There's nothing better for a weary soul than a change of scenery and a break from regular life. We are terrible at making plans for rest, so it's nice when someone takes the reins, makes the plans, and invites you to join, yes?
We had dear friends plan a special weekend for us in southern Albania, in and around the city of Permet.
This was our second time to travel with them to Permet and I didn't think we could top the last time, two years ago, but I was wrong!
The trip took place the first weekend of May, which happened to be Orthodox Easter weekend. We left after kids clubs on Saturday afternoon and returned Monday afternoon, before our weekly staff meeting and exercise class!
The drive to Permet takes about 3 hours, thanks to Albania's ever-improving roads (especially now the by-pass around Fier).
Our accommodations for the weekend: Vila Permet. Wow! This was a school during communism (prior to that it was a private home) where Alvi's aunt served as the director!
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| The kids' sleeping space in the dormer... |
There are an abundance of Byzantine and Orthodox churches in this part of Albania. These churches are QUITE old. Sadly, this church experienced a flood and you can see the damage to the frescoes inside...
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| Jesus and the disciples |
So many breathtaking details to take in...
If you are familiar with orthodox culture, at midnight on Easter Sunday, this Epitaph (below) is carried by the priests in a procession around the city while people celebrate with candles. Because of Covid curfew, the tradition was again cancelled.
The only group photo I captured the entire weekend!
On Sunday our hosts lined up a van and driver to take us deep into a national park in the mountains. We drove past a few tiny villages. The roadsides were dotted with trees bearing purple blossoms. It was so green and lovely!
The first stop was the location of an abandoned village with stunning views. Why was the village abandoned? SNAKES!
(we didn't see any, though)
Within the park we hiked to a terrifying rock outcropping.
It was just as scary in person as it looks in this photo...
This is as close as I got.
Nathan asked me to take some photos from the safety of the canyon's edge.
He stayed around and snapped pics with the kids.
The kids can never say we didn't let them live adventurous lives...
I retreated and took Ellie back to the hilltop pasture to wait by the van.
We drove up the road, around the bend in the hills in the photo above into the forest to a spring.
There the water spurts out of the side of the mountain, cold and refreshing! Everyone refilled empty water bottles.
We brought a picnic lunch that ended with cracking hardboiled eggs, dyed red, the traditional color for Orthodox Easter Eggs.
Albanian "safari"
This church was especially beautiful and quite old, dating back to the 12th century!
A sweet treat: locally bottled cherry juice!
We stumbled upon a local protest to protect the river valley from development by hydropower plants. The cause apparently has caught the attention of Le0nardo DiCaprio who has lobbied to protect one of Europe's 'last wild rivers.'
Our last morning before leaving, our friends arranged for us to raft on the river that runs through the beautiful valley.
We were skeptical when they pulled out wetsuits and felt a little ridiculous pulling them on. But when we got to the river, no one was looking at us.
At one point, the river was was too strong for us to raft safely so we portaged along the rocky shore.
The rest of us enjoyed a Turkish coffee, of course.
On the way home we came across several farmers selling strawberries on the side of the highway.
Oh my goodness. They were soooooo good. I can still taste them.
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