Always wear a seat belt..... what do you mean I don't have a seat belt?!!

So as you might guess from the title, traveling in Albania can be quite the adventure. This weekend I went on a volunteer visit to Lezhe. I was super excited because that meant no language classes and a chance to see another part of Albania. Well being in Lezhe was great but the trip there got a little complicated…….

So there were 14 volunteers going north for volunteer visits. To go north in Albania, you pretty much have to go to Tirana first. We all met at 7:45am on Sunday in Elbasan so we could go together to Tirana. Well our furgon from Cerrik to Elbasan first of all, almost didn’t make it. It took 20 minutes before the furgon was pulling out because no one was going to Elbasan so early on a Sunday morning. We left with one seat empty but picked up some guy on the side of the road on the way in. However, right after we entered Elbasan we were pulled over by the police. I had never seen this happen before so I was very shocked and didn’t know what to think of it. We sat there for about 5 minutes while the driver showed the officer all his papers and stuff. We then finished the drive in to town. Well after that happened I knew the rest of the day was going to go just as well. We met everyone at the PST office and walked over to the furgon stop. We had to split up and take 2 furgons.

The drive to Tirana was amazing. It was up and through mountains so if you get motion sickness you would hate it but the views were gorgeous and the mountains are so beautiful! When we got to Tirana about 2 hours later we were supposed to be dropped off at the European Trade Center. We texted the current volunteer meeting us in Tirana and told her we were at the café across the street. Well she got there and it turned out we were not close to the European Trade Center! Luckily after I described where we were she was able to find us. We ate lunch and walked around for awhile and then headed off for the other furgons where we would all split ways. The first 8 volunteers going to different sites got on furgons with no problems. Then there was 7 of us with only one person speaking decent Albanian. The furgon drivers were trying to get us to all get on their furgon for a set price. Unfortunately we were going 2 different places. Winifred, the volunteer who met us, was trying to explain that we were going two different places but they did not care. We were all American and therefore could only possible be going one place.

After about 30 minutes of walking around we all ended up getting on one furgon going to the city of Milot where both groups could transfer to other furgons going to their respective cities. Winifred told the furgon driver that 4 were going to Rreshin and 3 were going to Lezhe. He said he would take the 4 going to Rreshin directly there and the other 3 to Milot. Winifred and him agreed on a price and we were on our way. Well, about 45 minutes outside of Tirana, he told Winifred he was not going to Rreshin and that the price was more than the one originally quoted. Winifred gave up trying to talk to him so we all got off in Milot. Luckily there were furgons for both Lezhe and Rreshin waiting. However, it meant we all had to pay more than we should have. I went on to Lezhe with Winifred and the other Leslie.

Lezhe was great. We got to go to the city hall (bashkia) and met everyone, a center for mentally handicapped children, and a culture center where Winifred taught English. In Lezhe I was also able to find a doughnut, cheesecake and Winifred made lasagna. Even though the Lasagna was quite an ordeal, because she lost power for a day so we had to walk to another volunteers house to make it. Overall it was a great visit.

The trip back from Lezhe was not nearly as eventful but still long and tiring as I see most travel in Albania will be. But my advice is to anyone traveling in Albania, hang on tight because there are no seat belts!!