With an upcoming three day weekend in early February I checked Skyscanner (similar to Travelocity only for Europe) and looked for the least expensive flights. London was by far the least expensive on an airline called Wizz Air (a Hungarian airline) plus it was a direct three hour flight. We flew into Luton Airport which is an hour and 40 minute train ride from the center of London. Luton is where most of the discount airlines fly in and out of.
The price of the flight was great but the downside is the long train ride into the city.
The next day we went to the charming Covent Gardens area to meet up for a free walking tour. We had breakfast before meeting the tour and the bill was 38 pounds ($50) for a relatively small meal. Yikes! It might be inexpensive to fly to London but it is very expensive in most other ways.
Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, the London Eye, Westminister Abbey and Big Ben (with scaffolding) were a few of the places that we saw on our free walking tour.
We used the Underground to get around London. It was easy and economical. I snapped the picture of the Way Out (instead of Exit) and Mind the Gap signs because it seemed so English.
That evening we went to the top of the Shard. The building was built in 2012 and at 95 stories it is the tallest building in the United Kingdom.
I cannot take credit for taking this picture but I am adding it to my blog because I think it captures the size of this building.
Our view from the top…
The next morning I ran over this bridge (crossing the Thames River)Â to St. Paul’s Cathedral where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married.
As I was running around the outside of the Cathedral I came across this progression of signs. I never could found where it went after the word “to”.
St. Paul’s is undergoing some construction to add ramps into the sanctuary allowing the church to be more accessible for all. Yay! Seeing this construction made me proud to be an Episcopalian.
If you were to look at Randy’s playlist on his phone you would notice that 90% of the music he listens to is by the Beatles. We decided to take a tour that showed us where John and Ringo lived, the place where Paul and Ringo were married and a few other Beatles landmarks.
Abbey Road was probably the most iconic Beatles spot we visited. We were not brave enough to go out in traffic to take a picture but I did get a picture of Randy on the sidewalk next to Abbey Road.
Abbey Road Studio has been functioning as a recording studio since the 1930’s. The graffiti in front of the building is painted over monthly.
Now we have arrived at the Tower of London which was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror. Over the years the Tower has served as an armory, a royal palace, a prison, a menagerie, a treasury and Royal Mint. Currently it is the home of the Crown Jewels.
As part of our entrance ticket to the Tower of London we took a tour given by a Yeoman Warder also known as a Beefeater. A Yeoman Warder is a ceremonial guardian of the Tower of London. To be a Yeoman Warder a person must have served a minimum of 22 years in the armed forces, be a former warrant officer and hold the Good Conduct medal. The 30 minute tour was well done by this very engaging tour guide.
Guarding the Crown Jewels…
After touring the Tower we took a water bus down the Thames back to within walking distance of our hotel.
That evening we went to see the musical School of Rock. The theater was located on Drury Lane which made Randy and I smile since the college we went to had a main street with the same name.
During the finale of the show they made an announcement that if the audience wanted to get their phones and record the finale they could do so. So Randy took this video. It highlights what fabulous instrumentalists these 9-12 year olds are in addition to being singers, dancers and actors. We REALLY enjoyed the show!
 On Sunday morning we attended a Eucharist at Westminister Abbey.
We were scheduled to fly back to Tirana on Sunday afternoon however London was experiencing 80 mph winds. Trees were down on the train tracks and the buses were not running because of the bad weather. Our only option was to take a black taxi to the airport. It was horribly expensive but we had no other choice. Anyways, the one upside to the very expensive taxi ride was our delightful cabbie. Two years ago, along with three other cabbie friends, he decided that their job as cabbies was too sedentary. They decided to loose weight, get in shape and climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Talking to him on the long taxi ride to the airport was SO interesting. Here is link to their accomplishment if you want to read more. Cabbies Do Kilimanjaro
Our quick trip to London was a wonderful way to spend a three day weekend. Someday we hope to go back and explore more of this part of the world that has so much to see.
Randy left for the States this morning. He is going home to deal with the taxes and will be back in Tirana in two weeks. We are looking forward to hosting several visitors over the next few months. Hoping and praying that the coronavirus does not cause problems with our guests’ travel plans.
The week before we left Tirana for our Christmas travels our son, David, arrived for a visit. Here we are visiting Tirana’s city center which is full of lights, carnival rides, coffee shops and a Christmas tree to celebrate the season.
My friend, Dana and I go to a local park called Artificial Lake to run every Saturday morning. So glad David could join us!
Just like last year, David visited my grade one class to show the children a real heart (from a sheep) and to explain how it works. He also brought his loupes (glasses used in surgery) so the children could try them on and understand how they are used.
