Albania and the North

Practically from the moment we first met, Entela has been saying, "We have to go to Thethi." Finally, after a year, we went to Thethi. Breathtaking.

Thethi is a small settlement, I hesitate even using the word village, set back in the northern mountains of Albania. We arrived Friday night, only able to see the guest house in front of us and the dramatic shining stars. Roza, the patroness of the guest house we stayed in, had mountain tea with mountain honey, a hot soup and fresh bread ready for us once we settled in. Moments after we arrived our friend Gjergj and his girl friend showed up! Albania=small. They ended up staying in a guest house up the road, but came back for a visit the following night.

Now for the slightly embarrassing, and not so fun part of the trip. I woke up extremely early feeling very sick. I hoped that it was just from the zig-zagging roads the night before. Nope. It was the stomach flu. After an hour, nothing was left in my body. Roza heard me and got me a lime soda. She's an angel. I hopped into the shower and then back into bed. Three hours later, I was well enough to drink some tea and eat a biscuit. I probably wasn't well enough to go on a hike, but I don't like to miss out on things. It's one of my tragic flaws.

It did feel great being outside in the cool, clean mountain air. We walked by the little red school house. A teacher from Shkoder comes to teach there, when she feels like it. Children up to eighth grade go there, when they feel like it. Our guide, Juette, told us that the roads are so blocked in the winter, that most of the people in Thethi move to Shkoder or simply stay inside. It made me think of the pioneer life.
After about 45 minutes of hiking, I couldn't go on. Utter exhaustion had set in. I found a rock, close to a mountain home. Juetta and Entela both offered to knock on the door to see if I could stay inside, but I wanted to stay outside. Tracey loaned me her pocket notebook and a pen so I was quite content (although I was feeling a bit sorry for myself).
This picture, I took after sketching the scene to the best of my abilities (which are not good). I thought the tree roots were so interesting, and I loved the fence in the background. Besides sketching, I attempted poetry. One poem was a reflection on solitude, the other was a conversation between a river and ocean and the last was to simply poke fun at myself (Tracey gave me the opening line). To truly appreciate this poem, I suppose you might need some background information. When speaking of Thethi, we tend to lisp.:
"I once took a trip to Thethi
I'm afraid that it got quite methy.
My friends said, 'Wait here,'
I did so with cheer
But sat thinking, "Boy, I'm a thithy."

While waiting for my friends to return, I had visitors. The man who owned the house was out working and spoke a little English. He told his 13 year old nephew that there was an American out on the road. The boy came over for a chat. His English was quite good. He told me that he lives and studies in Shkoder and he's working on English so he can join his uncle in London. Like many Albanian youngsters, he loves football and is in training. I saw him the next day too and then found out his name, Mikel. Once Mikel was called back to work, two hikers from the Czech Republic happened by. They were friendly, but were trying to get to Valbona before nightfall. With eight more hours of hiking, they were on a tight schedule. I really wanted them to stay longer because I'm currently on a Prague kick and wanted to hear all about the city from two good looking men. (Who can blame me?)
We finally returned to the guest house to be greeted by a German, Gerald, and Tracey's Spanish friend from soccer (ok, I'm trying to be good... I mean football), Lande. We relaxed under plum trees in the front yard enjoying tea and coffee. I don't remember who said it, but it was a moment of paradise on earth.
We set out on an afternoon hike to the "Northern Blue Eye." Juette assured us that it was a flat, easy hike. (She just didn't mention how long it would be.) We actually found a map of the area! The German NGOs are trying to promote tourism in Thethi.
It started to rain about 40 minutes into the hike. We were pretty well equipped to handle it, so we pressed on. This was standing on a bridge over the river and gorge. Sarah didn't trust the bridge with all of us on it (she's a wise soul), but still managed to look adorable in the picture!
It's a fuzzy, rainy picture, but you can see the drop to the river.
The Northern Blue Eye obviously gets its name from the crystal clear water. It was worth the nearly 3 hour walk.
There was one waterfall that cascaded down into the Blue Eye pool. If you look closely, it's rather like three waterfalls in one.

