During the month of April I spent lots of time in Greece. Randy went back to the States for a couple of weeks to get our taxes in order and to connect with Josh, our home, the fire department and his woodworking shop. While he was gone I took another bus trip with friends from school. This was a two day trip in early April to Thessaloniki and Meteora. There was not nearly as much time spent on the bus as there was when we went to Sarajevo. Thank goodness!

When we arrived in Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece, the first place we visited was the White Tower which is the symbol of the city. As you can see we climbed to the top of the tower. The White Tower was built as a fortification in the 12th century and was later used as a prison and a scene of mass executions during Ottoman rule. Ugh!

 

 

This is called the Arch of Galerius and was built in the 4th century. It is engraved with scenes of victory (not sure what that means exactly).

We came across this shop as we walked around Thessaloniki. Does that mean pot is legal in Greece?

The flowers were in full bloom while we were in the city and absolutely gorgeous. These flowers were outside of a house of worship built by the Romans in the 3rd century.

Can you see from this picture that I am wearing my backpack wrong side out? The zippered part is against my back. This is how I wear my backpack whenever I am in a big city. Sometimes I wear it in the front too but that seems awkward. While I was in Thessaloniki, someone attempted to get into by backpack but they were unsuccessful. Thank you, God!

This is our tour guide, Clevis. Dana wanted to have this picture taken to show how tall Clevis is and how short she is. Notice that she is even standing on her tippy toes. Clevis is Greek but lives in Albania. It was wonderful to have an English speaking guide for this tour. Clevis speaks Albanian, Greek, English and French fluently. He has just completed his Master’s Degree in archeology and is giving these tours on the weekends to bring in extra money until he figures out exactly where he wants to live and start his career. He already knows he will not be living in Albania because there are no job opportunities. Very sad! Many, many young Albanians are leaving the country because there are such limited job opportunities here.

 

 

After we left Thessaloniki, we drove about an hour south and spent the night in a hotel located in a small beach/fishing town. Here we have stopped at the Aegean Sea to watch some of the fishing boats come and go. Can you tell how crystal clear the water is in the lower right hand picture?

On my run the following morning I came across this gorgeous church. Running along the beach is always a treat!

Look what is ahead as we drive down the highway! We are full of anticipation as we approach Meteora which is  located in central Greece.

Wow, wow, wow!

There were originally 24 monasteries in Meteora built during the 14th century as a way for the monks to protect themselves from the ongoing raids by the Turks. Now there are six monasteries, four of them are for monks and the other two are for nuns. Each monastery still has between 3 and 10 monks or nuns that live in them. All the monasteries are part of the Greek Orthodox Church. Originally the only way to access the monasteries was through a series of ladders that were lashed together or by a net that was lowered to bring supplies or people up. In the 1920’s stairs were carved into the side of the mountains to make it easier to reach the top. If you look carefully at the picture above (or perhaps zoom in) you will see a monk dressed in black standing on the balcony. It is not usual to see one of the monks or nuns so we were fortunate to have a sighting.

We only had time to go in one of the monasteries, the Monastery of the Transfiguration (the Great Meteora). Our friend, Joe is pointing out that no pantaloons are admitted. 🙂 If you did arrive at at the monastery with shorts on, they had skirts you could borrow.

The steps going up to the monastery.

Inside the monastery.

The view from the top of the monastery.

 

Views of another one of the monasteries, the Monastery of Varlaam.

A group picture of the teachers from ACT who were on the trip. Meteora is one of only a few places in Europe that I have felt like I really want to return to someday. I would love to visit some of the other monasteries and do some of the hikes in the area.

On the bus ride back to Tirana from Meteora we were stopped by the police two times. Also when we crossed the Greek-Albanian border there seemed to be more scrutiny than at other borders. When I presented my American passport to the Greek authorities I was immediately sent through without a problem. When an Albanian presented their passport, it took much longer and they were frequently asked many questions. It became obvious that the Greeks don’t care for or trust the Albanians. We found the same thing to be true in Athens and Santorini. When we were in Italy and Austria we did not notice the anti-Albania feelings that were evident in Greece.

The third week of April our friends, Laurie and Andrew Saunders arrived from the States for a 12 day visit. We have been friends with Laurie and Andrew for more than 35 years. 😮 We met them when we lived in Springfield, Missouri and Laurie and I were pregnant at the same time. They are definitely lifelong friends! We spent the first three days that they were here showing them Tirana and Kruje.

Our next stop was a flight to Athens where we stayed for 4 nights.

The day and night view from the balcony of our Airbnb apartment. We loved it!

 

Stepping out on the apartment balcony and looking down there was a red tent which was where we ate several meals while in Athens. The picture on the right shows some of the many, many police officers that patrolled the city.

On our first full day in Athens we took a walking tour of the Acropolis with Katrina, a guide through Airbnb Experieinces.

Socrates was imprisioned in these caves but continued to teach. He later was poisoned and died here.

The lovely 16th century Church of Ayios Demetrios.

Cats, cats, cats! Athens is full of cats!

The tomb of the unknown soldier outside of the Parliament Building. We were there during the changing of the guards.

Laurie and I took a cooking class at the Greek Kitchen and loved it! There were about 10 people in our class. We started off by going to the meat market, cheese shop, bakery, fruit and vegetable stand, etc. We then prepared the food with the help of the instructor and finally we enjoyed eating what we had prepared. Delicious!

We are on our way to the National Archeological Museum. Laurie and I smiled when seeing our guys looking so similar from the back. 🙂

I am not a huge museum person but I did throughly enjoy seeing the Greek artifacts dating back 3,000 years ago.

Rick Steves has a free app that can be downloaded and then you can listen to a variety of  audio tours. The audio tour for the Archeological Museum was excellent!

