Day 86 - 92 : Extended stay in Sarande

It's been the longest I have stayed in one place for a while, and it had been nice not having to pack and unpack every few days.

There could had been worser places that I could had been stuck in, so to a certain extent it had been good fortune that it happened in Sarande when I came down with covid. 

I had by chance also gotten myself a nice, cosy and very much self sufficient 1-bedroom apartment at a very good price, with no issues in extending my stay on a very adhoc basis. 

The apartment is equipped with huge bathing towels (the largest I've had in any of my stay on this trip) with Westin labels. And someone comes by to change my bed linen and towels every 2 to 3 days. 

There is a also a decent kitchen where I could do some cooking, including using up the balance buak keluak paste on Chinese New Year Eve - a taste of home on a special occasion. 

And TV with a few good English channels to keep me entertained.

The apartment is also just 1 min walk away from the beach, where I could take walks about twice a day and still being able to easily keep social distancing especially when it's not too populated in this time of the year, and catching the sunset a few times during my stay. 

Being by the sea, I also get to have quite a few seafood meals at restaurants located near the water, and non seafood options when I got bored. 

I even managed to get my hair coloured using off the shelf hair dye! 

It has also been my good fortune that just a few days ago (Friday), Greece announced starting Monday 7th Feb, it will do away with PCR and antigen testing requirements as long as the individual travels with a valid EU vaccination cert. 

This is good timing especially since I had done a test using one of the off-the-shelf kit on Thursday (one day before the announcement from Greece was made and 8 days since my symptoms first showed) and I was still positive at that time. 

I've now isolated myself for more than 10 days, and should be safe to resume travelling again. 

Since I have had quite a fair bit of time in the apartment, I had managed to also get some travel planning done - my travel plans made before I left Singapore only was planned till Albania, and the plan was to decide what to do once I get into Greece, based on at-the-time covid restrictions around the region. 

So for now, the plan is to spend about 10 days within Greece, fly to Malta for a week and then into Portugal for a few weeks, before making my way into Spain and maybe France to visit Thierry and possibly fly back from Paris, France. 

Looking forward to being back on the road again tomorrow!