I won't say much about the walk back, except that we had to hike out of the canyon at a break-neck speed, because our guide was calling us slow and we were racing the sun. That triggered a very grumpy reaction, particularly from me. Thank goodness that about an hour and a half into the walk home, a VW van came. Before Tracey could say, "Please give us a ride," the driver had offered us one straight to Roza's. (Apparently, everyone knows Roza).
Once back at Roza's, we gathered around the fire that Roza's younger brother, Alfred, made for us in Entela and my room. We also whipped out the wine that we had brought with us. Roza fed us, by then I was actually hungry, a yummy bean soup, the homemade bread, roast beef and the best grilled vegetables.
The next morning brought a new day, thankfully! I was in a much better mood after a semi good night's sleep. The morning was beautiful and we prepared for a hike to another waterfall.
The northerners, at least in Thethi, are often Catholic. I don't believe that they are a practicing group of Catholics. Even though it was Sunday, the church was completely vacant and locked up. It's not the original church (the original was destroyed, I'm assuming during Communism), but the German NGO built this one to blend into the surrounding old stone buildings.
We walked through corn fields and wheat fields. I was fascinated by this squash that seemed to have grown up to the fence. The locals were incredibly friendly and each invited us to their house for coffee. Sadly, time wouldn't permit those visits. I'm really surprised that the farmers were not angry at the group of foreigners crossing through their fields.
We stopped to take a look inside the Blood Feud Tower. It's one of the few left in Albania. Work is underway to turn this into an ethnographic museum. The tower was three stories high; the top most room used for sleeping, the middle for living, and the lowest for food storage. There were small windows and slight openings for weapons. Males, from the families involved with blood feuds, would retreat to these towers (or stay inside their own homes) until peace was negotiated with the offended family (usually the offend family had had a family member killed by the other). Very Romeo and Juliette, if you ask me! (Actually, there is a blood feud house in Tirana, on the banks of the Lana River).
Entela lead us up to this part of the waterfall, since she knew the trail. We scrambled over rocks and across mountains streams. It was so peaceful and ravishingly beautiful. The four of us girls recreated our ice skating poses for a picture worthy moment.
Here we are posing with our newest friend, Lande.

We took the higher trail and shortcut, back to Roza's. Tracey started singing Sound of Music, which is always the perfect song for mountain hiking, so of course I joined in. There was a laughing brook that did in fact, trip and fall over stones on its way. Then the laughing brook gave way to a silent stream and eventually the stream led us back to the river.
Juette told us that this was once used as an old mill. I think it looks like the Seven Dwarfs' house, personally.
We stopped to gather fresh, late summer black berries from along side the trail. Boy, they were tasty! I didn't attempt to pick berries the day before, so I was extremely glad to be feeling well and partake of nature's bounty.
And this is our guest house, which greeted us after the morning hike. We packed up, changed, said our fond farewells to Roza (who was headed back to Shkoder for her weekly job at the castle) and walked to the local "bar."
The bar is actually a collection of tables in little huts. We had an outdoor table under a beautiful shady tree. I had a Coke, though I could have had some raki. Ick. The picture below shows the ingeniously traditional method of refrigeration. That mountain water is cold, cold, cold!

We made it back to Tirana after a nearly six hour trip. But, it was worth the trip and, indeed, I would tell anyone, "You have to go to Thethi!"

The River That Became a Lake

Once upon a time eight friends loaded up in two vehicles and drove an hour and a half northeast of their home. One SUV took the modern road through the airport, the other through the outskirts of Tirana where they saw daily Saturday life in action. The two met again on the road to Shkodra and turned east. On and on they drove on a nice paved road, past new bridges, along a clear river. Nearing the end of the drive, the paved road became a bumpy road that went under blown out tunnels. The eight friends reached their destination knowing they were in for another Albania adventure.