On the first day of my holiday school vacation David, Randy and I flew to Budapest, Hungary for a four night stay. Our younger son, Josh, flew from the States and met us in Budapest. I LOVED being with our two sons for a few days. Elizabeth, Ben and their children are celebrating Christmas in South Africa so unfortunately we were not with them for the holidays this year.  😦
After settling into our AirBnB apartment we went for a tour of the Christmas markets of Budapest which were voted the best in Europe this year. The Christmas market pictured above was our favorite. It was located in Buda, about a 15 minute tram ride from the city center. You may or may not know that Budapest is actually two different cities Buda and Pest. The cities are divided by the Danube River. Buda is a more residential area and Pest has more businesses and more tourists. As you can see by the pictures, Buda was so charming!! Josh is sampling a traditional food called lango that consists of something similar to fried dough with cheese and sour cream, not sweet like in the States. Yum! Also all the Christmas markets we visited had hot mulled wine, really delicious especially on a cold day.
This is one of the Christmas markets in Pest with the centerpiece being St. Stephen’s Basilica, a gorgeous Catholic Church.
Listen to the church bells! 🙂
I had never seen advent wreaths used as Christmas decorations. It seemed so appropriate! In fact, for our whole two week trip we only saw nativity scenes, Christmas trees, angels and wreaths. We never saw Santa with his reindeer, stockings, snowmen or other similar Christmas decorations that we are accustomed to in the States.
Crossing the Danube River over the Chain Bridge.
Thanks to Peter for getting our family started on this tradition of taking a photo by a local manhole cover when we travel.
The view from the other side of the Danube.
David could not pass up this opportunity to interact with this amazing bird.
This is the gorgeous Parliament building. The nativity scene and Christmas tree were prominently displayed in front of the building. We were not able to tour it because I did not reserve tickets far enough in advance. If you go to Budapest, reserve Parliament tour tickets at least a month early.
We were walking along the Danube one evening when we came across several bronzed shoes like the ones above. This memorial is called Shoes on the Danube and is in remembrance of the thousands of Jews who were shot along the banks of the Danube River during WWII. The victims were forced to remove their shoes at gunpoint (shoes were valuable during World War II) before they were shot in the back, falling over the edge to be washed away by the freezing waters. This was a powerful reminder of the horrors of WWII.
Street art was everywhere in Budapest. A bit of trivia, the Rubik’s Cube originated in Budapest.
We had brunch at this ruin bar. A ruin bar is a bar built in the ruins of abandoned buildings. They are located in the old Jewish quarter. We loved our meal in this really unusual setting.
These are the same brass plates we have seen on the sidewalks throughout Europe. They are about five inches square and are placed outside of homes or businesses where Jews were taken and sent to work or extermination camps. The first date in the birthdate of the victim and the second date is the date the Jewish victim was unjustly arrested. It is so startling and powerful to randomly come across these stark reminders of the horrors the Jewish population experienced during WWII. We found out while visiting Budapest that Hungary was never Nazi occupied, only 125 German Nazis came to Budapest. The other terror mongers who did most of the damage were Hungarian citizens who were part of a group called Arrow Cross, a far right Nazi-like organization.
On our last evening in Budapest we took a tram over to the the less touristy Buda. We went to a jazz concert at a charming small club that had great music. It was a wonderful way to close our visit to this beautiful, history-filled city.
We are now headed to Bratislava, Slovakia on a three hour train ride. We LOVED traveling by train. There was lots of room to relax, free wi-fi and the enjoyment of watching the countryside pass by.
Bratislavia is a fairly small city and the capital of Slovakia. Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia until 1993 when Slovakia and the Czech Republic agreed to a peaceful separation of the two countries. We spent one night here and only had an afternoon to explore the city. It rained most of the time we were there. Here we are on a walk from our hotel to the Old Town part of the city.
Unfortunately, the Christmas markets closed for the season the day before we arrived but we still enjoyed the Old Town charm.
Every city we have visited in Europe has at least one gorgeous church, either Catholic or Protestant.
Good bye to charming Bratislava! The next morning (Christmas Eve Day) at 8:00 we were taking an eight hour train ride to Krakow, Poland. One of the reasons I am excited to visit Krakow is that my great-grandmother, Jeanette Kratchowill McCann immigrated to the US sometime during the late 1800’s. Unfortunately I know no more information about her life in Krakow.
On our first evening (Christmas Eve) in Krakow we walked to the city center where we saw these Christmas decorations. It is hard to tell in these pictures but the city square in Krakow is the largest square in Europe.
Christmas Eve is celebrated in a bigger way than Christmas Day in the countries we visited including Poland. We went to this gorgeous church for a midnight Christmas Eve service. We did not stay for the whole service because it was all in Polish but that being said, we enjoyed the spiritual feel to the service.
Outside of the church was a live nativity scene and a wonderful performance by some local priests.
The next morning (Christmas Day) we went on a free walking tour of Krakow. Krakow is an absolutely beautiful city. During WWII the Germans moved many of their offices to Krakow which meant there was not nearly as much bombing of this city as happened in other European cities.
On the walk up to the Krakow Wawel Castle you can see the brick wall on the right. On the brick wall are individual cement plaques with names of people fromnaround the world who contributed to the rebuilding of the castle between WWI and WWII. Loved seeing the names of two people from Buffalo who made contributions.
More views of the Wawel Castle…
A popular symbol of Krakow sits between the Vistula River and the castle and is know as the Wawel Dragon.
As you probably know Pope John Paul II came from Poland so it was common to see tributes to him throughout Krakow. 86% of Poles are Catholic which is an impressive number since the country was under Communist rule for more than 40 years until 1989.
