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Newsletter 4 (16/06/25)

Hello friends!!
I had such a fun week traveling around and visiting my friend abroad! It's been super nice keeping busy but now I have fallen ill which I hope will not last long because I still have a ton of stuff coming up. When I say a lot, lookking at my calendar, it seems like the next time I'll be catching a break might be... october!

Here are a few things I've enjoyed this week:

  • More travelling around the Balkan

    I went to many different places!

    • Kotor, Montenegro
      Kotor is a small city in the montenegrin fjords, i.e. a little part of the adriatic sea which slides inland between the mountains. It's a popular tourist spot because of its old town, which is a tiny medieval city surrounded by a huge stone wall. Inside, all the streets are super narrow and paved with huge stones, and you can get lost in .2 seconds. It's also full of stray cats!!!
      • Picture i took of a stray cat Picture i took of a stray cat Picture i took of kotor Picture i took of kotor

    • Tirana, Albania
      The southernmost point of my trip where I went to visit my friend Toni who is living there for a couple of months!! Tirana was very surprising, kind of reminded me of those YouTube videos where they explore random post-USSR cities in turkmenistan and such. I really loved the book sellers along the bridges just like in Paris, the super cheap ice cream scoops and the delicious fruit they sold at the market. People were really sweet and helpful, and every street is full of cafés with large terrace where everybody chain smokes and they serve really amazing shaken ice coffee. Below is a picture of the most delicious nectarine in the world... it was so juicy...

      • Picture i took of the books in tirana Picture i took of a peach I ate

    • Theth, Albania
      Went on a very ambitious 17km long hike in the Albanian alps while clearly super sick… Almost passed out around 20 times in the process, but the views were absolutely worth it. Notable highlights of the hike were the two stray dogs following me for half of it, the butterflies climbing on my legs everytime I sat down, and drinking the fresh river water to cool down. I hiked a little part of the trail with a group of people in their early 20s who seemed really nice - turns out they're all part of a christian proselytic NGO and are in Albania for a couple of months to preach our lord and savior jesus to local highschool students… we came across a super cool looking girl who had lost her phone and one of the guy was like "is it okay if I pray for you?" and just recitated one long ass speech asking god for her phone back while all his friends closed their eyes and tilted their faces up. The funny part is that I bumped into her again after and she asked where my friends were. I said I didn't actually know them and she said and i quote "I had a feeling you were way too cool to be part of their group" hahaha. Now I'm lowkey regretting not asking them to do another prayer circle to cure me of my illness because my ears hurt like hell and I can barely produce any sound. Will I stop moving around for a bit and take a day to rest and heal? absolutely not of course :)

      • Picture i took on my hike Picture i took of a stray dog Picture i took of another stray dog

  • The Michelle Zauner interview on the "Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso" podcast

    This was such an excellent interview of my queen miss breakfast, the host was a bit pushy at times but asked really good questions about both recent and a few super old projects which was really pleasant for all jbrekkie scholars out there. I listened to it while hiking instead of basking in the sweet melody of the birds… I've got birds at home I know what they sound like!

  • Knitting with a view (& small rant)

    In the Albania alps, I stayed at a guesthouse ran by a middle aged woman and her 25 year old son, who was super amazed at the fact that I was knitting. The funny thing about knitting is that most young people I know who are into it are alternative queers who got into it because of an interest for slow fashion and art. Yet anytime I knit in public (and also in tiktok comments on knitting videos) there's always so many super conservative men thirsting over the fact that there are still some good traditional young women keeping alive the practice hahaha. Between this and the christian NGO dude who complimented how modestly I was dressed while hiking (I just wanted to protect my tattoos from the sun lol), it was a whole day of being critically misjudged. Anyways, it was such a wonderful experience to just sit down by the river and knit for a bit with the sound of the water, the breeze and the amazing view of the mountains. Carrying around all my yarn has been annoying but anytime I get to stop by and meditate a bit by focusing on my little craft, it feels super worth it!

That's everything for last week, I hope all of you are doing well! This week I am finishing my current trip and going back in the north. Excited to report all that will happen!!
all my love,
Axl