Albania

I'll start with Albania. Our city is actually very close to the border between Greece and Albania (the drive is only about half an hour) but we weren't sure how crossing would take so we left bright and early at 7:30am. I passed out until we got to our destination, but we made it without any big problems. Once we crossed the border, we were in the "GREEK MINORITY ZONE!" as Professor Skolidas told us many times. The people there are ethnically Greek, but obviously live in the country of Albania.



We then got to Gjirokaster, which reminded me of Esmeraldas, Ecuador on the outskirts (aka pretty ghetto). It got nicer as we approached the downtown, although it still felt more like Ecuador than Greece, which was really enjoyable for me. (I miss Ecuador. I feel like I could go back again; I'm not dying to get home haha). We went to the university there and met with Albanian students, mostly English Literature majors, to talk about Greek-Albanian relations. First we all went in a classroom and some university officials enthusiastically welcomed us. Then we spent 10 or 15 minutes asking some questions about said topic. We've heard a variety of opinions while here in Greece, but while some people don't have a problem with Albanians, many people, especially the older generation, is pretty prejudiced against Albanians.
From what the students said, they had no problems with Greeks but had heard that cousins or extended family members in Greece sometime faced discrimination. Overall, the group said relations are a 7 or an 8 on a scale of one (poor) to ten (excellent). Then, we went to a cafe and talked with students in smaller groups of 4-5. The girls I spoke with were so nice and I really enjoyed talking with them. They say that the Greeks are very hospitable (which is true) but from our (short) experience, the Albanians seem even more hospitable.
While we were waiting for the bus to come pick us up, we saw hundreds of high school seniors cheering and yelling and whistling because they had just graduated that day. They were extremely excited.





After a very long, very windy bus ride through the mountains, which made many people nauseous and one person more than nauseous, we made it to another city which was on the sea and reminded me of Parga, a city we went to a few weeks ago. It was raining but still very picturesque. We had a huge lunch which was pretty good, except for teh chicken. We literally think they took a whole chicken, cut it into slices and served those, so there were all sorts of bone pieces and fat. It was odd. Fortunately, it stopped raining and we convinced our teachers to let us walk around for a short time before heading back to Ioannina. Everything was extremely cheap and I got postcards for a third of the price that I would normally pay.



Then we headed back through the mountains and across the border. I slept for almost all of that, since I had thought to bring a pillow with me, which was infinitely better than napping on the window or attempting to curl up in the fetal position on the seats.