We came to Albania to live a relatively quiet month but occasionally throw in some exploration and that is what we have been doing. Over the past week, I have stayed caught up on South Florida football doing well, Florida State football not doing well, and the Bucs continuing to surprise with their strong start to the season. Last Sunday, we headed out to the mall and had dinner in the food court, then enjoyed Taylor Swift’s album release party/movie. Sunday was the third day of the release, and the theater wasn’t very busy, but it was fun to watch the young Albanian girls get up and dance to the various songs – already knowing the words to so many of the tracks.

We continued our workouts in the beautiful park near our apartment and at the gym just around the corner. Sandy had the chance to catch up with Sarah and one of the Kathys, and I watched another one of the Marvel movies to keep going toward getting them all watched. We spent time at a couple of cafes and the beer garden in the park. I finished up the excellent book I started while in Jordan called The Lion of Jordan, which is a biography of King Hussein – amazing man. We worked on the journal and kept making progress on Frasier and AGT. We’ve also been keeping up with Brian and Carrie (full-time travel friends) as they are trying out cruising for two straight months. We’ve talked about doing that for a long-term period at some point in the future.

Food highlights that we want to remember include a place called Fitlife that has a very healthy menu and delicious food. We’ve been there a couple of times this week. We walked out to Kaon Brewhouse and Restaurant and had their Weiss beer. I had a small steak and potatoes and vegetables while Sandy had beef pasta that didn’t have much beef in it at all. We went back to Your Brownie Guy (our dealer) – those cookies and brownies are insanely delicious. We had breakfast twice at Mimoza n’Qoshe. The eggs Benedict is one of the better ones I have had. Sandy enjoys the omelet there. We’ve also tried the regular pancakes, Albanian pancakes (they are airy and reminded us of something you’d eat at the fair), and French toast. Pizza Time is an Italian restaurant close to the apartment, and they serve some of the better wings I have found while traveling and they even have ranch dressing. We tried PMG steakhouse, expecting a nice dinner out. The ambiance unfortunately didn’t match what we expected. My steak was excellent; Sandy’s was just ok. The Albanian merlot was good. The lighting was bright like an operating room – it needed a warmer feel.

Wednesday of this week was a day trip for us to get out and see a different part of Albania. We arranged a tour through Get Your Guide to head south and see the beach areas. It was a very long day. We left the apartment at 5:10am and the bus picked us up not far from our apartment at 5:25. We then made our way to several other stops in Tirana, Durres, and Golem and eventually had around 40 people in our tour group. Most of the group was from France. Our guide’s name was August and we had a second guide (Sam) who is training to be a guide and because she is from France, it worked perfectly for her to join this tour and help translate. We made a stop on our way south at a gas station and restaurant where we had omelets, bread with sour yogurt, and orange juice. We arrived in Ksamil at 11am and walked together to the small public beach. Unfortunately, it was windy, and the boats were not going out for their normal tours around the islands here. It’s also out of season and so it was a lot quieter than it would be throughout the summer. Ksamil and its islands are known as the Maldives of Europe. It is a very pretty area, but it was hard to get a sense of it by walking around and not being able to go out on the water. It is close enough to Greece that you can look out and see the island of Corfu just offshore.

For lunch, we went to Ftela Fish restaurant recommended by August. We shared fish soup, tzatziki, and seafood risotto. It was all very good. We left Ksamil at 1:45pm and drove 20 minutes up the road to Sarande. This was only a 45-minute stop, but we squeezed in chocolate ice roll – ice cream but it is served rolled up – and a walk along the promenade. We both liked this area better than what we saw in Ksamil. Lots of bars and restaurants along the promenade and a livelier feel in general. The beaches in Ksamil were better, but we’re not big fans of just hanging out on the beach usually.

We left Sarande at 2:50 and arrived at Blue Eye around 3:25. From the entrance to the national park it was a 20-minute walk to the blue eye. This is a natural spring that is more than 150 feet deep. It carries a strong current from below and the water is roughly around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The best part of the Blue Eye experience for us was sharing chicken soup and enjoying fresh orange juice at the restaurant by the stream running through the park.

We walked back down to the bus, and we were on the road again at 5. The drive through the southern mountains was beautiful and we stopped at the same restaurant for dinner as we had stopped for breakfast this morning. We again shared chicken soup, and we also had beef stew, meatballs, bread, and a spinach pastry. On the ride back after dinner, August and the bus driver sang a couple of traditional Albanian songs from the southern region, which is where they are both from – that was fun.

Our bus returned to our drop-off point at 10pm and we went to bed shortly thereafter. It was a long day, but it did a good job of meeting our desires to see the southern part of Albania and the beaches along the coast. The promenade at Sarande and the restaurant at Blue Eye were our favorite parts of the day.

To wrap up the week, we went to the ballet tonight. After dinner, we walked to Skanderbeg Square and strolled through the food festival they have there this weekend and then went into the Opera House and Ballet Theater a little after 8. The performance tonight was made up of three dances – one by a Czech choreographer, one by an American choreographer, and one by an Albanian choreographer. As we spend times in countries around the world, one of our favorite things to do is to find cultural experiences that we probably wouldn’t find if we were constrained by a short time schedule and once again, this was a valuable experience for both of us. On our walk home after the ballet, we stopped for gelato. It was a great finish to another week living in Albania.