Late afternoon, Wednesday November 6th
It took a bit of time to connect with our luggage once we landed in Tirana. We finally spotted our bags in a holding area staffed with three employees. Once they verified our nine suitcases were indeed ours they gathered them and led us to the taxi stand. Albanian law sets the fare for the ride from the airport to Tirana . . . 2,000 Albanian lek or 20 euros. No ripping off arrivals. The lek is not available anywhere except within Albania so I was unable to get a stash of lek from our Lodi bank before we left. However I did have a small stash of euros so we were good to go.
Our three airport helpers stuffed our suitcases into the taxi trunk with the overflow going into the back seat with me. Barry offered the men a tip, which they at first refused, but took when Barry insisted. Tipping has not been common but is gradually becoming expected, at least in the capital city of Tirana.
The sun was just beginning to set as we drove away from the airport and joined a very long line of cars creeping along like Sacramento commuter traffic. A great distance ahead we could see police cars with lights flashing were the holdup.
It was dark by the time we reached the Arber Hotel where Barry had booked a one-week stay. I felt bad for our driver who made the trip with a fixed fare so I handed him a few extra euros for which he was visibly grateful.
We were greeted by friendly English-speaking staff and shown to our room. We did a little unpacking then went across the street for some fine dining. It took a few times of eating out to learn how things work here. If we enter a restaurant where there is no host or hostess (usually there isn’t), we just sit down and a server will show up to take our order. There were two ways to order wine with dinner. You can order a bottle of wine or get wine by the glass that comes from a box. There are two choices for wine by the glass: white and red. The variety remains a mystery. The price is generally around 300 lek per glass or you can get half a liter for 500 lek. (That’s a giant bargain compared to Lodi prices.)
I don’t remember what we ordered that first night but I do remember having a fabulous ravioli dinner with salad several times, a yummy pizza one night, and always decadent desserts. Dinners ran about 2000 lek including drinks. Tipping has not been a custom but is appreciated. 10% is considered a good tip. Translating lek into dollars is easy. Just move the decimal two figures to the left and 1000 lek becomes $10 in my mind. It was not an equal exchange but close enough to be useful.
There were restaurants, coffee shops, gelato stands, a juice bar, and bakeries in an “arcade” or “galleria” just steps away from the hotel.
We quickly learned that Albanians usually stop by a bakery on their way to school or work and grab a byrek for breakfast. It is a croissant type pastry generally filled with white cheese or spinach. The cost is about 100 lek, which was the equivalent of around $1.06 at that time. With the tanking of the US dollar today the equivalent would be about $1.19. (You can buy a whole loaf of fresh baked bread for .80 lek.)
After dining out for a few weeks we noticed that once we were served the server never came back to our table until we signaled him. I say “him” because the overwhelming majority of servers are men. In fact, I don’t recall ever having a female server. This is true for any restaurant we have been to. We soon observed that whether it was an upscale restaurant or just a coffee shop, people regularly lingered for an extended period after finishing their coffee or meal. It was clear you could stay as long as you like and no server would approach you with your bill until you specifically ask for it. I think they consider it rude to interfere with your experience.
When we are ready to pay we wave the server down, indicating we are ready for the bill. He brings the bill and goes away until we again indicate we are ready to pay. These are almost always cash transactions. A rare exception can happen in a very fine-dining restaurant where you may be asked “cash or card?” The servers carry change in their pocket and make change right there. They don’t count out your change but spread it out on the table for you to see for yourself the exact change you have received. This wasn’t very useful for me for awhile since all the money looked like Monopoly money. Very few businesses accept credit cards at all. The cash can be in lek or euros.
There are way more coffee shops than restaurants in Tirana. We have five coffee shops and one small restaurant, primarily a pizza place, on our little street. It appears coffee shops are where people meet to socialize. Coffee is served espresso style in cups not much larger than a thimble. Cost is 0.70 lek (also known as “ALL”). Barry tells me the coffee is hyper caffeinated so the tiny amount is about all you’d want in one sitting. I don’t drink coffee so I order hot chocolate. The first time I ordered a hot chocolate I was asked if I wanted black or white. I guessed it meant dark chocolate or white chocolate. I ordered “black” and what I got was a maybe three or four ounce cup of delicious dark thick chocolate that looked and tasted like a melted chocolate bar (or maybe chocolate pudding). There was also a packet of sugar, which was not needed by any means, and a tiny spoon to dip into the thick chocolate and bring tiny spoons full of chocolate to my mouth. One would never drink the chocolate from the cup.