Even the trams in Krakow were decorated for Christmas.
One of my favorite parts of our trip was seeing these nativity scenes (szopka) in Krakow. There is a 200 year old tradition of a yearly competion held the first weekend in December to build szopkas similar to the ones pictured. A characteristic part of the scenes is the use of historical buildings as a backdrop for the nativity of Jesus. So gorgeous, colorful  and unusual!
These are the only 4 pictures I took at Auschwitz. For much of my adult life I thought I never wanted to visit a concentration camp. The thought of visiting a place with so much horror involved was just too overwhelming to think about. However, with time I came to think that as a citizen of the world I needed to experience going to one of these camps. Auschwitz is an hour drive from Krakow so we decided to go. It was just as horrible as I was afraid it would be and brought me to tears even as I write this. How could a group of people treat another group of people like this?
This was the only picture I took at Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz 2. Auschwitz 1 was a concentration or work camp where some people survived. Birkenau was an extermination camp. No one survived Birkenau. There were no records of who died here. Thousands of Jews were unloaded and taken immediately to the gas chambers. When the gas chambers were too full or busy people were put into buildings waiting for their turn to be gassed.
We visited this factory which you may be familiar with from the movie “Schindler’s List”.
These are just some of the people Oskar Schindler saved with his factory.
This is the park we walked through on the way to our Airbnb along with the name of the street where the Airbnb was located. We found out that our Airbnb was located next door to an apartment where Oskar Schindler lived.
We are checking out the train schedule as we get ready to board a train to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Here are some views of the countryside as we travel between Krakow and Prague on the train. Randy figured out all the logistics involved with train travel for this trip. He is officially an expert on Eurorail!!
We arrived in Prague at nightfall to these beautiful scenes. We all thought Prague was the most beautiful of all the cities we visited. However, it was also by far the most crowded with tourists which meant we did not enjoy it as much as we had hoped.
My friend, Kelly, who teaches with me at Albanian College was traveling in Europe for the holiday break and met us in Prague. We all shared an Airbnb and the Prague sights together. Kelly was a welcome addition to our group!
This is the oldest operating astronomical clock in the world, dating back to the 1400’s. The Walk of the Apostles happens on the hour in the windows at the top of the clock.
Here is some of the beautiful, unusual and varied art of Prague.
We saw these delicious desserts called chimneys in several cities throughout our trip. I liked them plain which means just a type of bread with cinnamon or you could have them filled with ice cream, nutella or many other fillings. Josh choose one with the works!
Loved seeing this yoga studio as we walked around Prague.
We took a four hour food tour to a few secluded (less touristy) areas of Prague to taste some traditional Czech food. The other people on the tour were from Australia, New Zealand and Dublin. As usual, we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some new people.
Kelly and I climbed up to the castle to see the beautiful views of Prague.
Prague had the same brass plates we have seen throughout Europe, indicating where Jewish individuals and, as seen on the right, whole families were taken from their homes to concentration or extermination camps during WWII.
Prague is full of gorgeous churches as pictured above. 80% of people from the Czech Republic have no religion so the churches cannot sustain themselves financially without a congregation. In an effort to maintain these beautiful buildings it is common for one or more concerts to be held in these churches on an almost daily basis. The money received from the concerts goes to supporting the maintenance of the churches.
This is a snippet of the concert we attended one night.
We enjoyed the concert so much that the following night we attended a second concert.
We felt so very fortunate to enjoy this beautiful music in an equally gorgeous setting.
On our last afternoon in Prague we went to see the new Star Wars movie. It was New Year’s Eve afternoon so the theater was fairly quiet. The movie was a relaxing change of pace plus Randy and Josh were especially happy to see the movie.
We are now at the train station waiting for an overnight train to our final destination, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Our sleeper car was three berths stacked on top of each other. It was close quarters but a fun and reasonably comfortable way to travel from one city to another.
We were traveling on the sleeper car overnight on New Year’s Eve so there were lots of fireworks going off through the night as we whizzed along. Josh took this video.
This is what we saw on our first evening in Ljubljana as we walked around the city, so beautiful!
On my run the following morning I came across this almost life size nativity scene made from straw.
Look at this unusual tree near our Airbnb.
More brass plates on the sidewalk outside of a Ljubljana residence. 😦
The dragon symbolizes Ljubljana’s courage, grandeur and power and is seen as the city’s protector.
Slovenia is very proud of the fact that their country recycles almost 70% of their trash which is more than any other EU capital city. Impressive!!
We took a day trip about an hour outside of Ljubljana to see Predjama Castle which was built in the 1200’s in the mouth of a cave. We took an excellent audio tour of this castle full of secret passageways and history.
More pictures from the castle…
Our next stop on our tour outside of Ljubljana was Lake Bled. We boarded a  pletna boat and headed to a small island with a church on it. The oarsmen, who stand as they row, are part of a traditional profession that has been passed down for generations.
These pictures were taken at the church on the island. In the picture on the lower right I am ringing the church bells using a rope hanging at the front of the church. What a treat to get to do this!
