Weekend Hike

This weekend, Ian, Luke, and I decided to explore the mountain ranges surrounding us by going on a hike. We had been talking about this ever since site announcements, so we were all very excited and anxious for the adventure, especially since most of the mountainous area around us has not been damaged or touched by humans. Let’s just say Albanian’s think Americans are crazy because they get pleasure from walking up mountains. That’s one of my goals in Peace Corps; to show as many Albanians as I can that outdoor activities are not only good for your health but can always be very fun. 

Because not many people hike here, trails are kind of difficult to find. We had to some how create our own paths. Saying that, at the beginning of the hike, we saw a mountain that looked like it had a road carved into it. So we headed in that direction. When we got to the point where we were at the bottom of the mountain, we tried to follow what looked like a path towards the peak. As the path got steeper and steeper, we realized that this was no path at all. Instead, it must have been a dried up river or some sort of water path that came from the top of the mountain. At one point, we were definitely rock climbing without ropes and gear because of the steepness. But it didn’t last long. Since we basically climbed the mountain vertically, it only took us like 45 minutes to reach the actual trail of the mountain. But, we made sure to record our amazing spiderman abilities by marking our initials in one of the boulders of the mountain. 

We continued to follow the path deeper into the mountains until we came across a man and his sons who were relaxing behind a few trees, picking some leaves for what I’m guessing this their family’s tea business. When they first shouted out “Mirëdita” to us, I had no idea where the voice was coming from. But then I heard some moving of the trees right next to me and just through the vines of leaves, I saw them all sitting, smiling in together, enjoying the shade as they took a break from work. 

Now, in America it might be a little awkward to go up to complete strangers in the middle of the mountains and to have lunch with them. But, here in Albania, it kinda felt natural. So that’s what we did. We climbed through the branches and stumps and made our way to where they were sitting. We made small talk (as much as we could with our language skills) and found out they lived in a village very close to Bajram Curri and that they knew the past 3 PC volunteers. The man made some friendly jokes about us liking to hike and how the past volunteers liked to run. Extreme physical activity and exercising for fun is such a foreign idea to their culture. For them, men do the physical work in the garden or at work, and the women stay home and do the housework. Other than that, what good is doing extra physical activity if it has no benefits? Goal number 2 of mine while I’m here in Albania. Although, in the bigger cities, more and more are easing up to the idea of exercising for health and for fun. Many places have gyms or places for people to do exercise. Bajram Curri unfortunately does not……..for now. :)

After finishing our lunch, we said our good-byes and they directed us to the safest path to get back to the city. We did get a little lost heading back because their was no distinct path. Thankfully, we could see the city in the distance and we knew that in the worst case scenario, we could knock on one of the doors of the few houses that we pasted by along our route and ask for directions. But it didn’t come to that. We made it back just fine. Overall, it was a great, small adventure to start off our stay in the beautiful mountainous area of Albania.