This was my favorite piece of artwork in the museum. It is titled “Bronze Statue of Horse and Jockey” and is from 140 B.C. The Greeks loved their horse races. This statue may have celebrated a victory at the Olympics. The boy has the features of a non-Greek and is probably a mixed race Ethopian. Can you see the spurs tied onto his bare feet?

Athens has an up-to-date Metro system that is inexpensive, easy to use and efficient. Unfortunately one day it was extremely crowded on the Metro and we had some money stolen. When Randy and Andrew got off the Metro they both realized that a total of 250 euros was missing from their wallets. Randy had 3 fifty euro bills in his wallet. Someone reached in his pocket without removing his wallet and removed the cash. Frustrating and depressing!!!

On our last full day in Athens we climbed to the top of Acropolis Hill. Here we are by the Parthenon which was finished being built in 438 BC after less than 10 years of construction. It was originally built as a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Over time it has served as a Christian Church, a Mosque but is now simply an archeological site.

More views from the Acropolis…

Randy and I really enjoyed the Acropolis Museum. The most powerful part of the museum for me was learning about how many pieces of Greek art were taken (or stolen) by other countries and these countries STILL have them today and do not plan on returning them to Greece anytime soon. One example was a British ambassador named Thomas Elgin who in the early 1800’s decided to remove pieces of the Parthenon and have them shipped to London. They are still held in the British Museum. It amazes me that a country can take another countries artifacts and simply keep them as their own. It does not seem right.

This huge rock marks the spot where the apostle Paul spoke. The picture above gives the verbiage of his speech (in Greek) along with the date in the corner. The content of the speech he gave is recounted in Acts 17:16-34 and is about Saint Paul’s missionary career.

Athens is covered with graffiti which is problem that the Athenians are well aware of and working to eliminate.

Dinner under the Acropolis.

The Greek Orthodox Holy Friday tradition is for a cross (with lit candles on it), followed by an empty coffin, followed by a priest and a group of three young children dressed in gold capes to parade down the street. There is a small group of people singing during the procession. Literally hundreds of individuals follow with their own candles. The procession ends at the church where some prayers are said. Laurie and I decided to join the procession. The whole experience was so interesting and powerful.

Our next stop in Greece was Santorini. It was a five hour ferry ride from Athens to Santorini. We found the ferry to be an enjoyable and relaxing way to travel.

The ferry is arriving in Santorini. The ship holds 1,000 passengers and 200 cars.

 

Dinner and a gorgeous sunset on our first night in Santorini. The small spoon is because Randy asked to have only a small bite of the dessert I ordered so the server presented him with a small spoon for his small bite. 🙂

 

This was one of my favorite activities in Greece. Randy and I took a 10 km hike from Fira to Oia on Santorini island. If you kept walking the whole time the hike should have taken a little over two hours. It took us four hours to complete because we kept stopping to admire all the gorgeous views along the way. Also every once in awhile we came across a charming Greek Orthodox church painted in the traditional blue and white. Santorini has fairly arid climate but for whatever reason this year they had a very wet spring which meant that there were lots and lots of wildflowers along our hiking trail. Soooo beautiful!

Yay, we have finished our hike and arrived in Oia, gorgeous!

Oia is a beautiful small town that is almost overrun with tourists for seven months of the year. Many, many of the tourists come off of cruise ships and visit the island for a short time. I think the sign above is a reaction to all the tourists.

 

We climbed down, down, down these 200 plus steps to get to our dinner by the sea.

Still walking down…

 

Dinner this close to the Aegean Sea was a treat and well worth the walk down.

Flowers of Santorini…

 

We stayed at a place called iSuites that had a total of 4 two bedroom villas. It was a bit further from Fira than we had anticipated but it was a quiet, calm setting, very nice! The weather was really too cold to swim but I had to at least spend a short time in the pool.

 

On our last full day in Santorini we went on a food and walking tour of Fira with a host named Aristotle. We found him through Airbnb Experiences. It was a bit more expensive tour but well worth it. He took us to many out-of-the-way restaurants and spots with beautiful views. We had Greek coffee, Greek wine, Greek beer, souvlaki, moussaka and other treats. Yum! Another fun part of the tour was that we went with two other couples from the Toronto area. It was enjoyable getting to know them.

Beautiful views around Santorini.

The stunning Catholic Cathedral…

The doors of Greece…

The five islands of Santorini on a map and shown creatively through art.

Good friends!

We had not anticipated renting a car but then we found out how limited the public transportation is on the island. In addition there were a few very expensive taxis. We ended up renting this little red convertible Fiat that Randy said was a pain to drive but as a passenger, it sure was fun. 🙂

Our last night provided us with this gorgeous sunset. Loved, loved, loved it!

If you are still reading this very long post, then you deserve a medal. Thanks for your interest in our travels while living in Albania.

This month we are looking forward to my brother and sister-in law, Tom and Anita, coming to visit. Then at the end of the month our younger son, Josh comes to visit. Yay!! Can’t wait to share Albania with them!

In mid-March Randy and I joined some friends for a three day bus tour to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. We left Tirana at 5:00am on a Friday and 18 hours later we arrived in Sarajevo. It was a very looooong trip needless to say. Before leaving Tirana we had checked Google Maps to see how long a trip it was and the estimated drive time was 8 hours. It took MUCH longer because we spent an average of 90 minutes to get through the borders of Montenegro and Bosnia. Also, the Albanian people are big coffee drinkers so every 2-3 hours we had a 30 minute coffee stop. Lastly, the bus ride was so long because many of the roads  were very narrow and steep which meant the bus did not go faster that 30mph for much of the trip. 😦

Although the  bus trip was super long we did enjoy getting to know the country of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The first thing we learned was that although the country is called Bosnia-Herzegovina, the people in the country think of the northern part of the country as Bosnia and the southern part as Herzegovina. In general the country is simply referred to as Bosnia.

