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It is easy to believe that we would sleep in after riding our bicycles into the Tirana Chaos, but we didn’t, or at least we didn’t to lazy rest day standards, maybe. The morning was very peaceful, waking behind a secure wall of paid hospitality; a kitchen already prepared, no need to set up the stove, no rationing of water, internet access at the drop of a coin, real chairs, sunshine, like-minded, sleepy eyed, early rising travel bums, talkative, gesturful, non-english speaking cleaning woman, coffee and no need to pack the bicycles. These comforts made us feel right at home in Tirana. The Tirana Backpacker Hostel is a great, unexpected, slice of comfort, 7 weeks into our journey.

Once we finally walked out of the gate of the Hostel with Tobias, we headed for the gypsy market near the train station to gather up our supplies for the evenings fish dinner we had been looking forward to. Call it blasphemous, perhaps, but for two weeks along the Adriatic coast we had not eaten a single fish or seafood dinner.

[Digression #1 “Food”] This is not say we have not been eating well or eating local for that matter, no, we have been eating like champions most nights and mornings; eating produce from local markets and fruits straight from the trees. Our lunch can often run a little on the boring, yet much appreciated, side; bread and butter with some cheese and hopefully, some tomato followed by bread and butter with honey. Our most common starting point for our dinner creations is potatoes, lots of garlic, onions, and mediteranean Vegeta, spice mix. From there we add tomoatoes, lentils, cheese, carrots, maybe some sausage. We have made Barszcz with fresh beets on several occasions, We have made some pretty amazing soups, including one soup that used butter and garlic as base, chopped onions, cheese, and chunkcs of an Albanian style corn bread. It reminded us the Czech style Garlic soup crossed with a French onion soup. (We will surely be making this once we return home.) We make some pretty great pasta dishes, and desserts are always a welcome treat.

[Digression #2: “Sweet Food”] Yes we have divulged into sweet eaten freaks. For some reason, actually one very specific reason, and a couple less specific, we have made cookies a very consistent and necessary food group in our diet. We eat cookies like the C-Monster himself. Our favorite are from the Italian company, Barilla. Most people know them for there pasta noodles but their cookies, rock! They have one type GranCereale and another Pan Di Stelle. GranCereale are more nutriscious granola like cookies with a few different varieties, and the Pan Di Stelle are hard brownie like goodness! We started in, probably, Austria or Slovenia, by just buying only one package of cookies at the store per visit and at somepoint in Albania, where the roadside markets outside of Tirana, literally, only stock cookies, chips, booze, and soda, we would buy two packages of a brand we weren’t familiar with, then bike up the road to the next market to see if they had our favorite brand and then buy two packages of those. Without a good stock of cookies, we feel poor and on the verge of starvation. We have always been very fond of honey and jam. Now it finds its way into almost every meal. It took Chad a very long time, back in Chicago, to grow comfortable with the idea of eating warm pudding, as Jowita has always been obsessed with. This trip has made Chad a firm fan of the warm Pudding. Add some dates, Add some rice, Add nothing, It is our special treat that finds its way into our bellies once every two weeks or so. In Tirana, in the outdoor kitchen at the Hostel, we made everyone’s eyebrows perk when we sat at the table with our steaming cups of pudding. When we made too much rice for our fish dinner, we dumped it into warm chocolate pudding with chunks of apples for breakfast. Oh we make ourselves crave it just writing about it…..Back to subject.

Once we had arrived into the Balkans, we had arrived into the land of the Bazzar and this should continue all the way to Istanbul. The Gypsy market was really fun, but eventually some fruit sellers tried to rip us off on some lemons, and we didn’t go for it, not making them any too happy. We did eventually find an honest man for our lemons.

Tirana Chaos

The gypsy Market Tirana

Getting ready to barter at the Gypsy Market

Our lemon man at the Gypsy Market in Tirana

Dogs everywhere! Even on the Roof!!

One full day of rest in a city is not enough, especially when you are trying to maintain a blog. We had been planning to part ways with Tobias either at Tirana or shortly thereafter. Tobias wanted to leave after only two nights in Tirana but we had convinced him to spend one more night so that we could ride out of the city the next day together and part ways at a fork in the road rather than at a Hostel. He agreed and we celebrated by going out to a concert with a group of travel bums from the Hostel.