So began our kayaking day on Lake Mati. This lake is part of a river that was dammed and is now used for hydroelectric power. Once again, Tracey organized this outing with Outdoor Albania, the same organization that we used for river rafting. I can't say enough good things about them. They are a very organized organization and had this trip down to a science. Gent, the owner and our guide for the day, had the kayaks off both roofs in a jiffy. We were ready in our spray skirts and life jackets in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Sarah, as seen below, was outfitted in a light weight river kayak, which responded to any movement whatsoever. Gent asked for volunteers to take the two double kayaks. Travis and Amy took one and Violeta and I took the other. Violeta and I found it difficult, at first, navigating our bulky craft, though we quickly became a team. With the wind at our back, we were able to stay in the middle of the group and enjoy the company of our friends.

At one point Violeta and I challenged our friend Florian (not Florian from school, a different Florian) to a race. He graciously gave us a head start and then quickly overtook us. I stupidly challenged him to a rematch for the way back. At that point I didn't realize that we would be head straight into the wind. Needless to say, we lost that race too. Florian had no trouble rubbing it in.
It was a rather windy trip back up the lake. We used all of our strength to stay up with the group. Disaster nearly struck when Violeta and I found ourselves in the middle of a wind tunnel with no way out. We managed to steer ourselves parallel to the wind and get out of it. Travis and Amy were near by, which was comforting to me.

We stopped at a beach for watermelon and to watch the horses and donkeys playing. There were several footbridges high over the water that villagers and their animals use to cross the river (since there are no roads to their homes). Gent said that there are usually a few deaths per winter on bridges like these. Tracey took a picture of a man leading two donkeys across. We were standing open mouthed watching as Gent said, "You might have never seen two donkeys crossing a river, but I can guarantee that that man driving the donkeys has never seen girls in bikinis." It's a different world.

We also stopped at a small, clean cove where we swam to our hearts' content. I've never swam in such clear, warm lake water. I'm still more of an ocean girl, but I really, really enjoyed this lake. Amy said, "You know Holly, no one ever visited Albania before '92. It's like we're seeing an untouched part of the world." Well said. Almost every weekend, we find something new to love about Albania.
We returned to shore and had a fish and pasta lunch surrounded by honking geese and quacking ducks. Tracey and Sarah had the brilliant idea of taking a shot of rakki to ward off any crazy bacteria. That is brutal stuff, but I felt well- cleansed after swallowing only half a shot.

The timing of this trip couldn't have been better. Sunday morning brought thunderstorms and rain and Sunday night an earthquake (I heard that it was 5.4 with the epicenter toward Macedonia). This morning (Monday) we have experienced a step toward the cooler temperatures that autumn brings. Even though summer is waning, I can't wait for the fall!

The Girls are Back in Town!

This was the first full weekend that we have all been back in Tirana. Amy is downstairs, Tracey is upstairs, Sarah's next door, Entela is 10 minutes away and all is right with the world. Unfortunately, there are no pictures to go with this post. I haven't posted since I've been back, so I figured we'll suffer through together.

Friday, we went to a good-bye dinner for one of our Marine friends. It's always fun to go to Amor and eat the yummiest pasta, this side of Italy. The four of us (Tracey, Sarah, Entela and I) dressed up thinking the plan was to go a night club afterward. We ended up at an outdoor bar instead. It was extensively large and the giant trees made it seem that someone had set up a bar in the middle of a forest. One of the reasons I love Tirana is that there are nice surprises and unexpected beauty in the most obscure places (you go back through the movie theater, head left, then back again and then voila! You're there).

Saturday, we hopped in a taxi and went to General's Beach. The water was so warm; I was thrilled to be back. We swam, I read, we ate fruit and salad and ice cream. The day was gone. We drove back and joined Amy and Travis for movie night. They had invited some of our work friends over to watch Airplane, which I laughed through (loudly and obnoxiously).

Today, I accidentally didn't set my alarm for church, but I did enjoy a couple of sermon podcasts. Then I worked, worked, worked. School is going quite well, but I suddenly feel like my work-aholic tendencies are surfacing. Luckily, I have friends who have committed to helping me stay a bit balanced. Maybe since I have a small, but very gifted class, I feel the need to push myself. Maybe I feel more comfortable teaching kindergarten. Maybe I am just sick.