Do you see the red roofed castle situated up on the cliff? That is where we are headed next.
Views of and from the castle …
This picture was taken at the castle. The Lake Bled island with the church can be seen in the background which is where we just came from. We are so, so fortunate to experience all this beauty.
Good bye to the beautiful country of Slovenia. We are now flying back to Tirana after a wonderful, sometimes exhausting, 15 day trip. We have used four different currencies, heard five different languages and had so many varied experiences. It is truly a gift that we were able to take this trip. It will be good to settle back into life in our apartment in Albania. We arrived back on January 4th and school started on the 6th.
Josh came back to Albania with us for a few days before going back to the States. Here we are going to coffee with our good friends, Edlira and Aldo, and a friend Josh met when he came to Albania last year.
My students just finished a unit about how cities evolve over time so Josh came to school to teach the children how to use Google Earth on the tablets provided by the school. Thanks, Josh! The children still choose to use this app on a regular basis.
Thanks, as always, for reading through this very long blog post. I am never sure what to add or leave out which usually ends up with a long post. It is early February and I am just now posting from our holiday trip. As you can imagine, it takes awhile to sift through our pictures and to figure out how to present them and to add some verbiage. I really do enjoy documenting our experiences and I thank you again for reading.
We have spent the rest of January in Tirana and will spend most of February here in town. We have a three day weekend coming up soon. I searched where the least expensive flights were for that weekend and found a three hour direct flight to London for next to nothing so we are headed to London on Thursday for three days.
School is going well. I feel like I need to post a school update plus something about living here in Tirana. Stay tuned… I hope all is well with our friends and family. Thanks so much for staying in touch.
We had a three day weekend in early December because it was National Youth Day so some friends very kindly invited me to go to the Christmas Markets in Rome with them. I hesitated because I knew I would be visiting southern Italy the week before. But then I thought, when am I ever going to have this opportunity again so I said “yes” to the invitation. A round trip ticket to Rome cost around a hundred dollars and I shared a room so the cost of the trip was minimal which also made me take advantage of the chance to go to Italy again.
We arrived In Rome around 3:00 and after settling into our hotel we started a walk to Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square). You can see the Basilica in the background of this picture.
A view of the Vatican City Christmas tree and a couple of gorgeous almost life-size nativity scenes.
After walking around St. Peter’s Square we headed here. You may know that I collect nativity sets so this display was perfect, loved it!!
Here are a few of the nativity scenes we saw:
The nativity set on the left is made of styrofoam while the one on the right is made of macaroni. Amazing!
These were my two favorite…
On the way back to our hotel we spontaneously stopped to tour the Castel Sant’Angelo built by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 123AD. It was originally built as a mausoleum.
Look at the view from the top of the castle!
The next morning we headed to the Piazza Navona where the biggest Christmas Market was opening that day. What a beautiful setting for a market!
Here are a few pictures of what was being sold at the Christmas Markets. I thought there would be lots and lots of vendors (think Fairport Canal Days). Instead there were probably a total of 20 vendors, many with very similar items for sale. I did not buy a lot but enjoyed wandering around and simply looking.
In the afternoon we walked some of the small streets around the Piazza Navona and saw lots of evidence of the upcoming holiday.
That night we toured Rome at nightfall on a golf cart. Beautiful and such fun!
Window shopping…
The next morning on my run I went back to St. Peter’s Square. I know I keep overusing the word “beautiful” but I can’t think of enough adjectives to adequately describe the above scene. Also, although I am not Catholic there is definitely a spiritual feel when you enter this Square, particularly early in the morning when there are not many people around. God is good and God is present.
Thank you for continuing to read and comment on this blog. I do feel so very grateful to have these experiences and then be able to share them with friends and family. Right now Randy, Josh and I are in Bratislava, Slovakia. We took a train from Budapest this morning and will be taking another train to Krakow, Poland tomorrow morning. We will then spend a few days in Prague and then end our trip in Ljubljana, Slovenia. School starts again on January 6th. David joined us for a few days in Budapest but now has returned back to NYC for work. The Chervenaks stayed in South Africa for Christmas. It is hard not to be altogether for Christmas but this is just how we could work it out this year. Since Randy and I will be moving back to the States in July we felt like we wanted to take this opportunity to travel.
Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or simply Happy Holidays! We wish all the best to you and your loved ones in 2020!!
We had a four day weekend break at the end of November because it was Albanian Independence Day (celebrating when the Ottoman’s left Albania in 1912) and Albanian Liberation Day (celebrating when the Germans left Albania in 1944). A friend and I flew to Bari, Italy and then took the bus to two smaller Italian towns. Randy is still in the States hunting.
These were the signs that greeted us when we deplaned in Bari. We visited two regions of southern Italy, Puglia and Basilicata.
After arriving in Bari we took an hour and a half long bus ride to Matera where we spent the night. Matera is the third oldest continuously inhabited city in the world dating back to the 10th century BC. This is by far the oldest city I have visited. Matera is known as “the underground city” and contains ancient cave dwellings. In 1993 Matera was named as a Word Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The movie “The Passion of the Christ” which was released in 2004 was written and directed by Mel Gibson. He choose the city of Matera to film much of the movie because he felt it depicted the Biblical time period. The hole in the foreground of the the picture above is where the cross was planted for the filming of Christ’s crucification.
