Bitcoin is on holiday, sidewaying for months, and it may well do so for weeks or months more. So, we’re taking an early holiday.

Raving in Albania. An ancient land where it seems the whole world has come for this first week of June to see a rare mix of sea and mountain side by side, and music.

The town itself, Shengjin, is a mix of endless rows of hotel blocks and a street or two that has that coziness of European while the hosts come with the characteristic Mediterranean warmth.

Few look poor here, though the harmless stray dogs are here too. That contrast applies throughout.

There’s everything you’d find in a resort in Italy, and during this week, at times it would be hard to tell by the dresses and the wears that you are in Albania as such and not the rave of England, or indeed any other western place.

The journey begins not like in the west. No train line here to take you right to the spot with just enough walking distance to keep you healthy. Not even a bus. Instead you might be fooled to pay €10 to the taxi man but the festival has organised a van that shuttles to and fro from the town at the cost of €15 for the whole week.

And there, what might be familiar to Albanians – a van journey – is where the exotic starts for the rest.

The van, a passenger van, after passing through the traffic caused by the police checkpoints which allow only taxis and this van through, enters a now defunct military sight that was ravaged during the fall of communism 30 years ago and remains frozen in time.

We took no pictures for no spoilers, but at the end of it you do wonder if it was all a joke as a very modern building show up saying something to the effect of this is a military zone.

The hill on one side, forest, and the endless sea on the other, gives you plenty to keep busy during the fairly short 20 minutes journey.

Some walk it, though there are no pavements. Up and up the hill, then you’re there. Though you wouldn’t easily be able to tell until you’re told so, but once out of the van, we’re now pretty much in Western Europe as far as the entrance, the guardrails for line formation, the smart phones to scan for QR tickets, and finally into… well, paradise.

House music beats from the beach with a dj set playing to a dance floor surrounded by beach tents with some taking the courage to go and swim in the late afternoon.

It’s about 30 degrees Celsius and the clouds are more than not prevailing over the sun, yet the water is comfortable once you get accustomed to it.

I am free, says the music, while a full moon in still daylight faces the sun that is now no longer covered by the clouds.

Equinox on the beach with beer and music while surrounded by hot people is a rare experience. For that moment at least, it wouldn’t be so bad if it was actually paradise.

That’s the best part, with this place open 24/7. Full sunshine days are forecasted during the festival week, and so a full on beach resort, in a festival, with music and beer, and dining if wanted, and the people of the world, that’s all for the price of £70 for the ticket, or, for pretty much everything including accommodation, it’s all about £400.

A poor man’s holiday the price might suggest, but though outside of that circa half a mile resort you know very well you are in Albania, inside it, you are not really in Albania.

Technically of course you are, as well as physically, but in terms of safety, in terms of facilities, in terms of the people, and in terms of everything really, if you were transported directly to it then this is a place where you might wonder whether Sergei Brin is around somewhere as a normie among all.

Unum Festival

The festival of fire predates Christianity, as does this land and its people. It is Fire Day soon when in times now recently gone kids would gather all the trash, car tiers and the like, to make a whole big fire in the centre of the neighbourhood.

Knowingly or otherwise, this is what this festival does in effect, though in different ways.

The sun will soon reach the peak of its strength in Albania and much of Europe for this year.

Therefore we are dancing to it, drinking to it, and admiring it. On three sets. The actual beach. Then still on sand but not quite on the beach where the dj set is on a ship. And then also in a domesticated forest of sorts, amid trees.

You can see the stars if you lift your head up, with all of it being outside in nature. And if you dare ponder, either the music or the buzz in here will bring your right down to the moment.

And for us in this space, the moment is that of building. Some of us have been doing that already for months. A recharge in the woods and sea and mountains will avoid a burnout.

For it was getting a bit too much, the Bidens or Gensler or the politicking, the focus on what doesn’t really matter to our code.

It matters in some ways, but these old men don’t really have that much say on just what exactly is tomorrow.

Bitcoin therefore might be sidewaying for a reason. Big resistance line at $30k, but the timing is also apt for the builders to refocus.

To enjoy the elements, our closest and oldest of family. The father of all fathers, the sun, and the mother of all mothers, the moon.

All is well as long as the two keep giving us their daily display, without judgment nor request, but simply because we all are.

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• Source: https://www.trustnodes.com/2023/06/03/early-summer