On our way to Sarajevo we stopped in the small town of Mostar which suffered terribly during the Bosnian War. The gorgeous bridge pictured above was originally built in the 16th century but destroyed in that war. By 2004 the bridge was rebuilt with help from UNESCO. It is surrounded by charming shops and restaurants that we enjoyed strolling through.

 

The bus ride may have been long but we did stay at a very nice 5 star hotel for two nights which was a treat.

This red statue was outside of our hotel. It was made by a famous Chinese artist.

 

Dana and I went for a run and ended up at the entrance to the Tunnel of Life. The tunnel was constructed in 1993 during the Bosnian War as a link between Sarajevo (which was completely cut off from the rest of Bosnia) and an area of land held by the United Nations. The tunnel allowed food, war supplies and humanitarian aid to come into the city and allowed people a way to get out of the city.

We visited this gorgeous city park which was well taken care of, relaxing and enjoyable.

 

Dana found some mistletoe that had fallen from a tree. Dana’s mom was admiring it by holding it over her head. Being from the USA and holding to our tradition that when someone is standing under the mistletoe they need to be kissed, Randy swooped in and kissed Dana’s mother which took her by surprise. We all enjoyed a good laugh over the whole mistletoe experience. 🙂

This Ottoman-style “wood fountain” is at the entrance to the old bazaar and was built in the 1700’s. The old bazaar is the historical and cultural center of Sarajevo.

 

This is the Gaza Husrev-beg Mosque, the largest mosque in Bosnia.

 

To the right of the entrance, all the men line up, then kneel, then bow to the ground before entering through the main door which is pictured further up.

To the left of the main entrance are the women (often with children) who also stand, kneel and then bow. The big difference is that the women are not allowed to enter through the main entrance but must use a back door to get into the mosque.

We were fortunate to get to go into the mosque. Since I am a woman, I had to cover my hair, hence the scarf. I am holding Flat Stanley for one of the classrooms at Dudley School.

 

The inside of the mosque was beautiful. Do you see the lines on the red carpet? Those lines show where the men line up to pray. The woman are not allowed to pray in the main part of the mosque but must do so in room set off to the side. The picture on the right shows the ceiling, gorgeous!

 

Sacred Heart Cathedral, the largest Catholic church in Sarajevo.

Do you see how Christ is holding up three fingers in the statue above? The Bosnians believe that Jesus is doing this to show the unity of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions in Bosnia.

The Cathedral has this statue of Pope John Paul II in front of the church because he visited Sarajevo in 1997 after the Bosnian War ended. He urged peace in Bosnia many times during the war. Pope John Paul II is remembered as “a peacemaker and is respected by many Bosnians regardless of their faith”.

 

These red marks are made of a red resin and are called Sarajevo roses. We saw them throughout the city, primarily on sidewalks. They mark the places where Bosnians died on the streets during the Bosnian War.

 

Do you see the potmarks or holes on the sides of these buildings? These are left from the war that ended in the mid-90’s.  During the Bosnian War an average of 330 shells a day were fired into the city of Sarajevo.  On one day there were 3,777 shells fired into the city from the surrounding hills. War is a horrible, horrible, horrible thing.

 

I hope I am not getting too morbid with the loss of life and tragic results of the Bosnian War but I do want to share one more part of all this with you. These pictures are from a Muslim cemetery. As you can read on the markers, they are mostly for young people in their late teens or early 20’s who died during the war. As we walked around Sarajevo, the remnants of this conflict really impacted me. Sad, sad, sad!

Here is the Latin Bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated which started WWI.

This is how coffee is served in Bosnia. I have heard that it is very similar to how Turkey serves their coffee.

 

We figured out how to take the tram back to the hotel from the city center. Europe does such a great job with public transportation. The USA could learn something from them.

That evening at the hotel we had a buffet style dinner with our Albanian tour group. After dinner the Albanians danced to Albanian music. It was fun to watch how much they all seemed to love it!

 

On the day we drove back to Tirana we stopped at this beautiful waterfall park outside of Sarajevo. Also, here is a pic of our travel group from ACT. We enjoyed our time together!

Our last stop in Bosnia was Medjugorje. It is an unofficial place of Catholic pilgrimage since the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared there in 1981.

 

Look at the size of the area where church services are held. Wow!

 

The stations of the cross in an outside park-like setting.

The Risen Christ in Medjugorje. The legs near the knees constantly seep water. It is said to be miraculous and pilgrims go there just to touch the statue and wipe the water.

A picnic dinner on the ride back to Tirana.

After a very long bus ride back to Tirana, we arrived at 1:00AM. We needed to be at work 6 hours later at 7:30. 😮  Seeing Sarajevo and the surrounding sights was great however it will be a long time before Randy and I sign up for a bus tour that is as far away as Sarajevo.

I am bit behind on this blog. We were in Sarajevo last month and are currently in Greece for my 12 day spring break from school. Hopefully, I will update you soon on that trip.

Thanks for reading  my blog!

April, 2019

 

Last month I had a four day weekend break from school so Randy and I took an hour and a half flight to visit Rome. Not only was the flight short but it was inexpensive. Yay!!!

We stayed at an Airbnb in a neighborhood called Trastevere. We chose to stay in this part of Rome because we did not want to bother with a car or public transportation. We wanted to be able to walk to most of the attractions. At times, we got tired of all the walking but we were happy with our decision for the most part. Also Rick Steves described Trastevere as “the crustier side of Rome” which we found appealing. We loved staying on our quiet, charming street in our one bedroom apartment. We could even pretend to be Romans for a few days as we shopped for breakfast food groceries at a small local market.