Matera by night…
We slept and ate dinner in a cave since Matera is known for it’s cave dwellings.
Artwork in the streets of Matera.
Matera is known for this type of bread. The bumps on the top of the bread stand for the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
I was especially intrigued by the rock churches which were carved right into the side of the hill.
Matera by day…
The next day we took an hour long drive to our next destination, Alberobello. This is a picture of our AirBnB host, Pasquale. He is the fourth generation in his family to own the home that we will be staying in while visiting this charming village.
Alberobello is known for these charming small buildings called trulli. Trulli are dry stone (without mortar) huts with conical roofs that were originally constructed in the 15th century as temporary field shelters and storehouses.
More pictures of the charming trulli of Alberobello.
Delicious dinner in a lovely neighborhood restaurant.
Alberobello up close.
My Fairport friend, Ann Wolanski’s mother and grandmother were born near this gorgeous cathedral in Alberobello. I tried to find the exact house but was unsuccessful.
We took a train and a bus to get to our next location, Bari, which is on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Dana is an expert at figuring out the train and bus schedules. Yay!
Arriving in Bari at night and trying to figure out where our Airbnb is located (a common challenge and adventure in itself).
Trip Advisor recommended this delicious salad and sandwich restaurant.
Pics from a run on the following morning.
We visited the fish market where Dana was a very adventurous eater.
While walking the side streets of Bari we came across several different women making pasta. This area of Italy is known for making orecchiette “little ear” pasta.
The Basilica of St. Nicholas was gorgeous. St. Nicholas was born in Russia and died in Turkey. This church holds both Catholic and Orthodox services within it’s walls which I found to be so interesting! The statue was given to the city of Bari by the Russians as a sign of good will.
Exploring a bit of southern Italy was a treat. This part of the country is not nearly as opulent as the northern part of Italy but definitely has a charm that we thoroughly enjoyed visiting.
The weekend before last three friends and I joined an Albanian tour group that traveled to Lake Ohrid, Macedonia. Randy and I spent time in Skopje, Macedonia last summer but I wanted to return to Macedonia to visit the beautiful lakeside cities of Ohrid, Struga and Pogadrec, Albania. We were not disappointed with the beauty of the area.
We left Tirana at 6:00 AM just in time to see the sunrise. Randy is not traveling with me because he is in the States for hunting season.
We arrived at Lake Ohrid after about three hours of driving.
The first thing we did was take a 30 minute boat tour. We saw a church and castle (from a distance) that we would visit later in the day.
On our walk up to the castle…
Do you see the trellis growing in front of the house on the left? It produces kiwis which you can see in the close up on the right. Kiwis are widely available in Macedonia and Albania. This is the first time I have ever seen how they are grown.
Views from in and around the castle.
After visiting the castle we shopped for some Ohrid Pearls which have been popular (even in the royal family) for the last 80 years. The pearls are made from ground shells formed into the shape of pearls and then painted several times over with layers of emulsion made from the scales of Lake Ohrid fish.
We then got back on the bus and drove to another lakeside village called Struga where we explored the beach, city center and several bridges.
Dana found a friend on our early morning run the next day.
Another gorgeous monastery, St. Naum.
Headed out on a 30 minute boat ride around the lake.
Look how crystal clear the water is! The lake had a white sand bottom, no mud, and was full of various green plants. Beautiful!
Can you see the white sand bubbling in this video? The lake is spring fed and the bubbling sand is where fresh water enters the lake.
This was a lovely spot for lunch in Pogradec, Albania on our way back to Tirana. My Albanian assistant from school had her wedding pictures taken here last year.
As always, thanks for reading my blog. Next up is a four day weekend to Bari, Alberobello and Matera. Looking forward to visiting these relatively small towns in southern Italy.
Happy Thanksgiving to family and friends. I am so very grateful to have each of you in my life.
This morning a bit before 4:00AM my bed started shaking and I could hear breaking glass and a big bang coming from another part of our apartment. I jumped out of bed but it was not easy to stand because of the shaking. 😦 I felt disoriented, partly because of what was happening and partly because I was woken from sleep. Randy is currently in the States for hunting season so this time I was by myself for the earthquake.
I quickly put on my robe and slippers, grabbed my phone and purse and started walking down the seven flights of stairs to get outside. Just like last time there were lots of people gathered on the sidewalks crying, hugging and huddled in small groups to stay warm since it was about 45 degrees. I connected up with a few teacher friends who live in the same building and after an hour or so we went to a coffee shop to sit and wait and figure out what to do next.
We all look happy but actually we are really quite freaked out inside. :O
After a couple of hours we returned to our apartments. During the last earthquake our overhead light swung back and forth, the houseplant leaves moved and an empty plastic bottle fell over. This time our water dispenser fell over (the big bang sound), some glass bottles fell to the ground and several things on some shelves either fell off or were knocked over. Here are a couple of pictures.
I also took this video which is entirely too long.
