Oh There's Always a Towel

My friend Teuta has arrived in Tirana and will be one of my housemates for the summer. When she came last week, she had a huge piece of luggage with her and when I inquired about it, I learned that the suitcase was for her brother's new wife and needed to be delivered to Kosovo. You see, Teuta was born and raised in the States and now lives in Michigan, but her family is from Peja, Kosovo and her brother recently made a trip there and fell in love, which resulted in a marriage. The wife, or "nusja" (Albanian word for new bride) is still waiting on the final processing of her paperwork but Teuta needed to deliver this suitcase which was basically the bride dowry. In addition, Teuta needed to meet her new sister-in-law for the first time. When she asked if I was up for a trip to Kosovo of course I was!

We sat out for our journey on Friday afternoon and just before pulling off from the square (because Tirana has no bus station, you just gotta figure out where all the buses leave from in the city) I realized that I had forgotten a critical item: my passport. So we hurriedly got up and got off the bus, explaining to the driver the situation. He informed us that the bus needed to make a trip to Durres first before hitting the road and so we could take a taxi, go back home, get the passport and then meet the same bus in F. Kruje. We really needed to take that bus because it was direct to Teuta's hometown so we found a taxi.

Our driver, turns out, was not only a taxi driver but also a former police officer and and currently performs songs at weddings. He asked me all kinds of questions about the US and said that Texas had the best police force in the world - someone should check on this. Anyhow, this guy was very talkative and once he learned Teuta was from Kosovo, he basically started talking noise about her people. He also was offensive when speaking about people who live in villages and mountains, but then when Teuta called him out on it, he pretended as though it was all jokes and lighthearted. By the time we reached F. Kruje we were both thankful to be getting out of the car.

Did I mention that we had to meet the bus at a random cafe on the side of the road?


Yep that was what the driver had decided and Teuta had given her number to some man that we were hoping was on the bus. Well after being at the cafe for about 8 minutes and catching a glimpse of the world cup match between the U.S. and Slovenia, Teuta's phone begins to ring as the bus pulls up. Finally we were able to begin our trip.

Some of you may remember me blogging about going to Kosovo last year and complaining about the 12 hour journey on horrible roads but nope, not anymore, Albania has a new major 4-lane highway, complete with an amazing tunnel that's 3.6 miles long!





The highway was wonderful but the tunnel isn't completely ready yet and only one lane is open inside. Therefore cops stand on either side and direct the flow of traffic. As a result people have to wait so what have Albanians done? Opened cafes of course while people wait for the tunnel to allow cars to move through. So our bus stopped and people had a coffee on the side of the road.



After getting through the tunnel we continued along and after a total of about 5.5 hours, we made it to Peja - amazing, seriously. We exited the bus and Teuta lugged the suitcase to her aunt's house and up the stairs to her aunt's house.



Thankfully her aunt lived near the bus station. Peja has a bus station. We stayed at the aunt's house for the night. The next morning we woke up and a young waiter from the cafe downstairs delivered coffee to us in the house - love the personal service. We later got dressed and set out to meet the Nusja. Once we met up with her in the center, we had a coffee at a cafe and then sat out to visit all of the family.

Six houses and five Turkish coffees later, we found ourselves making our way back towards the center. Teuta, her cousin and I decided to have dinner at this qebatore and I ate my first "gys e pese" which was more than delicious.



Afterwards we drank Peja beer (what else would we drink?) and made our way back home. Initially there were plans to go out to a concert but the rain kept us in for the night, which was quite alright because we had our own party in the house. And who was the host? Grape raki of course! Teuta's uncle started it all, he brought out the raki and kept toasting and refilling my glass. Plus one of Teuta's younger cousins continually brought out plates of cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes, I mean how was the night ever going to conclude?

We had ourselves a good ole time, at one point I found myself saying "Mashalla si molle" - I apologize, translation unavailable!

Sunday we woke kinda early to head to Prishtina for the day. Prishtina is the capital city of Kosovo and has recently erected a new statue for Bill Clinton on Bill Clinton blvd. All weekend people had been calling me Bill Clinton's daughter after they learned my name so Teuta said it was only fitting that I go and pay my "dad" a visit.



On the way to Prishtina however, our bus was pulled over by the cops. Perhaps I driver was speeding in the road, however from my window, I was unable to fully understand the exchange between the driver and the police.



We got to Prishtina, walked around for a bit and visited Skanderbeg and Mother Theresa in Kosovo. We also saw many signs like this one about Kosovo's freedom - I'll have to further write about these at some other time.



Finally after a few hours we made our way back to Tirana, where we dropped of not at a bus station Wondering what was in the suitcase? Well there were items such as a fancy dress, nice shoes, other pieces of clothing for the Nusja, a few household items, decorative soap, and also some really nice lace because Teuta's aunt is going to properly prepare the package and then dress it with the lace before delivering it to the Nusja. Last but not least, there was a towel on top of everything. I asked Teuta what the towel was for and she replied, "Oh there's always a towel." And that's that I guess, mission accomplished.