It's that time of year again

First off we'd like to thank everyone who has sent care packages recently.  The Youngstown gang, including mom, grandparents, and UC & AG, Newark mom and dad, and Aunt Marcy.  I think the post office is getting tired of us as they are now setting time constraints for us coming in to pick up the latest two packages between 8 and 12 noon, so I got myself out of bed one chilly fall morning and rode my bike down to the post office.  After fighting my way up to the front of the "line" they brought out two packages full of goodies.  Spices, candy, rain boots for Tiff and lots of other stuff. 

We have decided that if we never reuse any of the reusable shopping bags we will still have extras to give away as wrapping paper for gifts!  Thank you all very much for all of them but we have got more than what we know what to do with now. 

What these weeks have been filled with are football of the American variety.  We were out of town for the Marshall game (we left town on Friday morning at 7:00 a.m.  the game was actually Friday morning at 1:30 a.m.) but we downloaded the game online to see it later in the week.  The game we wanted to make sure we saw was the OSU- Miami game.  We had a friend (Buckeye) come in from a town nearby and we made hot dogs, mac and cheese, chips and guacamole, pasta salad and had plenty of American candy to go around.  This was the first attempt of watching a Buckeye game in real time over the internet.  Here is the result:  

We moved the couch in the bedroom, set a projector on a table sitting on the bed and turned on the game.  We watched the first drive of Ohio State and the internet went out all over Shkoder.  (Aunt Marcy: I know what you were going through for the Marshall game.)  The girls gave up on the game about 10:30 when the internet still hadn't come back, I went outside to let the girls sleep and the internet came back with a few minutes to go in the 2nd half.  I watched the rest of the game outside, trying not to yell too much.  When the game ended and OSU had won I was still wide awake and watched some of the Penn State- Alabama game, until I finally passed out from exhaustion.  We got up in the morning to watch the whole game, and I tried to be quiet about who won.  Of course everyone was happy once Pryor downed the ball the final time and all of us could say (a few hours late) that we had beat Miami (again)!  Yesterday we could not find the game online to watch but we were able to listen to a radio broadcast of the game.  It makes us feel more at home to know every Saturday and Sunday we can settle in behind the computer and watch (or listen) to the Buckeyes winning, and the Browns losing, although hopefully that will change soon.  We hope to have at least one more Buckeye Big Screen showing here this season, and maybe more depending on when the games are.  We do pretty well with the noon or 1 p.m. starts but the 3:30's require a mid day nap, and the 7s require going through jet lag again.  We hope to watch the game against that team up north at the end of November, and maybe the Penn State game depending on the time.  There is an actual tOSU grad here in Albania and she has promised Buckeye candy if we host another party.  We might even invite the traitor from Berat who was born in Ohio but likes corn and blue better than scarlet and grey, just to give us someone to pick on.  Hope all is well in the USA, hope your teams are winning, unless their name starts with and M and ends with an ichigan.  Go Bucks!  O - H...!

Greastest Care Package to date

The greatest care Package yet to date, 26 pounds of spices, and candy, Lots and Lots of Candy!

Finally the traveling part

So we realized that this blog was called the travels of TnT not the travel, so in the interest of informing people about more of the country than the Shkoder region, we made a few trips.  Well, we made the trips to see more of the country, but also to let everyone back home know about these places too.  When we returned home people in my office as well as other peace corps volunteers asked what our favorites were, so I thought it would be a good idea to give my best and worst of Albania list, and at the end I will share some pictures of the places we have been and let you choose your favorites.  The two "peoples choice" categories are best castle, and best view from a castle.  Sorry cities without castles, you didn't make the cut.  Sorry Elbasan, your castle is nice but I don't have a good picture and the field castle idea just doesn't provide inspiring views.  Tiffany has declined to compare anything since she feels that Albanians compare too much and doesn't like my awards idea, but I digress. On to the awards...

Best City... the nominees are Shkoder, Lezhe, Tirana, Gjirokaster and Berat.
Shkoder is a nice city, the hub of the north, it has 3 rivers, a lake and the ocean just to the southwest.  It is also the "cultural capital" of Albania, boasting many famous poets and singers.  Lezhe is nice, having the big city feel and the beach so close. Tirana is the capital crowded and metropolitan but it is a good place to stop when you need a bit of the Western World feel.  Gjirokaster is also a nice city but the hike up the hill is a killer and not one that I would enjoy having to do every time I needed to pick up some imported item.  The fact that many of the imports come in the country through Gjirokaster and are sold there does give it some bonus points.  Finally Berat, the city of 1000 windows ( I only counted 997, just kidding)  Berat is beautiful with the castle and river running through the city, but the water schedule bumps it down because sometimes you just need to shower, do dishes and laundry in the middle of the day.  For those of you not familiar with a water schedule it is how many cities distribute water for a few hours during the day generally once in the morning and again in the evening, many residents have storage tanks to provide 24 hour water, but they notice a lack of pressure when not on city water.

And the winner is....  SHKODER!!  They say there is no place like home, and I may be a bit biased but I like it the best.