Cracks in the stairwell walls like last time only bigger now.
If you look at the images on TV about the earthquake in Albania, it all looks pretty horrendous. Those images are coming from other towns that are 30-40 km from here. Please pray for these Albanians who are having much more severe earthquake damage. The streets and city of Tirana look fine. We walked around some today and really noticed very minimal damage.
The hardest thing about the earthquake is the number of aftershocks. There have been two major ones so far, measuring 5.0 and 5.1. Each time they happen I go down the stairs wait for an hour or so and then go back upstairs. I am definitely okay but the whole thing is just plain unsettling and scary. Of course, school was cancelled for today and tomorrow.
Thanks so much for all your texts and calls expressing your concern. XOXO
Albanian College had a week long break in October. Our lifelong friends, Sarah and Marty, came to visit from Nashville, Tennessee. What a treat it was to have them here! We spent our time visiting Croatia, Montenegro and northern Albania.
Sarah spent time collecting close to a hundred pounds of books to bring to Albania to donate to our school. Wow, how very thoughtful!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
We rented a car and started driving north on our first full day together. Here we are in Montenegro overlooking the Sveti Stefan which is an islet with a 5 star Aman Resort on it. Elizabeth Taylor, Sofia Loren, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are just some of the celebs who have stayed here. Rooms go for an average of 800 euros a night. Just to go over the narrow causeway cost 20 euros per person so we simply admired it from a distance. 🙂
Next we took a 20 minute ferry ride before leaving Montenegro and heading to Croatia.
Good bye to Montenegro and hello to Croatia. With the two border crossings it took us about 8 hours to drive from our apartment in Tirana to Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Our first night in Dubrovnik enjoying Italian food in this charming setting.
Then we wandered around Old Town enjoying the beauty of the area at night.
The next day we went on a free walking tour of Dubrovnik. It was given by a retired police officer who also served in the military. He did an excellent job! In addition to telling us about the history of the city he pointed out several spots where Game of Thrones was filmed.
As part of the tour we heard, once again, about the aggression of the Serbs in the early 1990’s. Montenegro was also part of the aggression which killed 20,000 people and resulted in massive damage to Dubrovnik as shown in the map above. The bottom picture shows shrapnel damage to one of the churches.
After the tour we enjoyed a delicious lunch in another beautiful setting.
That afternoon Marty and I climbed to the top of the wall surrounding Old Town Dubrovnik and took a two hour walk all the way around. Beautiful!
That evening we did an AirBnB Experience called Eating with Locals. The Croatian couple who welcomed us to their home were featured in National Geographic Traveler a year ago.
Our hosts, Zlatko and his lovely wife Marija.
The food and drink was delicious and plentiful!
The following morning, on a run, I took this picture of the sun rising in Old Town. I feel so very, very fortunate to get the opportunity to see sights like this.
Look at the sweet little church I came across on the same run.
Locks on the bridges like almost everywhere else in the world.
Of course this picture was taken in honor of my firefighting husband.
Enjoying some fresh fruit for breakfast in one of the city squares on our last morning in Dubrovnik.
I took this picture as were leaving this beautiful city. On the day we left 5 cruise ships had just arrived and dumped hundreds (or maybe thousands) of people in Old Town. The people of Dubrovnik are happy to welcome tourists but are concerned with the amount of people the cruises bring to their community.
We have now headed south from Dubrovnik and re-entered Montenegro. We stayed in the city of Kotor which is another town on the coast of the Adriatic Sea with a population of about 15,000 people. It has a medieval old town full of narrow winding streets, squares and several churches dating back to 900 AD.
Narrow winding streets…
Beautiful churches…
We enjoyed a delicious meal in one of the many squares with our friend, Jesse, who teaches with me at Albanian College.
The next day at least two cruise ships pulled into the port of Kotor. We did not need to deal with the crowds because we are now headed further south to Shkoder, Albania.
Our first stop when arriving in Shkoder was to visit the Rozafa Castle which dates back to 167 BC. The castle sits on top of a hill providing beautiful views of the Montenegro Mountains and the city of Shkoder.
Leaving the castle
This monument was built in a Shkoder park to commemorate “the dedication to the persecution, resistance and sacrifices of the people of Shkoder during the communist dictatorship.”
Look! We were surprised to see advertisements for Kodak products knowing the history of Kodak in Rochester.
This was the view out of our hotel window in Shkoder. The mosque was complete with frequent calls to prayer. Living in a country where there is widespread acceptance of different religions is refreshing.
After spending the night in Shkoder we hired a driver with his 4×4 vehicle to take us two hours to the village of Theth which is in the far north part of Albania. The road is unpaved, very steep, one lane and not suitable for us to drive there with our rental car. Â If you have read my previous posts then you know this is my third trip to this gorgeous little village high in the Albanian Alps. Randy and I were so glad we could share this part of Albania with Sarah and Marty.
The road to Theth is in the process of being paved and widened which will make it lots easier to get to. Â At the same time, some of the locals have expressed concern that Theth will be overrun with tourists.
Beautiful Theth!
We loved spending time with our good friends. It was wonderful to experience the countries of Croatia and Montenegro for the first time and to introduce them to Albania. We so appreciate the Karpies effort to come visit.
