Albanian Adventures

Yesterday we spent the entire day on a hot sweaty bus for 8 hours driving down the coast and through the mountainside of Albania. we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch in the middle of nowhere where we ate all kinds of things like vertebrae, brains, and some kind of mash of organs.  the salad was good though.

oh I forgot to describe our night in Tirana, the capital- during the day we wandered around the streets in and out of a few museums looking at all the really cool artifacts and buying the freshest fruit  Oh and were bombarded by little boys trying to sell us 1 euro gum. Later that night we had dinner at a little outdoor cafe place where we all ate some form of a crepe and drank very cheap beer. Afterward we ended up at a bar at the very top floor of this hotel building thumping with house techno music- EVERYONE in the club turned to look at us, every single person. So we ordered drinks, waited an obscene amount of time and then proceeded to dance like crazyheads on the floor-which happened to be some kind of bouncy thing so we were flying in the air- SO FUN. THEN all this old American rock and roll and ACDC started playing and everyone was headbanging and playing air guitar-I wonder why. then we were invited to participate in the traditional dance-basically holding hands and hopping around in a circle-really really cool. anyway we were drenched in sweat and made our way back to the hotel laughing about how crazy all the dancing was.

So anyway after the sweaty bus ride we were greeted by friendly hotel staff, and a GIGANTIC DINNER. SO GOOD. SO MUCH FOOD.  This hotel is much nicer and absolutely beautiful, we overlook an inlet from the ionian sea with hills and tiny houses.  There are castles all over and it is so warm!! however I think my count for bug bites is around 35-38.

Today we explored the national park literally right next door filled with roman, greek and byzantine ruins.  we climbed castle walls and saw a necropolis. I will post pics asap but there is unfortunately no internet. in any case I will continue later with more details of my anthropological adventures but this is it for now :]

first things first

Well this is just a brief little note about my first day in Albania.. then in a later post I will explain Ireland and all that.


Anyway last night I spent the night at my Aunt Mary's, I enjoyed a big wonderful Irish dinner with her famous cheesecake to top it all off.  Me and rachel proceeded to jam our bags as full as we could with our stuff. we then  stayed up late talking about our adventures together over the past 10 days, which resulted in me only getting 2 hours of sleep-then woke up at 4am to get to the airport.


Anyway on the airplane met this Albanian family all flying over from the states for a wedding, I was asking them all kinds of questions and tips about their country and taxis since I am always cheated by cab drivers.


I arrived at the airport-delirious, exhausted, sore back, and more importantly, ravenous. after I spent 35 minutes in customs I proceeded to the exit where I was approached by a short old man trying to talk to me.  He told me he was a cab driver and would take me "wherever I need go" asked me (with a huge goofy grin) "where you from??" me: "states, you know the united ones" he laughed and said oh ok america. then I hear someone shouting "Sarah!! Sarah Stone from Ithaca College?!" and I was so dumbfounded because I didn't think anyone knew my name in Albania. Then one of the assistants from the program came running up to me telling me that he was my ride and let me tell you that cab driver's face fell so far. lost another customer. oh well. so we sat down to wait for the next girl arriving a little while after me. Then he tells me that the professor in charge of the program described me as "she was born in '90, and she was in Dublin for a while, I think she's Irish" so the assistant told me that if I hadn't looked THIS Irish he probably wouldn't have realized it was me. score one for the red hair.


one of the tips I read on the Albania tourist guide website was to take yellow official taxis, well we ended up talking to these other 2 cab drivers (oddly enough I was communicating to one in Italian-go me!) and then the 3 of us ended up in a black Mercedes with a much better price and the coolest cab driver I've ever met.  He was so excited to hear we were from the states and started chanting "USA USA!" and then proceeded to blast Albanian house techno music. the scenery was scattered shanty houses set against the darkest shaded green mountains, they were almost black-we were flyin' by the "slow" drivers on a 2-way road with trucks and cars and motorcycles squished together. The city center is not the prettiest but it has some charm.  In fact it is similar to Italy- The women parading around in stilettos and shiny clothes and then walking with their chests out eying all the pretty girls on the street.  the smell of food and vendors selling trinkets, cafes lining the side roads.  the best part? CHEAP. EVERYTHING IS SO CHEAP.


Anyway we walked around a bit and then took small naps, which were inadvertently interrupted by the prayer bells of the mosque. it was actually really cool because I've never heard it before.


we then ate dinner at a Turkish restaurant and we ate these huge platters of salads and spreads meats and pitas, all accompanied by some wine, which was very tasty, I must say.


Anyway this was not as short as I thought it would be. oh well.. no internet for the next 9 days, what will I DO??!? I guess that's what they call "roughin' it"
over'n'out.