**Written at end of Oct:....

We just came back from Tirana on Saturday night. Fuji had an 11 day training and I was peddling a proposal for a Business and NGO Resource Center in Peshkopi as well as tourism packages. Both met with a good degree of succ ess.

We have the highest mountain in the Balkans about 20 km away to the northeast and Laura Lakes a set of 7 alpine lakes about 30 km to the Northwest. One of Fuji's co-workers has been giving tours to them for the past 3 years but just doesn't know how to really market them. That's where I come in.

Several of the international organizations, including USAID, have programs and resources that help locals do this kind of thing under the heading of economic development. So I've been finding out what kind of support they can offer us and it looks like it could be significant.

The resource center is getting good reviews too but finding money will be the tricky part. But hey this gets me out of Peshkopi and walking the streets of Tirana to bullshit with hundreds of interesting people. I even got myself invited to a conference next week at the coast and they are going to pay for me. I just have to pay for my room they will pick up registration and all the meals. Not bad for wandering about town!

We also bought a car while in Tirana. It is a 1991 Toyota 4Runner which is in good shape and is a diesel 4 cylinder. We drove it home Saturday night and it handled the shitty roads well. It took us 4 1/2 hours to do the 110 or so kilometers which is good time. I go tomorrow to register it and get license plates which should be another adventure in the Albanian bureaucracy. Luckily it has good papers as they really look at that now. About half the cars that get stolen in Europe end up in Albania so they are really cracking down on that. Also if you have bad papers you'll be able to leave the country but will not be able to bring the car back in. Unless of course you know someone or pay the bribe.

On the visiting front any time is good for me. Fuji can take time off with notice and a lot would depend on what we want to do and how much time you two have and the season. There is a ski area about 1-2 hours drive in Macedonia. I just mentioned the hiking opportunities and there are some good castles to see and old towns. Not to mention Greece being close by to the south and Italy across the Adriatic.

Back to Albanian Adventure Index