No Electricity in My Street in Tirana Today

Dear Travel Diary

I had a late start today. There was a power cut on the street where I live in Tirana. That lack of electricity made it impossible or me to work. I could have probably used my laptop on battery power for a few hours and gone online via a mobile hotspot but it would have burned through too much data so I gave it a miss.

The electricity was off all morning and it stayed off until 2:30 pm.

There was a power cut in Tirana a week ago as well. On that occasion, there was no electricity until 3 pm. So during the three weeks I’ve lived in Tirana I’ve experienced two power cuts. It’s not a problem. I have no set routine and can work around the lack of electricity.

In fact, experiencing the two electricity outages in Tirana kind of takes me back to my childhood in the UK. I remember lots of power cuts during the 70s. I used to have to come home from school and eat cold food by candlelight or make toast by dangling slices of bread over the coal fire. Those days are long gone.

Apart from Tirana, the only other place I have experienced a power cut is Athens. It was quickly sorted. The supply was back up and running in less than an hour. It will be interesting to see what the electricity supply is like in other Balkan cities.