Maybe a little easier today.
We had a nice lie-in, and decided to explore the other side of the apartment for a change. The neighborhood we’re in is a weird mix of pre-capitalist housing and new construction, and it seems like the city is trying to fit in new projects wherever it can, without any planning outside of the block or so where the new building will go. Lots of apartment complexes going up, probably similar to the one we’re in, with a grocery and a restaurant and space for businesses in the bottom, apartments above, a little self-contained village for the growing population to expand into.
The further north you go, the less new construction projects are underway, so it gets more and more … run-down. The houses were built in the 50s, probably, and the businesses go from being international to being more focused on the smaller needs of the population — a home electronics store here, a traditional clothing store there, nestled in with more lived-in bars and bakeries.
After passing a few barber shops (and more than a few more over our other travels in town), we passed one today and I turned back and went in and got my hair cut. I don’t know what about it spoke to me, but it was The One for sure. So I went in and got my hair cut.
The guy who cut my hair spoke just a little English, I think. He asked me the following questions: “Where you from?” (America.) “Tourist?” (No, I live here.) (Well technically I do, for the moment.) “Do you speak Italian?” (Just a little.) I suspect that last one was because it was going to be easier for him to communicate in Italian, but unfortunately I couldn’t help him there.
There was another guy in the shop getting his hair cut too, and he kept checking me out in the mirror, and all three of them conversed about probably me, but that’s OK. Finally the guy in the chair asked me “Joe Biden or Donald Trump?” and I thought … is this where I die, answering poorly in an Albanian Mob Barber Shop? But I answered and he nodded and said “for me? Bill Clinton” and I had kinda forgotten about the weird Albanian love for Bill Clinton and so I smiled, thankful I was going to be able to get out and make my answer something I could vote for later this year.
Good haircut. It was 400 ALL which is about four bucks. Seriously the least I’ve ever paid for a haircut, including the ones Mom used to make us get at the Barber College.
We looped around through some more worn-down areas before looping around to Rruga Don Bosko, which led back into a more commercial area. We stopped and got a beer and a soda and rested our legs, then headed back to the apartment and got pizza for dinner.