GACKT OFFICIAL BLOG: Jet lagged travel diary -Albania? Where's that?- GACKT ITALIA

GACKT Official blog update. Translation below:

I waited for around 5 hours in Vienna’s airport.
Honestly speaking,
how one makes use of this troublesome transit time is also one of the joys of travelling.
Anyway, I decided to search a little about Albania.

Previously,
when I searched about it, the most impactful topic about Albania was
that more than 30% of it’s citizens were stuck in a Ponzi scheme and had lost all their assets,
furthermore, it was something that no one realised at all.
The money that was collected in this Ponzi scheme was used to buy weapons for war,
and in fact, it was something that continued until conclusion of the Bosnian War in 1997.
Riots then started occurring following the bankruptcy of that company after the war…
It’s quite an impressive story.

Also,
in 1967, the country declared itself an 『atheist state』 and completely abolished all religions.
This is amazing too!

And this is amazing as well.
After World War II, it became an isolated state
and following 1978, it was completely isolated…
And this continued until 1990.
Isn’t this pretty recent!!! That said, it was an isolated state until 27 years ago…
Is there really such a country???

I didn’t know, but it seems like it was even said to be the poorest country in Europe…
Is that for real…
It’s just too amazing a story that it makes me greatly interested.

In the end, I was reading up in detail about Albania until the time for departure came in the blink of an eye.
As it is Europe’s only Muslim country, it looks like that’s something that is unusual.

The flight duration was short, and I arrived in Albania in a flash.
The airport is pretty small too.

But anyway, no matter which country you go to,
the currency exchanges in the airports always have the worst rates when compared to the exchanges in the city right.
However,
since I won’t be able to use the Euro,
I decided that it would be better to exchange a little bit first, and went to the airport’s exchange.

When I passed 100 Euros to the man at the airport’s exchange, he said

『Why are you changing money? You shouldn’t do that, the rates are bad so please go and do it in the city!』

My god!!
This is the first time I’ve been told something like this.
I don’t know if he’s being kind or not.
Then,

『You can use the Euro so I’ll give it to you in smaller notes』

he said to me, and broke the 100 Euro up for me.
This is a first for me too.

So things like that do happen… I thought, and went into the airport’s cafe.
The ambience is nice.
I ordered a cappuccino there.
It’s quite delicious.
Since I didn’t have any reason to rush, I ordered another.
Then when I was about to leave the shop, I wanted to pay by card but they said that I had to use cash.

『Cash-only in the airport??? What on earth???』

This, too, is a first for me.
If I take out Euros, will they mentally convert it into the Albanian Lek?
Without being too bothered, I passed them my change.

『Did they really calculate it??』

the words unintentionally came out but since the ambience was good, I’ll let it go.

I got into a taxi and headed to the hotel.
And when I looked around on the way there, there wasn’t anything…

『This… How long is this going to continue…』

Even though I felt uneasy,
after around 40 minutes, something like a city finally appeared.
Then I arrived at the hotel.

Today,
I decided to have Italian.

Here, I was quite surprised at how the level of skill in their cooking was rather high.
Of course,
I suppose this restaurant is of higher-end
but even so, their level of skill is high.