Dinosaur Birthday Party

Palm trees, bananas and leaves from my 2009 baby shower!

Not quite a month after the party, I'm finally getting around to posting about it. I had so much fun gathering ideas and planning the party. The absolute best decision I made was planning to have it at the Gym. We love "My Gym" - Bubba has so much fun every time he's there. The people who work there are great and help the kids have fun in a safe environment.  Having the party at the gym allowed me to spend all of my time on the fun stuff and not worry about cleaning or any of the yucky stuff.

T-Rex Track Cookies

Brontosaurus Bites

Dino Bones (Dino Treasure Stones in back)

Cretaceous (Pop)Corn

As I've already discussed in previous posts, I made quite a few dinosaur themed snacks as well as the dinosaur treasure stones I used for decoration. Since Bubba likes cupcakes more than cake, I made some of those too (with dino cupcake liners and cute dinosaur toppers). I also dove deep into my closet and pulled out the box of baby shower decorations my sister made for me back in 2009. She made such amazing safari themed decorations that I also used them for Bubba's 1st birthday. I decided the palm trees (made out of organic diapers and ribbon), bananas (diapers and washcloths) and a few other things would be the perfect "icing on the cake" for the dinosaur theme. I would have liked to have printed the names of everything on the little signs but I ran out of time. I figured hand writing them was better than nothing because I really wanted each snack to have a little sign. Having dinosaur themed names for the food was part of the fun, at least for me...

We were not allowed to show up more than 10 minutes prior to our start time so I was a little worried about getting everything set up and ready before people arrived. I drew up a plan of where I wanted everything so my husband and the My Gym teachers could help. When we got there, they already had the yellow tablecloth on the counter and were ready to help. Having the plan in writing really helped a lot because I didn't have to explain what I wanted.

Stegosaurus Eggs (Oreo Truffles)

We got everything set up before the first people showed up. I didn't get really great pictures because the two different people I thought would be there and be able to take pictures weren't able to make it. I think you'll still be able to see how great it turned out though...

It was very gratifying to see everyone having such a great time and enjoying all the snacks. One of the teachers even said it was the best party she's ever seen. I'm pretty sure she's only been there for a few months, but I'll still take the compliment. :)

The best part? After playing with and entertaining the kids for over an hour, the teachers did almost all of the clean up! I just had to gather whatever I wanted to take home and put it back in my handy dandy plastic bin. Then we just went home and relaxed.

One of the other "extras"was to get Bubba a birthday shirt. I found what I thought would be perfect on Etsy. His favorite color is black and his favorite dinosaur (at the time) was a stegosaurus...they made it look really great and got it to me super fast. I was going to post a picture but since the shirt has his name on it (and he's wearing it) and I'm trying to keep at least some things private, I decided not to...trust me though, it's really cute.

Sorry the pictures are kind of wacky, I've spent over 30 minutes trying to get them to look normal but it's just not working. At least I have some to show you - better than nothing, right?

Dinosaur Party Treats

As I mentioned in the post about the dinosaur cake, along with the cake I planned to serve dinosaur track cookies, dinosaur eggs, a dinosaur vegetable tray and a couple other dino themed snacks.

The dinosaur track cookies were sugar cookies made from a box - Krusteaz brand. I'd never even heard of them before, but everyone complimented me on how good the cookies were. Bubba enjoyed helping me make the dough and scoop it out onto the baking pan. We flattened them and used a large plastic dinosaur foot to make the tracks. After the first batch we learned it was better to bake them for a little more than half the time and then add the track print and a little cinnamon. Overall, it was fun and pretty easy to make these cookies.

The dinosaur eggs were also pretty easy. I used the standard "Oreo Truffle" recipe I got from Bakerella years ago. I rolled the truffles into an egg shape and used Wilton White Candy Melts for the coating. On several of them, I added a couple "spots" to make them look like dinosaur eggs and to cover up ugly spots in the coating. (You can see a picture of the dinosaur eggs on this post) Another very simple project. It takes a while just because you need to put the balls in the freezer for a while and also need to keep re-melting the coating. Totally worth whatever time it takes though - they're addicting. I forgot to take pictures but I have some from before the party - I'll include them in the party post.

