Experience Albania: Travel, Pictures, History, Culture

Fresh out of the oven at about 3:30AM, James and I witnessed these women and men, hard at work producing bread for the next day’s distribution.

Loaf after loaf, they put them through the slicer and into bags and then boxes. Drivers then deliver the bread to stores throughout Berat.

 
 I attended a party that a group of colleagues put together to celebrate the month of July. Yes, it’s that simple. Get a group of people together to celebrate the here and the now. It was a fun, late night that involved a lot of dancing, eating half a chicken and getting a behind the [...]

 
Dhermi - a beautiful little seaside village, just an hour and a half south from Vlore on the Adriatic coast. Becky and I spent a few days here, where we got some peace and quiet, swam in clear blue water and ate a lot of pizza (small variety of food).
  Most of our time was [...]

We were there for just a day and a night, but with my friend Irena’s expertise we covered a lot of ground. We stayed in a great villa with a spectacular view, got in a bit of beach time and ate pizza while watching the sun set on the Adriatic. Lovely!
 
Vlore’s ‘xhiro,’ which runs right [...]

 
More photos from the fabulous dinner we ate with the Hoxha’s on their balcony, overlooking Berat at sunset.
  Yes, my hair is that long now …
 Two Silus sisters and one Hoxha sister - some day we’ll get all five of us together (Lauren and Bela, let’s make it happen!)
Photos shoot:
 
  Mira and Ersa and Mira’s incredible [...]

Having Becky here inspired me to look closer at the people and places in my daily life here in Berat. We were a photographing duo, cameras rolling, ready to capture what we found while exploring Berat together.

The view of Mount Tomori from James’ house - the clouds were amazing that day.

The daily market in Berat, [...]

They know exactly what to do, all five of them. Julia and Zaku, Anila, Esti and Teri. Friendly, talkative and eager to feed, the Kaceli family has the hosting thing down - and they know how to make any foreign guest feel welcome and happy to be with them in their home. Just as [...]

Don’t need to say much - except that the statue provided for a good photo op.

It’s one of our gems - a castle that dates back to Roman times and to this day there are about 1,200 inhabitants living inside its walls.
Irena came with to help give Becky a complete tour of the castle. We walked around for about 2 hours in the late afternoon, stopping often to take photos [...]

‘B’ stands for Becky and Becky just spent 10 days with me here in Albania. We had an amazing trip and I felt that I must get started on sharing our photos when I’m still fresh with memories and details. But for now I just have a few, some highlights from our time in Berat [...]