Heading south

Trip Start Apr 14, 2006
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Trip End Jul 2008


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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Early the next morning I walked out to see the bridge in Berat, and then caught a 9:30 AM bus south to Gjirokaster. The day before Katie had arranged for me to sleep with Margaret, a PCV there. Well it was very unfortunate the bus left so late (it was the only one) because the trip was miserable. Katie had told me to try to get a seat in the first row because the driver left the doors open and I would get some breeze. Those were taken, so i was 3 rows back. The windows didn't open and there was no air of course. On top of the intense heat the driver played loud Albanian wedding music (think drums) which hurt my head even with earplugs in. On some bits of the road the paving wasn't very good, but the real reason the trip was so slow was the narrow road zig zagged up and over steep mountains. Most of the 5.5 hour trip I just sat and thought how miserable I was. The only highlight was when an elder woman sat next to me for about an hour and we struck up a conversation in Albanian (mostly pointing,) where was I from, if I was alone (she said shum mir, very good, when I said I was,) and I showed her on my guidebook maps where I was travelling in Albania and where I live in Bulgaria Berat houses
Berat houses
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Once in Gjirokaster Margaret met me where the bus dropped me off and took me back to her place. We spent about an hour talking. She is an awesome woman. Over 50, but looks much younger. Has lived all over the world and is better physical shape than I am. She does triathalons at home in the States. Then i went up alone to the castle which overlooks the town. It is worth seeing, but I think the highlight of Gjirokaster is the windy cobblestoned streets in the old town (just below the castle) and the beautiful white houses with grey slate roofs on the hills. This time i did wear my walking shoes - the streets are slippery.

When I got back to Margaret's her site mate Stacy was there, another Albania PCV Andrew, and his friend Craig visitting from PC Ukraine. We talked some about Albanian culture and compared notes on our respective programs. We got a cheap dinner nearby. I had a delecious suvlach (we call it a gyro in America.) I often ate suvlach in Albania and I was very impressed. You find it all over the Balkans, and the only ones i've had to rival the Albanian ones I had in Athens. The Bulgarian version (called duners) are particularly crap.

Around 9:30 pm I went back to shower and go to bed as I was exhausted from my trip earlier, while Margaret and Stacy helped Craig to catch an overnight bus to Athens. Fortunately Gjirokaster had water all day, it was so refreshing to shower just before bed, even if I did start sweating again immediately. I passed out before 11 despite the heat.
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