Annette Reporting from Albania

Hello Everyone,

Sorry that Frank and I have been so delinquent in our blog posts.  We have been running around like crazy ever since Matt and Elise visited in late May/early June. We have done quite a bit of traveling since then.  In between our travels and inconsistent Internet accessibility, we haven't had a chance to post on the blog. We're hoping to be better about posting in the coming weeks so that we can complete our accounts of the travels we've enjoyed.

After Elise and Matt left in early June, we had about a week with Chrissy before we left for Bulgaria and Romania.  I presented at a conference in Bulgaria and then we traveled to Romania to see the beautiful city of Brasov and the castle nicknamed "Dracula's Castle" (even though it has no real historical links to Vlad the Impaler III or the fictional Dracula character).  After returning from our trip, Chrissy's friend, Erika, who studied with her in India, arrived in Kosovo to visit.

I finished my fellowship in Prizren, and we left on Sunday, July 14, for a trip to Saranda, Albania which is right near the Greece border. Now that we are so behind in our posts, I have decided to post things backwards starting with Albania and Saranda since they're fresh in our minds.  We will go back and cover our other trips over the coming week or two until you've heard about all of our adventures.

Erika, Chrissy, Frank, and I left Prizren early Sunday morning on a bus to Tirana. We arrived just in time to change buses for one going to Saranda.  The ride from Prizren to Tirana took about 3 hours, and the trip from Tirane to Saranda was an additional 7 hours.

This is a photo of our bus at our second stop.  Notice the chicken on the road.  I immediately got off on the wrong foot with the bus driver.  After the 3 hour trip from Prizren to Tirana, I really thought I should go to the bathroom before getting on a bus for a 7-hour ride.  We had to hop in a cab after getting off the bus from Prizren.  We were hungry and thirsty, but I just had enough time to run to a bathroom and buy 4 water bottles and a couple of bags of pretzels.  We were assured that we would stop soon at a gas station.  We did stop at the station, but it was an old one with no food or drink available, so we carried on in the bus going through Durres (on the coast) and making stops along the way.  After about 90 minutes, we rolled into a truck stop kind of place with a nice restaurant and baked goods.  Chrissy and I went to check things out and found out that the place didn't have an ATM  machine and didn't accept Euros.  So we were hungry and thirsty, but had no way of buying anything.  After about 20 minutes at the stop, the bus driver's assistant motioned to me to come over and said he could give me 15 Euros worth of Albanian lekes.  I was excited and got in line to order sandwiches.  A couple of minutes later, the assistant motioned to me that the bus was leaving.  Chrissy and I had to cancel our order and run to the bus before it took off.  The bus driver looked at me with exasperation and raised both of his hands.

About an hour after my ordeal trying to order sandwiches, the bus driver stopped for another stop at the restaurant above.  This time, I had my lekes handy, and I sat at a table right next to the bus driver and ordered some soup with Chrissy.  Frank stayed on the bus to guard our stuff.  I think the bus driver learned about our predicament not being able to use Euros, and he even talked to my waiter to hurry along our order.  I bought some snacks and a Coke Zero for Frank. 

The next photos show the beauty of Albania and were taken from the bus.

Many areas of Albania are rural with small villages and farms.  Our bus took us through the center of the country traveling south - we thought we were going to take the coastal route.  

The above photo shows more of the mountains of Albania.  In the center of the photo, you can see one of the bunkers that the communist dictator Hoxha had constructed throughout the country.

Frank commented on the interesting geology of  Albania.

Here you can see some of the agricultural fields.

My camera didn't capture the redness of the rocks here - they looked like part of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Another beautiful view of the Albanian mountains.

Frank, Chrissy, Erika, and I all agreed that the bus ride from Tirana to Saranda was like being on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland for 6 hours straight.  The roads were full of curves and at this point, we lost the road altogether.  Construction went on for miles and we crossed dirt roads with huge rocks and no leveling. We were thrown left and right on the bus as we traveled and sometimes had to hold on to remain in our seats.  The one good thing was that the bus was only about 1/3 full, so we had a lot of room to spread out.

A typical small rural house in central Albania.

A photo of the lovely road our bus had to travel on.  

After already stopping 3 times - once for gas and twice for food and bathroom stops, the driver suddenly stopped near this roadside stand at the top of yet another mountain.  

People came on the bus selling roasted corn (roasting seen here).

The main reason for the stop was the fresh mountain spring water flowing out of the hillside.  Here you can see people getting drinks and washing their hands.

The bus ride was worth it after all!  Here you can see Frank, Chrissy, and Erika sitting on the terrace outside of our top floor apartment in Saranda near Mango Beach.  The place is called "Globus Apartments" and offers fine apartments with kitchenettes for around 50 Euros a night.  Mango beach is at the bottom of the stairs across form the apartment.  The Greek island of Corfu is in the background.  We toyed with the idea of taking a ferry there, but Saranda itself is beautiful and we decided to relax for 3 days here and explore southern Albania.  

View from our apartment in Saranda.   Above is looking north, and below you can see the island of Corfu (south of Saranda) as seen from our terrace.  It is Tuesday, July 16, and tomorrow we have to take an early bus back to Tirana where we will spend a night.  After that, Erika is flying to Portugal, and Chrissy and I are flying to Florence, Italy.  Chrissy and I will spend a week in Italy in Florence, Assisi, and Venice before traveling to Zagreb to be with our cousins on July 24.  Frank is going back to Prizren to our apartment.  He didn't want to go to Italy and opted instead to take a bus ride through the Montenegro mountains and Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina. We will meet up in Zagreb on the 24th.  More later!!!