The next day, Thursday, November 7th
Sonila from ExPatsInAlbania.com met us at the hotel to take us to meet with her partner Denisa to get acquainted in person. We had connected with Denisa via Zoom in Lodi soon after abandoning Bulgaria as a destination. I had begun a search for an Albanian lawyer to help us with getting our residency. There was no rush. We had a year after we arrived to get the residency, but I’d formed such a great relationship with our Bulgarian attorney who was helpful in so many other ways, I was looking to replicate the relationship in Albania. I emailed a few Albanian attorneys and got no response except finally from one attorney who was three times more expensive than our Bulgarian attorney and didn’t have the friendly vibe I was looking for. That’s when I turned to exploring ExPatsInAlbania online.
Sonila walked us to Skanderbeg Square, the main plaza in the center of Tirana, the capital city. We sat at a coffee shop outdoor table and ordered coffee (hot chocolate for me) and chatted with Sonila until Denisa arrived soon after. We spent an hour or so filling Sonila and Denisa in on why we chose Albania and what we hoped to find here. Our biggest desire at that moment was to tour the city and familiarize ourselves with the various neighborhoods we had explored online. We arranged to meet the following day. Sonila let us know that Albania ran on WhatsApp. (one more app to learn, sigh). Fortunately Barry got us set up so it was a painless transition for me.
Friday, November 8th
Sonila arrived at our hotel around 10 am with Afrim, her favorite taxi driver, and we headed out for a taxi tour of the city to see what we would see. Truth be told, it was a whirlwind experience. There were mostly nice neighborhoods with only about two that didn’t appeal.
Saturday November 9th
Sonila took us on walking tours of various neighborhoods to take a closer look. I declared Sunday a day of rest to give us some time to metabolize all we had experienced. Sonila’s next task was to show us some apartments in our price range of $600 – $700 a month. It was months before I could think in lek instead of dollars. The lek was closely related to the US dollar so it was common to look at a 1,000 lek as dollars because the exchange was quite close. We simply moved the decimal two digits to the left and 1,000 lek became $10.00 and 5,000 lek became $50.00 in our minds. Barry and I still talk in dollars instead of lek though the current exchange rate from dollars (USD) to lek (ALL) is quite brutal. Our rent is 700 euros (EUR) which currently is exchanged for $829.00. Fortunately we are not harmed by the staggering exchange rate.
Getting Acclimated
When we weren’t with Sonila we wandered around the area surrounding the hotel to see what there was to see. We discovered:
- two bakeries
- a few coffee shops
- a fresh juice bar
- a “fast food” Greek restaurant serving among other things Sufllaqe (sue flah kee) which is bits of meat, usually chicken, pork, or lamb, tomatoes, red onion, and tzatziki and believe it or not, french fries, wrapped in pita bread formed into a cone then wrapped in paper to eat on the run.
- a small traditional restaurant run by a couple that was more or less a lunch place that closed at about 3 pm. They always had a soup, a couple of main dishes, bread, and soft drinks, coffee, and water.
- the galleria across from the front door of the hotel. It had more than several coffee shops, a bar, an Italian restaurant (Golosa), a gelato stand, a phone accessories shop, and more that we probably missed. We surmised the general population used coffee shops to meet with friends (rather than meet for a meal). We speculated it might be because wages are rather low — making dining out an extreme luxury. It seemed people would hang out for hours over a .70 lek espresso.
- a few blocks away was an out-of-the way very nice fish restaurant that Barry discovered.
- and a Burger King! (No McDonald’s).
Searching for the right apartment
The first apartment Sonila showed us was rather dingy with bold pea-green colored walls. Barry contends that everything was ugggly — the layout, the fixtures, the paint “institutional green” paint color. I knew the minute I walked in it was a “no.” Barry on the other hand photographed every room from every angle, “just to be polite,” he contends. I couldn’t wait to get out the there. We were getting very tired of living out of our suitcases. Though the hotel was very nice it wasn’t intended to be a place to unload our goods. There wasn’t nearly enough closet and drawer space to hold our stuff anyway.
A few days later Sonila showed us a gorgeous apartment on the 12th floor in the upscale Pazari i Ri (New Bazaar) neighborhood. The price was right. It was newly furnished, with great paint, tasteful furniture, complete kitchen appliances, and the assurance that a new larger TV was on its way. When I say Sonila showed “us” the apartment, it was in fact just Barry who got in the elevator to go to the 12th floor. When I was prompted to enter the elevator my claustrophobia wouldn’t let me go in. It felt like walking into a coffin! “I can’t. I just can’t,” I said desperately trying to keep from crying. I felt so bad to disappoint everyone.
In addition to the claustrophobia problem there was no way I could climb twelve flights of stairs if the elevator became out of order. I told Sonila I didn’t want to see any apartment that was higher than the second floor.
