April 21, 2023
More chores in Tirana
I spoke too soon about being ready to go. We had just 2 more things that we needed to get done before we were ready, and both of them were much less straightforward than we thought. To add to it Tobias had a pretty crappy night, and early morning, and was full of beans all day. And the washing machine broke.
We started the day with our hosts coming and going trying to work out how to open the washing machine so that we could get our nappies out to dry them. By lunchtime we could get them out but the washer is still out of action. Not a huge deal, we know we will do a fair amount of laundry by hand (we need to wash nappies every day to get them dry and have some to wear), but annoying nonetheless.
I completely underestimated how difficult it would be to find camping gas with a screw top bottle. Tony outdoor store has pictures on Google with multiple options, but when we finally found it this morning it was closed. The only other options seemed to be a bottle from the store near us which cost about €45, or the puncture ones that couldn't reseal (so not compatible with our stove). While I was trying to figure out how to get a new stove I messaged the store on Instagram, turns out they were away at a kayaking event but they got their teenage son to go and open the store for us so James could rush in while Tobias was napping. Task one done.
The other thing we had to do was post a package back to the Netherlands with a bike bag in it. There was a post office on the block next to us, but this turned out to close an hour earlier than it said on Google so we missed it. Then we tried one down the road but all communication was lost in translation. Finally James ran it into the central post office and we got rid of it.
While all this was going on Tobias was being simultaneously more energetic and more clingy (to me) than usual. It's pretty normal for kids to be clingy at this age, even when they are in a familiar place with a familiar routine, so we're not begrudging him too much. He also finally mastered scooting on his balance bike today, and he tends to get pretty cranky when he's learning a new skill, so hopefully it improves soon. He rode down to the park about 500m from our house, spent about an hour testing out all the identical slides, then scooted back up the hill. Hopefully that takes care of some of the energy and helps him sleep tonight.
So now I think we are actually done with preparations. One more day here in Tirana then we set off on Sunday.
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