After the warm short-sleeve weather of Saranda, Gjirokastra was just cold. It is an ancient city with a large castle set on the hilltop. Overlooking the river valley, this castle controlled movement through the valley. The ancient city developed around the castle and today, cascades down
Butrint is a National Archaeology Park about 30-45 minutes south of Saranda. It became a UNESCO World Hertiage site in 1992, a national park in 2001 and a Ramsar Wetland Site of International Importance in 2003. It has one of best self guided trails and visitor brochure we have seen.
About 300km or 6 and 1/2 hours (that is about 50km/hr or 30mph) from Durres, is Saranda, a small town of about 30,000. It is built on the hillside and spills down into the sea. Saranda is one of the cleanest cities we have seen in Albania and the water along the city is also… Continue reading Saranda
We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner in Tirana at the home of a young military man who works at the Embassy. He and two other families got together to host about 30 people,
At the end of October we attended a Language Refresher in Pogradec, a small community on the edge of Lake Ohrid and near the Macedonian border.
Who would have thought that limes would be missing in a Mediterranean country? We had not really thought about it until a friend was served a drink with a lime. And we thought, we haven’t had a lime in a long time. We enjoy them in club soda,
We have moved into our own apartment and while it means more work for us, we are enjoying many of the benefits of being in our own place. One thing we have is high speed (for Albania) internet connection. While it is not up to US speeds,
Lezha & Shkodra Finally an outing. The last week of September, Durres hosted the International Conference on Roman Ceramics (RFCF) and all of the archaeologists from the museum were involved some way. As a result of their involvement, Criss got to attend.
September starts the rainy season.Â
One of the most frustrating and annoying exercises this summer has been looking for an apartment. Aside from the challenge of budget, we just don’t understand how you find apartments, as few are advertised.