Worst Climb to a Castle (or best place to train to climb Mt. Everest if there were a castle at the top of Mt. Everest)...The nominees are Shkoder, Lezhe, Berat and Gjirokaster...
Shkoder's Rozafa castle sits on a hill on the south end of the city, Shkoder itself is as flat as a day old can of Coke so the castle rises up out of seemingly nowhere.  Lezhe's castle also sits above the relatively flat city, the castle is less visited by tourists so the path is more of a goat trail than a road of many others on the list.  Berat's castle sits perched between to large mountains the road leading to the castle wraps around the hill providing an easy drive for a car but at points a steep climb.  As mentioned before Gjirokaster's castle sits above both the old and new cities providing views of the river valley below.  The recent settlers of Gjirokaster built the city at the base of the hill but the old town was built on the side of the mountain with nothing but straight cobblestone roads to get to the castle.

And the winner (or loser) is...Gjirokaster.  I know it had to be painful for armies trying to take the castle but someone had to think about tourists centuries later!  (To be fair the true loser of this category is Elbasan their castle sits in the middle of the city with nothing even close to a hill anywhere close)

Best Beach...

No idea still have only been to 2 in the north, and I have heard the southern beaches are pretty nice

Best Souvenir Shopping (or best place to spend all of your money on things no one will know what to do with)...The nominees are Shkoder, Tirana, and Kruja.
Shkoder has a number of souvenir shops around town including the tourist information center.  Tirana has many souvenir shops selling everything from Albania t-shirts to pens with the Albanian flag, they even have mobile shops around the necks of teenagers that hang out in the center of town where the tourists all pass through.  Kruja's "souvenir central" is set up in their old bazaar.  The narrow cobblestone street is lined with merchants speaking in English asking you to come in to look at their merchandise.

And the winner is....Kruja.  The merchants can be a bit annoying after awhile but there is no beating the setting.  If I was looking to buy my set of Albanian leader coffee mugs in the 1700's I'd look in the same place as I do today and it would probably look pretty similar too.

Alright we will take a pause for now from the awards but I want to know your opinion so post your favorite castle pics and view from a castle on the message board or E-mail me. 

The nominees  for best castle are...

A

B

C

D

                                                                

And the nominees for best view...

A

B

C

summer camp

It has been 2 exhausting weeks.  World Vision organized 4 summer camps in 2 weeks.  That means we had 2 camps going on at the same time Monday-Friday.  The camps started at some point around 9 a.m. and finished at some point around 1 p.m.  One camp a week was held here in Shkoder at a Kolping center.  Kolping is a organization affiliated with the Catholic Church and has guest houses around the world.  The other was held in the villages.  The first week in Drobrac, the second in Stoj.  I helped to organize the camps here, but volunteered in the villages two days a week.  Tiffany and our site mate Jessi also volunteered a day or two each week as well, mostly at Kolping but each made it out to Dobrac as well.  I have never felt as terrible about my level of Albanian as I have with the kids.  They spoke so fast and I realized even having simple conversations with people in the office they are slowing their speech down so that I am able to understand.  The kids don't do that for me, they speak their fast high pitched kids speak and leave me looking around for someone to translate.  Fortunately I had Adi, the games coordinator at the camp who also served as my translator, and after he learned how the game or activity worked, he pretty much took over to let me take notes or time the kids, whichever was needed.  Without Adi the kids would still be staring blankly at me waiting for directions in a language they understood.  Instead of explaining he rest of the camp I thought I would share a few of the pictures.

A Tale of Two Roads

This past weekend Tiff and I decided to travel to Kukes for our first non-capital excursion as volunteers. We chose Kukes for a few reasons; first the volunteers there were hosting a training event for Outdoor Ambassadors ( a group that promotes enviromental awareness through activities like hiking and camping), secondly we wanted to go to Puke (pronounced with the e like an A), thirdly we just needed to get out of Shkoder. Our list of sites to visit also included Fushe Arrez (fush arrez) but due to bus schedules and furgon routes we couldn't make it there, but we have a bus that makes a trip to the Fushe everyday so we will make it there soon. As you know Shkoder is in the north-west part of Albania. We are surronded on three sides by water (1 lake, 2 rivers) and prone to flooding, we are also about a 45 minute drive to Ulcin, Montenegro, so we have heard, we are still not allowed to leave the country. Kukes on the other hand is almost directly across the country traveling due east. They are surronded on 3 sides by water (1 lake that used to be a river) and was completely rebuilt after the old Kukes was submerged under the lake when the government dammed the river in the 1970's. They are also about a 45 minute drive from Prizen, Kosovo.

We left Shkoder on Friday and traveled to Puke on a bus. About 2 hours later we arrived on the outskirts of the city, our bus was bound for a different location and they took the road that runs along the outskirts of Puke instead of the one that runs through the city. We spent the day with the volunteers relaxing and joking, we were also joined by 4 other volunteers that were working with GPS software mapping trails around the country. The next morning we caught a furgon at 7:25 a.m. bound for Kukes. We went up and down mountains through valleys and over rivers, luckily this driver goes very slowly but the ride still felt like a roller coaster. He even bought us a coffee at our rest stop because we were Americans and we knew James (one of the Kukes volunteers), who I think he might have a little of a man crush on. We finally arrived at about 11 a.m.