It has been awhile since I have updated the blog. School has been super busy including two 12 day stretches of work where we were required to do 15 hours of International Baccalaureate training for a weekend in September and then complete another weekend training in October. It is really hard to sit that much and to work for that many consecutive days. 😦 Glad the weekend trainings are complete. It is also the time of the year for parent teacher conferences, end-of-term reports and lots of extra work to prepare for a visit from the IB to Albanian College. I am looking forward to my school life slowing down a bit.
We were fortunate to have Randy’s two sisters visit us in Albania the second week in September. Carol lives in Oklahoma City and Ellen lives in Springfield, Missouri. They spent a few days in Rome before heading our direction. We are grateful that they took the time and money to come visit for a week!
We picked Ellen and Carol up from the airport on a Friday and headed straight for Apollina, a two hour drive south. I have written about Apollina a couple of other times on my blog when we have taken other visitors there. Just as a refresher, Apollina is an ancient Greek city dating back to 600BC. Julius Caesar declared Apollina a “free city” as a reward for supporting him in a civil war that was fought with Pompey. Julius Caesar’s nephew, Octavius (also known as Caesar Augustus) studied in Apollina in the 1st century BC.
More of Apollina…
After we finished in Apollina, we drove another hour to Berat. Once again we stayed at Guesthouse Kris. The charm, comfort, delicious breakfast, welcoming host and price has brought us back here several times. Guesthouse Kris is located within the castle walls of Berat Castle which adds to the ambience of the whole experience.
More pics of Guesthouse Kris.
Taking a tour of the Berat Castle grounds.
That evening we left the castle grounds and went down into the town of Berat for dinner. Berat is known for the 1,000 Windows which is shown here. Thanks for sharing this great picture with me, Carol!
The next morning we drove along the Albanian Rivera towards Himarë.
Here we have stopped in Vlora at Proper Pizza for lunch. Yum!
The big brother and the little sister with our Himarë hotel in the background.
Putting our feet into the Ionian Sea.
Sitting on our hotel balcony enjoying a gorgeous sunset.
Before we left Himarë we made arrangements to take a two hour boat tour along the coast ending at Pirate’s Cave.
Waiting for the boat captain so we can get started on our tour.
…and we are off!
We visited a few isolated beaches where we were the only swimmers. It was amazing and magical! Every time I think I know a lot about what Albania has to offer, another opportunity presents itself. We loved this experience!
Our final stop was Pirate’s Cave where the boat actually went into a cave and we took these pictures.
We are now driving back to Tirana along more curving, twisting roads. Can you see the road up on the mountain as it zigzags back and forth?
As we drove along we watched a paraglider float along beside us, very cool!
The following Monday I went off to work and Randy took his sisters on a walking tour of Tirana…
…followed by lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC came to Albania about a year ago. Last spring Burger King also came to Albania. There are a limited number of international businesses willing to open stores in Albania because they have a hard time getting clear title. When communism fell almost 30 years ago it caused up to three different groups of people to claim the same piece of land:
the people that re-claimed land that the communists had taken away from them
the people that were given the land to use during communism time
squatters that claimed the land as theirs after communism fell
The government is still working to figure out what land belongs to which people. So when an international company wants to build their business on a piece of land it is very difficult to get clear title so they are hesitant to build.
Randy is becoming very well versed on Kruje because he has taken so many of our family and friends there.
We took this picture of Ellen Wilson standing at Wilson Square in Tirana (no relation). You can see a statue of Woodrow Wilson in the background. Wilson (and the United States) are well loved in Albania because after World War I, President Wilson said the borders of Albania would stay the same even though Greece, Yugoslavia and Italy wanted to break Albania into parts and keep the land for themselves. There are a few schools named after Wilson plus it is not uncommon for people to name their sons Wilson.
Of course a visit to Tirana would not be complete without coming to visit Albanian College.
Carol and Ellen (and me too) were intrigued by the traffic lights that lit up all the way down the light pole. These are not common throughout Albania but do show up on a few streets.
Thanks again to Carol and Ellen for making the effort to get over to visit us. We loved hosting you!
No more traveling until October when we have a week off of school. Our good friends, Sarah and Marty, are coming to visit at that time. We will be headed to northern Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. Looking forward to it!
Yesterday afternoon Randy and I were sitting in our 7th floor apartment visiting with a friend who had dropped by. Then the whole room started to shake, the overhead light was swinging back and forth, some empty plastic bottles fell over and the leaves on our house plants started moving. Randy said, “I believe we are having an earthquake.” Randy and our friend seemed quite calm but I was not. I said, “what should we do? This is so scary.” etc., etc. We decided to move to the doorway because we had heard that was the safest place to be. It seemed like the earthquake was going on and on but it probably only lasted a minute or so but that seemed like a very looooong time!
When the movement stopped we left the apartment. We took the elevator down which was not the right decision. Usually our apartment elevator is fast and quiet. As we went down the elevator was really slow and made a lot of horrible sounds but we made it down. If you are ever in an earthquake, don’t take the elevator!
