Tiranë to Përmet

I have no idea how I even managed to wake up in time, but I made my way to the airport at 5am, dancing along to my music on the way. I've never seen it this busy before, but the security check and passport control actually went by swifter than expected. I spent the flight fading in and out of sleep before I finally set foot in Albania. I did it, there was no turning back now. My first impression was dying of heat under palm trees accompanied by a lovely old taxi driver who tried to show me some interesting sights along the way despite struggling with English and who, according to John's price estimate, did not even rip me off too bad. The radio was blasting traditional Albanian music throughout the drive to the bus terminal, where he helped me to find a bus to Përmet. The only one we could find would leave 1,5h afterwards, so I had some time to kill at the busiest, noisiest bus terminal I've ever been to. Given I was on holiday, I decided to get myself two different Albanian beers and sat down in the shade with my bus driver and another local who spoke English and offered me to smoke a joint with him. Gotta give Albanians one thing, they know how to make a good first impression. He then played Albanian hip-hop for us and I started my Shazam journey as well. Two men started yelling at each other some distance away from us. 'Is this normal?' I asked but he just laughed and did not give an answer. This gives me flashbacks to how I met John, but I would rather not display what happened that day. 👀 I started to lose the fear about this trip. Maybe it was just the weed, but the frightened excitement started to turn into a curious excitement. Somehow, this trip would be nothing far from an amazing memory.

Everywhere along the road, there are new, modern buildings being erected. I've never seen such a rapidly evolving country before. The hilly landscape seemed Mediterranean enough, yet different in the amount of mosques whose minaretts gave it a unique vibe. The donkeys walking along the street gave it a nice flair as well. The further South we got, the more mountainous the terrain became like. This started to feel like a drier and hotter version of Austria. It was around 4pm when we finally reached Përmet and now, after loads of anticipation, it was time to meet the man, the myth, the legend himself. We put my stuff in the room and went out to eat some soufllaqe, a kind of pork shawarma in pita bread with fries, vegetables and tzatziki as snack before walking to climb up the town rock (yes, that's literally its name). Since I was pretty exhausted from the journey, we decided to head back and just have a chill evening inside. However, his aunt and uncle wanted to go grab food with us so we went outside for a walk through town and waited at John's cousin's store for an empty table to get more traditional Albanian food, Patëllxhan të Mbhushur, stuffed and baked eggplant, and Fërgesë, a vegetable stew with cottage cheese. We planned our trip to Gjirokaster the following day. A band performed nearby so we could listen to music during our meal while people danced to it in the street. So many strangers and acquaintances of John approached us, having conversations with us and being helpful in every way. It seems like half of the town has been made aware of my arrival beforehand as I am getting introduced to everyone. The community here is quite strong and lovely. The country itself seems like an alternate universe to me, however. It's a Mediterranean Muslim communist country with alcohol and pork everywhere. We then headed back to his cousin's shop where we met some of his friends. Everyone around us smoked and drank raki while the imam called to prayer. Albania is so surreal.Læs mere