The day started out pretty well- we hurriedly got ready and walked to the Post Office roundabout to get Taxis…. I borrowed Hanna’s boots for the day, but when I got just about to Lio’s Souflagge, I saw that the seam on top was kinda coming undone!! Yikes~ I didn’t have enough time to go back and get different shoes, so I tried to be careful all day :§ oh well… I looked good :)
On the way to T-town, I sat in the back taking pictures and sitting next to an Albanian woman. The 2 1/2 hour drive actually seemed kinda short! We saw some really pretty scenery on the way, too!
First Stop: The Stephen Center- a restaurant started by an American couple. They serve American, Mexican, British, and Chinese food. YES!!! I had a mocha, strawberry pancakes, and an omelette for breakfast. We were all giddy with excitement and anticipation before the food came. Luckily, we were sitting downstairs, so no one saw our ridiculous behavior (other than the waiter) :)
After a scrumptious meal, we walked to the city center (dodging traffic and Mormons on the way). There, we visited a book store where we all found something to see- I bought a magazine to cut up~ hee hee (an addiction whose withdrawals have been especially harsh since coming here).
A HUGE Museum was our next stop- there we learned some “keys” [in Wayne lingo):
- Apostle Paul came to Albania! (It used to be called Illyria)
- The first Albanian translation of any book was the Gospel of John.
Mostly what blew me out of the water was seeing ancient, ancient sculpture, pottery, and jewellery just inches from my fingertips – and knowing that people over 2,000 years ago loved those things. As far as I can remember, no other museum has had such a huge impact on me mentally or emotionally (yeah, okay, so I teared up at the enormity of it all).
Towards the end of our tour, we started majorly rushing – apparently the museum was closing :( Sad Day! But, oh well- I don’t think anyone got terribly bored!
Then our group split up and people went shopping. HARK! A grocery store with 2 levels!! Oh my word, is this still Albania?!?!? :) Unfortunately, I didn’t really find souvenirs I liked, but I did manage to get some sweet presents for family.
Then Sharon [note for those just joining us- Sharon is one of the long-term YWAM team in Elbesan… she’s a lot of fun and from St. Lucia in the Caribbean] and I went shoe shopping. I found some that were quite nice, but didn’t buy any.
Then, back to the Stephen Center for a chocolate milkshake, some fries (still not as good as US or our favourite souflagge guys’) and a snippet of a friend’s Mexican food.
Time to go home! We walked back to where we asked the bus drivers to meet us- to find that one of the drivers didn’t get the message to come back and pick us up, so we got a different dude. Oh well… the trip home was okay.
Then it was Home Sweet Home Elbesan! :)
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