October 7 - October 24, 2025 Traveled to the Eastern European country of Albania and enjoyed every moment. Flew from JFK to Rome and connected on a remaining flight to the capital, Tirana. Tirana is a very vibrant city, combines the old centre with the modern part of the city. Bustling with lots of people, who seemed to be sitting in the abundant coffee cafes with an expresso and a cigarette, mostly groups of men. Staying in the centre at Villa Tafaj on Rruga Mine Plaza was the perfect location and a short walk to Skanderberg Square. The Square is the main plaza, which has the National Opera, Ballet Theatre and the Palace of Culture. Rruga Mine Plaza also had my favorite fresh fish restaurant, Detari Fish, always crowded and two people could have lunch or dinner for a total of $14.00 USA dollars. Albania's currency is the Leeke, 1000 Leeke is about $10 USA dollar, but all establishments take Euros and some will take credit cards. Nearby is the New Bazaar, a vibrant market which has restaurants and various shops. Another favorite restaurant in this area is Tradita Te Meri, family owned for 30 years, very reasonable and delicous food, soup is 200 Leeke, which is $2.00 and many dishes are $5.00, always crowded and sometimes a wait for a table, but definitely worth it. Albania has many buses to take you throughout the country, so we took a bus from Tirana bus station to the southern coast of Sarande, 5 hours south for $10 dollars each, Staying at a hillside guest house was a short walk to the pristine, Ionian Sea beach. The city centre was walk into the bustling center where the port is located to take a ferry to Corfu, Greece, a 30 mintue ride. The port in Corfu is a short walk to the Old Town. Lovely, architecture and cobbled stone streets, devoid of cars. Many shops, restaurant, cafes and plenty of tourists. We stayed for a day and took the last ferry back to Sarande, since we decided to stay longer in Sarande. After 5 days in Sarande we took a bus to Himares, further north on the coast. Himares is a wonderful place to relax and explore, where we were told one could walk a trail or take the road to nearly the top of a mountain to visit the Old Town and Castle. One morning after breakfast, we started to walk the road to Old Town, but then decided to walk back into Himares, since it was much further to reach Old Town. We took a cab the next day and walked thru the area and learned how generations are now living in the stone houses that still exist in the area. The new generation are all grandfathered in to live in the Old Town and former stone houses of their ancestors. The views from this area were extraordinary. We decided to stay in Himares for 5 days since we liked all the town had to offer, including the Himare 28 hotel, which offer a huge breakfast each morning, included with the price of our room with a deck and ocean views. We did not visit some other towns that were on our list to visit, since we preferred to stay longer in places that we really liked. This way, we can have the possibility of including those towns to visit, if we decide to return to Albania. I think that might happen! Albania is awesome!