Blogs from South, Albania, Europe - page 5

What a difference a good night’s sleep can make! We woke to bright sunshine on a sparkling Ionian Sea. What a shame yesterday hadn’t been as fine and sunny as we had come down that mountainside from the fog as we might have had a different impression of the scenery that the guidebooks had raved off.However, it looked like at least today we will see the better side of what the views of the coast in the vicinity of Sarande has to offer. The apartment we have is quite spacious with a separate bedroom, bathroom with HOT water!(we both had l o n g showers this morning) And a well equipped kitchen opening out to a small terrace from where we get a peak, between a couple of finished but not furnished apartment blocks of the ... read more

Resumo: Um pouco de frustacao; Escolha certa tomada; Alegria e Criatividade de volta; Estou bem. Sempre digo e repito: A vida eh feita de escolhas. Obviamente devem existir muitas excecoes, mas na maioria do caso eh verdade. No meu, por exemplo, eh fato. A minha vida eh a soma das minhas escolhas/decisoes. Sai de Tirana para voltar a Saranda (Sul da Albania), onde eu tive o melhor trabalho volutario ate entao (vide post antigo). Voltei pelo fato de conseguir aqui acomodacao "na faixa". Ok, iria trabalhar no periodo da manha como "faxineira" do hostel, sobrando assim a tarde e a noite para ficar com as criancas do orfanato. O que seria a melhor semana da Albania transformou-se em uma semana um pouco frustante e emocionalmente desgastante. Obviamente as altas expectativas atrapalharam um pouco. 1) No orfanato ... read more

Resumo:Vida dificil esta que estou tendo - brincar/cuidar das criancas na praia (rs); Consegui finalmente um esquema bom para acomodacao; Estou bem. Sou voluntaria no orfanato de Saranda. As criancas chegam de todos os cantos do pais. A cidade aqui eh muito linda e tranquila. Do ladinho da Grecia. Da aquela coceira de passar alguns dias em Corfu (ilha grega que fica a 1hora de ferry). Como esse papo de "esta do lado" nao tem fim e eu ja conheco a Grecia, vou ficar por aqui mesmo. Tenho o melhor trabalho voluntario ate agora. Cuido das criancas na praia! Fico das 10h as 13h e das 16h as 18h brincando com eles no Mar Adriatico que eh super tranquilo (sem ondas). Depois saio com eles para passear de noite das 19h30 as 21h. As criancas sao ... read more

Just south of Saranda is the small city of Ksamil (pronounced SA-meel). It is an adorable beach town with much less traffic and noise than Saranda. Just steps from the beach are 5 artificial reefs, aka shipwrecks. Each of these retired wreckswere cleaned out and then purposely sunk by the US Navy for the Albanian coastline. Certain parts of the coast are only covered with sand and seagrass which only allows for certain organisms to grow. Give the bottom a little structure and all sorts of different species and organisms can flourish. These shipwrecks allow for that structural development, plus they are really cool to dive on! We only dove on one of the wrecks, bit it was pretty spectacular. The entire wreck was only 18 meters in length, but the water clarity and ... read more

The Albanian Center for Marine Research's main objective is to train divers (consisting of students, grad students and phd students) in the art of scientific and archeological diving. This includes learning how to transect and map underwater fields. Making a list of acurate measurements is hard enough on land let alone underwater. The students did an amazing job with their diving even with the added stress of collecting data. Practice practice practice...that's really the only way you can master this technique. The students here have gotten spoiled with great diving conditions. Can you imagine trying to measure / map an area when you cannot see more that 2 feet in front of you? or if there is a 3 knot current pushing you off the bottom? It is difficult to simulate those conditions in Albania because ... read more