Berat trip

The moon was still shining at 4:30 am and sounds of dripping water had woken Ms. C-B, one of our travel mates. She first thought it was raining, but then realized it was IN her apartment. The water heater had sprung some kind of leak and was spraying scalding water all other the apartment. We made a couple calls; school maintenance came over and fixed up the place. At 8:00, we were ready to go--dry and no water on the floor. Hoo-rah! Just missed a bullet trying to kill our plans that time.

The photo ops came fast and furious--first sight worthy of a triple-take was a live goat standing at attention in the back of a yellow car. He was probably enjoying his first and last chauffeur-driven cruise to the butcher shop.

Ten minutes later, near Durres, calmly walking along the street sniffing (or chewing) his minder’s fingers, was one of the biggest and hairiest dogs I’d ever seen. He had a chain hanging from his neck. “My! What a large nose he has,” I thought. “My! What huge paws he has! Look how he’s walking!... That’s no dog, it’s a &#%!@ bear!” I guess he takes that route often--no one seemed to notice.

In no time, we were stuck in traffic--unusual, we thought, for a Saturday morning--our bodies were overheating and sweat was popping out of our skin. We decided not to worry about the grime and clothes sticking to our bodies.

Below, see the corn cooking on the side of the road. (see next blog entry)