Our first day we spent on a walking/food tour of Trastevere that we set up through Airbnb Experiences. Our tour guide lived in Trastevere and attended a church that included some catacombes. As you may or may not know, a catacomb is an underground passageway used for religious practice often as a burial place associated with the Roman Empire. The church where these catacombs are located was built in the 6th century.

The third picture shows where the bodies were buried. The size of the opening was dictated by the size of the person being buried. The fourth picture shows the ceiling of the catacombs with the markings of the pick axes that were used to dig the catacomb.

The last picture is the ichyus fish, which our guide described in the following way:

“…when a Christian met a stranger in the road, the Christian sometimes drew one arc of the simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger drew the other arc, both believers knew they were in good company.”

We saw these brass plaques on several sidewalks throughout Rome. They denote the name, date of birth and the date that a Jewish person was detained and sent to a concentration camp during WWII, very sad and a powerful reminder of a horrible time in our history.

Walking through Rome and seeing beautiful art everywhere.

Our next stop was the Pantheon which has been in continuous use since the 7th century as either a temple or a church. It is currently used as a church informally known as Santa Maria Rotunda. The most interesting part of the Pantheon to us was that the dome has a large hole in the top of it, see the picture above. On the floor of the Pantheon there are several smaller holes where the rainwater drains out of the church.

Wow, wow, wow is what I can say about the Trevi Fountain. This picture does not come close to showing the beauty of this fountain. Magnificent! Yes, I did do the traditional throw a coin over your shoulder to ensure a future trip back to Rome. 🙂

We climbed the 138 steps to the top of the Spanish Steps where we enjoyed a lovely sunset.

We arrived at 7:00 AM for an Early Morning Vatican Tour. We were the only ones there which changed drastically when we left later that morning and the area was full of people. Our tour was with “Through Eternity Tours” which was an excellent tour company. If you are in Rome you might want to consider using them. The tour group was small and the guide had a graduate degree in Art History. It was excellent and really helped us to understand the history of this beautiful spot.

The beauty and history of the Vatican cannot be overstated. My favorite part of visiting the Vatican was the seeing the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and learning about the process of Michangelo painting it. We were not allowed to take pictures in the Chapel.

Randy and I climbed the 300+ steps to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica. It was well worth the climb!

Look at the tiny hand painted wood carved nativity set I bought at St. Peter’s Basilica. I will love it always!

Security for the Vatican is provided by the Swiss Guard. Don’t you love their uniforms!

Our son-in-law, Ben, was in Rome for some training. We were thrilled to go out to breakfast with him on our last day in Rome.

It was common to see a military presence throughout Rome especially around popular sights like the Colosseum. The soldiers carry very big guns with them which can be a bit intimidating to see.

We visited Palentine Hill which is where Rome was founded. It is basically one large palace that lies in ruins but it does give you a good feel for life in the 1st century.

This is the Roman Forum which was the political, religious and commercial center of Rome.

As part of our tour of Palentine Hill, the Forum and the Colosseum we were given a headset so we could hear our tour guide. We thought it was very cool that Albania was exporting some miniature electronics. Yay for Albania!

Our last stop in Rome was the Colosseum. It was just as massive and impressive as all the pictures we have seen over the years have shown it to be. I did not completely understand, until this tour, that the Colosseum was pretty much exclusively built and used by gladiators, chariots and centurions. The gladiators, criminals and wild animals fought to the death in every conceivable way as up to 50,000 onlookers observed and either cheered or booed. Killing truly was a spectator sport at the time. Not sure how I would have handled all that if I was a Roman back then. I probably would have stayed home.

April, 2019

Our son came to visit us in Albania for a week after spending a week in South Africa visiting his sister and her family. Can you tell from the picture below that I am very excited to see David?

If you follow Facebook then you have seen many of these pictures so you may want to stop reading now. 🙂

We have rented a car and are ready to head out for a three day tour of southern Albania.

We have stopped at one of the many coffee shops along the way. At home Randy does not drink coffee but since moving to Albania he drinks expresso daily.

We are driving to Gjirokaster first. It is a 4 hour drive from Tirana with some beautiful scenery.

We have now arrived in Gjirokaster. Our GPS has sent us up this narrow street to our hotel. Unfortunately the street ended which meant that Randy had to back down this street. His experience with driving fire trucks through narrow areas really came in handy!

We still could not find our hotel amongst all the narrow cobblestone roads so we stopped and asked this man where Hotel Kodra was located. Instead of just telling us, he jumped into our car and took us there which was so kind of him. Albanians are good people.

 

We found our hotel which had gorgeous views and gorgeous, delicious food.

These are the co-owners of Hotel Kodra. David works with their cousin, Ismeralda, at NYU Medical Center.

We are walking through some of the charming streets on our way to visit Gjirokaster Castle. Do  you see the long, narrow rug on the right side of the picture above? I ended up buying that rug to go in our apartment. It is handmade and only cost about $35.

The following are pictures from Gjirokaster Castle which is one of the biggest, nicest castles in Albania.

Two more views from Gjirokaster Castle…

I took this picture on an early morning run before we left Gjirokaster.

The doors of Gjirokaster…

This is a lovely Greek Orthodox Church that we drove by on our way to see the Blue Eye.

 

The Blue Eye is a spring that originates more that 45 meters under the ground. Aren’t the colors incredible? You can tell that we had gorgeous weather for our three day tour.

On our way to Butrint we randomly stopped in a beach town called Ksamil. With the white sand and blue water it was stunning! Just as an FYI in the distance you can see Corfu, Greece.

Butrint is about as far south as you can get in Albania. It an archaeological UNESCO World Heritage Site that was home to the Greeks and Romans dating back to the 4th century B.C.

After touring Butrint we drove 30 minutes north and spent the night at a beach town called Saranda. I think I am overusing the word “gorgeous” but I cannot think of another adjective to describe what we are seeing.

