A Lady of a Certain Age

Tomorrow school starts. I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, baking an apple pie, and keeping my mind occupied. Yesterday, two friends and I hiked Korabi mountain. Perhaps, the productivity of that nine and a half hour hike is making me feel restless today, like I want to want to immediately climb another trail. One of my friends GPS'ed the hike, so check out our trail if you're interested.

Today's title comes from a song that's been chosen simply based on how unreasonably often I've been listening to it lately: "A Lady of a Certain Age" by The Divine Comedy.

Playing with shepherd dog puppies. Perhaps, they're called Sarplaniacs. In this area, the shepherds have herds of around 300 sheep, and these dogs help fend off wolves that wander the Macedonian-Albanian border.

On the hike.

At the top.

Compadres before the hike (8:30 AM).

After the hike (9 and a half hours later)

Korabi villagers making a dish called Kukurec (I believe it was called). Almost like a giant kabab, meat from a sheep was skewered on this stick with a lot of the internal organs (liver, heart, lungs, etc.) and wrapped together with the cleaned intestines. Then, the meat was seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley and slowly cooked over an open fire.

Hike sign

Cheese from the village near Korabi, called Radomire.

A view of Peshkopi from a nearby village called Arras.

It Might As Well Rain Until September

One more week until school starts. Trying to make the most of these final days of summer, I've been spending a lot of time outdoors. As part of an initiative with an NGO called Outdoor Albania, a group of friends and I marked several trails around Peshkopi. All of the villages were exceptionally beautiful, and, exemplary of kind Albanian hospitality, at least one family from each village invited us into their home for coffee. As the sun set on our final hike (Grezhdan, Popinare, Herebel), we found a 3-4 day old sheep carcass in a forest and heard the howl of wolves soon after. Spooky. Thankfully, we got back to the car safely, but the experience definitely gave credence to the fear of wolves that I often heard about in Peshkopi.

Today's title comes from a song by Kay Barry that comes to mind as September has arrived and school will begin soon. 

Marking a hiking trail near Peshkopi that connects two villages, Bellove and Cerjan

A sign in Dubrovnik, Croatia

Marking a trail that connects three villages: Grezhdan, Popinare, and Herebel.

A farm fence in Popinare village.

Drinking Turkish coffee and raki made from a fruit called thane (see link)

These two men from Popinare made the raki in the picture above.

A village boy from Popinare on a mule.

The Orthodox Church in Herebel. Unfortunately, it was locked.

Without Me

Having not written anything for a while, it's hard to catch up on all the travel and adventures that have happened over this last busy month. However, it suffices to say that I've had a memorable summer thus far and am sad that it's coming to an end. I traveled to one of the most northern cities of Albania, Bajram Curri, and went to one of the most south, Ksamil. In between, I've taken this summer to fish a lot and visited Vuno (again) and Shengjin, both to go sea fishing. 

During July, I worked with a group of foreigners to renovate an old water mill outside of Peshkopi. We planted pine trees, built a bridge over the river, paved paths, and worked to rebuild the interior as well as the mill itself. With the same group, we explored Grezhdan castle by Peshkopi, climbed Korabi (the tallest mountain in Albania, second in the Balkans), and hiked all over Peshkopi. 

Today's title comes from my favorite song on Mac DeMarco's new album, Another One. When I listen to full albums, I like stuff that I can casually enjoy without concentrating too hard, and, for this, Mac DeMarco has been something of a soundtrack in the background of my Peace Corps experience. 

Jal beach 15 minutes before a storm blew in

An isolated beach near Jal where I went fishing

View from Lezhe castle

View from Korabi Mountain