From what I understand he one I got today said that, in my attempts to realize myself, I should feel content these days with the simple act of being aware. I guess it meant that this is somehow leading towards solutions. It also spoke about this being a time when I should work towards removing the notion of victimhood from my life and that a first path to do that is through marks of awareness about this issue.
I can buy that. Seems like timely advice.
I am very aware that already, even in these two posts when I feel like I have revealed some things about my personal life... I have withheld A LOT. Partly this is due to some worry about mentioning other people and secondly about some worry that I could end up just complaining a lot or at least looking like a complainer if I mention unpleasant things. I'm not sure how I will deal with that in this blog. I will maybe ask some people close to me about how they feel about being mentioned. Its very hard to write about my daily life in a fairly open way and not mention others because they are a big part of me.
Here is am pasting in a small report of my recent incredible trip to Albania. All these details are true. I left out parts of the trip because I don't want to reveal some pristine locations for fear of other people touristing there and also some bits of the trip were left out because they were not so pleasant and involve really personal moment and stories. These things were already shared with the two people I traveled with, Edith and Luis so in regards to sharing, they have already been shared enough I guess.
This is a photo of Edith with a really nice car in Skopje. Its is NOT the car we drove with to Albania.
ALBANIA
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/frontierlab/AlbaniaAugust121708
We were Edith, Luis and Kyd.
We rented a small red Chevrolet car in Skopje
We drove from Skopje to Ohrid the first day and found a room in Gorna Porta to sleep at Liliana's house.
We met up with Lea and Liubo there and they gave us some tips and direction since they had just come from Albania. They said the roads were dangerous, a passing car had torn off one of their side mirrors.
We left the next day and drove into Albania, no troubles at the border. We just had to pay 3euros and get some insurance certificate papers.
We stopped for lunch and ate tashkebap on a balcony overlooking a river.
After lunch some guys spoke to us and didn't want us to leave. We left.
They got in their black Audi and chased us along the highway for a while. Scary.
Almost every car on the road is a Benz, BWM, Audi, Volkswagen or large new SUV.
There are no old cars.
People drove crazily but not as wildly as we had expected. The roads all the way to Vlore were through the mountains but were in good conditions.
We followed Lea and Liubo's directions and went near Narte.
We won't tell you the exact places and all the details, so don't ask. We found areas untouched by tourism.
We collected our trash in the car, waiting to find a trash can, there were none.
We found a highway on the beach and followed it until the end. We only got stuch in the sand once for a moment.
Late at night we found a small village and a place to eat. The fish was amazing. There was a nice girl who spoke a little bit of english. We got completely ripped off by her mother.
We were warned that if we continued up the road to find a place to camp that some police guards would chase us away. The lady who ripped us off said we should stay in her hotel. We left and continued up the road.
We weree not sure exactly what way to go and we went up a small hill. At the tpo was a radar tower and some men came out to see who we were.
We smiled and they smiled. They did not speak english or french. In mixed Albanian and Italian they asked where we were from. We answered and said bye bye and went back down the road.
We found another road and then some destroyed buildings, we camped on a cliff overlooking the sea.
At 8am two boys came and woke us up. It was the same guys from the night before.
They were very friendly and didn't speak much because between us all, Italian was the most common language, and none of us actually speak Italian.
They left after an hour and then we climbed down to find some rocks by the sea.
A while later one of the guys came to find us and has a sweet while puppy with him.
We stayed with us all day, barely speaking and guided us around the coast to many nice rocks and beaches. There were almost no other people. He taught Edith and Kyd not to be afraid to touch the seaweed with our feet.
We went to a larger beach that was full of people and ate some fresh fish.
We found out the guy's name was Gentian, he was 23 and worked for the police guarding the Radar tower. He worked on 24 hour shifts, alternating with the other guy, Tony,
We were going to leave to drive further south but decided to stay there since there was a greek festival in the area and we had already found some amazing private beaches.
At night we met the other guy, Tony and went to a greek festival at a nearby Monastery. There were families and traditional music and great bbqs.
This area of Albania is Catholic.
We slept in the guesthouse at the radar tower. It belongs to the military and inside were some army uniforms and Albanian and NATO flags.
The next day Gentian left and Tony arrived.
He brought us to some new rocks and beaches and back to the fish restaurant on the big beach and we met Gentian.
Although we didn't have a common language, we spoke a mix of spanish, italian and sign language and managed to have full conversations.
We gave the guys some CDs of music and they gave us some Albanian music.
We drove Gentian and a guy names Elvis back to another small town and then we continued back towards Macedonia.
We stopped at a gas station, which we found to be abandoned. The only one there was a super huge and friendly dog.
We stopped in Elbasan and ate tashkebap at a small cafe with some old men. This area must be muslim, nobody was drinking alcohol and no women were visible.
We continued on to Ohrid. The road at night was pretty wild, all cars were Benz' and drivers passed in dangerous ways.
When we arrive in Ohrid we found a granny holding a sign offering rooms. She brought us back up to Gorna Porta to an old house above the antique theatre with a view over the city and the lake.
In the morning we woke up to a small girl and the granny, Milka, offering us breakfast.
We had a coffee, swam in the lake and drove back to Skopje.
The rental car man said everything was fine.
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