The next day we drove north along the Albanian Rivera.

We stopped for breakfast at another lovely beach town.

Can you see the road we drove on? There were lots of switchbacks. Randy did all the driving even though David and I offered to help out. I took motion sickness medication to help me handle all the twists and turns. 🙂

On top of the world…

It was common to see animals being herded along the road.

 

 

We are now back in Tirana where David attended my yoga class with me. Loved it! A friend from ACT is also part of the class.

Randy took David to Kruje while I was teaching. When they saw the kids dressed in traditional Albanian clothing they knew something was up.

Next came all the entourage and it wasn’t long before Randy ended up talking to the President of Slovenia. Not sure how it all happened, you will have to ask Randy about it.

Visiting the Bazaar which is full of Albanian crafts and souvenirs.

Yikes! These types of toilets are common outside of the big cities in Albania.

 

 

That afternoon they came back to Tirana and visited the House of Leaves which is all about the spying that went on during communist times, scary!

Dinner with our good friends Edlira and Aldo.

David came to visit my classroom at ACT. It was such fun to give him a tour of the school and introduce him to my students.

Here he is explaining about how the heart works to the children.

 

David went to the butcher to get an animal heart and lungs so he could show the children how they work. In the bottom picture he is using a straw to blow air into the lungs.

The children were really into the whole thing and asked lots of good questions.

Good people and good Chinese food!

Our friends have a little daughter named Edie. Edie adores Randy!! I think the feeling might be mutual.

Last week Randy and Dana’s mother walked a total of 8 miles together. When they started the walk there was a  miscommunication which ended in an extra long walk.

Randy took David up to the top of Dajti Mountain on the cable cars. They provide some great views of the area.

They also visited Bunk Art 2 which gives a very up close view of what it was like to live in Albania from 1940 to 1991 during communism time.

On David’s final full day in Albania they went on a two hour walking tour of Tirana which in an excellent way to learn about this country. I was sorry I could not go but am looking forward to going with future guests of ours.

 

 

On David’s last night in Albania we went out for coffee and then for Indian food with some more friends from school. I am fortunate to work with such good people.

It was hard to let David leave but I keep telling myself that in order to look forward to seeing him again he has to leave. We are truly enjoying our experience in Albania but, at times, it is hard to live so far from our children and grandchildren.

Tomorrow Randy and I are flying to Rome for a long weekend. Randy was in Rome for 12 hours several years ago and I have never been there. Looking forward to it!

Thanks for continuing to read my blog.

I decided to dedicate this post to a variety of random topics about Albania that I keep wanting to share with you but have not gotten around to doing.

Dogs

Owning a pet in Albania is not nearly as common as in the States. I think the reason may have something to do with the cost of pet ownership. Since the average Albanian makes roughly 300 euros ($340) a month, pet ownership is too much of a luxury for most Albanians. Before arriving here I heard that Albania had street dogs that wander around the city and the idea of them frightened me a bit. I was especially concerned about coming across them when I run a couple mornings a week. Here are a few pictures of some street dogs that I took over the last few weeks.

The dogs are usually very laid back dogs who simply sit and watch you. If you pet them or express any kind of affection towards them, they will often get up and start to follow you. Generally, certain dogs stick to certain neighborhoods. As we walk through the city I have noticed that I always see certain dogs in the same general area.

Do you see the yellow tag in this dog’s ear? That means this dog has ben picked up by the city, vaccinated, neutered or spade and then released back on the streets. The dogs almost always appear to be well fed although I don’t know how. I do see people putting bowls of food out on occasion. There are people who try to adopt these dogs and domesticate them in their homes. This usually is not successful because the dogs are used to having full run of the streets and don’t adjust to living in someone’s home.

Unfortunately, the saddest part about street dogs is that periodically a truck will go through the city and collect any stray dog they see and immediately euthanize them. This seems to be done in waves. We have lived here for one of those waves that I am aware of, so sad.  😦

Chinese New Year

Albania has a history of friendly relations with China that started in the 1960’s when Albania cut off diplomatic ties with all other countries during communism time. Albania eventually cut off ties with China too and did not reestablish a relationship with the until the early 2000’s. Today China supplies financial aid to Albania to build roads and power generating companies.

The Chinese New Year was in early February so the Tirana city center looked like this:

The woman in the picture above is my friend Dana’s mother. Dana teaches Chinese at Albanian College. Her mom comes to stay with her for six months each year. Dana is an only child whose father passed away several years ago. Dana feels very responsible for the care of her mother. Her mom speaks only Chinese but Randy and I have found that with Google translate we can communicate with her a bit.

Money

The unit of money used in Albania is the lek. One lek is approximately equal to one cent.  It really is convenient to have the bills a different color when you are looking through your wallet to find the money to pay for something. Also, in the third picture, notice how all the bills are not the same size. This system makes more sense to me than how it is in the States with all green bills, all the same size.

Albania is a cash society. In other words, we rarely pay for things using a credit card, we almost always use cash. This is completely opposite of how Randy and I pay for things in the USA. I am constantly having to remind myself to check my wallet for cash instead of just walking out the door with a credit card like I do at home.

Another interesting thing is that I am paid in euros (not lek) using direct deposit into my Albanian bank account. The school also pays the rent on our apartment by giving me euros in cash, separate from the direct deposit. Albania is too poor to be part of the European Union but since their country is in Europe they use euros for some transactions.

Staying flexible and open to new ways of doing things is important to being content while living in a foreign country. We are always telling ourselves to stay open to new ways of doing things.

Albanian Friends

These are our friends, Edlira and Aldo. Edlira is my assistant at school. Here they have invited us to their apartment where Aldo has prepared a delicious traditional Albanian lunch for us. They are delightful, positive 20 somethings we enjoy spending time with.

