This is Adventure

Last Sunday: my first day off since Jan. 13 in Iowa. What is the best use of my time on this day?

Easy decision: HIKE!

Thor procured for us some local teenage boys to act as sherpas on our trek through some hills around the villages of Shirgjan and Kuqan.

We started off at the Bern Market. I walk by this place twice every day on my walking commute to the training site. I'm not sure what to think about the bear hanging out front.

And off we went. It was quite a journey. Thor, Antonia, our 3 teenage guides, and me. I overused the sign of the horns hand gesture. My bad there. Also I look like I'm in the witness protection program. But those things aside, it was a really great time.

 

Our group from my perspective:

We looked at the mountains and contemplated the borders of Albania: Montenegro to the northwest; Kosovo to the northeast; Macedonia to the east; Greece to the southeast and south; and the Adriatic Sea (and across it, Italy) to the west.

It is still surreal to me that I'm actually here.

Okay, funny story with this picture--I took it to remind me of the following: we're trekking along, and I'm told that the crops on the side of the hills are olive trees. Cool. Then I hear someone shout "Jason!" from a hill away from our group. "Jason!" I hear again. It's my host brother, Eddie, out picking olives. I stare at a speck on the horizon, about 200 meters away (I'm trying to go metric now). There's a guy waving his arms at me. I guess that's Eddie. I will never understand how he was able to recognize me. "HOW ARE YOU?!" "I AM GOOD. HOW ARE YOU?!" "GOOD!" "SEE YOU LATER!" "OKAY!"

On we went. Did I mention Albania is beautiful?

At one point we came across some steep embankments. The only way onward was to sort of climb down them. Our teenage sherpas, who were more fearless than we PCVs (well, this PCV anyway), shimmied down the side and waved for us to follow. I flashed them a skeptical glance. One said, "C'mon, this is adventure!" I love broken English like that. We took their advice and followed, unscathed.

We came upon a clearing and sat for a bit with our lunches. If I could, I would build a cabin here and just take up painting for a year.

Teenagers are the same the world over. One from this group here first mentioned he had grandparents living in a house on one of the hills. When we asked to visit the grandparents, one of them said "no!" and the others laughed. Also, one threw a rock at a stray dog. But they were also very nice to us, and they kept offering us their food. That seems to be a trend here.

We came upon a cemetery coming back. I was exhausted, but I didn't want to pass up the detour. I made the right choice.

Almost done...

I was so very, very happy to be back on solid ground. But the trek continues...

By accident, we happened to walk by my home. I wanted to introduce Thor and Antonia to my host family. Emin and Hanko took them in and made us all kafes and offered snacks. It was amazing.

 

And because Thor and Baba both spoke Russian (of course Thor speaks Russian--he's Thor), we were able help Baba fix his cell phone. A good deed to end the adventure.

Mirupafshim! ;)