Albania

Albania is an amazing country. Their culture is very different than ours at home.

When were first arrived here, our host told, us there were two rules about crossing the roads in Albania. Number 1, look both ways twice. Number 2, don’t forget rule number one. It is important because the drivers here are kind of crazy and do not stop. People walk out in front of fast-moving cars and just avoid being hit. They honk a lot and are kind of crazy drivers.

The food here can be… Interesting. There are some foods like the spinach ravioli and gyro’s that are very good. Others like the calamari and roasted goat heads are less appealing to me. The goat heads still have eyes, teeth, and I assume all the other parts of a head. We go to the produce market which is a big, covered building lot where they set up tables where locals can come and sell their produce. It is a really good place to get produce that was picked as recently as that morning and is fresher than the grocery store stuff.

This town is very dependent on the sea. The other day a huge barge pulled into the harbor and stayed there for a few days before leaving in the middle of the night. We think it was delivering construction supplies. Fishermen in small boats go out every day and come back at night to sell their products to the restaurants. Ferries from Greece and other countries come in every few hours.  Tourism is a HUGE part of the economy in the summer being that there over 8 times the winter population in the busiest parts of summer.

Many people wear winter coats when it is 60. They look like they are going to Antarctica. We love the warm sun that we get almost every day. In our time here there has only been one bad day and that day it snowed! The first snowstorm ever in Sarande was two years ago and there have been two since then. One local said no one can remember more than 3 ever.

The language is a very difficult one. There are more letters than in English. We have tried to learn some of the most important words like thank you (faleminderit) but will probably stop there because it is so hard. It is literally similar to NOTHING else and is a few thousand years old. This really short video is cool to watch.

We love it here and have started to make some friends. Some of them are locals and others are from a group of non-locals we met that come from all over the world.  Every day I go for runs and go to the bakery for breakfast. The people are some of the nicest people we have met. They all are helpful and will wave and say Hi even if they do not know you. The guys who are renovating the stairs by our apartment have started greeting us even though we never really talk. Almost everyone speaks a tiny bit of English and are happy to help in any way they can.

I got a haircut!

I greatly enjoy Albania and am excited to spend more time here.