Categories
Europe Italy

Food and F1 in Emilia-Romagna

From San Marino, we headed up north! I had found a nice bed and breakfast, Sotto i Sassi, and we were staying there for a few days. It had looked nice online but it turned out to be even better than I expected – it was run by a man who had inherited the place from his grandfather, and turned it into a series of apartments and a bistro. It was clear from our dinner that first night that it was a labor of love! He came over and explained all the dishes to us, including what was available as a daily special, and the food was incredible. The bistro wasn’t available during the week, but we did eat there both times it was open during our stay, which was a dinner and a lunch.

One of the other cool aspects of the bed and breakfast was that it was located in a national park, so the scenery was gorgeous and the area around us was so peaceful. We didn’t have a very ambitious itinerary for this region. I had a chance to do laundry, and we had some time to really relax.

But we didn’t stay at the bed and breakfast the whole time! Our first outing was quick. We went to the grocery store, which is one of my favorite things to do abroad.

I also had signed us up for a tour of Imola! It’s one of two Formula 1 tracks in Italy, although it has been historically associated with San Marino to get around a previous rule that no country could have more than one race on the schedule. Interestingly, Imola was not on the calendar for 2025 and might not be in the foreseeable future depending on how the contracts work out with Monza and the new Barcelona track. Still, even if we don’t get to see another race around Imola, it’s got a lot of history and was really cool to see in person.

In the history of Formula 1, one of the most significant moments was one that happened at Imola: the death of Ayrton Senna. Senna remains one of the most famous drivers to ever be in the sport, and his death at the age of 31 in a high speed crash was a really dark moment for Formula 1. Imola has been the site of three deadly crashes, and one of the other two was the same weekend as Senna’s, which sent shockwaves through the sport. At Imola, there’s a whole section that is a memorial to him, with a statue and flags and notes from fans all over the world.

After our stop at the memorial, we took a bus ride around the circuit. What surprised me the most was how much elevation change there was in the 3 mile track. They talk about that on TV when you watch the race, but it was different to experience it, even if we were going at a much slower pace!

Once we had gotten back to the starting line, they took us through one of the garages and into the Control Room, which was super cool. It was fun to see all of the screens and imagine what it would be like during the race, when the FIA has to adjudicate various incidents and assign the penalties. They also took us to the podium and let us stand and take pictures on it!

Afterwards, we headed into Bologna to meet a friend of mine for drinks! I don’t have great pictures of the city because it was pouring rain, and we didn’t spend too much time there outside of when we met my friend. We did almost get trapped in a parking lot because we couldn’t figure out how to pay, and then by the time we did learn the process, the ticket had gotten soaked.

The next day, not content with the amount of Formula 1 activity we had already had, we headed to Maranello! Maranello is where the Ferrari factory is, and they have a beautiful museum about the history of Ferrari, both as a car brand and as a Formula 1 team. I’m not specifically a Ferrari fan, I tend to root for specific drivers over teams, but I of course was not going to admit that here!

We also had a chance to walk around Maranello a bit (partially because parking was crazy and we had to park quite a ways away from the museum). We had lunch there as well. The restaurant had exclusively Ferrari and Formula 1 themed decor, of course. There, we all had the chance to try various forms of tortellini, which is from the Emilia-Romagna region. My dad tried tortellini en brodo, which is a particular specialty of the area. It was amazing!

And of course, there was a Formula 1 race on the weekend while we were there, so we watched it on my laptop while we drank wine that we’d bought at the grocery store – no one can accuse us of not being true fans!

Emilia-Romagna was amazing. The food was so good, and outside of a few specific touristy activities where we were surrounded by Formula 1 fans on a similar pilgrimage as us, it felt as though we were outside of the traditional tourist trail. I would love to return to the region some day – I think there’s plenty still to see, and more importantly, to taste!

Categories
Europe Italy San Marino

The Microstate of San Marino

I find the microstates of Europe to be such a strange thing. The Vatican is one thing, but it’s so strange to me to see places like Monaco and Andorra and Liechtenstein and San Marino hold the small territory that they carved out through wars and border shifts over centuries. San Marino considers itself to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and the oldest constitutional republic, which is a pretty impressive feat!

We arrived and parked at the bottom of the hill, and then from there you can take a cable car up to the top where the city of San Marino is. Once we were up there, we had a chance to explore the city a bit. We also had lunch at one of the spots that has a great view of the surrounding area. It was probably the worst meal I had on this trip, but the views made up for the weaker food experience. It is so beautiful to look out over the landscapes of San Marino and Italy!

