Tuesday, November 15, 2011
One and a half weeks ago, we had a 3-day weekend for a Muslim holiday (basically it was their Thanksgiving). So 10 of us decided to take a trip to Albania. We rented 2 cars and drove the 4 hour trek on Saturday morning, and came back on Monday evening. Here are the details of that trip.
Like I said, we left on Saturday morning, the 10 of us. There was Joe and Courtney, Ben and Allison, and me of course. But we had a few new people. Danny and Janelle came with us. Not sure how we met them; Ben met them somewhere. Anyway, they’re both from Ohio I believe, and Danny is over here working for some law project. He just passed the BAR recently, so he’s really excited about that. Janelle just got a job at ASK, my school, as a teaching assistant. Anyway, they’re both in their mid-20s. Both really fun and nice people. Fellanza, our school’s ESL teacher came along as well. David, a middle-aged middle school Social Studies teacher came. Then Joe and Courtney had a friend who was in the area, Chris, so he came too.
We arrived in Tirana, the capital city, in the afternoon, around 3 or 4 pm. It’s been getting dark early, now that we just set our clocks back an hour. So we didn’t have much time to see the city. So we walked to this gondola/cable car thing that takes you up the mountain. It was only like $5, and it was an amazing view of the city. So we did that, and when we got to the top we ate dinner. There was a revolving bar on top of the hotel up there, but it wasn’t open. Yeah, Saturday night’s are pretty slow nights—better not open the revolving bar… jeez.
Anyway, that night we took it easy, walked around the city, went to the square in the middle of downtown (pictures will be up on facebook, hopefully later tonight, if the power ever turns back on…). Then we went to this really awesome bar/dance club at the top of a hotel or something like that. It was circular, and had a revolving/moveable dance floor. It didn’t move much, but still, it was pretty neat. They only played Albanian stuff—the old stuff, that none of us except Fellanza knew, so that was kinda a bummer. But we got out and danced a little bit.
The next day we walked around the city some more, and then headed for Durres, a city on the coast. It’s on the Adriatic Sea, and when we got there the water was pretty cold, but being from the Midwest, most of us weren’t going to turn down this opportunity. Since I had my Frisbee along, we just threw that thing around in the water. It was a blast! All the locals were looking at us funny, and one guy was even taking pictures of us. The air temp was like low 70s, which was nice enough for me to wear shorts that day, but the water temp was probably way colder than is comfortable. Either way, it was really fun.
We hung out along the beach the rest of the day and eveing. We saw a beautiful sunset too! So colorful! The pictures will be on facebook for that as well. That night we ate dinner there in Durres, then headed back to Tirana. It was only like a 30 minute drive, so it wasn’t far at all. It was Joe’s birthday on that Monday, and since Tuesday was a school day again, we decided to party it up on Sunday night. So we bought a bunch of beer. Allison and his wife Courtney made him a cake from his favorite snack cakes, called Pop-Keks. Someone even brought party blowers and hats! Since our hostel didn’t have anyone else staying at it, we owned that place this night! Someone got the wild idea to start playing some Flip Cup. If you don’t know what Flip Cup is, ask someone to explain it. To put it simply, you fill up a cup with some beer in it, when it’s your turn you chug it, then you have to flip your cup over. So you let a little bit of it hang over the edge of the table, and flip it with your finger. If the cup lands perfectly upside down, you move on to the next person. Sounds really simple and primitive, but I like it for 2 reasons: it gets you really drunk really fast, and also because it can get VERY competitive! I LOVE trash talking and chanting and yelling at the other team. It’s pretty much encouraged. Anyway, we found ourselves later on that night in a boys vs. girls situation. Most of us had played before, but Danny, Janelle, David, and Fellanza hadn’t. But they all did really really well! Well, except the time Danny got skunked. And we definitely let him know he got skunked, by starting a “Danny got skunked” chant on our own teammate. Someone even started a “Yohnk, Yohnk, Yohnk-a-delphia” chant (obviously one of the people that watches “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” If you don’t know it, you gotta watch that show). That kind of became our official chant for the rest of the night. Everytime we won we’d start yelling something obnoxious and crazy. In all honesty, I think the girls won more games than us, but we definitely would’ve won the “Team Spirit” award. Later on, the hostel turned into a dance party, of course (what kind of party would it be without one?). Then the night wrapped up around 2 am, since we all had to get up and leave the next day. This night was probably the best night I’ve had since I’ve moved to Kosova.
The next day we got up, went to a mall (some people wanted to buy some things that you can’t buy in Prishtina), then we decided to go to this city up along the mountains with some museum in it. The museum was for this man named Skanderbeg or Skanderbeau or something like that. If you don’t know much about him, let me give the quick story. He was an Albanian that successfully defended Europe from the Ottoman Empire. If not for him and his armies, the Turks would have easily moved on to Italy and would’ve been fighting the Roman Empire for control of Europe. Who knows… without Skanderwhateverhisnameis, Europe’s main religion might be Islam. Anyway, the museum for him was closed, but either way, this small city was really neat to walk around and check out. We left around 4 or 5 pm, much later than I wanted to. We were still about 4 hours from home, AND it was a school night. But we ended up making it back around 9 pm, just enough time to unpack and fall asleep.
So there you have it. That was my Albania trip. There were many differences between these 2 countries. First of all, the roads. Once we crossed the border, the roads were AWESOME. 2 lanes wide, up-to-date guard rails. We even rode through a 6-km long tunnel. I can’t believe that Albania is the 2nd poorest country in Europe (obviously Kosova being the poorest). There is a WORLD of difference between these 2 countries. I really like Albania, and I’d like to go back again sometime, hopefully when it’s greener and nicer.
Speaking of nicer… the weather here has been COLD! Today, November 15, was the day where they finally turned on the city-wide heat. I have an electric heater in my apartment, but our school has been SOOOOO cold lately! Most students and teachers wear their winter jackets while teaching and learning (another joke at our school…). I’m pretty cold-blooded, so I usually don’t, but somedays I have to. Today when I woke up it was 25’ F, which is one of the coldest days we’ve had so far. Usually it’s in the 30’s, sometimes upper 20s, but I think they finally realized it’s damn cold out, and people need their heat. Some other teacher’s apartments only have the city-provided heat, so they have been freezing their butts of so far. The days are pretty chilly—usually in the 40’s. Sometimes in the 50s, sometimes in the 30s. Either way, this place is going to be pretty similar to Wisconsin, which kinda sucks, but at the same time, I haven’t really experienced a full winter in over 2 years. I don’t wanna get too “soft” so it’s probably for the better, right? : - )
Anyway, that’s about all I have for now. This weekend we’re having a Thanksgiving feast at our school, for all teachers and their families. Then for Thanksgiving, a bunch of us (mainly the same people that went to Albania) are going to Istanbul, Turkey! Nothing like going to Turkey for Turkey-day… ahahahahaha!
Oh, and my friends Andrea and Blake, from my Guatemala school, have decided to come to Europe over Christmas Break! So we’re planning out our trip right now. Pretty sure it’s going to be a German-heavy trip, but we’re also planning on going to Paris (for New Years) and hopefully Prague, Czech Republic, and Vienna, Austria (if time). I’ll keep you guys posted on that though. We have off from December 17th until January 4th, so that should be plenty of time to see a lot of cool stuff. Well, it’s been one hour and no power on yet. Hopefully it turns on in the next 30 minutes so I can eat. Otherwise I might just go to a restaurant with a generator. Oh well… talk to you all soon!
