middle name 'adventure': Shqiperia

Hello from Tirana, Albania! Wow! What a week we've had! We have already been with Dan for almost 7 days. We met him in Athens in the afternoon and went straight into the Acropolis for a spot of stinking hot site seeing. Had a fabulous dinner by the sites and headed back to the campsite for a restless, hot, mosquito frenzied sleep (the norm now). The next morning, bright and early, we sped up to Igoumenitsa where we caught the ferry over to Corfu for 2nights. We rented a boat the one whole day that we were there which was, at first, windy and big swell (scary in a little boat) but by the end of the day we were in total chillout mode. Corfu wasn't what we expected at all. Being an island in Greece we thought it would be barren and lots of white buildings, but it's not at all! It's very wild and lots of forest, sheer cliffs, gorgeous water. We loved it there but have to keep moving as we need to drop off Dan on the 16th in Montenegro. Times a ticking. The next day we caught the ferry back to mainland Greece and then drove up, over the border and into Albania! We've been so hesitant about Albania and we've had the most incredible experience being here. Albania isn't in the EU. It's been a very war torn country for a long time. It's poor and there isn't much infrastructure but the people are the happiest people we've ever experienced. They are so friendly, happy, always waving, smiling. The roads are SHOCKING, HUGE holes and not much paved, but soooo worth it for the scenery and the whole experience of being here. The crazy man who ran this country for 40years built bunkers for 1:4 ratio of people in the whole country and so they are really just part of the scenery. Seems strange to be seeing beautiful beaches, and then bunkers in the same picture but that's just part of the charm. We are really truly charmed by this place. We slept on the beach last night which was absolute magic! Could go on and on but I'm sure you get the picture. We are now in Tiran (the capital of Albania) for the night before moving on tomorrow to Bar -Montenegro. All is well!