While we were at their apartment they shared their wedding video with us. A couple of interesting facts about Albanian weddings are that when a couple decides to get married there are two events. One on a Saturday which is for the bride’s family and one on Sunday which is for the groom’s family. These events last 6 to 8 hours each. Also, Edlira had three different wedding dresses, one for pictures a couple days before the wedding, one for the bride’s family wedding and one for the groom’s family wedding. Edlira rented all three dresses. So interesting to find out about traditions in different cultures.

Another interesting part of Albanian culture is that there are very few nursing homes in Albania. As parents age, they move in with their adult children. The parents move in with their youngest son and his wife. When we were eating lunch at Edlira and Aldo’s they showed us where in the apartment their future children would sleep and where Aldo’s parents would sleep when they move in with them. I love this way of caring for aging parents! There must be very stressful times but overall it seems like a win/win for everyone.

Right now I am approaching the end of a nine week period of time with no days off school. Ugh! We are looking forward to our son, David, coming to visit next week. Cannot wait! We will then be doing some traveling in March and April.

As always, thanks for reading my blog!

 

 

As many of you know, our daughter, Elizabeth. and her family moved to Pretoria, South Africa in July, 2018.  The move was made because of her husband Ben’s job. So far, they have been very happy with their decision to make this move. Although Randy and I feel sad at times that our family is so far away from each other we are thrilled that our grandchildren (ages 8, 6, 4 and almost 2) are getting to have the experience of living and going to school in an international setting.

Last fall, Randy and I decided to make plans to visit South Africa for the holidays. We invited our sons, David and Josh, to join us. David had to work so he could not travel with us but Josh was able to join us.

On December 20th I took a one hour flight from Tirana to Rome, had a 6 hour layover, then took a six hour flight to Abu Dhabi where I waited 5 hours. It was then an eight hour flight to Johannesburg. Exhausting!

I always think it is interesting to read the airport monitors to see where all the flight are going. This is one of the monitors in Rome.

Look at the cool looking control tower in Abu Dhabi.

Until flying on Etihad Airlines, I had never been on a plane that offered so many individual plugs for each passenger, very nice!

Gauteng is the name of the province where Pretoria and Johannesburg are located.

What a wonderful welcome we received!

 

The day after we arrived the 9 of us loaded into two cars and made the 4 hour drive to Kruger National Park. This is where we stayed for our four night visit. Our guest house had a thatched roof which is very common throughout South Africa.

Two of the mornings we were picked up at 5:15AM in this vehicle so we could drive around Kruger looking for wildlife until noon. Kruger National Park is one of Africa’s largest game reserves (8,000 square miles) and is known for it’s high density of wild animals including the Big 5. The Big 5 are the leopard, lion, rhino, Cape buffalo and elephant. The term Big 5 was coined by game hunters to refer to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. To give you an idea of where Kruger is: the northern border of Kruger is Zimbabwe and the eastern border of Kruger is the country of Mozambique.

We saw all of the Big 5 except for a leopard plus lots of other cool wildlife. It was an amazing experience driving through the park.  Loved it!!

Here is a sampling of what we saw starting with the Big 5.

Although we did not see any leopards we were fortunate to see two cheetahs. Here are more pictures of some of the animals we saw along with some family pics.

 

We had lots of monkeys visit us on our deck! They were such fun to watch!!

One of the days that we were in Kruger, Randy, Josh and I took a day long Panorama Tour of several gorgeous settings around the area. Here are a few pics from the tour.

 

Although visiting Kruger was fabulous, I think going on a bike tour of the Soweto Township was my favorite activity while we were in South Africa. It was informative, heartbreaking, depressing, gut wrenching and inspiring all at the same time. Johannesburg and Pretoria are surrounded by townships. Townships are where the black population was forced to live during apartheid. Even though apartheid was terminated in the early 1990’s, most black people continue to live in these townships. The living conditions in the townships can at times be okay but from what we could see most of the people living in townships have very poor living conditions. There is 70% unemployment. It is common for many of these people to live with no electricity or running water. There are many volunteer organizations working to improve the way of life here but the problems seem to be overwhelming.

The township of Soweto that we visited is one of the largest in South Africa and is where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived at one time. These bike tours were started as a way for the people of Soweto to make money and as a way to let the general public become more aware of the problems in townships.

Many of the homes in Soweto were well kept and adequate but most were not…

Trash collection is an ongoing problem in Soweto. There is no regular service so the people have no place for their refuge.

We are standing in front of the former home of Nelson Mandela.

When we were biking through the center of the township, near Mandela’s home, our guide had us stop so we could see this performance. so cool, we LOVED it!!!

At the end of our bike tour we were given African headwear and then all drank from this bowl which signified well wishes as we left to go home.

Finally we were served a traditional African meal that included chicken feet!

This young man was our tour guide. He was born and raised in Soweto. He was smart, well educated and provided hope that the township of Soweto will grow in a positive way in the future.  If you visit South Africa you need to consider touring a township. It was eye opening.

 

We visited the Cradle of Humankind which is one of eight UNESCO World Heritage sites in Africa. 40% of the world’s human ancestor fossils are located here, some of them dating back 3.5 million years. Wow! We all wore hard hats and headed down into a cave to see where these fossils were found and to view more fossils that are still there.

Outside of the cave were some statues of past African leaders.

 

Flowers of South Africa…

 

Randy and Josh took a day to tour a diamond mine.

The Coca-Cola company has started a campaign in South Africa to help people learn how to accurately pronounce African names.  Each of their cans has a different African name with the phonetic spelling.  If you look closely at the cans above you will be able to see the phonetic spelling. Hats off to Coca-Cola for such a great idea!

Playing with Uncle Josh, something all the children loved doing.

These beaded wire African animals were being made and sold everywhere.  In the picture above we are standing with some of these amazing artists.

