An American (Thanksgiving) in Albania

Okay, so I know it's been a week since our last blog entry, and it will be a week before our next entry also. So, I thought I'd just tell a little about our visit to Albania to meet with friends for Thanksgiving. There were these neat little Pilgrim hats at each place. They were homemade peanutbutter cups on top of cookies :). Also, someone had a few pieces of candy corn left over from an event, and they kindly gave them to me :). Our hosts had a cute dog named Oreo, and Steve especially had fun playing with her.

The day after Thanksgiving we hiked up to a castle overlooking the city. The original stones were built during the Roman Empire when the Balkan countries were Illyricum. The smaller stones were added to the ruins during the middle ages. The castle used to be open, but is now locked. This doesn't stop children from getting in to play football. One was very happy to show us how to get in, but I (Laura) am afraid of heights, and scaling a 2000 year old rock wall to climb around a fence while suspended over mid-air 20 feet above ground is not my idea of a good time.

We travelled farther into Albania for some time spent with some friends Steve had made on earlier trips to the area. Last night we had the adventure of getting home. Our friend Andon gave us a ride to Tirana. From there we caught a furgon (a van taxi that has a scheduled route, though not scheduled stops or times, like a bus) to Skoder. In Skoder (at a restaurant named Podgorica) our kind furgon driver found us a taxi driver who drove us over the boarder, and then on to Podgorica.

Tomorrow, very early in the morning, we board the first of three planes toward our destination of Berlin, Germany for the Christkindle Markts. We will return on the sixth, so no posts until next Sunday.