I get an e-mail from Lufthansa every other week or so, where they offer nice discounts for some of their destinations for a few days. A sort of updated version of the stand by tickets I used in my student days.
Today they offered London, Turin and Bordeaux as well as Sao Paulo. Their London prices would have to be very low for me to consider flying there via Frankfurt, and I don’t have time to go to South America.
But there was one more destination that intrigued me. Tirana.
I clicked on their schedule. I could buy a return ticket for around € 200, taxes etc. included. I could either take a lunchtime flight to Munich and spend seven hours drinking wheat beer in Freising before continuing to Albania, or take a six o’ clock flight with a more direct connection. Both options would mean me landing in Tirana at a quarter past eleven.
I could then spend Saturday seeking out the beers available in the old lighthouse of communism before returning on a noon flight via Munich again.
But my wife is away this week, I have two children who expect food, clothes and affection. And I will be travelling a fair bit over the next two weeks anyway.
So I open a bottle of the beers I was kindly given by David, the brewer at Møllebyen Mikrobryggeri. He has one Winter Ale and one Christmas Ale on now. And the Winter Ale is superb.
And I’ll play a Willie Nelson CD and maybe start reading the latest Ian Rankin book.
But it would have been something else, eh? Tirana…
Mate of mine goes to Albania for work now and again. If you’ve ever wondered where all the stolen Mercedeses go you’ll find the answer there.
Maybe they import stolen Mercedeses and export most of their barley and hops, cause Albanian beer sure isn’t worth travelling for.
We’ll never know about their beer until we have investigated further. But I’ll settle for Brussels and London over the coming weeks.
Guess we share a taste for a same gendre of books. I took “Exit Music” as an audio book with me to Niger but haven’t got around listening to it.
Looks it may be his last in his Rebus series..pity really.
I am a bit sad that you left mo’time though..
Cheers from Niamey
H
P.S. The beer, by the way here is called “facture”..doesn’t taste so bad in this stinking heat.
Still great to read about all the beers in Europe, something to look forward to on home leave
Good to hear from you again, Helmi – thanks for the comment!