To the beach
Trip Start
Apr 14, 2006
1
102
Trip End
Jul 2008
Sarande, Albania
Friday, August 24, 2007
Although the trip wasn't bad I was feeling a bit off, probably from the prolonged heat, so I just lay on the sand in the shade and took a couple swims til about 2 pm when I met Adam and another PCV Katie for pizza and beer. We went swimming for about an hour and then met 3 other PCVs who had spent the day down in Butrint, some ruins about an hour south of Sarande. We took a furghon back to Adam's place in Delvina to shower and drink some beer and wine. Then back again to Saranda, where we hid our backpacks in some bushes, got dinner (more suvlach) and more beer and watched the Albanians promenade along the boardwalk. I should take a minute and explain the Albanian evening promenade - information coming from various PCVs. It's the big social activity in every town outside Tirana to put on your best and walk up and down either a boardwalk or a particular street for a few hours after dark. Boys mostly stick with boys and girls with girls, even older married men and women often split up. And even though premarital sex is pretty taboo outside Tirana, 'putting on their best' for many girls means dressing like prostitues. On the one hand it's about getting out and talking with friends, which i can understand in a small town with nothing else to do, at the same time trying to look good for the opposite sex. A lot of PCVs spend many evenings watching the promenades and commenting on the clothing choices.
So the original reason for going to Sarande was camp out in an abandoned building about a 40 minute walk south of the city near to a fun club. John, one of the PCVs, explained that Albania has weird property laws which give ownership rights to anyone who builds on a piece of land, instead of someone just buying the land. Because of this there are tons of half finished buildings which the 'owners' knew they didn't have the money to finish, but wanted to lay claim to the land. Apparently the PCVs do this a lot in Albania and don't think anything of it, my reaction was, you guys are wild and crazy, us Bulgarian pcvs are pussies. i guess.
well it was quite a walk down to this place, compounded by the excessive lying - 'oh, it's about a 10 minute walk,' 'oh, just a bit more,' - i just wished i had put my walking shoes on instead of flip flops. In the end only half of the group went down to the club, the rest of us stayed on the roof, drinking beer and talking, and watching the ferries arriving in Corfu and others departing for Italy. We fell asleep in our sleeping bags under the stars.
