https://rhiaro.co.uk/ @rhiaro@toot.cat

If you read and enjoy my travel posts through my website or Mastodon* and you are planning to travel to somewhere I've been and you can't afford an actual travel agent and you find travel planning too stressful or time consuming to fit into your life, I would be delighted to share advice.

My specialties are land and sea (not air) transit, especially long distance European buses, and finding vegan food. I'm happy to also help with general stuff to do, and even more in-depth help with planning and realistic budgeting if you want because I actually love wasting away hours and days researching travel stuff.

#rhiarofreetravelagent

*or a feed reader you built yourself or another decentralised service

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2019/07/mastodon-travel

Week in review: 30 March - 5 April. Didn't leave the flat. Cooked a lot, worked a surprising amount. https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/04/week-in-review #travel #food

Week in review: 23-29 March. Under curfew in Albania. Isolation cooking, work, and netflix. #travel #food https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/week-in-review-5

Posted 6 photos: from the balcony during a week at home.. https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/04/photos-balcony

Posted 39 photos: Week 2 of isolation kitchen... cookies, cakes, lasagne, cornish pasties, sprouts, and more.. https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/04/photos-isolation-2 #fedikitchen #food #vegan

I use psql and/or interact somehow with a postgres database about once every six months, so because of how my brain (fails to) store information it's a brand new and exciting experience every time. This time also involved a docker-compose network, for added spice. https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/04/psql

Posted 28 photos: Isolation in Sarande: photos of the sunset from my balcony, the floofy doggo on the balcony in the next building, and the little bit of beach in front of my building. Some gratuitous spinach byrek by the sea when I went into town for essential things like a SIM card. #travel (or not) https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/photos-sarande-5

Booking.com auto emails saying "[destination] is calling your name!" that used to come at least once a day have now stopped, which is good of them. #travel https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/bookingcom

Posted 26 photos: Isolation Kitchen begins in earnest. I bought a loaf tin so I could fully commit. Featuring khinkali, lasagne, amazing madeup bean burgers, and a sugar-filled lemon drizzle cake. #food #vegan #fedikitchen https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/photos-isolation

Some pressure to 'take advantage' of the non-curfew hours to go out and take a walk, but I don't need to and wouldn't on a normal day, so why now when going outside should be restricted to essential trips? Stop projecting restlessness onto me, I can sit still in my chair all week no problem. #covid19 #coronavirus https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/pressure

I really want ramen but I don't want to buy individually packaged single-portions of noodles. What do? https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/ramen

Week in review: 16 - 22 March. Global pandemic anxiety, Albania curfews tightening, lots of cooking, blog post catch ups, and feeling extremely grateful for my job, my naturally reclusive nature, my balcony, view, and the weather here. https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/week-in-review-4

I know it's not the isolation olympics, but wild to see UK people freaking out about 'lockdown' when they can still go out at any time, ride trains and buses and drive cars between cities.. https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/lockdown #covid19 #coronavirus

if anyone wants to airdrop a crate of baked beans to Sarande that would be super cool. Supermarket own brand acceptable. Heinz, whatever, I'm pretty desperate. Branston, however, unacceptable. #food #vegan https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/beans

Language question. "Sure" in US English means enthusiastic, definite YES, but in British English means "meh, whatever, could take it or leave it".

Please respond to elaborate on 'false' or provide more nuanced analysis.

Sometimes you just need spicy rice for breakfast.

(Sticky rice cooked with vegetable stock and tumeric. Tofu fried in olive oil with garlic, paprika and black pepper, then veggies thrown in: mushrooms, red peppers, peas, sweetcorn, green beans (last 3 from the freezer). When the water has reduced from the rice, mixed all the veggies in to cook together for a couple more minutes. Drizzled soy sauce and hot sauce. Coffee is balkan/turkish style.)

#food #vegan #fedikitchen

https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/breakfast

The problem with the new curfew (outside hours 5am to 1pm), besides the obvious, is that most days it takes me hours to psyche up to go outside to get groceries or whatever. No way I'm gonna be able to do this by lunchtime. #covid19 #coronavirus https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/curfew

Week in review: 8 - 15 March. Work, then a few days of hiking to and around Ksamil and Butrint. Back to #coronavirus lockdown. #travel https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/week-in-review-3

Posted 37 photos: Hiked back to Sarande from Ksamil. Stopped by the beaches I missed on the way down. Found some under-construction super fancy houses and accidentally trespassed. Watched the sunset from my new balcony. #travel https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/photos-ksamil-to-sarande

Posted 91 photos: Walked from Ksamil to Butrint, about an hour. No trails around the coast, so mostly just went by road. The ancient city of Butrint is a tourist attraction, and was closed by sudden government coronavirus measures. As if there'd be anyone there at this time of year anyway. A local at a nearby hotel pointed me towards a hole in the fence behind his property. Had thought I might hike around the area a bit and take a bus back, but it quickly became apparent the local buses had stopped running too. On the way back, detours to some other bits of the coast, and other beaches in Ksamil I hadn't been to yet #travel https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/photos-butrint

Posted 51 photos: A slow day, recovering from the hike, just exploring beaches in Ksamil (on runkeeper). It's a quiet town with no tourists, beautiful but for unfettered construction and lots of unfinished buildings too. You can swim to the islands, when it's warm enough. #travel https://rhiaro.co.uk/2020/03/photos-ksamil