San Marino had an interesting experience in the 20th century. They declared themselves neutral in WW1, which put them at odds with Italy and led to some tension. They developed their own fascist party to try to keep themselves in Mussolini’s grace, but maintained that same neutrality during WW2 as well. They were bombed in 1944 because the Allied forces incorrectly believed that they had been occupied by Germany.

They also had the world’s first democratically elected communist government, which was in power between 1945 and 1957. These microstates seem to have these really fascinating parts of their history – no one is paying that much attention to them on the world stage, so they can kind of do whatever they want.

San Marino was a good detour if you’re in the region, but isn’t a place I would necessarily say you need to go too far out of your way to see. It does have some beautiful views of the surrounding area, though! It made for a nice stop on our way up to Emilia-Romagna.

Categories
Europe Italy

A Road Trip Through Umbria

After Warsaw, I headed to Italy to meet my parents! We met up in the airport in Rome and drove straight out into the countryside. I’ve been to Italy once before, with my cousin Megan, and the two of us did a very on-the-beaten path itinerary – Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Pompeii, Pisa. It was such a cool trip, and it was all of the places in Italy I’d always heard about. So this time, I took advantage of the fact that I’d already gone to the well-known areas and I planned an itinerary that was away from all the crowds. We were focused on one thing: finding good food.

For the first day, I wanted us to get away from the airport and the city right away, so we headed to Bracciano. It’s about 45 minutes from the airport, in the direction we were going, and I thought it would be a good balance of easing into the driving but still going somewhere more interesting than the area around FCO!

Despite trying to ease into the driving, my parents were a little overwhelmed at first with the experience of the Italian roads. The drivers can be pretty aggressive, and the narrow streets in the towns can make it more challenging to drive than the US. Nonetheless, we made it, and we found a nice place in town to grab a light dinner.

We stayed at the Hotel Villa Clementina, which was so charming, and they cooked us a beautiful breakfast before we headed out the next morning into Umbria! When we finished up with breakfast, we headed out to our next stop, Oriveto.

Orvieto was beautiful. It’s at the top of a hill, so we parked and then took a series of escalators up to the old town. From there, there are so many twisty medieval streets to explore. We went in a lot of local shops and stopped for lunch. One of the things that I love about Italy is the al fresco dining – it can be hot there, especially in the summer, but in the shade and with a breeze, it’s so pleasant to eat outside for every meal. We also saw the outside of their famous cathedral, although we didn’t end up going in.

From there, it was on to the main event! My mom has always had a dream of staying in a castle somewhere in Europe, and this trip seemed like the perfect place to do it. I found one near Perugia, called Castello di Monterone, and we stayed there for a couple nights.

It felt pretty magical to stay at a castle! It’s the kind of thing that you imagine when you’re reading fantasy books or learning about the history of royals. It had beautiful grounds, including a garden and an courtyard where we sat and had some drinks and some snacks. That first night, we had dinner at the restaurant at the castle, which was delicious.

The next day, we headed off on a tour. This was something I was super excited about – we did a cooking class and wine tour! We started at someone’s home for the cooking class, which was pretty amazing. Megan and I had done one in Tuscany, as a day trip from Florence, so it was cool to get the chance to compare and contrast. Italy has so many different regional culinary traditions. I think you could take classes all across the major cities and get unique experiences each time. I made pasta in both classes, but the one in Tuscany was flour and egg-based and this one was semolina and water-based. After we learned how to cook the pasta, the woman teaching the class showed us all the different ways it could be shaped, which was incredible. She could take a spoon and make it into some sort of perfect corkscrew that I can’t imagine being dextrous enough to shape. We made eggplant and stuffed peppers and pasta with asparagus and chicken, and for dessert there was tiramisu. It was so good!

From there, we headed to a winery for a tasting. The woman at the winery was so knowledgeable, and taught us all about Umbrian wine and the different regions across Italy. We got to try a lot of different varieties, and even got some to drink back at the hotel! It was such a good day. And the next day, we headed off to our next adventure – a whole different country, San Marino!

Categories
Europe Poland

Exploring Warsaw

I’ve been to Poland once before, back in 2014. I went on a class trip that visited Krakow, which was a really fascinating experience. After that, I’ve wanted to return and explore more of Poland, and especially Warsaw. Because the Croatia birthday party and meeting my parents were both set dates, I found myself with a couple days in between to make my way from Split to Rome, and the flights worked out for me to stop over in Warsaw!

