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Travel Info and Help

Are THESE Elderberry Flowers?

This is in response to the lovely “comment” from Louise Nazeraj on the Hedgehog question.   This thing is called here “Rrush-qeni” or Dog Grapes.  In fall they make many black berries.  I think maybe they’re elderberries?  I hope so, because I want to make that cordial!!!  Louise:  I would have just answered your email, […]

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Travel Info and Help

Malesori Moral Dilemmas : Vol 1

Greetings, Amateur Philosphers!  Here is the question for today.  “Do you tell Alfred when you have unthinkingly lodged a Very Large Hedgehog underneath the refrigerator in his newly refurbished restaurant?”  Mitigating factors to consider:  Alfred is, at the time, in bed with an extremely swollen face from a bad tooth.  On the other hand, the […]

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Shoq Warms her Bum

I don’t even know what to say about this. Only it occurs to me . . . . Have I possibly not introduced you to our pet bunny “Shoq”? Having introduced her here now, I have a deep suspicion she’ll take over this website as quickly as she took over Rilindja.  Hmph. (BunnyBunnyBunny!)

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Scott, Cook and Catherine!

Scott may have been first to the South Pole, and Cook to the North (Peary was such a Poop) . . . . But CATHERINE was the first to stand on Our New Stairs.  Well, half of them anyhow.  Those of you who know us will remember the Old Stairs.  One of my favorite memories […]

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In Response to Many Kind emails

This is Alfred’s Mother Sose, spinning Lesh (wool).  I would just like to take this moment to officially express my gratitude and love, in case I haven’t been clear about it before.  People here in Valbona are amazing.  I arrived as a visitor one summer and simply refused to go away.  Their response?  They have […]

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There Goes the Road Again – or – Never a Dull Moment

Okay – I swear to Zot i madh – really there are lots and lots of wonderful long boring peaceful days, when nothing at all happens and I just bake bread and read books and go for walks.  But I haven’t mastered the art of taking good pictures of that yet!  It’s this stuff that […]

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News from Nowhere

Here is a picture I took on February 8th, in Tirana.  A man died here during the January 21st Protests.  Two days after his death, this corner was heaped with flowers.  Almost three weeks later I saw this.  Here’s something I wrote after Alfred and I were at the Protests . . . . . http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_6858.shtml

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In Case You Were Wondering . . . .

We are entering our fourth week with no electricity, which makes me realize how fast I adapt to things – oh, I don’t mean that as a self-congratulation – more like I get much too comfortable too quickly.  It’s pitch dark at 4:30 pm, at which point Alfred and I take to opposite ends of […]

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The Mystery of Shpella e Dragobise, the Cave of Bajram Curri

Bajram Curri, after whom the town is named, was a Kosovar who played some sort of large role (of which I am admittedly ignorant) in wresting Albania from the Ottomans. Unfortunately (fatkeqsisht), being Kosovar he was interested in reuniting Kosovo with Albania, which somehow brought him into conflict with King Zog. In 1925, he famously […]

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More from Our Friend Lajos

Hi Catherine I wrote a travel reports of the my tour.  Greatest hungarian motobike website. use this lajos

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