We’ve been taking the public bus to get around. 40 leks (~40 cents) per ride regardless of distance. After a few days we figured out what the names in front of the buses meant, which direction it would take us to.
In some countries you pay the driver when you the board the bus. Here, there’s a conductor (who must have amazing facial recognition skills) who collected fares from passengers who just boarded the bus. Occasionally it got really crowded in the bus and making it impossible for the conductor to go to the back of the bus, in which case he would get out of the bus and enter from the rear door.
We took one of the bus lines quite frequently that the conductor began to recognize us and nodded a quick hello whenever he saw us. I smiled back with the biggest smile I could muster and treasured this small rare moment of being treated like a “regular” in a strange land.
On our way back from the Bunk.Art museum, we took the bus downtown and were dropped off near a row of zagra (grill) restaurants. One of the waiters beckoned us in: “We are the best one!” he said in English, as if he just read our intention to look around and check out everyone’s menu before deciding.
But our eyes were set on the rotisserie chicken next door. Mouthwatering glistening golden brown crispy skin rotating on top of the grill. The waiter in this particular restaurant didn’t speak English so with our advanced hand signaling skills we asked him if we could have half a chicken. “No ‘alf,” he said.
Disappointed, we ordered the wings and grilled sausages instead. The sausage (kernace) was something else. Imagine a more flavorful, perfectly spiced Italian sausage. It’s traditionally eaten by dipping it in a little bit of salt and eaten with raw onion. Delicious. And with a glass of cold beer on such a hot day, it was perfection.
For dinner, we went to get ‘fast food’, i.e. doner. Much to our delight, we hadn’t seen a lot of Western fast food chain in town so we went to a place that looked quite busy. For 150 leks (USD 1.50) we got a pita bread stuffed with shaved grilled meat (chicken or pork), tomato, shredded lettuce, onion, french fries (also stuffed inside the pita bread!) and topped with a ridiculous amount of mayonnaise.