Albania: Best trip of the year

I had an awesome time with Liz in Albania. I mentioned in one of my previous blogs that Madrid tried really hard to swing me over to team Western Europe and failed but Albania is definitely holding my interest. I would love to make a more extensive trip across the Balkans in the future. Anyway, I'll start from the beginning of our trip.

We took a night train from Chisinau to Bucharest on Monday night, leaving at 5:30 pm and arriving in Bucharest at 7 am. We met a couple of Americans on the train who are on a faith-based program that sends them around the world doing mission work for 10 months. We also got trapped out of our wagon for 2 hours in the middle of the night when we wanted to sleep because we made the mistake of going to use the nicer bathrooms that were in the dining car. Other than that the trip was unremarkable.

The weather in Bucharest was beautiful and we sat by the lake in Youth Park all day because our flight wasn't until 7 pm. We had a picnic and watched people jogging and biking. This is something you would never see in Moldova.

Our flights went on schedule and we arrived in Tirana at 11:30 pm. We stayed at a hostel the first night because we were getting there so late but we met up with another Fulbright student the next day and stayed at his apartment for the next two nights. His place was really nice and it's located right in the city center so we could walk just about everywhere. We had quite a bit of time to explore the city and were lucky to have beautiful weather. We took a cable car up to the top of Mt. Dajty and had a gorgeous view. Liz was pretty terrified on the way up and we probably wouldn't have gone if we'd known what it was going to be like but in the end it was worth it. There's a hotel/restaurant at the top of the mountain that has a rotating bar on the top floor that gives another nice view. That night we went to another rotating bar on the top of the Sky Tower and got to look out at the Tirana city lights.

Something we really enjoyed was the fact that food is so inexpensive in Albania. You can get a huge, delicious meal in a nice restaurant for $5. There are 10 cafes with outdoor seating on every block. Both the Americans and Albanians we met said that you would think people never work because these cafes are always full in the middle of the work day. The salaries are comparable to those in Moldova but living expenses in general seem to be a lot less. Before this trip I had maybe had 2 cups of coffee in my entire life but I had at least 8 over 3 days in Albania. I cappuccino would be about $1.50 and they always bring a glass of water with it for free too.

On Friday we took a mini bus to Vlora, a beautiful beach town in the south. We met two students, Semi and Marsela, on the bus and Semi said she would invite us to her parent's house. We spent the first day on our own walking along the beach and taking in the scenery but the next day we met up with those girls and they took us all around town in their cousin's car. At night we went to Semi's house and met her mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, cousin, grandfather, and some others.

A couple of the guys spoke English well because they had worked abroad so they told us about Albanian life and politics which was really interesting. They cooked us traditional food that included a spinach, egg and cheese dish, rice pilaf, pasta, salad, and homemade bread. We also took a walk to explore their huge expanse of farmland. Semi's brother-in-law said that if I want they will give me a plot of land so I can build a house there with my Albanian husband.

We spent the next day with the family as well and went around to the houses of some other relatives. One house was way up on the mountain and had a gorgeous view of the ocean.

I wish we'd had more time to see other places in Albania but Semi's mom already invited Liz and I to her son's wedding that's coming up in two years so maybe we'll be back in the near future.

Click here to see more pictures.