I find their “new” Old Town to be very interesting – their original Old Town and the castle were razed to the ground in WW2 and so they rebuilt it to replicate it exactly. What’s funny is that if you didn’t know this in advance, there’s nothing obvious about their Old Town that would indicate that it was redone in the 1950s. They did a spectacular job making it look just as it must have before WW2. It matches a lot of places that you would see in cities across Central Europe.

To be honest, I didn’t do much in the way of “tourist” things in Warsaw. I went to cafés and wandered around, and I ate pierogis as often as I could. They’re so good there!

I did also make sure I went to go see the Palace of Culture and Science, which is another one of the most fascinating parts of Warsaw in my opinion. When it was completed in 1955, it was the eighth tallest building in the world, and it is really impressive with its art deco vibes.

The Palace of Culture and Science was a gift from the Soviet Union and was formally dedicated to Joseph Stalin. When I was reading the Wikipedia about it to make sure I didn’t miss any important points about it, I found a delightful anecdote on how they decided on the height of the building. They apparently decided that they needed to properly visualize it, so they sent a small airplane that was towing a balloon to fly over the city, and then the architects kept telling the plane to fly higher. It was finally set at 778 ft / 237 m high.

All in all, I had a very nice time in Warsaw! I think Poland is underrated – while it isn’t my top country in Europe, I think people often forget about it when they’re planning and it does have a lot to offer. I had a great experience in both Krakow and Warsaw and I look forward to eventually returning for the smaller cities and towns as well!

Categories
Croatia Europe

Celebration in Croatia

This summer, I got to spend a couple weeks in Europe! It was an amazing trip, and it started off with a great weekend in Split celebrating my friend’s birthday. While I had spent about two weeks in Croatia back in 2023, that was an area I didn’t spend much time in, so I was excited to have a chance to visit again.

Before that, though, I had another cool start to the trip – I got to fly Polaris! Polaris is United’s business class. Before the trip even begins, you get access to the Polaris lounge at the airport, which has all kinds of perks, including fancy cocktails, nap pods, showers, and even a fully functioning restaurant that you can sit down at for a complimentary three course meal.

From there, the experience on the plane is pretty nice too. It was fun to get a glass of champagne before we took off, and then the plane food is actually quite good. What Polaris is known for, though, is the ice cream cart, which is one of those things people like to talk about from flying back when airlines first started that made the experience so luxurious. After eating my ice cream, I got to try out the lie-flat seat, which was really a game changer.

I definitely won’t be able to do this consistently – it’s more of a game of whether or not I can use my miles and cash to get an upgrade that isn’t outrageously expensive, but it was a really nice way to travel. My priority, as you can probably tell, is traveling more often, not necessarily traveling in the fanciest manner, but nonetheless. If Polaris is in your budget and that’s where you want to splurge on a trip, it was pretty great!

I don’t have as many photos from the birthday celebration, because I was mostly busy having fun and meeting all of Harry’s friends from his normal life, since he and I met traveling in West Africa! But we had such a great time in Split. The first full day, we all hired a boat to take us around, which was beautiful.

We went swimming, ate good food, and drank good wine, which is really all you can ask for!

With our second full day, we got a bit of a late start after going out to the bars the night before. We wanted to do a beach day, but the beaches in Split were too crowded, so we ended up heading down to Podstrana. That ended up being the right move – it was so much more relaxed than Split, and we had food options where a larger group of people could actually sit and talk.

I love Croatia. It can be touristy, it is much more expensive than the regions that surround it, but everywhere I’ve been is so stunning. And you can still get off the beaten path if you try! I am sure I will return again some day in the future.

Categories
North America United States

Delaware, America’s First State

For a long time, when I would try to name all 50 states, I would get to 49 and the one that I inevitably would have forgotten was Delaware. And then one of my best friends moved there! So not only did I have to remember that Delaware existed, but we would often meet halfway in Wilmington. It’s only about an hour from DC by Amtrak.

One of the quirky things about Delaware is that it is where almost every single US company is incorporated. Under their tax law, a company incorporated in Delaware can avoid paying state taxes. Not only are most companies incorporated there, but most companies also use the same registered address: 1209 North Orange Street. I know this because the company I work for uses that same registered address. I’ve filled it out on plenty of forms! 1209 North Orange Street is officially home to over 285,000 businesses. I cannot even fathom how much corporate mail they must get.

