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.

3 weeks out

3 weeks from now I will officially be in Tirana!

Wow! What a week it has been indeed. I've accomplished several things on my bucket list, and will complete a ton more in the week to come. I went on a fantastic hiking trip up north last weekend, which was great to take my mind off things.

Tuesday night I went to a Twins game at target field with my co-worker. We had great seats and were able to watch the moon rise behind the skyline. I made it out for several bloodies, and went to get ribs and listen to blues last night. I've been continually making it to the Roe Family Singers as well! I tried both forms of Juicy Lucys and have come to the conclusion that's Matt's bar has the better one :D

Today was my last day of work and I have to say it was a rough one. I don't think many of the kids understood that I won't be there ever again, but the one who did would not let me out of his sight for a second. I ended up sobbing for the first 10 minutes of my drive to work. I'm going to miss working with these kids so much. But I'm sure I will get to work with many more fantastic kids along the way.

On Monday I went shopping for a money belt and luggage locks. I had a little mini breakdown in the store realizing that I had no idea what I was doing, but I just made the best informed purchases I could and left. Packing has been insanely disorganized. Clothes have been thrown into space saving bags, and socks have been smushed inside of shoes. All in all I'm feeling like my packing for Albania is getting nearly done, but my packing to move my crap back home is not going well. My room is a mess, which isn't helping me stay any less stressed. It's also becoming really hard to prepare not only for my journey to Albania but my vacation time in Wisconsin. I just don't know what actually needs to go into my carry-on. Frustrated! I'm still trying to figure out my banking/phone stuff for while I'm there, but I'm trying not to worry about it too much. I'm sure the school has had enough experience in this area.

I'm still working on selling my car, but have a guy coming to look at it tomorrow morning. Hopefully that works out and I can be done with it! I'm also getting the tattoo, that I've been wanting for a year, done tomorrow night! super excited!!!