Eastern Europe, August, 2022

This was to be the year of “revenge travel”- the marketers’ term for people sidelined by COVID the last two years getting out and exploring the world again.  While I was a happy participant, all was not ”back to normal”. COVID was still a threat although the current variants were far less severe for most people. And the airlines and airports were not prepared for the rush of tourists that started in the summer.   Flights were cancelled in record numbers, bags piled up at airports, passengers were stranded where they didn’t want to be. But, it was time. My trip with Overseas Adventure Travel was largely funded by credits from a shortened trip to South America in March, 2020.   This trip had been planned for June, 2021 and I postponed it because COVID still seemed to be a threat.   It wouldn’t be in 2022, right?   😊 I mitigated every risk I could.   Vaccinations up-to- date, TWO travel insurance policies (one covered quarantine expenses), overnights ...

 Giant international airports are always a hoot.  They’re more agora than airport.  Gucci. Tiffany’s.  Vuitton.  A place specializing in caviar, on-site or to take home.  Cosmetic and perfume companies.  I did fall for a bottle of duty-free scotch; now that the remainder of my trip would be overland till my flight home, I didn’t need to worry about putting it in a checked bag and then having the bag go astray.  I was, it turned out, eligible to use the Fast Track security line (I estimate that saved me over an hour) and the BA Lounge since I‘d gotten a Business Class seat by redeeming the small pile of BA miles I’d accumulated years ago and carefully kept by creating activity in the account.  It also got me a nice meal on board accompanied by wine.  The only other passengers in the 24 Business Class seats were a pair of ladies who held hands a lot and had multiple refills of Champagne.  We were taken care of very well. Unfortunate...

 I’d considered booking a day tour and decided to keep it open instead- it was a good decision. I spent the day walking all over Tirana.  My first stop was the mall across the street.   I thought it had everything but there were no paper maps.    I very carefully kept track of when I turned onto another street and managed to avoid getting lost.    I'd found that the phone apps were useless in Munich a few months ago so I figured they wouldn’t be any better here.    I’d also found that the SIM card I’d bought at Heathrow that I’d told them I needed to work in Albania didn’t.    The display showed that it was connected to Vodaphone Albania but it was otherwise useless.    By the end of the day I’d found a store that sold me a map and gotten an Albanian SIM card.    The one I bought at Heathrow could come in handy when I got back into EU countries. Definitely NOT the brutalist architectural style favored by the...

  Today I met my guide and the other three travelers on the pre-trip.   The guide was typical of the excellent people Overseas Adventure Travel uses- Albanian but worked for many years in the US after attending school in Michigan, so he spoke perfect English.   The other travelers were women- OAT doesn’t charge a single supplement so they tend to get a lot of us.   It was a good group- all of us well-traveled, curious about our new environment, and flexible about plans. We started out with a walk around the city including Skanderbeg Square and the farmers’ markets.  I'd expected more grim reminders of Soviet architecture but was pleasantly surprised.  There were many modern buildings as well as some pre-Communist construction.  Our guide told us that much of the new construction was funded by Albanians who had had successful business in other countries and were now moving back home. Skanderbeg Square A large pedestrian section with markets and restau...

This was an optional excursion but all four of us decided to take it.  Berat is a UNESCO World Heritage site 43 miles south of Tirana.   Various groups have lived there together more or less peacefully for centuries; we visited a mosque as well as the Church of the Dormition at the top of the mountain.  The icons in the church were beautiful but unfortunately, photography wasn't permitted. The Codex Beratinus Purpuerius (the last word referring to the fact that it was written on purple vellum) was found in the Church of the Dormition.  This was a manuscript of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, with some exclusions, dating back to the 6th century.  Hitler tried to capture it during World War 2 and monks and priests risked their lived to keep it hidden.  It is now in the Albanian National Archives.   Details from inside mosque Church of the Dormition View from the top of the mountain

One of our stops on the way to Shkoder was a small, family-run pottery business.  The man who led us through was tired.  They have their own ponds of silt that gradually evaporate into a clay that can use and they’d been covering the ponds in the middle of the night to protect them from the rain.  He made a few simple things, re-forming them into a lump of clay to make something else a few times.  He’d learned pottery-making from an Italian potter who wanted to pass on the skill- he emphasized over and over that it had to be in your blood and that it could take decades to learn the right moves to shape pieces.  He and the guide had a passionate discussion about Japanese roku pottery; that, he said, takes 50 years to learn.  There were so many pieces I could have taken home, but knowing that I had to get whatever I bought home in one piece, I chose a painted panel.   We asked if his parents had been in the business.  He gently reminded us that...

Like many fortresses, Rozafa Castle was built on the highest peak in the city.  Our bus took us partway up and we walked the rest.  Some of the ruins date back to the 4th century.  In the 13th and 14th century there was a Catholic church but then became a mosque under Ottoman rule. The four of us who took the Albania pre-trip. Dinner was another amazing farm-to-table meal back in Tirana. They really know how to grow delicious tomatoes here! This tray included wild boar sausage.  I liked it.  Who knew?