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)

After 3 hours in our baking machine, we arrived at our destination, Berat. It’s reputed to be the oldest town in Albania. Wikipedia, the source for everything reputed, says it was founded in the 6^th century BC. Albanian legend has it that two mountains fought over a girl, killed each other, and the young lady’s tears formed the nearby river. I think I’ve heard that story before somewhere.

The relaxation was the great part of Berat. The pace of life is languid and people are friendly, as they are all over Albania. The cruel heat kept us from pursuing anything more strenuous than watching. We fit right in. We drove up a 60° incline up to the castle to trudge around on grass that was trying to escape death by furnace. At one stage, more than one of us was asleep at an outdoor cafe that let us use their umbrellas.

In the early evening, we received a reprieve from the heat. As we walked around town, the boys became excited about taking pictures. Life takes on a refreshingly curious view from the perspective of a kindergartener--lots of shoes and knees. The take away point from this article is that Berat needs to be visited in the fall, winter, or spring.

Home from Berat

The trip back was nearly as hot, but at least I had my camera ready. I got some pictures of the hammock-sized plots of corn every quarter mile or so.

While I was buying an outdoor bed and a deck umbrella with Mrs. C-B, Maura got a great picture of an enterprising dude with about 157 5-gallon plastic water battles secured, strapped, or stuck to his bike.

We also encountered 19 wedding processions with honking horns, streamers on the hoods and cameraman hanging out the window.