When we got outside, the streets and sidewalks were full of people, some of them crying but no one appeared to be hurt. After standing around for 30 minutes or so we went to a nearby coffee shop where we sat with a group of school friends and exchanged earthquake stories. The police were driving up and down our street using a loudspeaker to tell people not to re-enter their buildings.
After a couple of hours we weren’t sure what to do and everyone else appeared to have re-entered their buildings so we all headed back to our apartments. As we walked up the seven flights of stairs we noticed many new cracks in the walls along with broken plaster on the ground but other than that everything seemed okay.
Last night as I was brushing my teeth to go to bed I noticed the towels in the bathroom started swinging. It was one of several aftershocks that continued through the night. None of the aftershocks was as powerful as the initial earthquake, thank goodness!
Here is a link to some coverage of the earthquake on the Weather Channel.
My second year of international teaching started on September 3rd with a precious group of 10 grade one children. I was scheduled to have 16 children but as happened last year, they did not all show up. This discrepancy seems to happen primarily in grade one. There is more consistency in the higher grades between the expected number of children and the actual number of children that show up on the first day of school. Anyways, here are my grade one students this year:
Ana Bela
Darius
Emili
Amela
Klesti
Isabella
Elena
Donat
Eden
Blin
Aren’t they adorable?!?! This year I only have two non-English speakers. Most of the rest of the students have been at Albanian College for up to 3 years, ever since they were three years old. Since many of them have been at the school for so long they have had plenty of time to become fairly proficient in English.
The children are arriving at school and getting their folders and water bottles to bring into the classroom. It is not safe to drink the water in Tirana so there are no water fountains at the school. Instead the children bring water bottles of drinking water from home each day. The school also has water coolers full of bottled water for the children to refill their water bottles as needed.
The children are checking out the toys in their new classroom. Just like my students in the States, the children LOVE playing with the Magna-tiles.
Each day we spend 10-15 minutes using a program called Jolly Phonics to teach the children the letter sounds. Jolly Phonics is a British program that includes songs, hand motions, puppets, rhymes and a book to learn how to write the letters.
Books, books, books, these children love books! Some of the children are already reading and some are on the cusp of learning this skill while some will probably not be reading independently for a couple months. Regardless, they all enjoy our classroom library. You may recognize some of these books as ones that were donated by Dudley School in Fairport, NY. 🙂
Here, the children and I are discussing how to make a chart to show when the classroom birthdays will be celebrated. This would be a difference between how I teach in the States versus using an inquiry approach that is encouraged at ACT. In the USA I would have the birthdays already posted before school started using some type of visual that I purchased from a teacher supply website. Here the chart is made by the children using their ideas of how to note when they have birthdays. I love this way of giving the kids so much ownership over how the classroom looks and is run.
My birthday was during the second week of school so here are the kids singing happy birthday to me in Albanian.
Here the children are working in small groups to sort pictures as we start our first transdisciplinary theme called Who We Are. At grade one this theme teaches the children about the physical, social and emotional characteristics of ourselves and others. After they sorted the pictures they explained to their peers how they sorted and why.
The children are playing a math game called Collect 20 which is part of the math program adopted by Albanian College. The program is called TERC or Investigations, the same program I used in Fairport a few years ago.
Over the past summer all of our administration resigned and one was fired. 😦 I found out through various emails over the course of the summer. Needless to say, the whole thing was depressing. I had such a good year last year and was looking forward to one more year of teaching and living abroad. Randy and I had many discussions in July and early August as to whether I wanted to return to Albanian College. The deciding factor was that I have grown to love Albania, my students, their parents and the Albanian Assistants I work with. I wanted to try to give it one more year and hopefully have at least a small positive impact on the lives of the people I have met here. Another reason I wanted to return is that I love international teaching and the way it stretches me to think about my teaching in new ways. We decided we would return to Tirana and if I was miserable in my teaching position we would simply come home to Fairport.
I am happy to report that so far school has gone well. We have an entirely new administration who are working hard to make the best of a difficult situation. As you know from previous posts, I have become friends with many of the other foreign teachers since living here so that helps with the transitions. All the teachers have been very supportive of one another which has gotten school off to a good start. Glad to be here for another year.
Next weekend 17 of the teachers (including me) will be attending all day trainings on Saturday and Sunday (a total of 15 hours). The training is being given by a trainer from the International Baccalaureate community who is flying in. Although I am looking forward to receiving the training, I am not looking forward to teaching for 5 days, training all weekend and then teaching for 5 more days. Ugh!!!!!
The movie “The Passion of the Christ” which was released in 2004 was written and directed by Mel Gibson. He choose the city of Matera to film much of the movie because he felt it depicted the Biblical time period. The hole in the foreground of the the picture above is where the cross was planted for the filming of Christ’s crucification.
After visiting the castle we shopped for some Ohrid Pearls which have been popular (even in the royal family) for the last 80 years. The pearls are made from ground shells formed into the shape of pearls and then painted several times over with layers of emulsion made from the scales of Lake Ohrid fish.
We all look happy but actually we are really quite freaked out inside. :O
Beautiful Theth!
Teaching in Albania 