{"id":2299,"date":"2012-07-15T00:04:01","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T07:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2299"},"modified":"2012-07-15T00:08:44","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T07:08:44","slug":"road-trip-from-himare-to-saranda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2299","title":{"rendered":"Road Trip From Himar\u00eb To Saranda"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 10, 2012*<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last night, Idit and I went out on the town in Himar\u00eb.<\/p>\n

Parking sucked – we passed by this guy renting spots in a private lot for 200 LEK.<\/p>\n

Idit told him that was too much; the guy said, “You’ll be back.”<\/p>\n

We drove a half block to a parking hell dead end; we backed up and they guy said, “I told you so!”<\/p>\n

The parking lot attendant wanted to know where I was from, Idit told him that I am American.<\/p>\n

The guy gave me thumbs up and said, “Bravo America! Bravo America!”<\/p>\n

We walked around and I had a few beers before Idit dropped me back at my Bungalow in Porto Palermo.<\/p>\n

Idit was going to fill the SCUBA tanks at a campground in Himar\u00eb – the place where we dropped the small compressor off – and meet me around 10 AM for the trip to Saranda.<\/p>\n

I am welcomed all over the world!<\/p>\n

I am welcomed all over the world!<\/p>\n

My bungalow<\/p>\n

#1 – My Bungalow.<\/p>\n

View of Porto Palermo<\/p>\n

View of Porto Palermo from above my roof.<\/p>\n

Inside my bungalow.<\/p>\n

Inside my bungalow.<\/p>\n

Idit didn’t show up until almost 2 PM.<\/p>\n

“That fucking compressor takes over an hour to fill each tank,” he said.<\/p>\n

I responded, “Well, I was hoping that was the issue; I’m glad you’re still alive.”<\/p>\n

The previous night, I had unpacked my diving gear to check and see if everything made it, and in tact.<\/p>\n

I found a pair of tennis shoes, my size, but they weren’t mine.<\/p>\n

I asked Idit if they were his.<\/p>\n

“No, why would I put my shoes in your luggage?” he responded.<\/p>\n

He continued, “They must be yours.”<\/p>\n

All my luggage made it, but I had gained a pair of tennis shoes.<\/p>\n

Thinking that the shoes might be made out of some kind of dangerous, illegal and poisonous street drug, like marijuana, I threw them away.<\/p>\n

I also had another problem.<\/p>\n

The 220 to 110 volt transformer that I had purchased, burned while charging my camera batteries.<\/p>\n

I am retarded – it says right on the thing, “NOT FOR CONTINUOUS USE!”<\/p>\n

So I have an entire trip to document, and have three charged batteries to complete the mission.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see if we can find something in Saranda,” Idit assured me.<\/p>\n

We loaded all the luggage and dive gear into his car and made the two hour drive to Saranda.<\/p>\n

We stopped by the Irish Youth Hostel, where Idit would be staying.<\/p>\n

The Irish Youth Hostel in Saranda, Albania.<\/p>\n

I explained my situation with the power to some people there.<\/p>\n

Ireland is closer to the USA than Albania, so I might have a shot at a resolution.<\/p>\n

The lady running the Hostel handed me an adapter, that didn’t reduce the power, just made an American plug fit into a European outlet.<\/p>\n

“If you need it, it’s yours, no charge,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Well, it doesn’t reduce the voltage,” I said.<\/p>\n

Idit told me, “If you’re just plugging in your computer and battery charger, you should be fine; trust me, I bought my computer from the United States.”<\/p>\n

Sure enough, all my transformers listed the acceptable power range from between 100 to 240 volts.<\/p>\n

They saved my trip!<\/p>\n

Bravo Albania!<\/p>\n

Bravo Ireland!<\/p>\n

The view of Saranda from the Irish Youth Hostel<\/p>\n

The view of Saranda from the Irish Youth Hostel.<\/p>\n

I checked in to the Hotel Maestral.<\/p>\n

We were to rest for a few hours and then dive the Fisherboat and Probitas wrecks, located just off the beach.<\/p>\n

Diving to follow!<\/p>\n

*Due to time constraints and lack of reliable internet access outside of Tirana, posting this article has been delayed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 10, 2012* Last night, Idit and I went out on the town in Himar\u00eb. Parking sucked – we passed by this guy renting spots in a private lot for 200 LEK. Idit told him that was too much; the guy said, “You’ll be back.” We drove a half block to a parking hell dead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}