Cheeky cheeky, I wasn't staying around longer than I needed to. Holiday was starting on Friday for me! Let's get out of this heat, Vamos! Was a fairly easy trip to Abu Dhabi and through the airport, still annoying I have to go to check in desk and not just straight through. Wasn't in the departure lounge long as didn't give myself hours in there. Well that would have been the case if we weren't delayed for 45 minutes. By that time they'd got us in pre boarding and lined up to board the plane aswell. I was row 5 and you have to get first of the queue to avoid someone being stupid and sitting in your seat or then throwing a load of bags in your over head compartment so your not able to have your bag above you and then wait ages to get off the plane. Wasn't happening to me and happily sat waiting to get off already in 5 hours. You do always have that one that wants to swap seats though, the man next to me did for the boy who was nervous of flying and had his mum two rows behind, found that out the amount of times he held his mums hand and asked the hostess how long it was until landing every hour. She wasn't the easiest to sit next to either being on the large side and wanting to stick her arms over my side of the arm rest constantly. I didn't realise how long the flight was, so long :( on budget airlines. When we eventually started to circle over Tirana soon it was noticeable that the city was amongst dramatic mountains that had stunning blue lakes amongst them on a sunny day. Smooth landing and straight off, the airport scenery was beautiful, the airport was tiny. E gates to get through made it fast and simple and the fact that I didn't have any bags made it a lot easier for me to swiftly move through the crowds! Changed 20 euro, had a pee and took a few strides over to the Luna buses that take you directly into Tirana. I got the last seat thankfully, pretty sure the guy on here that was on my plane was someone that's been on a swim England course with me before. 400LEK or 4 euros later we were on our way, passed the best western where I'll be staying tomorrow to wait for mum and dad and then through Friday traffic to the centre of the city. I could not wait to get off this bus!!! Sun was out, it looked hot. The houses very plain and tatty a little like Hungary houses in the sticks. Clearly see communism was present in this country by the grey old architecture and boring grey side walks. Finally through the traffic the 30 minute ride definetly took 45, last off the bus as I was at the back, grabbed my little case and walked over the Oxford hotel which was all of 250m away, purposely booked so not to have to walk for ages through the city. Surprised to hear call to prayer, I huess since living inside the UAE I was not really aware of it outside of there and in Europe, I forget that it's still a thing here. Perhaps because close to Turkey, Western Europe they still have a large influence from the ottoman era. Two ice cream shops spotted, I think mum will be happy haha. Very tired, and feeling grubby from being on the plane, it was around 5pm, I was going to get away with going for an early dinner, an ice cream for desert and an early bed time. Perfect for me with headache and tiredness. The hotel seemed nice, nice enough to dump the bags and go for a walk around the block. Everything's much closer than expected as per Google maps. I found a place called top tani, it was a modern shopping mall but behind the old fashioned fort with nice restaurants in and around it. I didn't really know what I fancied so I chose one that had the most people in it and plonked myself down in front of the tele, not that I like football but it's noise. Spin v Germany quarter finals. I had a rocca and Parmesan salad with some fried on the side, and when they arrived they were like Bampi's chips from his fryer!! Delicious but I couldn't eat all of them. I thought I was also ordering a bitter lemon but turns out it was a bitter pink sparkling cordial thing not amazing but it was a taste. First half of Spain and Germany was boring me, finished my tonne of water and some food, felt weird to say it but I was off to bed. I think because it's not getting dark until 8:30pm and I'm used to it being dark by 7pm at latest. I did drag myself to the cream hut and got a scoop of caramel ice cream but that tired I barely wanted to eat it. Hotel for shower and bed and I found the football to put on in the background as noise. Slept okay for the first night but for not as long as I'd have liked being awake at 5am. I managed to stay in bed until 8am and then I slowly got showered and ready to go up to breakfast on the rooftop terrace. The view was lovely of the mosque and the mountains surrounding us. The little pigeon/dove was not nice being way too friendly to want to take food off your plate. Usual continental European breakfast was on offer, it did the trick to fill me up for the day. I Checked out almost straight after and went for an explore around the city. The city is very small and it's very hot. The usual attractions in a city, churches, mosques, museums, statues. Nothing that I felt like I hadn't seen the inside of before. I had to sit down a few times from tiredness and heat. It was actually quite pleasant sitting and watching the world go by, a few observations that I realised about Tirana already; - No one weighs helmets - Lots of electric bikes cars and mopeds - Lots of Germans here - Restaurant menus in English and Italian maybe they get a lot of Italian tourists? - Everyone walks very slowly - Communism in the architecture roads of Tirana is still present but lots of newly built apartment blocks and fresh modern buildings - Bike on every road - Lots of public buses - Not everyone smokes as much as they do in Romania, unusual for an Eastern European country. I stopped in a nice outdoor cafe restaurant for water and a another sit down before I headed to the hotel to get my bag and head off to the bus to go to the best western hotel as it had a swimming pool and a gym so I'm going to chill there and make the most of that place before mam and dad arrive. I did fall asleep and nearly fell off the bus seat though, I was definetly tired! I strolled over to hotel from airport and checked in, all easy peacy and a lovely hotel, my two twin beds are around the corner from main room and a huge balcony overlooking the airport. Went straight down to the pool and fell asleep for the afternoon. Then I came back to the room and got changed to go to the GYM! On a Saturday evening on holiday! Whaaaat. Can't shift this headache not sure if it's because I haven't eaten much, slept very well, still have snot coming up and over thinking about everything. Can't shut off and down :( no alcohol for me today! Mum and dad are delayed so I guess a nap is on the cards for me before they arrive at midnight now instead of 10pm!