit more than I would have liked.  I had been handling it mostly like a trooper, including the ridiculous two hour on-plane delay at Toronto, but by the time I reached London, I'd had enough. The close quarters with hundreds of people began to really test my last nerve and if I sat down in even a remotely comfortable position I'd soon drop off into sleep that was so sudden and deep I went right from wide awake into REM sleep and nodded like I'd been drugged, nearly falling out of my chairs. Thankfully we managed to get to our Air Bnb in Corfu relatively unscathed and with a taxi driver who wasn't an asshole. Result! In fact, everyone in Greece we have encountered to date has been a gorgeous soul whi...