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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

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Lami's Cafe on 3-30-21--Tirana









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4 comments:

Tom from France said...

Welcome Back!!!!! Linh. Cheers, Tom

Linh Dinh said...

Thanks a lot, Tom! Two days in a row I've been able to walk around. At Unz, I had this account of my first day, in response to a well wisher:

Many thanks! I had a most successfull day yesterday, Tony. The day started off with me entering my neighborhood cafe at just after 7AM. Hadn’t sat in that lovely joint in nearly three weeks. Perfectly naturally, I had a croissant with my macchiato. Now, croissants outside France are usually not croissants at all but only crossaint-shaped, but damn it, this fake croissant tasted so good, I had to watch myself a bit, to not appear too obscene eating it. Encouraged, I then had an order of cheesecake, not exactly breakfast food, but it wasn’t illegal, was it? Then I went truly crazy and ordered two cream puffs. One of the two waitresses at this cafe has a charming habit of squeaking, “thank you,” in response to my thank you whenever she brings me something, but she wasn’t working this day, but the other regular waitress was pleasant enough. Even the crappy music they played yesterday sounded all right.

Confident, I then decided to walk into town, and my steps were so natural and cocksure, I practically marched. At streetlights, I stood and waited for them to change without trepidation or embarrassment, and when they did change, why, I walked perfectly naturally across the street like everybody else.

I kept marching, I couldn’t stop, until I reached Mother Teresa Square at least a couple miles away. Again, I marveled at how ugly that square was, undoubtedly the most charmless in the world. Goddamn it, Hoxha, why did you decide to save a few leks at this square, though it was certainly not named after Mother Teresa during his days.

I walked past the hideous Tirana Pyramid, built by Hoxha’s daughter to honor her dictator dad. It’s being renovated into some sort of a retail space, I think.

At a fastfood joint just off Skanderbeg Square, I decided to have a cheeseburger and fries, and they were actually awful. Since I was the first customer, they might have given me fries from the day before, they tasted that bad, but hell, the mustard I squirted on my burger tasted excellent! Through the large window, the sun baked me well. I stared at commuters getting off buses, mothers with lovely, well behaved children and a few old ones taking tired, careful steps.

Having walked for two hours, my femoral joints were sore, so it was time to march back home. Half a block from my building, I stopped at Big Market (it’s actually tiny) for some juices, prosciutto crudo, pistachio, eggs and, quite impulsively, a package of cabanossi sausage from Greisinger, Ihr Fleischermeister. I was going to town, man!

Leaving Big Market, I did not swerve, like I had just days earlier, but stroll home with perfect composure. Up the elevator I went, then entered my room a new man.

Linh

Tom from France said...

Thanks, Linh, for your good health return! Their were many of your followers pulling for you. As for myself ,I believe in remote healing. It increases the probability of you return to health. I think many others were doing the same. Any way we are glad to have you back to travel with virtually. Cheers, Tom

Anonymous said...

Great news, Linh - Joe