...Albania



Berat


Three things define our time in Albania- trying to keep warm, eating meat and eating borek.

Trying to keep warm
Arriving in the freezing cold capital Tirana, we had to drink the homemade sloe gin Kate had given us before leaving to warm ourselves up (in bed, fully clothed in hats, scarves and gloves). The local wine also proved a winner at if not warming us up then at least distracting us from being cold. One glass of local red wine I had in a small town called Berat smelt of pickled onions and, I'm delighted to say, didn't disappoint in the taste department either...




Trying to keep warm in Tirana



Eating meat
You can't avoid it. In Tirana, we ended up in a tiny place with a whole rotisserie chicken, toast and beer. It's all our poor spoken Albanian could stretch to but to be honest, I think it's all the place offered. The perfect comfort food.

Chicken, toast and beer in Tirana

In Berat, we had 'lunch of the trip'. We ended up with a proper kebab of different meats, lemony yogurt, salad (hurrah!) and chips (double hurrah!), all wrapped up in a fluffy flat bread.

Yeeeeessssss!

Our meat feast continued in this magical town when Finn ordered 'pigling' an amazing mistranslation of 'piglet'. We could've ordered any of the following: brain, liver, heart, spleen, kidney, tongue and entrails. We didn't. The following night the mistranslation was all ours. Meated out we ordered what we thought was mixed mezze, imagining a healthy plate of olives, salad and hummus. However, in Albanian, meat is 'meso'. We ended up with a plate of the aforementioned organs. It was an experience.

Borek
After a night of lying freezing in bed with the heater only heating the ceiling and being kept awake by its disco light we decided to change hostels. On our way to the next place that didn't actually exist anymore we fell through the door of a kebab place and pointed at the first thing we saw. It just so happened to be a tray full of hot borek straight out of the oven. Inside was melted cheese and ham. Borek of the trip.  Incidentally, yesterday on our 9 hour bus to Athens, Finn managed to sink 3 and a half boreks (is that the plural? Perhaps 'Borai'?).

The finest borek in the Balkans

Our last meal in Albania was special. Gjirokastra, the town of a thousand steps, was experiencing its first power cut in 10 years and the water had frozen. We went out in the cold and dark to find somewhere that might feed us. A man beckoned us in to his cafe and offered us a choice of goulash or 'something traditional'. We took both. The goulash was the perfect warmer-upper. It was a beef and tomato stew and you squeezed lemon over the top. I taught the owner the word 'squeeze'. He repeated it, laughed hysterically and then rubbed my back. We decided he was probably quite drunk.  He then brought us rice cakes cooked in egg with dried mint. Not a bit of meat in sight. We drank the local wine which was poured from a plastic bottle and then went back to our lovely hostel, warm and happy to find the power back on.

Chef/back rubber with rice cakes. Typical Albanian scene in background

We left Albania with heavy hearts, full stomachs and, despite the cold, a warm feeling from the hospitality the wonderful people showed us.

Time for some vegetables. Oh hello Greece, land of the kebab...