Well, faithful friends and family, I'm back and I'm ready for more fun overseas adventures! I'm alive and well, though it might feel like I've dropped off the face of the earth (again!) By the way, how is everyone feeling about the pink blog? I like pink, but it's taking me some time to get used to it!

Inspiration

What does being an artist mean to you? Is it painting, singing, sculpting, cooking? Or perhaps an artist is a photographer, wood worker, or an author. The definition I always think of is someone who creates something. Basic, yes, but this creativity sets us apart from the apes and the asses. I admire my friends who can see a piece of fabric and use that inspiration to create a one-of-a-kind greeting card (see Michelle's blog) or can look at a piece of chicken and see a gourmet meal (see Andrea's blog).

My parents and I went to see the movie Julie & Julia. As we were exiting the movie theater my father said, "That's the key to longevity, you know. Finding a passion and living it. I'm keeping track. People who live the longest love what they do."

Today, I am recognizing my dad. It's his birthday and hence, here is his birthday post. My father is a salesman, and a gosh darn good one at that. He builds relationships with his clients, not by flashing a salesman's grin, but by living his life with integrity and honesty. I've overheard numerous conversations in which my dad takes responsibility for mistakes and manages to come flying to the rescue, regardless of the mistakes. This is my father by day. The man that the world sees. Does he love his job? Yes. He wouldn't be a Calvinist if he didn't. Is it his passion? Yes and no. His passion is creating. My father is an artist.

Ever since I was a baby, my dad has been building things for me. Every Christmas there was a new and exciting handmade toy under the Christmas tree. These toys ranged from doll houses, doll cradles, rocking horses and trains. As I grew older, the gifts and my father's ability became more and more impressive. He presented me with a magnificent sleigh bed for my sixteenth birthday. I'm always astounded by his ability to take a piece of discarded wood and turn it into a work of art. His latest pet project is a French rolling pin. My mom, my brother and I all have one. It rolls out sugar cookie dough in no time flat. (Yes, I know that is punny!)


Is this a shameless promotion of my father? Yep. My birthday wish for dear, not so old, dad is that he continues growing with his art, that he continues to live his passions. This is the great lesson of his life.

The Phoenix

Westmont College, in my day, had a student literary magazine called "The Phoenix." I can't say that I ever stopped to question WHY it was called "The Phoenix." Now, I think I know.

Last fall, Westmont College experienced a devastating fire that burned buildings, homes and the beautiful vegetation. Thankfully, no lives were lost. My friend and Westmont roommate, Angelica, and I went to investigate the damage from the "Tea Fire" for ourselves. It certainly did NOT look like the Westmont that I fell in love with 12 years ago. The above pictures are of Clark, the dorm I lived in my first two years. The resident director's home was a shell of a house and you could tell that many of the sections experienced a great deal of fire damage. All of the sections were getting new roofs.
This has always been one of my favorite Westmont spots. It's the remains of the formal garden with the prayer chapel in the background. Below is a picture from last summer of nearly the exact same spot. I think this shows the dramatic change.
This is a view from the gym. I don't know if this is new construction or fire damage. All I know is this used to be green.
Angelica and I wanted to take the V.K. stairs back up to the dining commons parking lot. We had quite the surprise when we discovered a blocked off area and completely destroyed stairs. I fell walking down these stairs when I was a junior. Now, they are no more!

The Tea Fire is not the first fire in the college's history. There was a large fire back in the late 60s, early 70s. And guess what? Westmont rose from the ashes then and it will rise again. Much like that mythical bird, the phoenix.

Right Back Where I Started From!

