Yesterday, the first thing I did was take a bus to the cable car that goes to a mountain that overlooks the city. Actually, I took the bus to the end of the line where a shuttle bus was supposed to pick me up to bring me to the cable car. The bus wasn't there-but that was ok-I figured I would just walk from the bus stop to the mountain in the distance, and I would find it. But I just walked up the hill for about 15-20 minutes when I was able to look to the left and see the cable car in the air about 1/2 mile a way-which meant I had to walk back down the hill walk 1/2 mile or so, and walk up another hill. Fortunately, as I was walking past communist style apartment buildings, the driver came along, saw me, and picked me up.
The cable car ride was rather long (for a cable car)-15 minutes-and it flew above houses, buildings, farms, and many hills. I could hear roosters cock-a-do-dooing, and kids playing in the distance. Eventually, the car got to the top of the mountain, were I walked around a little bit. There we're hiking trails to the top of the mountain-where signs said that a full hike would take about 1 1/2 hours (i didn't hike the trails-i simply hiked to the place where signs said the hiking trails started)
After maybe 20 minutes admiring the view, I took the cable car back down the mountain, and took the bus back to town. I bought some olives at the open-air market which I ate, and went back to the hostel to B.S with the others on the front porch. Eventually, I feel asleep on one of the open air couches in the yard.
In the evening, drizzle started to fall-but I didn't want to spend my last night in Tirana sitting on the porch ingesting everyone elses' cigarette smoke. So I went searching for the artificial lake. The artificial lake, which I haven't found yet-is a place with bars surrounding it. The night before, a couple of people from the hostel I was talking to went there for drinks. So I decided my goal was to find it-if for no other reason then to check it out for myself. I walked through the center of town, past the university, and through a huge park. I asked directions-someone said the artificial lake was straight ahead. I kept walking as the drizzle kept falling and I found it. It was large but not particularly impressive-there we're more modern apartment houses on the other side of the lake, and a small area with bars and restaurants. After I took a short walk around, I walked back through the park.
As I walked back, it seemd like the way out of the park was taking much longer then the way to the lake. Eventually, I found an exit-but I had no idea where I was. I didn't recognize any of the buildings around me. I was lost and it was raining harder now. I finally found some people in the lobby of a restaurant, and they attempted to guide me in the right direction. I kept walking, and found a Cinnabon. I didn't go in-but I was surprised-here in Albania there are no Mcdonalds, Subways, KFC, Starbucks, or any other American chains I could see, so I took a picture of it, and the police stopped me-I was in front of one country's embassy, and apparently pictures of embassies are prohibited. I explained I was just taking a picture of the Cinnabon, and he was fine-plus he gave me directions-to keep walking straight.
Finally, when I sort of recognized where I was, I stopped for dinner-first for Slovcki (again)-but I was still hungry so I stopped at another restaurant for pasta.
It was around 11 pm when I returned to the hostel, and found the usual group sitting and smoking on the porch-so i joined them for some drinks, and went to bed around 1 or so.
