Week 41: Himarë, Albania & Kotor, Montenegro (posted by Jane)

After six days of hiking in Greece, we split up with Nana and Pops. The five of us headed to Himare, an Albanian beach town. We spent our day and a half relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather.

On April 9th we had a eight hour drive to Kotor, Montenegro. Kotor has a walled medieval town at the base of the steep mountains. It is also a destination for huge cruise ships!

The next day we explored the old town and walked up the fort walls to a Venetian fortress. We also found a zipline that Anne and Eliza spent a lot of time riding!

Off to Bosnia we go!

Week 40: Zagori, Greece (posted by Megan)

We had a special week hiking into mountains and along the gorges of Zagori, Greece. Nana and Pops hosted our inn-to-inn adventures that took us to four idyllic villages: Kipoi, Monodendri, Vikos, and Megalo Papingo.

The week started out wet and cold. Some highlights included walking along Zagori's famous 18th century stone bridges and taking in the spectacular views of Vikos Gorge - according to their signs, it's the steepest gorge in the world!

On our third day of hiking, the weather became beautiful - spring had once again arrived, hopefully this time staying around. Our trail took us down into gorge and along the rocky riverbed. Wade and I debated whether or not we were prouder of the septuagenarian grandparents or the grandkids for handling the physical challenges without complaint. We were all grateful for the seven sets of hiking poles that Nana and Pops toted over from the US for us.

Each village was complete with cobblestone streets, old stone houses, and delicious local food. The tourist season is about to start, so we were lucky to get there before the onslaught of the crowds.

Best of all, though, was spending some quality time with grandparents. After six days of hiking, we said goodbye to Nana and Pops. They headed south to tour the rest of Greece, and we loaded into our massive van for a drive north, back into Albania.

Week 39: Albania with Nana & Pops (posted by Wade)

We had a fun week driving around Albania with Nana & Pops. The main themes for these past few days have been medieval castles, delicious food, and learning about Albania's totalitarian past.

After picking Nana & Pops up from the airport in Tirana, we familiarized ourselves with Albanian history by visiting the Bunk'art Museum. It is located in a 1980s downtown bunker and it tells the story of how Enver Hoxha's communist regime kept control over Albania for forty years. Later in the evening, we tried to dodge some Tirana rain showers with varying degrees of success.

Our next stop was Berat, which is a few hours south of Tirana. It's a lovely town with an obligatory hilltop castle. Pops made a friend at a local seafood restaurant. The new friend shared with Pops raki and stories about the collapse of communism. While in Berat, we continued our weeks-long admiration of Orthodox iconography at the icon museum, and we stumbled upon some modern iconography in the form of murals commemorating the war in Kosovo.

From Berat, we continued our journey south to Gjirokaster. Again, a lovely town with cobblestone streets, steep slopes, and a hilltop castle. This time, Pops and I made friends with the proprietor of a restaurant who insisted on teaching us some traditional Albanian folk dances.

This has been a classic Kota-family trip so far: lots of good walks, delicious food, and plenty of history.