Tuesday night I experienced the most ridiculous thunderstorm ever with the amount of flashing lights and the noise of the rumblings etc Last night I experienced one twice as amazing.
It was 4am this time when I still hadn't got over the previous day's events and the quite incredible scenes that I had witnessed on the road heading to Shkodra. I heard the first few drops on the tent and heard the rumbles and saw the lightning but with clear sky above I guessed the mountains that circulated where I was just enhanced a distant storm to sounding closer than it was. I laid back down thinking mmm should I shouldn't I put the cover over. I remembered what happened last night and although no real damage was done, its always better off pinning the four corners instead of just draping the outer sheet over I thought. The four corners don't need to be pegged, they just get clipped into the four poles which is handy because I'm in an unbuilt en suite so pegging is quite hard! I laid back down, na the storm will pass, ill be fine. Sure enough, the rain began to fly down like niagara, I had to get up and put the sheet over as I had trainers and all sorts outside. This is ok to do when you're clothed and there's a lot of space around the tent. I however was naked and in an opened top en suite. The rain didn't wait for me to get dressed so I had to get out there. So at 4am armed with just a head torch I had to scurry around looking like some bush-faced Golom to get all four corners pinned under the poles and save all I could from a severe downpour. In the end I left the shoes and socks outside as I had no time if I wanted to avoid what is now the most amazing thunderstorm I have ever experienced. I mentioned flashes like Russell Crowe and red carpets before, well this made that look like a lonesome lighthouse. At one point I saw a fork shoot down beside the tent, must've only been a couple of hundred metres away if that, and the lightning (not the thunder) the lightning shook the raindrops of my body. I was sat in a tent, in a quickly filling up unbuilt en suite, in an unbuilt house, in the middle of the most aggressive thunderstorm, in Albania. It was certainly not my average night but 2 storms in 2 nights has led me to believe that it's following me.
The storm lasted for a good hour and a half and even though the dad had warned me with his few words that he did know, that I should put my tent on wooden planks because if a storm comes then I have a big "problem" I just secretly prayed he didn't look out his window to witness a scrawny naked man running around struggling to put his tent up in his dream home at 4 o'clock in the morning.
By the greeting I got in the morning I was safe to assume that dad (Bajham) and mum (Sabi) were blissfully unaware of the chaos occurring in their front garden. I laid everything out to dry as luckily the sun was out and went to go to toilet as I could feel the sausages from last night were justifying why they were £1.50 for 15. Bajham welcomed me in with open arms and tried to get me to sit down in the lounge but I had other agendas that needed completing VERY quickly. Sabi was typically cleaning the toilet just before I went in and as I sat there feeling sorry for the 9 toothbrushes in the pot on the sink I thought to myself how lovely the hospitality has been again! I then thought why have they got 9 toothbrushes! There were only 4 of them living there tops! A very nice open house with big rooms and a nice feel to the whole place. Bajham and Sabi have 4 boys all working in Italy. I found it hard to believe that I have cycled a path of a better life. Bajham said he was waiting for money to be sent back from his sons so he could finish off the house I stayed in and it hadn't previously occurred to me that yes, Albania was mental on first impressions and it was all sort of a laugh at first but I have actually crossed the border from civilisation and good income to "organised" chaos and poverty. Forget Africa for the moment, my experience of face slapping culture change was happening about 1000 miles before I even entered the continent of Africa.
Despite this fact, I was welcomed in and had Albanian coffee (which was lovely and sweet) and offered breakfast of bread that I declined as I had been trying to have a conversation over coffee for around 45 minutes and I thought food would just take too long. I said my thankyous and goodbyes and left with a very male Albanian goodbye. It was a combination of a handshake and two cheek touches. Now Bajham had the hands of a worker, hands like a piece of 40 grit sand paper which coupled with 2 quite gentle cheek touches felt kind of strange. This is why I'm proud i kept my end of the bargain with the beard. The beard has yet to be mentioned in full yet but all I'm saying is that this morning, I'm pleased it was there to maintain the manliness from the English half. Otherwise all I would be providing to the goodbye would be a couple of handlebar calluses and cheeks like a Johnson's baby bum.
So I set off on the road to Tirane expecting to witness some crazy things and I was no disappointed in the slightest. I had more cars driving towards me on my side of the road then I did going the other way and one time this occurred on a motorway. Like I said, anything goes! The motorway was just the high street but as you get further away from a town, the amount of cars seem to reduce, the notice reduces and the quality of road improves. The high street crumbled away and then a fresh black tarmac motorway appeared! It was about 4 lanes wide either side of the central barrier but had no lines so it was basically a free for all. Ironically, it was actually the safest road to be on as there were no cars!