This is a long over-due post. I feel the need to commemorate The Fourth of July, since July 4th, 2008 was the first event I blogged about. Now, here I am. Full circle, with time to reflect on this past year. Truthfully, I don't remember much about Independence Day, '09. I was doing my best fighting jet-lag to stay up past 9:00 pm. But, as usual, it was a day filled with family, friends and freedom! (Not to mention delicious homemade ice cream! It's labor intensive, but soooo worth it. If you want the recipe, just ask!)
It was also a "college sweatshirt" kind of night. Here is my brother, Matt, sporting his CSUB sweatshirt and Grandpa sporting his Bowling Green sweatshirt (which he bought when he was back in Ohio for a reunion a few years ago).
Ok, so Stephen wasn't wearing his Davis sweatshirt, but I had my Westmont representation! My favorite fireworks are the "flashers." As tradition dictates, I always dance to the fireworks and pray to God that someone joins me. I can always count on Cousin Stephen!

Perhaps the most important reason to post a 4th review is to report that there were no injuries and everyone has all their fingers and toes!

A Taste of Italy

Ten days is not enough time for Italy. It was enough time for a "sample" or "taste." But what a taste it was!
We arrived in Rome ready to roam. My mom met Tracey and me at the airport after she sat for several hours, people watching. We had rainy weather off and on most of the trip. It was so wet the first day that Tracey splurged on a 5 Euro umbrella. The first gust of wind and, well, you can see the results below!

We were into wandering around the first day, aided by a map. A map is helpful, except when it doesn't tell you what you are looking at. The three of us were standing in an amazing piazza surrounded by tall buildings with the customary fountain in the middle. It looked important, especially with the military guarding the buildings. A French couple was just as puzzled as we were. They came up to me and asked, "Do you what this is?" It wasn't until our return trip to Rome at the end of the trip did we learn that we were standing outside the Italian equivalent to the White House. Duh.

