Gracie goes to Albania: December 2010

Apollonia and Ardenica

I was fortunate enough to be invited along on a US Embassy trip to Apollonia. A small busload of us, including a wonderful family with 3 well behaved children, started out early from the Embassy and headed for the 2 hour drive, southeast of Tirana. Apollonia is the largest archeaological park in Albania. It's quite decieving, because most of the city is still uncovered and lies beneath the beautiful hills of grass. It is a Greek Colony founded around 600BC. It is currently about 8 km from the Adriatic sea and was an important port . Over the years, due to earthquakes and the changing direction of the Vjosa Rover, it use to be much closer to the sea and was the beginning station of the southern branch of the Roman road that linked Durres and Greece and Turkey.

Administrative Center

Gathering spot

Monestary on the grounds

Our guides Blerta and Roza

Ardenica is the site of St. Marys Church, dating to the 13th Century.. We were able to get inside but not allowed to take pictures.. Amazing frescoes on the walls, currently being renovated.. beautiful..

Oh, and of course, the highlight, were these adorable puppies, 5 of them in all..Their mom and dad hang out at the site, Mark remembers them from his visit last February.. Everyone wanted to take them home!

Puppies of Apollonia

A beautiful day, ended with a gorgeous Sunset overlooking the city of Fier

We made the cover of the Embassy Newsletter

TWIG Trip to Kruje

http://albca.com/albania/kruje.html

With the skies looking gloomy, about 9 TWIG friends took the hour drive up to Kruje, northern city, most known as the birthplace of Skanderberg, Albania's national hero. It is a city built on a hill, and on a clear day ( which it really wasn't) you can see to the Adriatic. It's also known for it's local craftsmen and tourist attraction for his castle and museum to Skanderberg.
We had a great day, missed most of the rain, and everyone succeeded in finding some trinkets.

A view from Kruje

the Group

Linda "pretending"

Ready to shop

looming carpets

Handicrafts

the hills

I bought a beautiful Olive Wood bowl, which now holds our wine corks.

My Olive Wood Bowl

Hiking Mt Dajti

So there's lots of Albanian holidays in the month of November...Mark gets all of them off! We had a beautiful cool day and decided to take the tram up to Mt Dajti.. It is the highest peak in Tirana, about 20 minutes drive, but world's away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Mark's boss, Gary, and co-worker, Martha, and I took the Tram from the bottom to mid way up. We were told there was a "trail" up to the top.. Fabulous views from the tram, just like one you'd take to go skiing or mountain biking up Mammoth.. Built by the Swiss. There's a restaurant and hotel at the midway point, but we were determined to get to the top. The boys said they were "scouts" and we'd find it.. After a half an hour of "scouting", Gary and I decided, oh heck, let's just go UP! And UP we did, with a little sliding and cursing and heavy breathing, 3 of us didn't quite make it... Gary, the man, succeeded.. Here are pics to prove it.. I'm going to total plagiarize Mark's blog.. his pictures and descriptions are soo much better than mine.. I was just happy to make it down in one piece.. Thanks Honey!

http://kickedinthebalkans.blogspot.com/2010/11/gondola-ride-to-mount-dajti.html#comments

Here are a few of mine, but click on his link...

Lunch at the bottom, worth the hike

Catching Up....

It's been a busy couple of weeks..day trips and Thanksgiving in Prague, crafting, dinners, book club, rainy shopping days....
Since my last blog, everyday has been filled with new experiences, new people and a great fondness of this place we now call "home"..
I can hardly believe I've been here 3 months and Mark is almost hitting a year. We've made some wonderful friends and experience things we never imagined.. Sometimes we just look at each other and say "whodda thunk"????

I'm going to post some pics and descriptions of the places and people.. I'll try to keep my memory straight...

I am first going to finish my post from Torre Del Greco and the Great Cameo Shopping Expedition...