Traveling time from Shkoder to Kukes- 2 hours to Puke + 3.5 hours from Puke = 5.5 hours

We enjoyed a great weekend with the volunteers in Kukes and a volunteer that joined us from our group. We learned about the Outdoor Ambassadors, had good food, and went on an incredible hike up a canyon called "the bad staicase." (Hopefully I will get pictures up soon). This afternoon after our hike we decided to take the "new" road home. The new road is the Albanian superhighway that includes numerous bridges, and a tunnel that I estimated to be over 3 miles long. Most of it is 4 lanes and it is designed to allow freight to be brought from Eastern Europe to the port in Durres more efficiently than was possible before. If anything went out from Durres it either went around Albania and then south from Montenegro through Shkoder, or through the old road that we took on our way here. The road is not totally finished yet and they still have to let one direction of cars travel through the tunnel at a time, 3 mile tunnel, but traveling on this road we left at 2 p.m. from Kukes and arrived in Shkoder in time to here the bells chime at 5! This included a transfer of furgons in Milot but I didn't check to see exactly what time this transfer happened.  The road was very nice and reminded me of freeways in the US other than the random people on the side of the road trying to catch a bus or furgon.  I made a quick map of our trip just to help anyone not associated with Albanian geography what the trip looked like.  You can't even see the new road on maps yet, but it cuts in that general direction and meets up with the Shkoder- Tirana road near Milot and that meets with the Tirana- Durres Road near Tirana. 

So we are back in Shkoder safe and sound albeit tired, and ready to start a new week.  I have seen other volunteers do this and thought it would be a good idea to have people who read the blog, or get it forwarded to them by people who read it to ask questions about what life is like in Albania, and we will try to answer them as best as we can.  So shoot us an E-mail, or comment in the blog and we will answer all your questions and everything you ever needed to know about Shqiperia!  Hope all is well in the US!

Hot, hot and hot!!

This week has been interesting, it started off with threats of 40 C days (104 F) later in the week and it didn't fail to disappoint. We had no choice but to turn on our air conditioning the past 3 nights just trying to get to sleep. We also got to head out to a couple of summer camps this week. Tiff went to a summer camp on Tuesday and Friday at two organizations close to Shkoder and I got to head up to Hot i ri (Hot pronounced with a long o like oh)and the Catholic Church's summer camp put on by the Hot sisters, not to be confused with the hot sisters, which as one of my coworkers described must be a strip-club somewhere in Albania. Then on Saturday night we got to go to the Miss Earth Albania beauty pageant where about 27 girls competed for a chance to represent Albania in the Miss Earth competition. We not only got to go but had seats in the official Bashkia box seated right next to the mayor and vice-mayor, and Tiffany's counterparts daughter. Here is one of the many pictures I took, they are all a bit dark but I think you can get the idea.

Other than that not much has been going on just trying to beat the heat as best as we can. Hopefully heading east this weekend will provide some relief.

Happy 9th err 4th of Korriku umm I mean July

This is my best attempt to keep the blog updated, the posts might be shorter but I will keep everyone hopefully a little more updated on our lives.
On Friday we got to go to the 4th of July party sponsored by some Americans, to be honest I don't know who they were but it sounds something like AMCHAM. We were just excited to be able to go, as we originally did not get peace corps tickets. 30 tix for 90 volunteers, and the math didn't add up, but thanks to US Aid (actually David Smith a contractor for the organization) coming to the rescue, who knew they were into this type of aid, we got tickets. The party was a lot of fun even though no one can figure out why it was on the 9th, a full 5 days after the 4th, which was a Sunday and either the Friday or Saturday would have seemed to be better dates to have the festival. The location was at the Wilson School, an international school named after Woodrow Wilson, and managed to have pretty good hot dogs, although the hamburgers left a lot to be desired. A few of the Albanian beers companies also showed up as well as a winery/brandy(ery) to keep the party lively. They even had a very decent fireworks display at dusk. After we went to the Block (short-north of Columbus, or warehouse district in Cleveland). Well I don't know how much partying is going on in Cleveland right now, but when there was partying in Cleveland I guess the Warehouse district was where it was done at. So we found a bar and hung out with a few Navy sailors. All in all a blast, and we even felt our first Albanian earthquake. We hear they are quite common here but not as much in Tirana and not this big, although it was a modest 4.8. The deck we were sitting on just wobbled a bit, many people around didn't even seem to notice. Yesterday we made it back from Tirana, and met up with some friends to (not) watch the soccer match. All in all a very exciting weekend and we are taking today off to catch up on the latest news of LeBron and the rest of the more exciting news of the world. Still hoping the all but sports is good in the US and everyone is doing well.