Albania

After a late night drive through Tiranë to get some final soufflaqe and a short night, we arrived at the airport early in the morning where we sat down at the KFC and started conversations with some fellow travellers. We ran into problems when it got time for John to check into his flight, as there was no luggage involved. They sent us to another line to buy a ticket for the luggage. With the entire waiting time put together, John would have missed his flight. He was close to leaving his luggage behind, until I had the idea to check it into my flight to take his suitcase to Austria with me and send it to him from there. After a rushed goodbye, I was left alone at the airport with both my hand luggage and John's bag and not a single idea on how to go about this, as my attempt to buy a checked-in bag was as fruitful as my initial attempt to buy a ticket back to Vienna. My first course of action therefore was to pack the most flamboyant clothes I could find in John's suitcase into my hand luggage as I had some leftover space and decided to leave it in God's hands. I returned to my fellow Turkish traveller at the KFC who was watching over my luggage during the ordeal and we killed some time together until it was time for him to leave for his flight. I decided to try my luck at the counter when he left to see if there was anything I could do about John's luggage, since the payment did not go through and my flight was now deemed underpaid, but there was none open from my provider. I was expecting a boring day at the airport, which I was dreading beforehand, but by now, boring would have been preferable. I decided to put on some Albanian bangers to calm down as there was only so much I could do. If the luggage had to stay behind, so be it, but I had to get back to Vienna somehow. After finally finding a service point that dealt with my providery they informed me that they'd have to double check and that I should come back some time later to figure it out. I used the time to stack up on cigarettes and decided there and then that this bag would come to Vienna with me, whatever it took. After some arguing at the counter, I was able to buy an overpriced ticket for the luggage, which I got multiple receipts for since they said the people at the check-in would only be able to see the declined payment and so that I would have some proof. I continued to an empty check-in counter to weigh my bags and learned that I had the right hand in picking the correct weight of the bags. It would be open on whether or not I would run into any trouble during the check-in process once the bag drop opened up. By this point, I just wanted to get out of this airport, out of this city, out of this country. Fuck my life. I went back to KFC and decided to smoke way too many cigarettes until I would find out. There was a bit of an argument at the check-in, but finally, it worked. John's luggage would now come with me to Austria. The security check and passport control went by smoothly and I befriended a Portuguese girl who was awaiting her flight home until boarding began. I basically fell asleep the moment I sat down in my seat to wake up during landing. Somehow, both me, my luggage and John's suitcase had made it back to Austria.Read more