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.