June 1, 2011

I woke up early, thinking that i might have a chance to actually drill a little bit of hole today. The rig that i am assigned to (we have 4 over here) is new over here from china and has been broke down the last few weeks. It appears that is not going to happen for another day or two. We (the newbies) met up with John Power the local supervisor and decided he would give us a local tour of the work related sights after he had a morning meeting.
 John on the left

 While we waited we had a great $2 cappuccino at a cafe across the street, then decided we would bask in the sun, on the roof.  It is in the mid 20's in Fier today.
A couple of the directional guys i will be working with.

Once John was free the four of us piled into a little crew cab ford ranger and headed over to our shop. it kinda looked like we were entering a prison.

We have a little mwd shop to service our tools, and keep everything working.

After a quick tour of the shop we headed to a local restaurant. Which is owned by a drug dealer who just got busted with 10-15 kilos of heroin. apparently he makes good money as it is referred to as the castle by John.

It was a very impressive building, and i had a really big, very tasty pizza for $6.

After lunch we took a tour of some of the rigs we will be working on. this is a picture of my office where i will spend a good portion of my time over here.

Once we had returned from our tour, i sat down and started this blog. i will try to update as new things happen over here. I will leave you with a few comments made by John on our tour. He is a large biker looking fellow from Newfoundland, and had me laughing for most of the day.

John on driving in Albania :

"Whoever looks shows weakness, so if you don't look, you don't have to stop, if you look you have just given up the right of way" apparently in Albania you just barrel into intersections and hope the other guy stops. Stop signs are also apparently just a suggestion that should be ignored "driving here is just like a nonstop game of chicken".

John on the hospital

"you don't want to go to the hospital, or you will find out why you don't want to be sick in Albania. You come here and get diseases its not the place to get them cured. I'm sure they have hepatitis X over here"

It is time for me to visit the beer fridge, i hope you have enjoyed my ramblings.

It has to start somewhere.

Monday morning May 30th, the adventure has begun. Chris drove me into town, and dropped me off at my Grandmother's house so she could deliver me to the airport in time for my noon flight (thank you to both Chris, and Grandma for helping make this adventure happen). Once i was on the plane to Frankfurt,  i realized that i was seated a few seats back from one of my closest childhood friends Tim Snell .  I got a chance to briefly talk with him in the airport in Frankfurt and hope to reconnect with him when we both arrive back in Calgary. He has grown up to become a Model, and Recording artist so i figured i could give him a little plug on here with a link to his site

http://www.timothyjames.com/ .

 After a short flight to Vienna,  another short flight to Tirana, and a few hours car ride to Fier we were delivered to the staff housing complex.  i have no pictures up until this point, because of rushed packing, (i blame you Chris!) i had packed my camera in the checked part of my luggage.

 The staff housing is much better than i had expected. The blue and yellow building is the Phoenix staff condos, we occupy the top few floors.

My room is rather large, has its own bathroom, desk, balcony, and plenty of storage.

After settling in we had dinner in the common room, which contains 3 video game systems, TV, a fully stocked kitchen, and best of all A fully drink fridge complete with water, pop, and BEER (ooh so many types of beer). I'm not sure how i will get by, i will need to call in the morning and ask for a raise.    the couch, and a few of the Guys

The kitchen

The Drink fridge

After a dinner of pork kabobs and lasagna (we have a wonderful group of Albanian ladies who cook clean, and even do your laundry). a few of us decided we needed to head downtown to hit up a bank machine. It was only a few blocks walk, and the streets seem safe. They and are filled with vendors trying to sell you everything from cell phones out of their trunks, to spices on the side of the road.

Their seem to be very little traffic laws here, so crossing the street can best be described as being  similar to the old video game Frogger, you kind of wait for an opening and then run like hell.

After a few beers on the balcony enjoying the warm humid climate i called it a early night.