Random billboard along the highway. Love it!!

Christmas Eve…

Juliet loves her Grandaddy!

 

I usually run by myself but when we were in South Africa I ran with these two guys which I LOVED!

Saying good-bye was not easy.  😦 We are already counting the days until we see everyone again in June.

 

One last picture, this is the view from the plane as we are getting ready to land in Serbia on our way back to Albania. So beautiful, it almost looks fake.

My blog posts seem to get longer all the time. Sorry about that. I simply had a hard time deciding what to put in and what to leave out. You are amazing if you actually made it through to the end of this blog post.:)

January, 2019

 

 

I have been asked whether or not Albania celebrates Christmas since it has such a large Muslim community.  From what I can tell, everyone in Albania celebrates Christmas.  There are Christmas trees, wreaths, lights, Santa Clauses, and Christmas music playing everywhere.  That being said, I have never seen any reference to the birth of Christ, a nativity scene or any indication that Christmas is a Christian holiday.

New Year’s Day is a much bigger celebration than Christmas here.  This is because during Communist time (roughly 1945-1992) there could be no mention of anything religious.  Most churches and mosques were destroyed during this time. If a person spoke of religion or tried to practice any religion they were at risk of being jailed or executed. Because all religion was banned, New Year’s Day became a big holiday for Albanians. Santa Claus visits the children of Albania on New Year’s Eve.  It is tradition to have lots  of fireworks to celebrate the new year. Also, it is tradition to serve a big family meal that includes turkey.  New Years Day is the only time of the year when turkey is a tradition to serve. Also we have been told that all the shops close down for the first three days of the year to celebrate.

Here are a few pictures of Christmas in Albania.

Here the Grade One students are singing a traditional Albanian song which is sung for New Year’s Day. It was so cool to watch the children sing!  They were confident and obviously knew the song well.  It was not a song they had learned at school but rather one they all knew through their family traditions. One thing I love about Albanians is how connected they are with their families. They have strong traditions and pass them along through their family.

Since I have mentioned school it reminds me that I keep forgetting to give you the link to another blog.  Each teacher is required to maintain a blog that is updated weekly and serves as a way to communicate with parents. As you will see, the blog includes lots of pictures because some parents are not strong English speakers and the pictures allow them the opportunity to see what their children do at school.  The link to the blog is https://sites.google.com/actirana.edu.al/grade1act/home  Click on “More” at the top of the blog’s page to see my class.

Tomorrow I am flying to South Africa to spend two weeks with the Chervenak family.  I will meet Randy and Josh there.  Unfortunately David has to work so we will not see him at Christmas this year.  😦  I am looking forward to visiting South Africa but mostly I cannot wait to see the family and spend some time together!!

Randy and I are not sending Christmas cards this year so I want to take this time to wish our family and friends a very merry Christmas and all the best in 2019.  Thank you so much for all of your support and interest as we have the experience of living abroad for a couple of years. Come visit us in Albania in 2019!  We would love to host you!

December, 2018

Thanksgiving is not a holiday that Albanians celebrate for obvious reasons so this year Thanksgiving was just another day of teaching for me. Our school did have a Friendsgiving after school on Thanksgiving Day. We all brought dishes to share which resulted in a delicious meal even though it was not a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

The following week we had a five day weekend because of two Albanian holidays. Albanian Independence Day is celebrated on November 28th and marks the Albanian Declaration of Independence and the rise of the flag in 1912 and coincides with the day in which Skanderberg raised the same flag on November 28, 1443. On November 29th the Albanians celebrate Liberation Day. This day commemorates the Albanian resistance during World War II and was the day that the last German left Albania in 1944.

For the 5 day holiday weekend, two friends and I flew to Venice, Italy. The flight time to get to Venice was a bit more than an hour from Tirana and the ticket only cost $140 round trip. I had never been to Italy so I was super excited to have the opportunity to explore one of it’s gorgeous cities.

We stayed at an AirBnB located in a residential part of the city and a 5 minute walk from where we got off the water bus. Here is the narrow walkway to our apartment and the door of where we stayed.  Charming! The apartment was very well priced since we were traveling at the end of November.

My favorite part of Venice was walking down the narrow sidewalks, over the bridges, along the canals and getting lost in the maze of the city.

There was a prison underneath the palace.

The pigeons were everywhere in St. Mark’s Square! They could really get aggressive at times.

The food was delicious centering primarily on seafood and always beautifully presented.

Venice has ongoing issues with flooding so we saw these platforms primarily in the St. Mark’s area. They are movable, elevated sidewalks that are used when the water gets too high.

As I said earlier this was my first trip to Italy.  After spending four days there, my first impression is that Italy has a warmth to it that is influenced by the friendliness of the people, the beautiful surroundings, the food, the architecture and the sound of their language.  I loved it and am looking forward to exploring more of this country soon.

I have been posting some of my pictures from our travels on Facebook but I know that everyone that follows my blog is not on Facebook and vice-a-versa so I wanted to update you on our travels on the blog too.

Kruja

We visited this castle-ish museum which told us the history of Albania’s struggle against the Ottomans.

The museum features Skanderbeg who was probably the most significant single individual in the history of Albania.  He is responsible for gathering support to resist the Ottomans.

My favorite part of Kruja was visiting the bazaar which is closed to traffic and full of authentic Albanian wares like rugs, scarves, olive wood bowls, etc.

Durres

In early September, Randy and I and a friend took a day trip to the coastal town of Durres which is about a 45 minute drive from Tirana.  Once again we took a public bus to get there but his time we figured out how to do it by ourselves. 🙂 When I said we took the bus, it really  means we were just in an oversized van. On the trip over the bus would stop at what appeared to be random places along the highway to drop off or pick up other passengers. There were no bus stop signs or stands just people standing along the highway waiting to board the bus.