And yes, I am the kind of nerd who had to go see the address in person!

Wilmington has a charming little downtown. They are clearly trying to develop those public spaces, including both the Riverfront and Brandywine Park. As my friend is a mom, we spent a lot of our visits either at the Children’s Museum or at the Brandywine Zoo, both of which were pretty solid day trips for a toddler.

Brandywine Park was quite nice, and I do think the zoo punches above its weight considering how small Wilmington is and how many significantly larger cities there are nearby.

I don’t have as many photos from the Children’s Museum or the Riverfront, since I’m not posting any that include Emmy’s child, but I do leave you with one of the fun facts I learned from the Children’s Museum: Delaware’s state fish is the weakfish, which is a very funny name for a fish.

I wouldn’t have gone to Wilmington so many times if it wasn’t for Emmy, but it was always a nice day trip! And if you, like me, are interested in going to every state, there’s definitely enough there to spend a nice day or weekend there during a visit to the East Coast.

Categories
North America United States

Weekend at Crater Lake

For Memorial Day weekend, Sam and I headed west! Now that I live on the East Coast, it’s so wild to me how long it takes to get to the Pacific. It’s a 5 or 6 hour flight just to get across the country. We took a redeye flight to San Francisco and then a short hop up to Medford, where we met up with some friends. Our friend Chelsea has been working her way through the US National Parks, and it’s been fun to tag along when we can.

For this trip, we based ourselves near Klamath Falls. I wasn’t sure what to expect – the thing about small towns in America is that there is a huge variation on how well they’re doing, economically, and so sometimes you have the charming, Stars Hollow-style Main Street, the platonic ideal of a small town, and other times you have a version of that that’s been abandoned and left to rot for 40 years. In any case, Klamath Falls seems to be thriving because of its proximity to Crater Lake, and it seems to function as a bit of a hub for the hikers and tourists in the area. It’s very charming! There were a lot of nice local restaurants and bars, and we tried several while we were there. We ended up at the farmer’s market one of the mornings when we went into town for coffee as well.

Our top priority was to visit Crater Lake, so that was the first thing on our itinerary! As it turns out, late May is still winter season in Crater Lake, so we were a bit more limited in what we were able to do and see while we were there. I had been once before, a long time ago, and my parents and I were able to walk all the way down to the edge of the lake because we visited in late summer. On this trip, there was still a lot of snow, and so most of the roads around the crater were closed.

I’m glad to have gone in both seasons, because there are pros and cons to both. There’s obviously much more to do in the summer. I wish we had spikes or snowshoes for this one, because I would have happily walked along the trails if I wasn’t afraid of slipping all over the snowpack. But having the snow surrounding the lake was absolutely spectacular!

After we walked around for a bit, got our stamps, and had lunch, we had basically done everything that was possible to do at Crater Lake, so we headed back to Klamath Falls. We went to the Klamath County Museum, which was cute. It was in what appeared to be an old high school gymnasium, and you could still see the lines of the basketball court on the floor. It was fairly thorough considering how rural Klamath is, with a little bit of all of their local history and a section on the natural history of the area as well.

The next day, we crossed the border into California! It was less than an hour to Lava Beds National Monument. After the snow of Crater Lake, it was strange to be in that level of heat. Lava Beds has a lot of lava tubes and caves, including ice caves because of the way that they’re structured. Walking from the surface down into where the ice never melts was a wild experience.

We also went kayaking in Klamath Lake! I love kayaking, so it was nice to get on the water. It was a beautiful place to do it. There were mountain views all around.

Our final activity of the weekend was going for a wine tasting! Oregon has some fantastic wineries, mostly in Willamette Valley south of Portland, and we were excited to try some local wine. We found one close to Klamath that had great reviews and went for a tasting. I also did a tasting of olive oil and balsamic, which was a fun experience.

All in all, an excellent weekend! It’s harder to go all the way to the west coast for a weekend trip now, but this definitely made the long flight worth it. Oregon has so much natural beauty, and it was great to explore it with some of our friends!

Categories
North America United States

Mackinac Island

This year, my book club decided to do a group trip! We decided on Mackinac Island, which I was thrilled about. I’ve always wanted to visit Mackinac Island, and it was the perfect destination to slow down and spend some time with my friends.

First views off the ferry!

