Vacationing in Albania

Following is a clever introduction soliciting a subscription, but it captures splendidly what to expect when traveling for the first time through Northern Albania.  Similar accounts and lots of pictures are also online, via Google search, about other travelers through the much touted Accursed Mountains.   

From The Times (of London): Here on the Moon, silence makes your head sing

My Week:  An Albanian Odyssey - by Matthew Parris

I have just been to the Moon. Or as good as; as weird as; as wonderful as. I’m back from five days walking in what have been known as the Accursed Mountains of northern Albania. Bears, wolves, blazing sun, icy water and August snow ... this trek into the wild, organised by a charity, Albania Community Assist, is not for the faint-hearted but it will take you to another world, another people, another time. There’s no other word for it but “manic”.

A toast to a virtual tour!

While sitting at home in NYC this morning I enjoyed a visit online to the old little Italian village where I lived with my maternal grandparents during WWII. 

Thanks go to Google maps for providing emotions that I didn't know could be felt by a virtual walk through the streets that saw me grow up and seeing so well the house where I spent my youth and even the original entrance  door to the 'cantina'  where my Grandfather produced the excellent wine for which this village has been known since the 1300’s!!

In the US

Have returned back home, safe and sound, after an uneventful and pretty smooth trip. I left my lodging in Tirana at the ungodly hour of 2:30AM, after a full last week of work and being a guest at  a celebration for US Independence Day, organized by the US Embassy, the night before departure.

The new terminals built in Europe to handle more traffic at connection points are huge, enormously long, and, not very user friendly to older passengers. The one I just came through in Vienna that covers almost 40 gates, has only a couple of places where one could relax and get refreshments, thus requiring a lot of walking back and forth during long layovers.   Along the way there are a few machines that could dispense beverages and snacks, but those would require appropriate change in euro currency to operate.  Additionally, the entry level to the planes  are located at a lower level reachable by moving escalators, again not easily manageable by families with babies, and carriages, or elderly people with luggage. Assistance is provided upon request, but one must be bold enough to ask. 

The new Boeing 777 air crafts are equipped with the latest technology for video entertainment (by touch), because there is no more room for the old setup that used to have the remote control on the arm rest. The seats are much narrower than in the older crafts. Their width barely covers one’s back leaving the shoulders to overhang outside of it, thus requiring continuous repositioning by the passenger to avoid overlapping with the neighboring traveler.  Similarly there are problems with narrower passageways on board, which cause being continuously bumped into if one has an aisle seat. 

These are some of the adverse aspects of today’s travel, in addition to the delays that affect mostly, in my experience, journeying from the US outwards, rather than vice versa. Arrivals at NY JFK are usually on time, but at departures one must exercise patience and endure additional sitting time before lift off since planes are usually lined up on the tarmac for a quite a while waiting for the go ahead to leave the ground.  

   

Time to pack

My current stay in Albania is winding down and I’ll return to NY in a few days. Lots of work has been accomplished in the past 2 ½ months that saw, weather wise, an unusually constant rainy spring season followed by torrid temperatures at the start of summer.  During the past week we have been fortunate, however, to have pleasantly cool nights, thus allowing a respite from the daily sweat that, due to some physical work in the past few days, was unavoidable. 

The plan is to relocate our office due to upcoming new construction at the current site, which will begin during the summer and will take a couple of years to complete. At that time we’ll have brand new and large quarters with better facilities that will allow us to develop all sorts of activities according to our mission and plans.

Now, while bones and muscles are being exercised in lots of required packing that just started and will go on for a while, our minds continue to elaborate plans, and projects that will be more efficiently  carried out in the future thanks to a modern and well equipped setup. Our work to benefit Albanian  youth in their education and culture has just began, but the response to our efforts in this direction are already very much appreciated and future ones are eagerly sought and awaited for.        

Informal gathering

After a delightful weather that, here in Tirana, spanned from mid May to mid June, an intense heat wave has sprung from Africa northward into the Mediterranean countries, opening the summer season with vengeance. This has been going on for about a week now, and no relief is in sight, even during the nights. 

Like many, I avoid going out unless necessary and, thank goodness, I can also work from home, where I have a comfy air conditioned studio.

During the brief outings heat/sun exposure can be cut down by walking wherever is possible in the shade of the trees that, fortunately, line many boulevards in this city. Some of these trees are just 3 years old, as the following pictures can prove. 

On Thursday I planned a small, informal party to take place at the office in the evening hours, and most invitees did attend notwithstanding the weather condition. The air conditioning in our place, although not the greatest, adequately kept us from sweating while we were having a good time drinking, eating, and chatting. 

Everyone that attended played a part in my life since I returned to Albania 20 years ago, and I wanted to celebrate with them my latest birthday and the accomplishments reached so far during these past two decades. 

Thanks to modern technology, during our gathering we also had one of my dearest and loyal friend that is currently in NY, join us via Skype.   

 

 All in all everyone seemed to have enjoyed the evening and the food expertly prepared by a local, young planner and caterer (the specially ordered byreks were exceptional!).