Mount Dajti

Yesterday night (Saturday) I was super ill. I had no appetite, a sore throat, stuffy nose, a slight headache, and the chills. So I hopped into my bed with a sweater on, and blankets at 8:00pm. I woke up at 6:00am today, and decided it was time to climb a mountain. My nose was still quite stuffy, but for the most part my sore throat was gone.

The cable car station

The city

We took a bus from the center of the city to Dajti, and then walked about a mile to the cable car station. We paid our 700 leke for the trip to the top and back, and hopped on the first cable car up to the top. The first thing I noticed after getting off the cable car was how much air was up there. Fresh air, that I could breathe. It was like an instant heal for my lungs. I felt better already. We paid our 50 leke to get into the park, and explored the bombshelters while searching earnestly for the castle ruins that are up there, somewhere. We never found them.

Bombshelter

Horses!

Super cool tree on the way up

We finally found a trail (road) but it led us to a military zone that we couldn't go into (the man yelled angrily as Scott attempted to get a picture.) So we decided to go up to the top. Once you get off the cable car it is only about 1.5 miles to hike to the top, but the elevation change is insane. I was crawling on my hands and knees, grabbing onto tree as much as possible for support. After about 3 minutes of hiking we would be so out of breath we had to take a 5 minute break. We made it to the point where we were about .3 miles away, and gave up. I just didn't see how we would be able to climb anything steeper than we already had.

We headed back down, slipping and sliding, until we found a very deserted house to explore (the newspaper we found was from 2005). After, we decided we were finally hungry so we stopped at the restaurant for a beer and some pizza before taking the cable car back down. On the way down we heard an Albanian man talking about the forest fires that were taking place about 2 weeks ago. Apparently they were not accidental fires. Someone started them on purpose because of the price of wood somewhere else. This country is really run by organized crime. He said "nothing in Albania happens on accident. It all happens for a reason."

Where the fire burned away the forest

When we got off the cable car I could hardly breathe. I want to stay here for 2 years but the thing that makes me want to get out of here the most is the pollution. It is awful! All in all I had a great day exploring and getting out of my apartment and the pollution/noise of the city.