Weekend Hike in Albania

Who would have thought less than a 2 hour drive from Pristina you can access this? A crew of 20 of us (including a 2 and 6 year old in backpacks) hiked up 6000ft to the mountain pass between Valbona and Theth Albania. Beyond the incredible views, small coffee shacks were located in the middle of the trails on each side of the pass for well deserved breaks. We were expecting to spend the night in a mountain hut in an open room bunk arrangement with food cooked on the open fire. Instead we had our own lodge room with the best homecooked Albanian lamb feast we have ever had (including homemade wine;-) So we certainly didn't rough it but the 12 miles each day have had a lingering affect;-)

On our second day we took the scariest cliff side drive about 30 minutes away for a short hike to the 'Blue Eye' waterfall. Incredible views with tree houses surrounding the fall for beverages and local music. Although they were missed, we were happy to have left the kids with the in-laws so we could truly enough the nature and the strenuous outdoor exercise we used to do more regularly. Guess now I know why we saw so many older empty nesters out on the trails too.

Scandinavia Tour

Hard to believe the summer is officially over. The kids are back in school, the warm weather has started to chill and the lazy, relaxed atmosphere is ramping back up into its full routine. But where did it go? This has been the coolest summer in Kosovo we remember not being able to set-up the pool till end of June and taking it down before our Scandinavia trip mid August (but climate change is all our imagination right?) Adi attended 3 weeks of camp at ILG to at least interact with the kids and have fun craft and sports activities. Rea’s school luckily still operates all year and she has finally moved to the next grade. We plan to keep her in the local school 1 more year to perfect her Albanian and we love the program, location and price;-)

Pranvera continues to essentially run the Rule of Law USAID program and she has been asked to stay on for a year extension if interested. I was in full work mode up till end of July finishing an MCC project that has finally concluded so our Scandinavia tour to Denmark, Sweden and Norway was perfectly timed. For over 2 weeks we traveled by every mode of transportation, stayed in 6 different apartments, explored 4 major cities and enjoyed the tail-end of their warmest summer on record. It was fantastic!! Was afraid of all the logistics but we had put together all the flights, airbnb, high-speed train tickets and ferry pass ahead of time which only left us to figure it all out on the ground. But we had help with dear friends from Maputo days to hang with in Denmark and grad colleagues of Pranvera’s in Norway. Was a wonderful reunion with them all but we had plenty of alone time exploring the canals, parks, restaurants and museums of Copenhagen (had to pass on the Lego House since too far away from city).

Stockholm was a highlight with its fairyland setting on the water, perfect streets and plaza’s, electric cars and bikes, Viking museums and play centers and perfect weather to spend on the water, city tours, bakery stands or collapsing in our central apartment.

Oslo was all this but on a smaller scale. Aside from losing Adi on their train system coming back from the Olympic Ski Jump facility. He stepped in a metro while we were still purchasing the ticket and off he went banging on the window. TERROR which fate would have it was resolved in 13 minutes. As we called our local friends to drive to the next stations and notify the train company of a lost boy we waited for the next train to arrive so we could take it to hopefully find him waiting on the next platform. 2 minutes before it came, the outbound train arrived on the opposite platform with him waving to us. A local couple saw our tragedy unfold and reassured Adi and brought him back to us while leaving a friend on the next platform in case we arrived there first. Thankfully this all happened in Norway;-) And a good lesson was learned by all.

Our final visit was to the fjords. As we rented a car and drove to Bergen for 3 days (one of the wettest cities on the planet), we weren’t deterred to spend a day on the boat photographing more waterfalls than necessary. Another rainy day atop the local mountain protecting the harbor. Or wandering the famous Fish Market and perfect historic old town and incredible restaurants. The pristine country landscape and water abounding everywhere. Our return to Oslo to take the overnight ferry back to Copenhagen should have been a non-event. Except for the fact the main road was suddenly shut-down due to an accident which made our 2 hour grace period look very short. A local in front of us turned around and agreed to lead us over a dirt road mountain pass through incredibly beautiful national park to get to the other side and make it to the port 15 minutes before departure.

Luckily the boat had a game room, bubble room, plenty of clubs and restaurants and incredibly beautifully scenery from all sides. Our tight 4 bunk cabin was kind of like camping and a chance to relax from the stressful final logistics challenge. I had planned an extra day in Denmark in order to catch our return flight home the next day. So how else to spend it but go to the famous city centered amusement park, Tivoli. So a couple dozen rides, another sweet role and a final 4 star fresh fish meal, we signed off our wonderful Summer holiday.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Back to School milestone and taking a sigh to appreciate a nice summer but a welcome return to routine;-)