Mountain Picnic

I and my site mates recently hiked the mountains on the side of Peqin opposite the Shkoombini River. We took a steep path up the hill, but we eventually hit a flat dirt road that snakes between the mountains. According to my host father and his brother, it's a four hour hike to Tirana along these paths.

Everywhere, there are farms and you can hear the echos of sheep in the distance. The hills are carved into steps of olive trees. On the flatter grounds, there are potatoes, grapes, and more olive trees. It seems to me that so many people in Peqin already have lemon and orange trees that few farmers grow either commercially.

Besides green hills, there were also also many mounds of some of sort of clay or mud. I included a picture of them below. My host father claims that you can use the clay as shampoo.

Peqin. The Shkoombini River is on the other side of the city.

One of the many bunkers near Peqin.

Graffiti in Peqin. "Zemra" means heart.

Host mother and father (Hatiche and Gavrosh Lluce)

Host father with the tiles that he makes