My morning was a fog of snoozing or cancelling/resetting alarms, until I realized thereās no expectations of what I have to do in a day other than those I set for myself. Choosing to prioritize my rest, especially after the time changes and poor recent poor nightsā sleeping in Mexico and on the red eye flight, I deleted all alarms. By the time I felt rested and ready to start my day, it was 4:00PM. 17 straight hours of sleep? This might be a new record for me. Itās certainly indicative of how much my body truly needed it.
I did some yoga and meditation in my private room at the hostel before heading out to the town around 5:00PM. I went to Momento, an Italian restaurant outside the Opera building, bordering Skanderbeg Square. I sat outside while listening live music being performed by a group of DJs at some sort of retro car festival. I ate a tasty and filling flatbread pizza and canoli for dessert, washing it down with a couple of beers and one coffee with the canoli.
Sitting on the front desk of the hostel were cards offering local tours of Tirana nightlife from a local Tirana girl. She would take groups to local bars, restaurants, and clubs to experience all that the city had to offer. Unfortunately, I didnāt get the communal lively āgoing out togetherā vibes from any of my hostel mates, and recognizing it was my last weekend night in Tirana, I wanted to make the most of it. The tour guides name is Marci, and I messaged her a bit to learn more about the night tour before deciding to go for it. I always try to say yes as often as possible and make the most of each day. Those closest to me know it doesnāt take much arm twisting to get me to go out for a good time.
The first stop was at a traditional Albanian bar and restaurant called Komiteti. It was filled with older decor from Albaniaās former communism years. Here, I tried a couple glasses of Rake, the traditional Albanian drink that I would describe as sipping flavored vodka out of a shot glass. Iām glad I tried it, but not my first choice.
The second stop was at New Irish Pub, where it was karaoke night. The bar was packed with locals who were singing some Italian songs, some Albanian songs, some American pop music, and some American 90s rock and grunge music. We had a few drinks here and then Marci and I sang āIn the Endā by Linkin Park. Although alcohol can give a false sense of confidence, the clapping and cheering crowd confirmed we nailed it.
The third stop was a typical Albanian club. To my surprise and disappointment, there was no dance floors. There was a DJ booth with a handful of people right on it, but there were tales covering the entire layout of the place. There were no available tables, so we left our stuff on the DJ booth and did our best to dance in the space we could find, but were often having to move around the moving crowd. I didnāt want to stay here too long, in search of a place with more open space to dance.
We then made an unplanned stop for a quick bite of a chicken pita wrap at Mr. Chicken.
At this point, it was about 2:00AM. I was starting to fade, and would need some solid music to give me a second wind surge of energy. At our final stop of the night, the second wind took me by surprise. We went down a set of stairs into an underground Techno club called Tunnel, where to my delight was a large dance floor both in front of and behind the DJ booths. The strong and consistent punch of the kick and speed of Techno music got my body moving and heart pumping without any thought or effort. Shortly after arriving, the rest of the tour group called it a night, but I couldnāt leave. It wasnāt until being in Tunnel that I realized it had been a week since I danced to good music in a club. Yes, one whole week doesnāt sound like much, but to me, it felt like a lifetime. All of the causes of anxiety and sadness in me, in addition to the feelings of exhaustion and just being out of it seemed to melt away as I danced away the night. I got to engage with the talented DJ duo there, Atomic Emotions and Anite, observing their techniques and dancing with them. It was around 5:00AM when they finally closed it down and I started walking back towards my hostel. Only 4 hours from now, I would be meeting a group and tour guide for the Bovilla Lake hike excursion I signed up for.