Pilgrimage from Mamurras to Tirane 08/11/07

Normally I don’t like camping within site of houses if I haven’t asked permission to stay, but I was a bit lazy last night. And sure enough at 06:15 I heard voices start to approach. I was already awake having set my alarm for 6am, but being sooooo cold I was enjoying savoring the warmth of my sleeping bag.

Sure enough they stopped outside my tent and I could tell they were trying to talk to me. They were a bit surprised when I popped my head out and were nothing but smiles after finding out what I was doing.

Then I was back on the boring, boring and really boring highway.

Stopping at every café along the way to see if anyone did breakfast, I finally found this great little place that appeared to be run by a nine year old and a 13 year old!

“Do you have food”
“yes! Manjare, manjare!”
“Could I please see the menu?”
“No”
“Well what do you have?”
“What do you want?”
“Do you have spagetthi or pizza?”
“No”
“well what do you have?”
“What do you want?”
“Hahahahah….just get me anything”

Then the nine year old runs into the kitchen and I hear cooking noises start up. I’m thinking to myself that if he has been left in charge of a restaurant he must be able to cook something, but I was still a little apprehensive…

When it came out it was delicious. A big plate of rice and fried meat cooked to perfection! I was impressed :)

The mother turned up just as I was finishing and gave my meal a curious look. Obviously she hadn’t seen the kids cook before either!

After breakfast, the only entertainment I had all day was passing a furniture store and getting called in for a drink. The guy didn’t speak any English but had decided that I obviously shouldn’t be doing all this walking without some rocket fuel to keep my going :)

The whole day I had been asking people how far it was to Tirane and nobody seemed to have a clue. The answers were always between 15kms and 30kms…even after a full days walking it didn’t change!

So I was glad when the edges of Tirane finally appeared, but it was still another 8kms to the International hotel where Steph was waiting patiently.

We did our internetting as we waited for Charis, who we had met on couchsurfing, to come and get us.

She was great! A perfect host :) After showing us a wonderful Indian restaurant, Steph went home to rest while we went out to drink the night away.