Europe Trip week 3

Our third week of travel took us from green, green Romania to the city of Belgrade in Serbia and then on to Albania.  Our original plan was to bus through Bulgaria and see some awesome caves there, but then we found out that the bus ride from Bulgaria to Albania was 22 hours and mayyyybe would or maybe it wouldn't get canceled last minute.  So we jumped online and found some cheap flights directly to Albania, with the catch of having another 21 hour layover in Serbia.

I have to say, TOTALLY worth it.  Air Serbia was super nice and pleasantly surprised us with huge seats, two free carry ons, and a sandwich and water bottle snack pack on both of our 2 hour flights.

We saw a brief view of Belgrade in the evening, got a little sleep, then got back to the airport for our flight.  Once we got to Albania we were picked up and taken care of by the parents, relatives, and friends of Alyne's friend Dini (originally from Albania, but went to school and now lives in Utah).  They were all some of the most hospitable people that I've ever met and took such good care of us.  We were able to see and do things that we never would have been able to manage on our own.

And now, slideshow!

End of Serbia

 Both guys who gave us a tour talked a lot of the influence of communism.  Above you can see parts of a concentration camp, a wartime bunker, and part of the Berlin Wall.

 Mother Teresa Square.  She was Albanian and I never knew.  I'm not surprised after getting to know the Albanian people.

 An disused amphitheater.

 A museum of History that we went to that had much more about Romans than about Albanians.

End of Tirana

 We made it to Himare a little before dusk.

 Our hotel

End of Himare

 We stopped at a fortress on our way further south the next day

End of fortress

 End of Roman ruins at Butrindt

 Random beach

End of Blue Eye

End of touring the mountains above Tirana

 Last pic of Albania (at the border)

We got to Budva, Montenegro on Saturday evening and had time for a tour and some pics before sunset, and then only the above picture on Sunday morning before spending all day on a bus to get up through BEAUTIFUL Croatia.  I wish I could have stopped the bus every ten minutes to take pictures, but sadly, that was not an option.  

Also sadly, we weren't able to go to church because (from what we could find) Montenegro was only only opened for missionary work a couple years ago and there was no information of where to go. That was sad, but driving through Croatia helped a little :)