This place was a brilliant find and goes to show you that knowing Albanian's enhances your experience in their country. Who would have guessed that they know all the awesome places to go. I thought this would be the perfect way to end mom's visit in Albania, especially after "roughing it" in Bajram Curri. We spent the last nights in this luxurious hotel, hanging out by the pool and reflecting on our crazy past few weeks.
I recognized that after my dad came and visited how much easier it was to talk to him about things that happened in my life here because he had a point of reference and just wasn't imagining this far away land. I found this true with my mom as well, even before she left. Talking about furgons or traveling through another country to get to my apartment is pretty hard to visualize in your head, at least I found out this much. I wonder if almost getting arrested at the border is hard to visualize, because that happened to me coming home.Anyways, I think my mom had a really good experience here. She kept saying "the pictures don't do this place justice" or "the people here love you and are so warm" and "this is not as bad as I thought it would be" which is always good to hear, but makes me wonder how bad she thought it was! When my dad was here we rented a car but my mom wanted the full experience so we took a 5-6 hour furgon from the capital to my town. Surprisingly she said this was one of her favorite parts because it aloud her to see so much of the country.
Introducing her around Bajram Curri was exhausting (having to translate everything and everyone wanting to take us to coffee and such) but it was such a great thing for my friends here and my mom. We got to actually hang out in my apartment and not feel the rush and pressure that we did on the cruise to be places and that was soooo nice. Since divorce is not very common in this country and when it does happen it's considered shameful I usually don't tell my acquaintances that my parents are divorced; and this comes up a lot with people you just meet, believe it or not. But as I expected a few people asked why my dad came without my mom and instead of going into everything my response was 'because she's a school teacher and had a break this summer.' Done. Awesome. The trip was amazing and I already feel like I'm missing something not having her in my apartment right now.
