21hrs, 660km, recovery

 So the man from the hostel who said he would send my purse tomorrow, kept saying he would send my purse tomorrow until it finally got to Monday and he says he can't send it ...%®'™¥¢€!!!

What to do ?? I went and spoke to the family, who were very helpful, trying to organise a guy they knew who goes to the city to contact a guy he knew who collect the purse from shkoder all without me actually having to do anything.. brilliant..no failed the man they knew wasn't going ..ah booo 

So the decision was made to take the night bus from Sarande to Tirana wait in the 'bus station' until the first bus to shkoder.  I checked all times I would arrive at 0230 and there was a bus at 5 ..not too bad considering the bus station doesn't really exist , it's a car park with a bench or 2.

Ticket bought,  message sent to make sure I could actually access my purse and retrieve it and could this be confirmed before 21.30 as I wouldn't have WiFi.  Caught the bus at 22h luckily stopped at a service station around midnight that had WiFi where I could get the info for the purse! 

Arrived after a very unsettled journey to tirana, i couldn't sleep, couldn't get comfortable..so I read my book! 

Found a bench, set my alarm and curled up for an hour or so...again impossible to sleep, continued reading my book.  5am came around quite quickly and the bus arrived he tells me he's not actually going to shkoder unless I pay double the ticket or he would drop me 5km from where I needed to be, as you can imagine I was not amused!!! 

I was like fine there is a bus at 6am, the bus at 6am didn't exist again really not amused.  The 7am bus turned up Wahoooo and early so I found a seat and had a nap! The bus should take 1h45 cool..I could run to the hostel get the purse and catch the 10am bus back to connect with the 12.45 back to sarande.

Of course the journey didn't take 1h45 but almost 3hrs..the traffic was sooooo bad and some points it was at a stand still !!  Eventually got there , got to the hostel followed the instructions wahoooooo reunited with my purse 🥳🥳

Used the toilet, made myself some breakfast had a drink and left.  Didn't speak to anyone 😂😂😂

I managed to get the 11am bus back the roads were clearer and was able to catch the 14h bus back to sarandë!! The price for this trip has changed 3 times in a week.  From 15 euro to 16 and then finally to 17€ they just charge what they want.  In some places the euro is equal to 100lek so it's super easy in other places they change the rate !!! 

The journey back seemed to take forever even though the bus driver was gassing it.  Managed to message Kerry at the half way stop to make sure there was a cold beer in the fridge and to decide what we would eat for dinner as I needed proper food !!

No surprises we got a takeout from the fish place.  Grilled and fried calamari and a shrimp pasta ... Super super good 🤤🤤🤤🤤 and I was out for the count by 21.30 ! But happy because the purse issue was solved .. blooming nightmare! 

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