Index
Day 1 - Random encounters
Day 2 - Unplanned delays
Day 3 - Driving to Montenegro
Day 4 - Montenegro
Day 5 - Back to Albania
Day 6 - More delays
Day 7 - Return
Montenegro and Albania: July 2018
Breakfast on airplanes is almost always disappointing, and this one was no exception. Alas. Turns out over an hour's delay on departure was juuust enough to cause me to miss my connecting flight. Three hours of dealing with United and Lufthansa customer service agents of varying helpful and unhelpful-ness (or perhaps, in some cases, I should say uselessness) plus a buttload of flight searching with Sam's help finally got me on alternate connections later in the evening.
Considering the original options offered weren't until the next day (next evening, really), this was far from ideal, but much better than the horrendous options they originally offered. ~11 hours late vs. ~36 hours late? Uhhhh yes, I'll take 11 hours! After figuring out my new flights, had to go through immigration yet again, managed to find just enough time to scarf down a pretzel and a banana before having to run to my flight to Rome...
... where, holy cow, the airport was waaaay nicer than I expected. The old, groady Terminal 5 (currently closed) is all I remembered-- this time, it was the huge Terminal 3, which even had an Ajisen Ramen due to the sheer number of Chinese travelers passing through. o_0
Spent far too much time stuck at FCO, but it was good to finally get some actual Italian food (heck, good to get some actual food, period) and not have to run around like crazy for a bit. Even got to enjoy the Plaza Premium Lounge, which was surprisingly nice for a Priority Pass Lounge. Finally, hours later, it was onto a creaky, cramped, old Alitalia A320 for the quick flight to Tirana.
Had an unevenful landing, dealt with some more travel screwups, and then, finally, was able to hop into a shiny new Skoda Fabia rental car and make the quick drive to the hotel for a well-deserved shower and an end to a long day.