Friday, August 12- The Tour Starts

 

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 restaurants