Ancient Ruins and Beaches Galore

Today involved a lot of bus time. We started our journey at 8:00 A.M. We began by discussing how the Balkan Islands are a case study of regime change. From dictatorship to communism, the transition to a democracy has been a long process, much to the surprise of many scholars. After our brief conversation, we headed to Apoloni, an ancient city of Albany. Before we arrived, we stopped to see the Adriatic Sea. We picked up seashells as souvenirs and took a fabulous group picture. We also saw how polluted the sea is. There was trash strewed on the beach, and you could see it floating in the water. After our quick stop, we arrived at the ruins of Apoloni. We took a tour of the city; it was amazing to see the preservation of the items and buildings extracted from the site. We were lucky to have a second tour guide; her name was Lule which means flowers in Albanian. I called her Sal for short. She was an adorable dog that quickly showed us around her home. When we went inside the museum that held many important artifacts dug up, Lule would wait for us outside and whine. Being a dog lover, this obviously made my day. After our lovely tour, we headed to our next destination: another beach! We had lunch in a restaurant with a coastal view. Most of us chose a seafood entrée which was delicious. After our meal, we took a stroll along the beach. The view was incredible. We all took many photographs and just enjoyed the nice evening. The weather here has been absolutely perfect. During the afternoon, no jacket is needed, and at night, a light one works just fine. Our walk ended just as the sun was setting, and we got on the bus once again. By this point, we had been on the bus for a total of four hours, and we still had an hour to go. We did a couple bonding exercises in order to get to know each other. It was another way to pass time.  The roads here are a mixture of old from the Communist period, to new from the current government. Needless to say, most of us began to feel a little motion sickness. By the last half hour of the trip, we were ready to get to our hotel. We concluded our night with a light meal at a local pizza shop, and now we are all currently writing about our days or reading for tomorrow. It’s been a long day. I’ve had some bad luck lately. For example, I sat on my bed tonight, and it folded over on top of me. As I write, I’m currently on the bed, waiting for it to break and kill me. Tomorrow will be an early day, but Saturday we are sleeping in, so tomorrow night I will post the pictures. Hopefully the internet works, as it’s been inconsistent the whole time we have been here. A part of me is glad to be disconnected from the world. I think it makes the experience a lot more meaningful.