Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning

Monday afternoon.
I am pretty tired today, but I'm doing better now.  I think writing this morning helped get stuff off my chest. Genci and I had a few moments together (we barely have time to talk to each other beyond just talking in a logistical way about our current task), to just kind of comfort each other. 

I mentioned to Genci that there were a bunch of boiled eggs downstairs (breakfast at the hostel - there also was fresh bread and extra flavorful feta cheese), and he asked me, in a concerned voice, if there were too many eggs.  We both had a good laugh.  Yes, it all seems very serious and stressful when we're being chastised, but a little laughter put it into perspective, even if only for a few minutes. This trip is hard on him too.

Today the rain let up for a bit.  I forgot to mention that it has been raining buckets since we got here.  We arrived in an absolute downpour, and it has been either raining or threatening to rain ever since.  It was a grey, cold morning today, but we could walk around a bit without getting soaked.  The waterproof boots I bought the night before our trip were the best decision ever.

The kids and I went to the market and bought a chess set and a soccer ball. That made the kids pretty happy.  Then I dropped them back off at Gjysha's house and walked to a Turkish restaurant where I got lunch for the family.  While I waited for the food, I walked around the area.  The restaurant is next to an Orthodox church, and Orthodox Easter is coming up (next Sunday I think), so there were a lot of interesting little Easter doo-dads for sale.  I bought a couple of handmade beeswax candles and a couple of very interesting handmade baskets.  They look almost like dreamcatchers crossed with a serving dish that curves up at the side.  Their Easter paraphenalia is very different from ours.  They do have the egg/basket theme, but they look totally different.

The meal was pretty good.  I got biftek  (beef-tek) and chicken for the boys.  The biftek is like steak, but it's very thin (1.5mm?).  Today's biftek was a little tougher than usual, but the kids liked it.  Genci & I really liked the other stuff, especially the sauteed vegetables (including eggplant).  Very yummy.  We had a salad and some sort of stuffed tomato thing. 

After doing the dishes and playing chess with Nathan, I wanted to head to the park, to join Luke and Genci.  Gjusha had a little confrontation with me about leaving.  "You spend more time looking at the park than looking at me.", to which I replied "I haven't even seen the park yet this trip."  (By the way, 2-4 of us had been at the house for 4 hours straight, so it wasn't like we just dropped by for a second.) She was trying to give me the poor pitiful me look combined with the firm you're not going anywhere look, but I really, really needed to leave.  And I had promised Nathan we could go to the park.  So we left.  It's always a struggle. But I wasn't getting trapped this time.

Anyways, it looked like it was going to rain, so we came back to the hostel to rescue our clothes (on the clothesline).  The kids are playing a couple of games of chess while I have a glass of wine & type a bit.  A nice break.  We'll head over soon.

Yesterday the kids participated in a chess tournament here at the hostel.  The hostel is in a new location this year.  It's closer to Gjusha's house, but it's not as cool as it was last year.  The old hostel had a little pool with fish and frogs, it had a cat that roamed about, and a more outdoors, natural feel to it.  This one is nicer in some respects, but not as homey.  It does have a cafe/bar attached, which is where the tournament took place.  They were so excited about competing.  They had dreams of winning the tournament.  Yes, I tried to damper their expectations a little bit, seeing as they were playing against adults who are into chess.  But they were excited.  They got knocked out in the first round, but they competed like everyone else and were treated with fond respect.  People played chess with the kids after the tournament too.

Now it is Tuesday.  After I finished writing yesterday, we went back to Gjusha's house and had a decent low-key evening playing games with the kids.  Nathan and I took a 3 hour nap.  We ended up staying there til 11:30pm.  We came back to the hostel, planning to go to bed, but there were some people hanging out and playing music, so we hung out and the kids played chess.

It's actually supposed to be sunny today, so I plan to do things outdoors.  I'm not sure what.  Perhaps go to a local park that's a little further away.  There is a pitiful mini-zoo next to the park, but a woman here told me that there is part of it that is not depressing.  So maybe we'll try that.  I know the park would be nice to walk in.  I think Genci has some things to fix at the house if it's not raining.  We definitely got lucky with the weather the last 2 times we were here.  This rain is not fun.  It keeps you indoors, and it feels cold, so we're relatively bundled up.  I am trying to get up the courage to make the kids take a shower.  Yes, they should have a shower.  But it's so cold when you get out, I'm dreading listening to Luke cry.  But today should be the best day for a while.

My trip is pretty boring as far as seeing things goes.   That is how these trips are, but I think this one is going to be even more mundane than usual, because we know we will get to see things when we get to Austria, so I'm not pushing to do things here.  Plus we lost a day and a half here with the flight problems.  But, that's OK.  I just want it to be peaceful, not full of conflict and misery.  I enjoy talking with people at the hostel.  I miss Malvina, who worked at the hostel last year.  She had a big presence.  Genci doesn't like the current hostel environment much this year, because they have a bar and there is smoking.  He is worried that his mother will disapprove if she smells the smoke on his jacket.  But it is more fun to hang out in the bar side of things (it looks like a cozy cafe), because that's where the people are.  The kids really like interacting with the guys here.  Luke is playing chess with someone right now.