Northern bound, Part One...

Tirana at night

After yet another series of excruciatingly long, bumpy, and hot mini-bus rides, I have returned from our journey North. Prior to this trip, my travels north had been very limited. The first time I went north of Tirana was when Mona and I were traveling out of the country to Montenegro.

The North is full of mysterious beauty and isolated tranquility (not sure what I mean by that but it sounded nice). The terrain in the North is much more mountainous and therefore much harder to get to. In fact, I would say much more painful to get to. Do you remember the toilet paper commercial where the little girl stuffs her pants with lots of cushy soft toilet paper? Man do I wish I could have done that. After each leg of our journey, I wasn't sure if feeling would return.

The Fearless Five (front row:James, Katie, Brandon; back row: Joey, Dan, Jenny, Ryan) Dan and Jenny were our hosts in Puka.

A group of us decided to journey north, do some exploring, and talk some shop with fellow volunteers. We left Tirana at 6am on Thursday morning for our first destination Puka. Five or six hours later we arrived. That being the first leg of our journey, I must say I don't remember much from the bus ride. In Puka we met two volunteers and after discussing some projects and work issues we headed out to explore the beautiful landscape surrounding Puka. We took a long hike and returned to town just in time to hike to different part of town to catch the sunset. Though I was tired from our long day and my lack of a nap, when we arrived at our sunset vantage point, it was all worth it.

An Albanian boy that joined us for our hike along the way

Sunset from the hills outside of Puka

Sunset taken through a lens filter (actually Katie's sunglasses)

The next morning we again awoke before the sun. This time the bus departed at 5am. How awesome is that. This was the special part of the journey. Our goal was to take a ferry ride up one of the three lakes formed by massive damns. Of course getting to the ferry was part of the adventure. Our early bus dropped us in some nameless town where we had to figure out our transportation options. Transportation is always a struggle here. After being told all sorts of conflicting information and being offered a ride for $15 per person (at which I literally laughed in the guy's face because the trip should cost $3), we waited at a cafe. Sometime later with the help of the cafe owner, we catch a ride with a mini-bus. Actually we had to wait for one of his friends to come so that one of us could ride with the friend because there just wasn't enough room for us all. That lone person was me. After sitting there for a minute I realized that I had very very little knowledge of where we were going. Luckily we stayed in contact with text messages and arrived at the ferry without incident.

After about an hour wait, we were able to load onto the ferry. The seating options were limited and though we knew we would roast in the sun on the top deck, we figured it would be better than the smoke-filled stuffy room below. Plus the whole point of this ride was the view. And what a view it was. The mountains, the water, and the occasional house hugging the hillside were totally worth it. I had been told that this was one of the best boat rides in the world. I was not disappointed.

The beginning of the ferry ride

Oh and while we were waiting for the ferry, a woman approached me. I assumed she was going to be a tourist and was needing assistance. Not so much. After saying hello she said that her family thought that I was the husband of one of their cousins or something like that. During the ferry ride, whenever someone from their group passed me, they took a good long look, still not quite convinced I suppose.