Nov 11th - Nov 14th
On November 11th we left North Macedonia and crossed the border into Albania. It was an easy border crossing, and we drove back towards Tirana. We had some beautiful drives up and through the mountains. It was very twisty and turny and we started to feel really sick. But finally we made it out to the flat area right by the city.
We stayed two nights in the city of Tirana, unfortunately we had a lot of rain in Tirana, so it made it tough to walk around too much. We had a bit of a dry time in the afternoon in on Nov 12th and so off we went to explore the downtown. We even had an ice cream! and saw some cool Albanian modern art work.
Although Albania does not celebrate Remembrance day on Nov. 11th, they have their own celebration on Nov. 28th. It is their day of Independence. the country of Albania first became an independent country in 1912. The whole city of Tirana was busy getting ready for the celebration with huge ribbons, statures and flags of Albanian heroes throughout the city.
We visited Skanderbeg square, named after the Albanian hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu. He was a hero that lived in the 1400's who lead many Albanian revolts against the Ottoman Empire who controlled the area.
We then visited the History museum of Albania. It was an incredible museum and we learned so much about the long and painful struggle of this small Adriatic nation to acquire independence. This region and its originals Illyrian forces has been fought over and conquered by so many other nations, from the Greeks and Romans, to the Ottomans and Venetians and then finally, during the 1900's the two world wars brought new invaders and enemies to their shores. Italians invaded during WW2 and after the axis were defeated the Communists party took hold and firmly kept Albania in the grip of the eastern bloc. It wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Union and collapse of the iron curtain that Albania began to emerge as an independent nation. Here you can see the outside of the History Museum. It is an incredible Mosaic that shows the whole story of Albania.
Albania is a beautiful, emerging nation that has a long, powerful history to tell. It is a stunning country of amazingly strong people, desperate to be able to call themselves Albanians. They are finally independent, strong and free. Its's so powerful to see.
As soon as we stared walking we got caught in a terrible rain storm - but sure enough, there was a warm delicious restaurant to welcome us and feed us incredible Albanian food! We had kebabs, and kofka and baby piglet! yikes!
My brothers decided to pick these awesome toques, it was so cold and rainy that they are really warm now!
We stayed at a different hotel from Uncle Chris and Joanie in Tirana and they had a great time learning about Albanian cooking at a class. When they were done they came and picked us up and we all headed out of the city to Durres. That is the port where the Ferry will leave to take us to Italy.
We drove over to the town of Durres our Airbnb host was nice enough to let us in early. We were going to say goodbye to Uncle Chris and Joanie tonight and wanted to walk around and see Durres and have some lunch with them before they left.
Durres is an ancient town as well and was called Epidamnos by the Greeks and Dyrrachium by the Romans, then used by the Venetians and Ottomans. Everywhere you turn in Durres you can see evidence of the ancient pieces of architecture. We saw the ancient amphitheater, a bath house, market place and towers built for protection.
We also took a walk down to the new pier that heads out into the water - it was really rough water and it was really windy, but it was kind of fun to walk out there! Uncle Chris walked out on the dock right out into the waves! We had to stop Liam from following him, that would have been a big disaster!
Finally we said goodbye to some amazing friends. It is so incredible when you are travelling for so long, when friends, who have the chance, take the time to come and travel with us. It meant so much to us. We are forever grateful and hope that Chris and Joanie had as good of a time as we did. It felt so nice to have company. Much love.
The next morning we got all packed up and ready to leave Albania. We did some final souvenir shopping and I got a beautiful pair of Albanian double headed eagle earrings. (and the man gave me the matching necklace for free!) and then we had lunch. After that we finally decided to head over to the Ferry. Little did we know how long this journey was going to be.
We got to the Ferry terminal about 2:30 pm. We knew we were a little early, but we had to leave our apartment and we were carrying all of our gear, so we thought we would go over and check in at 5:00pm. Well, we finally got checked in and the lady told us that although the ferry was supposed to leave at 10 pm, it was not ehre yet and in fact wouldn't even arrive until at last 12:00pm. And so we started to wait, and wait and wait, and wait. In fact the ferry didn't arrive until 1:00 am, we boarded at 2:00 am and it didn't leave Durres until 5:00am. What a night!
Well Albania, you sure went out with a long slow fizzle. But we still enjoyed you a lot! Thank you to the incredible Albanian people, for their hospitality and we learned so much about the long, hard struggle for independence.
Falminderit Albania! Thank you and goodbye!
Tia and Mari
Comments