During month 6 in Albania, Hillary and I decided to join a gym! I usually go through phases of working out and eating healthy. It had been about six months (because I basically gave up my health kick at the start of the Race). But this month I knew it was time to get my butt in shape again. I was so glad Hillary also wanted to get in shape and join a gym.
But as Hillary often likes to say, everything is just a little bit harder abroad. Finding a good gym took some good googling skills and walking into places to scoff at them wanting $40 for a month membership for only 3 days a week. We did find a great gym, however, called Planet Fitness. That made me very happy because it was also the name of my gym back home! I’ll take any comfort of home I can get.
The young woman who worked at the gym was super nice and spoke enough English for us to become friends. She showed us around the gym on our first day there. We were so happy to see all the machines, weights, and showers in the locker room! We ended up heading back that same day to work out. Only thing was, it was much later at night now.
The gym was PACKED.
We called this man Tiny Tim, mostly because of the tiny tank he wore every single day.
It’s quite intimidating to work out when every other person in the gym is incredibly fit, has huge muscles, and is looking stylish on top of it. Hill and I walked in with the only workout clothes we have for the Race and tried to fit in. We started on the treadmills. Seemed like a safe start…until you realize that you are running in km/h rather than m/h and have no idea how fast you need to set the treadmill for. It was funny as Hill and I figured it out but the guy next to Hill also kept trying to help and wouldn’t stop pushing buttons on her treadmill.
After a warmup on the treadmill I wanted to try my hand at weight lifting. I usually prefer free weights over machines. There were so many big strong guys around the only section of free weights, however. I felt like a tiny mouse trying to sneak in and out.
(The pictures we took here are from a different day when the gym was MUCH less crowded and MUCH less intimidating)
As I approached the weights, I realized I had no idea which weights to grab because they were in kilograms! What is wrong with you America? Why can’t you just get on board with the rest of the world? I didn’t want to look stupid because I couldn’t tell what weights to grab so I headed for the smallest ones I could find and dipped back. Of course they were too light and I had to search for the next size up. Those were being used by one of those big, strong, intimidating guys I was talking about. (But for real bro, use a 10kg weight and let me have my 6kg back).
I tried to finish lifting as quickly as I could because all the guys were staring as I was outnumbered 2/10 girls/boys ratio in the gym. They seemed so surprised to have a girl lifting weights with them.
As soon as I finished I went back to Hill and we were ready to head out. We laughed at our first gym experience in Albania and swore we would only work out during the day when it was empty and there weren’t so many intimidating people around! But then Hill had to go off and get her appendix removed. Lame. So I had to go to the gym everyday by myself. *not really a pity party but kind of LOL
But overall, the gym was basically my second home during Albania because I was thankfully able to go everyday and they even had a coffee shop which I could go to when I finished and use their wifi (because we didn’t have wifi at our house). I really missed having Hill to work out with though!
Disclaimer: I know I don’t need to be intimidated by anyone while working out. The whole experience was just quite funny. Thanks for reading about my funny experience.