If you don’t know anything about Mackinac Island, what makes it so unique is that it has banned basically all cars except emergency vehicles on the island, so all of the transport is done by bike or horse-drawn carriage. It feels like stepping back in time, into a quaint, Main Street-style America, with general stores and fudge shops.

Pellston airport is so cute 🙂

Getting there was a bit of an ordeal – Sam and I flew from BWI to Chicago, and then boarded our flight to Pellston. That flight got diverted to Traverse City, which was a new one for my own personal flight fuck-up bingo board, and then we sat on the tarmac for a while. They couldn’t let us get off the plane because we were a United plane at a Delta gate, and they told us that if they let us get off, they weren’t sure they could get us back on the plane without issue. I was just nervous because if we missed the last ferry, that was going to be a problem. But we did finally get back in the air, made the short trip up to Pellston, and then took a bus to the ferry terminal and a ferry to the island. It was a long day.

But it was all worth it to make it to the island! After checking it at our hotel, we headed to the iconic Pink Pony for our first dinner. This is one of the ones that Steph had discovered in her research and we were all excited to try. The food was good and the atmosphere was even better, with fun pink decorations throughout the restaurant.

The next morning, we rented bikes so we could cycle around Mackinac! It’s only about 8 miles, and it was the perfect way to see the whole island in a fairly short period of time. We made lots of stops so that we could take pictures. The only negative is that this time of year has a lot of black flies in Michigan, and it seemed as though every time we stopped, we would get swarmed. At times, I was biking while holding my hand over my face just to try to keep them away from my nose and mouth. Thankfully, they didn’t bite.

The bridge that connects Michigan’s Lower & Upper Peninsulas

After a post-biking lunch, we headed up to Mackinac Fort! I loved the views from the hill. We watched a couple demonstrations on old-timey weapons and explored the museum exhibits about Mackinac’s history.

Of the various demonstrations we saw, my favorite was the blacksmith! He talked to us about the techniques used as well as what it’s like being a blacksmith in the modern era. He mentioned that doing something like this, where he gets to talk about the history and older techniques, is the only way he gets to make certain types of objects – something like a handmade hammer, for example, is prohibitively expensive compared to one made at a factory, and there’s no specific reason why handmade would be better. So this experience has been great for him to actually get to make some of the things he’s always wanted to try.

One of the mornings, we went up to Arch Rock. That area also had a visitor center, with more of a focus of the geography of Mackinac and some old photos of the early inhabitants of Mackinac at the rock.

Mackinac was charming, and there is plenty to keep you occupied as a tourist. Lots of museums with exhibits on their history, natural sites to visit, and cute boutique shops. That said, for me, my favorite parts of the experience were the aspects that showed more of what it would be like to live there. One of the days, we walked inland, outside of where the tourists stayed and into the part of town where primarily locals and summer workers lived. It was so interesting to get a small look at what it takes to run a place that is seemingly set in the past. The play between traditional and modernity – the horse-drawn cart pulling Amazon packages, the police bike parking, the Starbucks sandwiched between fudge shops that gets its ingredients by ferry and horses and bikes. Part of me wants to get a job there for a summer or something, just to experience the daily rhythms of life there for a few months.

It was an amazing trip. Mackinac is truly special and unique, and I was so happy to spend some time there with people that I’ve been friends with for almost a decade. I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a summer lake destination!

Categories
Albania Europe

South to Gjirokastër

On my last full day in Albania, before taking a flight that left at 6:55 am, I took a day trip from Tirana to Gjirokastër, a cool three hours away by car. Who needs rest, anyway? That’s not what my vacation days are for.

We started by driving west toward Durrës. Incidentally, if I hadn’t been there in March, I would have likely tried for a day trip there to go to the beach, since the Albanian Riviera is one of the next big destinations of Europe and looks spectacular. But, more importantly, a highlight of that drive is getting to pass the Amadeus Palace. This article is going to say it more eloquently than I can, but basically Albania got excited about tourism in 2011, whipped up some foreign investment, and built an insanely fancy hotel in the very outskirts of Tirana that never actually opened. It was a series of bizarre decisions and, if you’ve read this blog for any period of time, you will understand that I was beyond thrilled that we drove past it and I got to see it.

To find that linked article, by the way, I fully Googled “weird giant Albania hotel” and that was the first result, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

From there, we visited the Ardenica Monastery, which was a nice stop on the way to Gjirokastër. It was beautiful, with a good views of the landscape, which had vibes that were more similar to Tuscany than the mountainous ones I’d seen the two days prior. We got a quick coffee and hit the road again, continuing south.

