Sick day in Albania

On Sunday we left our campsite with the intention of biking to Tirana (the capital) and staying in a hotel.  We made slow progress over bad roads and reached Fushe-Kruje (Xhorxh W Bush square, to be exact) at around 4:00.  Alicia wasn't feeling well so we decided to stay at a campground that was just a mile down the road.  The campground also had a hotel and we actually moved into a room.

In summary, Alicia became sick and a few hours later I did too.  Not sure what did it - something that lived in the panniers for too long?  Some tainted water?  Who knows.  We woke up yesterday and still felt sick - not so stomach sick, more achy and tired.  We watched a lot of Albanian TV (lots of soccer highlights and American music videos) and slept.  We re-upped the room, committing to staying here another night.  Around 3:00 we started feeling better.  I biked back into Fushe to get some money to pay the hotel bill.  We got some food to eat and read by the pool.  We called it a night and hoped for a full recovery the next morning.

So now it's the next morning, and I'd say we're just about better, which is great.  We'll get some breakfast and bike the 25 miles to Durres (where we get our ferry), skipping Tirana.  So, the official diagnosis is 24 hours of food poisoning.  

It was nice that we were both sick rather than just one of us, allowing us to commiserate with each other.  I think it would be tough for the healthy one to be cooped up here all day.

The exact same thing happened to me and my brother last year in Michigan.  We got sick at the end of a day, and spent the next day feeling exactly like I did yesterday - tired and achy and barely able to move.  But by the afternoon we started to recover and even biked 20 miles that afternoon to the next town.  Since I felt so similar this time I hoped for a similar 24 hour recovery, and it looks like that has happened too.

So, we're 80% healthy and back on the road in a few hours!