Barry extended our stay at the hotel a few days while we carried on with our apartment search. Sonila started lining up a nearby “temporary” apartment. We were starting to feel desperate. All I wanted was some drawers and closets so I could fully unpack. The temporary place never happened, because of the next place we saw.
Friday, November 15th
THE NEXT PLACE! Sonila showed us a two bedroom, two bath furnished apartment painted in neutral colors on what I thought was the second floor. I say “thought” because when we got in the sturdy, steel elevator with a full length mirror on the back wall giving the impression the elevator was bigger than it was, she pushed the #2 button and we quickly rose to the second floor that really was the third floor because, as is typical in Europe, the first floor is designated as “0”.
It was eight months before I realized the misidentification of our floor number. (We are on Kati 3, in Apartament 2.) It happened the second of only two times when the elevator was temporarily out of service and I had to use the stairs to reach the apartment. Oh man, no wonder that first flight was a doozy! HaHa.
But I digress. The minute I entered the apartment I felt “this is it.” If felt spacious and clean. The master bedroom had a king size bed, the second bedroom had two twin beds. Maybe it would be a guest room. Barry and I were used to having our own bathroom so being a two bath apartment was perfect. The rent was 700 euros. I felt like we could be comfortable here. I let Barry know it worked for me and he agreed.
There was no rush to “seal the deal” that day. Sonila, the landlady Mirela, Mirela’s rental agent, Barry, and I settled in for convivial chit chat that went on and on while Mirela’s agent pointed out what a great neighborhood it was, how convenient everything was, and I don’t remember what all the rest of the palaver was about. I was ready to sign the lease and get on with it.
Barry recalls that our one-year lease is backed by promises. The lease is renewable “forever” with no increase in rent. We might be skeptical, but that’s the deal.
There’s a big veranda with table and chairs. And a rack for drying clothes, since (Barry points out) they haven’t invented clothes dryers in Albania yet. The view isn’t bad, and we are near the old elite Blloku neighborhood. Barry tells people, “We’re not in Beverly Hills, but you can see it from here.”
After an hour or so of chit chat the particulars of the rental agreement were spelled out. We needed to pay the first and last month’s rent plus one month’s security deposit. The rental period began that day, November 15th. Each month we would receive an accounting of our share of the utilities which we were told ran around $125 a month. Mirela’s husband would be by on the 15th of each month to collect the rent.
Sonila took care of handling the paperwork. I have no recollection of how we acquired €2,100 for the first and last month’s rent plus security deposit, but somehow it got done. When we got our utility accounting a few days before the December rent was due the amount was 17,700 lek which amounts to $177 plus the exchange rate. This included electricity, water, and elevator maintenance. This was a pittance compared to our monthly Lodi utilities which ran in the hundreds every month. Our worst Lodi month was around $500. Our best months were around $250.
Since our first month we’ve become mindful of not leaving lights on when no one is in the room, or leaving the heater/air conditioner on when no one is in the room. Our most recent bill was 14,400 lek. Very affordable.
Sonila offered that she had a cleaning lady, Flora, who charged 1,000 lek per hour and to plan on three hours once a week. That would be 3,000 ALL or $30 a week. Perfect! I’d never have to clean a toilet again! What a blessing! BTW, Flora is hands-down wonderful and Barry will rave about her in a separate post.
The next day, Saturday, November 16th
Sonila walked us to Toptani Mall (500 meters or 0.31 miles) to load up on essentials like sheets, towels, pillows, hangers, dish cloths, pots and pans and cooking utensils . . . enough to get started.
Thus began the “settling in” phase
It didn’t take long to realize there is no Amazon in Albania. No such thing as a hardware store either. There are little shops of all kinds throughout the city along with street vendors. In the Pazari i Ri neighborhood there’s a large outdoor market sort of like an upscale flea market. You can’t imagine the thrill that comes with stumbling across some long desired household item that I’d been looking for for months!
For example, I had kept my eye out for wastebaskets to place next to our desks. Along about May, five months after our arrival I passed the 1.30 Euro Store, which is just like a Dollar Store or Dollar Tree. Well, there in the front of the store was a display of what I thought were wastebaskets . . . stacks and stacks of them. I grabbed four — as thrilled as if I had just found gold. The wastebaskets turned out to be big flower pots but were perfect none the less. Oh, happy day!
The amount of money we save by not having Amazon at our fingertips is enormous. Back in the day, I’d have a thought I needed this or that and immediately buy it on Amazon. Then a day or two later when a package was delivered to my door, I’d wonder What is it that I bought? That’s how unimportant most stuff was. It is surprising how much I can be accomplished when making do with what I already have.
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