Oh how nice it is outside! Kohe shume te mire! Now instead of everyone asking me if I like the snow they ask me what I think of this new weather and my response, with a big smile is "I like it A LOT!" I believe that seasonal depression is real and I also believe almost every member of this town has no escape of enduring it at least a little, myself included. We've coined this seasonal depression as 'the Balkan Gloom.'Volunteers living in Shkoder, a large city in the north western part of Albania hosted a 5k "Race to the Castle" event, partnered with The Door (an Albanian NGO) that was also on the same day as a traditional arts and crafts fair and 5th Annual Lojra Popollure! Garrett, Eric and I decided to go, thinking we would have a straight and easy trip by ferry. Wrong. Turns out the ferry wasn't running yet and was still shut down for the winter. No problem, just another day of relying on public transportation, so we hopped on a furgon and went 4.5 hours south to the fork in the highway and then traveled back up an hour and a half to the north western part of the country, in total our trip around 6 hours (compared to three). Albania is funny that way, most roads tend to run vertical and seldom go horizontal, making short distances harder to travel.
We arrived in Shkoder on Friday and met up with some other volunteers and went back to Corey's town, Vau i Dejes for the night. Saturday morning we woke up and helped load the Judo vans with mattes for their performance later. Corey practices Judo every day in his town and since we've been in Albania he's moved up to his orange belt. I have a lot of respect for his Judo master, who was paralyzed practicing the sport that he loves and instead of giving up on it he is now a teacher and offers the youth of Vau i Dejes a constructive and beneficial activity, teaching discipline and promoting exercise.
We ride into Shkoder with all the eager Judo kids and get dropped of at the base of the castle. The 5K race began at 10am and there was a great turn out! PCV's and Albanians alike ran through the city of Shkoder. There was a 3K for younger runners and a 5K for the more daring. There was even a 78 year old Albanian man that runs 10 kilometers every day that participated. Our Peace Corps country director came out and ran as well.
After the race we all hike up the small mountain to the kala (castle) of Shkodra. One of the most famous and largest castles still remaining in Albania. We enjoyed traditional dance, music, arm wrestling, pop music, judo, circle dancing and even an American dance. It was so nice to see Albanian's celebrating their culture and hosting such an amazing event.
After the festival we all went to the Volunteer's home who live in Shkoder and had a pot luck dinner.. delish. The photo in this post is me after dinner at an Irish bar in Shkoder, my first time ever shooting pool behind my back... and I made it! It finally feels like Spring and I can't wait to get some sun. Now that spring is here, the Balkan Gloom will fade away! Oh, lesson learned, never open a Paypal account from Albania. It will be considered 'suspicious activity.' Mireseerdhe pranvere!