We started out by walking around Old Town and grabbing lunch at a place that had a nice view over the city. Similar to Berat, Gjirokastër has distinct architecture and the overall effect of all the buildings is quite striking. Also like Berat, it is a UNESCO site.

From there, we headed up to the castle! It was a much more extensive grounds and museum than I expected. There was a whole section where you could see the jail cells, and ancient art, and all kinds of weaponry from all different eras in Albanian history. Some of it might have taken more if I had known more about Albanian history to begin with, but it was still interesting to learn as much as I could as we went through the exhibits.

Also, there were great views from the top! After that, we headed to one more museum, which was more of a historical house that was maintained with how the wealthy would have lived in Albania before the communist era, in a more traditional way. That was super cool, although they limited what we could take photos of so I don’t have much from there. With our last bit of time in Gjirokastër, I got ice cream with a few of the other people on my tour and watched the sun set over the city.

This particular day trip might not be for everyone, because it is a long day, and a lot of time in the car. Ideally, if your timeframe in Albania allows, it would be nicer to spend at least a night or two in Gjirokastër, because I’m sure there’s more to see in southern Albania. That said, I felt like between this, Berat, and my hiking trip, I got to see a lot of Albania in a fairly short amount of time! I thought all three day trips were excellent and would recommend this same set if someone was going for a similar number of days as I did.

I had a great time in Albania, but it was time to head back home! Overall, between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yemen, and Albania, it was a really great set of countries that I got to explore on this particular trip.

Categories
Albania Europe

Exploring Albania

For the rest of my time in Albania, I based myself in Tirana and took a series of day trips outside of the city. Part of this is just based on how much time I had, and part of it comes down to the time of year – if it hadn’t been March, I might have tried to go north and do more hiking, but it wasn’t a guarantee that the weather would be good enough for that, so I stuck more to the cultural sites. I did do a shorter hike on one of the days though!

Day 1: Berat

Of the day trip options, this is probably one of the most common – it’s a UNESCO site and it’s not too far from Tirana, at only about an hour and a half drive away. We started with a short stop for coffee at Belshi Lake, and then headed to Berat!

One thing to know about the driving in Albania – it was wild. Some of the most aggressive and crazy driving I’ve ever seen. One of my guides for the day trips was telling me that essentially, no one ever formally learned to drive. Cars were not as common during the communist era, and then suddenly, when everyone could afford one, they all took to the streets and taught themselves, so it can be fairly chaotic on the roads there.

We spent the morning exploring the castle and the surrounding area, including a beautiful old church and the fortress walls. One of the best parts of visiting the castle is how high up on the hill it is, and there were some really amazing views of the area around Berat!

Once we had finished at the castle, we headed down into the town of Berat! We had some free time to explore and get lunch. I found a place that overlooked the historic old town and ordered myself some pasta and a glass of wine, which was so good.

Berat is known as the Town of a Thousand Windows due to its unique architecture. If I’d had more time or wasn’t flying of Tirana a few days later, and was doing more of a itinerary that goes through the Balkans in this case, I would have loved to spend a night or more time in Berat. It had really nice vibes. But, as always, time is precious and the world is vast, so I got back in the car and my tour dropped me back off in Tirana for the night!

Day 2: Hiking

Again, this one felt a bit risky because I was worried it could be too cold in March (which, based on my experience in Serbia, was a valid worry) but I also didn’t want to go to Albania without at least trying for a hike! And as it happened, I got incredibly lucky with the weather, which was perfect for the entire time I was there. So I got picked up in the morning and we headed to Lake Bovilla for a hike up Gamti Mountain.

I had seen the photos, but I still couldn’t be prepared for spectacularly turquoise Lake Bovilla is. The drive there was pretty as well, as we started in the countryside and ended up winding through a canyon as we got closer and closer to the lake.

The hike itself was fairly short. The most stressful part was coming down the relatively steep hill at the beginning – otherwise, the majority was a series of stairs. If you have a fear of heights, you might struggle on these, as they are that metal kind that can look a bit rickety. A few of the other tourists there definitely were a little freaked out as they started making their way back down. The viewpoint was really pretty, though, and then I got lunch and a beer at the nearby restaurant.

All in all, it was a great day! It was great to get out into nature and see a little more of what Albania is known for.

My third day trip was all the way south to Gjirokastër, which I think deserves its own post – not least because it was a 3 hour drive each way. Stay tuned for that one!