Saranda, Albania

I'll tell you, one of the weirdest things about Albania is the concrete mushrooms that dot the landscape. It's said that 700,000 of these Smurfish structures were built as bomb-shelters under the communist government of Enver Hoxha. Because they were designed and constructed with enough concrete and rebar to withstand a full-on tank assault, they remain to this day a monument to the strangeness of human beings.

We ventured from out of Saranda to a town called Ksamill. The bus to Ksamill lets you off at an intersection that is marked only by some olive trees and a pile of trash, but as intrepid explorers we found our way to the beautiful blue green sea and had a wonderful swim.

Then it was off to Tirana: it is vast, strange and Soviet, but we're told it's nice if you give it a chance. We only swung through because you have to go there first in order to get a bus to Macedonia. Below you can see our very important collection of bus food, which certainly beat the roasting lamb rotating over open fires at the bus stop and the accompanying lamb soup that is the staple food of the Macedonian diet.

At right is a picture of Lu with a street kid from Tirana who was trying very ambitiously to sell us ball point pens. We wound up paying him the equivalent of about 50 US cents to leave us alone.

Oh, Albania. I absolutely recommend going there to experience it for yourself. The people are exceptional, the landscape is breathtaking. In this country you can experience everything from used shoe markets to trendy internet cafes to cows grazing in a dumpster. I think Albania should erect a sign at their border which says "Hi there! We're Under Construction."