I stopped for some food just before lunch time in a cafe along side the motorway. I asked for the menu and it appeared the pictures on the wall were just that...pictures. She pulled me around the counter and showed me what I was having in the pot. It looked like a vegetable soup, I can eat anything after riding so long so I wasn't too bothered. To go with my vegetable soup I was spoilt for choice, I could have rice or pasta. Having had quite a lot of experience with pasta recently, I went for the rice. All in all it was very good, had some bonus bread with it and it all came to 3 euros. So I even ate out under budget!
I cycled on and before I knew it the motorway had turned into a busy, dusty and noisy road. I had arrived in Tirane! I thought I still had a good 10 miles to go so I was happy with my progress and on the look out again for a place to stay. Tirane is big and I had to cycle across it during rush hour which was exciting and also very dangerous. To survive in Albania you have to be a bit mental and luckily it's fair to say I held my own.
After about 10 minutes cycling the other side of Tirane I came to farmland again. Albania is all car services, car washes, petrol stations, restaurants or bars. You will be very lucky to even find a shop. I saw a man walking up his long drive to his home, there were chickens roaming around garden and a cow roped to a stake eating a fine circle in his grass. I called out as always, said my bit and he said ok and ushered me into his house. He was prepared to let me stay indoors. "No no no" I said, I was happy with the tent underneath his big concrete house that was built on pillars.
He mentioned food and maybe a drink and I said yes but told him I only had 5 euros. Manud didn't have a clue what I was on about. He's Italian and didn't understand a word of English and it took me a while to work him out. The only thing I knew was that he was going to have a shower and we were going to the bar down the road. Whilst Manud showered and did his dishes I sat in the living room watching a Turkish soap opera with Albanian subtitles. The house was big but bare and it appeared to me that Manud had very little and slept on the sofa.
After about 20 minutes we were ready to go and like all the guys in Albania, Manud liked to look smart. Clean white polo, pin stripe trousers with "prom" shoes, Manud had done his hair and I got the idea he wanted to take me for night out in town. Trouble was, there I was standing beside him in the same old evening cargo pants and sweat/dust stained t-shirt. During the walk down I asked about his job and family and answers were muddled even though I knew he understood me. He had 3 sons in Italy and was divorced but she still lived in Albania was what he sort of explained. We had to run to the bar as my third thunderstorm in 3 days had hit. This time I could enjoy it from comfort but it continued to affect the electricity of the bar for the whole time which they told me was very common in Albania. At first it was quite awkward. There were only 3 others in the bar, all older men and none of them knew English so I sat quietly watching Indiana Jones whilst Manud was cracking jokes, a few about me I could guess but I didn't mind.
As the night progressed, more and more people arrived and a few younger guys sat with me. Manud was a pretty big character it seemed but made sure I was introduced to everyone properly and then he would go off and do his own thing. Emiliano 29, Klevis 22 and Juligs 21 were very interested in what I was doing. We talked about lots of things but the conversation took a turn that I was completely not ready for. The three guys were all skilled in their line of work and they all had a dream, England! And could I get them there? I was shocked because our conversation didn't turn to begging, it was said with passion and the look in their eyes hit me instantly and I didn't have a clue what to say. Klevis who seemed the guy that everyone in the bar went to if they needed something, also the best at speaking English just threw me a line out of nowhere that hit me hard "God is with you" I sat there with 3 lads that were around my age and all there dream was to have what I was born with...
It was hard to take and in that split second, the "Albmania" that I cycled through, instantly fell in love with and joked about in my head turned into a place of dead ends and hard work for nothing when I looked at it more closely. Its said many times and what can one man on a bicycle do? change the world? but these lads were no different to myself. We had laughs before this topic and we had laughs after they mentioned it but they had dreams that don't seem that hard to fulfil. Is that the case or was I just being naive? It's hard to understand unless you've lived in their shoes I guess but I've just cycled from their dream land and now I'm sat working out ways for them to get out of their own country to receive a better life. I could go on for a long time with my thoughts on this situation and I know this is just the beginning of situations where i will be faced with hard conversations and find myself saying the same thing, "he's the same age as me" or "if i can leave my country why cant they?" etc
I know how blessed I am anyway, more so than most of the people I know. I wake up each day with a positive look on life and can confidently say i always try to make the best out of a bad situation. This being said, I was still taken back by tonight and I wish the lads all the best. If the man on the bike can do anything to help, he'll try.
One of the guys' friends gave me a lift back to Manuds house. He turned out to be a bit of a drinker and I was knackered and hungry so i went back for some very late night spaghetti and left Manud with his mates.
An eye opening day, one of many I'm certain. Even though I know I won't be able to help everyone I meet, I can at least hope ill try and by writing this blog I'm at least making people aware that its not just Africa. It's everywhere.
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