Visitors

Two of my Italian cousins and a friend of theirs arrived well and in perfect time from Milan on Thursday, and I was lucky to have a minivan to bring them in to the city from the airport.

A taxi would have been a bit of a squeeze for 4 people plus driver and the luggage. Instead, an Albanian friend coordinated my needs with the ones of a couple of his family members who were going to Italy on the same plane that was bringing in my group. Thus, we all got a comfortable, and free ride all the way around.

The sun that was shining all morning, disappeared by noon. The clouds rolled in, and a light drizzle accompanied us all the way to the airport and back. My trio was delivered to their hotel in no time, notwithstanding the heavy car traffic in Tirana.

After inspecting the accomodations, which looked clean and comfortable, they accepted my offer to have a bite and did not even open their lugggage. It was 3pm and they had no food served on board the plane. Thus, I took them to a nearby snack bar/restaurant, located in my building, where they consumed a light lunch.

The rest of day went by quickly. They visited my new logdings, took in a view of Tirana from the 12th floor of my apartment, and after a brief rest in late afternoon, we had drinks at my place and dinner at another local restaurant.

Here they experienced their first Albanian creamy soup with small meat balls (a local specialty), good meat dishes with grilled vegetables, and excellent red Albanian wine from the area of Permet.

Their first day in Albania ended well around midnight, and we bid each other a good night without any special plans for the following day (Friday), which we decided to tackle in the morning.