The coastal town of Durres has been inhabited for 3,000 years! It is best known for it’s beautiful beaches which we did not get to on this trip. We did visit this amphitheater which was only discovered in 1966. It has not been fully excavated because people still live in some the houses that were unknowingly built on top of the amphitheater.

Randy is seated where up to 15,000 spectators would have sat at one time. This amphitheater is about a third of the size of the Colosseum in Rome.

Under the seats there was a small Byzantine chapel dating back to the 6th century. If you look carefully at the picture on the right you can tell that it is a badly damaged mosaic of some saints and archangels. The lower left picture is of the chapel’s baptismal font.

Also under the seating we could see the pens where the lions were kept and the tunnel through which the gladiators entered the arena. So cool!

Berat 

In early October we rented a car for the first time so we could drive two hours south to Berat. We rented the car through Enterprise and it only cost $35 a day. Yay! There was not much difference between renting a car here and renting a car in the States. Driving on the highways was not an issue although the traffic speed is slower. Driving in Tirana can be quite an adventure because of the lack of lane markings (particularly in the roundabouts),  people changing lanes with no signals and all the pedestrians.

We enjoyed a lovely and plentiful breakfast the next morning.

 

Vienna, Austria

I had a week off from school in October so Randy and I decided to fly to Vienna to visit Peter Bernal Reyes and his fiancé, Julia Ellinghaus. Peter is originally from Germany and stayed with us for a year while he was in high school. It was wonderful to reconnect with Peter and Julia! Our son, David, came over from NYC to join us for the week. Loved it!

Oktoberfest was so much FUN!!!!

We went to see an opera called “Elektra”.  It was very unusual but still glad we did it. The opera was sung in German but each seat had their own screen that included subtitles in English.

Theth

In early November two friends and I took a trip to the far north of Albania to visit the small village of Theth. Randy is now back in the USA for a couple of months for hunting season so he was unable to join us. My friends and I were part of a tour that included transportation, one nights lodging and three full meals at a very reasonable rate. The last hour of the drive was “hair raising” because of the very steep, narrow roads that the tour bus needed to navigate. Yikes, it was scary at times! The drive was well worth it though considering the absolutely gorgeous setting.

If you are still reading this blog post, I have to apologize for it’s length. As I said earlier, most of these pictures have already been posted on Facebook so the blog may be redundant for you.

Life has been busy with these travels plus lots of report card paperwork with the end of term one. I am going to try harder to keep up with this blog. 🙂 Tomorrow is the beginning of a five day weekend.  There is no school because it is Albanian Independence Day and Albanian Liberation Day. Two friends and I are headed to Venice for a four night stay.  I have never been to Italy so I am really looking forward to this trip!

Here are my Grade One students…

Aren’t they darling?  I am thoroughly enjoying being their Grade One teacher.  In most ways teaching these children is no different than teaching my American first graders other than that most of them are English language learners.

Here are a few interesting facts about teaching at Albanian College.

• The children arrive in the classroom at 7:45 each morning with classes starting at 8:00.  The children are dismissed at 3:20 each day.
• The school provides breakfast and lunch every day for all the children.  The children are given 20 minutes to eat their breakfast/lunch.
• There are three twenty minute recesses each day.
• In the period of a week the children attend the following special area classes:
  • two 40 minute classes of P.E.
  • two 40 minute classes of art
  • four 40 minute classes of performing arts (a combination of music and drama)
  • four 40 minute classes of Albanian (it is important to the school and parents that the children be instructed in their mother tongue as well as English)
  • one 40 minute class of library
• Next year, when these children are in Grade Two, they will have a choice of learning French, German or Chinese as their third language.
• Each teacher supervises three meals a week and four recesses a week.
• We have a one hour faculty meeting each week after school in addition to one grade level meeting each week held during the school day.
• We have three Saturdays during the year when we attend professional development.  The first one was this last Saturday.  The school asked if I would do an hour long presentation about differentiating instruction which I ended up doing.

School is going well although at times I feel overwhelmed.  I am confident with the reading, writing and math instruction but getting the hang of the international baccalaureate curriculum with inquiry learning, Managebac, central ideas, lines of inquiry, transdisciplinary themes, etc. is not easy.  Yikes!!  At times, I feel like I am riding a bicycle as hard and fast as I can but not getting anywhere.  Given more time I am sure it will start to make more sense.  Whenever you try something new there has to be a learning curve, right?  🙂

Right now I am prepping for parent teacher conferences next week.  The following week we have no school which means we will be traveling.  Yippee!  We are going to Vienna, Austria with a two night side trip to Salzburg.  We will be visiting Peter Bernal Reyes and his fiancee, Julia.  Peter stayed with our family in Fairport for a year while he was in high school and is an absolutely delightful young man.  He is now a pilot for Lufthansa Airlines. We are looking forward to reconnecting with him and Julia and getting to explore Austria.  The “icing on the cake” is that our son, David, will be flying over to spend the week in Austria with us.  Can’t wait!

Here are a few more pictures of my students before I finish up this post…

Thanks to Kathy Halley at Dudley for sharing this song with me several years ago.  It is a great way for the kids to learn the name of their school, room number and teacher.  I just changed the words to fit Albania. We sang this song many times during the first week of school.  The kids loved it!  Thanks, Kathy!!!

One more picture to share…  This is the entire staff at Albanian College Tirana.  I am to the right in the back.  These really are a delightful group of people to work with!

Randy is doing well.  He is spending his time reading, keeping our kitchen stocked with food, helping with school things on occasion and exploring Tirana.  He has become an expert at navigating around the city.  Randy is headed back to Fairport on October 24th because hunting season is now open.  I will see him again at Christmas time as our family meets in South Africa to celebrate the holidays.