The first night, we met up with Sarah, her mom Linda, and her aunt Raylene at the hotel where we all were staying. They had arrived the day before and had been on an all day tour of Rome. We went to a corner of town that was reputed to have excellent food. It took us so long to find a restaurant, but when we found one, it didn't disappoint.
The next morning we set off for Vatican City. We were roped into a tour right away after getting off of the subway. I didn't have the best feeling about the tour, but the price was right. After waiting for 15 minutes outside a corner cafe (that's Raylene, Tracey, my mom and Linda waiting patiently... I wasn't waiting so patiently), the tour guide showed up. She, Maya, was an art history major and very knowledgeable. She knew all the scoop about the artists and their work. It was an amazing tour. Every room had something that made me stand open mouthed in absolute awe. Maya described the 3-D effects found in the Sistine Chapel and the optical illusions found in the Tapestry Room (Rafael's design).
Sarah, outside the Basilica.
St. Peter's Basilica! The marble for the columns was recycled from the Colosseum. It was interesting to try to imagine the area during the time of Peter and Paul and to imagine Peter's crucifixion (upside down).
That afternoon, we all took a train down to Naples and then hopped another to Sorrento. We finally arrived just as the hotel restaurant was closing (which didn't make the waiter too happy). We spent the next day bumming around the shops in Sorrento and planning excursions for the next two days. As you can see in the picture above, Sorrento had beautiful alleyways and excellent shops.
That evening we went to the BEST restaurant in Sorrento. We didn't even realize that we ate at the top restaurant until we read about it in the guide book... It was so good that we went back two nights later! I had salmon in a white wine sauce. There was an army of servers waiting on us. They brought us appetizers, cookies and lemoncello, all on the house. We even got my mom drinking a bit of the lemoncello!
Raylene was eager to take a boat tour down the Almafi Coast. We all enthusiastically embraced her plan and signed up for an all day excursion which included swimming stops along the way and time in the town of Almafi.
Sarah and I went below deck to change into our swim suits. Here we are with our, "Don't try to get me to talk; if you do I'll throw-up," smiling faces.
What's the best cure for seasickness? A swim in the Mediterranean Sea! We stopped off the coast of the Island of Capri for a swim in the warm and clear waters. Sarah pointed out that the Mediterranean, though it's as clear as the Adriatic, is a very different blue. It reminded me of the blue that you get from a watercolor paint box.
These children were in a family that we had met the day before. We had told them about the tour. They were staying at our hotel and we saw them everywhere! The kids are Josh and Sarah. Little Sarah really wanted to swim in the Mediterranean, but was nervous about the open water and about getting off the steps of the boat. She did it though! The kind sailors gave her a life jacket. Once she was in the water for a while, she was comfortable enough to let go of my hand and swim around freely.
We were in the town of Almafi when we were hit with a sudden down pour. Everyone raced back to the boat and jumped aboard. We spent a good hour below deck play a dice game that, thankfully, Tracey brought along. Once the sun came out, Sarah and I raced to the bow to take in the fresh air and sunshine. We didn't get our second swim stop because the water was too choppy.
I've been dreaming of visiting Pompeii since I was eight years old and read about it in the children's National Geographic magazine. Of course it was interesting and bigger than I imagined (Pompeii was a huge Roman town), but I was expecting to see preserved bodies along with their jewelry and pottery all set up in their houses. We saw a bit of that in the Forum area, but not as much as I had hoped (does it sound wrong to hope to see dead bodies?). However, I learned so much about the Roman lifestyle. Our tour guide did a fine job of painting a picture of the thriving Roman town. I could almost smell the soup drifting out of the soup kitchens and the bread baking in the ovens.
The second half of the day ushered in low clouds and fog. Perfect for hiking in a volcano (note sarcasm). We didn't actually get to see the second crater which was created by the massive Vesuvius eruption, but the hike was excellent and our guide superb.
Our moms hiked too!
After nearly five fun filled days with Sarah, Linda and Raylene, Tracey, Mom and I headed north to Tuscany. I truly love Florence. It is a city with such an artistic soul, beautiful surrounding countryside, and incredible people.
We took a five hour, 28 kilometer bicycle ride through the Tuscan countryside. We didn't stop for wine tasting since all the wineries appeared to be closed (and I wasn't sure about riding under the influence). It was a tough bike ride up hill, but it was definitely a highlight of the trip!
See the ominous looking clouds? Yep, it poured on us! We all made it though and kept on riding! We are quite the troopers.
After our bike ride, we hit the shops! This sales associate, Melina, sold Tracey and me beautiful dresses. Mine is purple (my current signature color) and long and gorgeous! Tracey's is the one shown above. It isn't customary to take a picture with a sales associate, however, Melina really knew style and fashion. I didn't feel like a customer, I felt like I was a canvass for clothes. She really is an artist.
After going to visit David (one word....WOW), we headed back to Rome. We walked to Trevi Fountain and up the Spanish Steps. I did the touristy thing and threw a coin in the fountain insuring a return trip to Rome and a wish come true. Why am I always the cheesy one?
Our last day in Rome was our "Ancient Rome" class. We went to the Colosseum and the Palatine (which I totally appreciated since so much of Quo Vadis is set in the Palatine and has so much of the gladiator/games history in the story. I love reading a book in the actual setting. Quo Vadis is my new favorite book...Thanks Amy and Travis for letting me borrow it!!!!!) Here we are playing gladiators. I'm trying to go for the jugular.
We wanted to go to the Pantheon on Monday, but since it was St. Peter and St. Paul's Day, the church closed at 1:00. I was truly sad, but it gives me all the more reason to go back to Italy. We did get to look through a crack in the door. Mom was trying to go for a "spy girls" shot.
Our last meal in Rome! We finally found the yummiest pizza in Italy. This restaurant was recommend by Rick Steves (thanks Melinda for a great guide book!), but we stumbled upon it quite by accident. The best part was that the cute waiter behind me in this picture brought us free red wine at the end of the meal. Tracey thinks that it was from cute waiter, but I think it was from cocky British guy who was sitting at the table next to us. He was talking to his own countrymen and women about how hard it was to meet nice girls around his age (which he announced at the top of his lungs to be 35) and taking periodic long looks over at our table. Yep, we've still got it!

What memorable way to end a memorable year. I'm so glad that there is at least one more year of adventure to look forward to with my "Albanian" family. Oh, but I'm glad to be home for the summer!