The veggie tray idea came from a fruit tray picture I saw on Pinterest. I wanted some kind of veggie offering and this seemed like a perfect way to do it. I used cauliflower and broccoli florets, baby carrots, mini grape tomatoes and green grapes for the dinosaur body. I really wanted to put an eyeball on one of the grapes but couldn't find my edible pen. Again, easy peasy. Didn't take much longer than preparing a regular veggie tray would have.

It was fun involving Bubba in all the preparations and seeing how helpful and interested he was in what we were doing and why. I'm also grateful for having a very patient and understanding husband. He just let me do what I wanted to do and helped when and where I needed it. The prep was so much fun, I can't wait to tell you about the actual party!

Dinosaur Cake

The only thing Bubba asked for concerning his birthday was a dinosaur cake. How could I not fulfill that singular request? If you know me, you know I would do everything possible to give him what he asked for...

So, going to my favorite avenue for ideas, Pinterest, I searched for dinosaur party ideas. There were so many to choose from, I wasn't sure where to start. I finally narrowed it down to the following: dinosaur track cookies, dinosaur eggs, a dinosaur veggie tray, a couple other dino themed snacks, the dinosaur cake and dinosaur treasure stones.

Writing it down now, I think I might have over-reached just a little...thankfully, we had already engaged the "My Gym" where we go to class to "host" the birthday party. Not having to clean or stress about the house in any way, freed up my time and allowed me to devote my energy to the fun and cool dino ideas. I started with the dinosaur cake because I planned at first to take it to school for his little party there. It turned out so good I decided to keep it for the actual party. 

I used the Wilton dinosaur pan. Since I've never decorated a cake like this, I wasn't really sure what to do after I baked it. I read and re-read the instructions as well as the comments and reviews. The hardest part, which wasn't really hard, just took a really long time, was making and mixing the icing. I made 1.5 times the suggested amount (don't ask me why, at the time it made sense) which was way too much. One of the best things I did was to buy tubes of pink and black. If/when I make the cake again, I'd probably buy most of the icing in tubes or color pre-made icing.

I kept telling myself that if I messed up, I could use the cake for cake balls. Luckily, it didn't come to that. As I progressed from one step to the next, it was so cool to see it really taking shape. I would recommend that you follow the steps. Some of them don't seem to make sense in the order they're given. However, it turned out well doing it the way they tell you to, so why mess with it? I would also recommend having a couple extra decorating tips. I didn't and had to switch bags and colors. When I realized I'd missed a couple steps during outlining, I had to improvise to fix it without the tip.

I had planned on buying some kind of cake plate or cake holder thing but when I went to the store, they only had really big ones or packs of them. So as you can see in the pictures, I used a pizza pan thing. Not very pretty but it did the job. It also fit perfectly into my cake carrier. I just couldn't figure out how to get rid of the ugly silver. Then I realized, as I was putting the "shells" around the edge of the dinosaur, why not just cover the silver with icing shells? I had tons of icing and would only throw it away if I didn't use it up. Perfect!

The finished cake was so amazing I about broke my arm patting myself on the back. I still can't believe I did something like that and that it turned out so well. I'm not sure if I'll do more of those kinds of things, but I sure won't be afraid to try. After all, it's just cake and icing, right? Tastes good no matter what it looks like...

Having done a pretty good job with what I thought would be the hardest part, I was ready to tackle the rest of my Pinterest ideas. Since I don't want to overwhelm you with my awesomeness, I'll blog about those later. :)

Random Thoughts

As I sit here watching "Harold and the Purple Crayon" with Bubba I keep thinking of different things I want to write about. Not anything big or special, just lots of random thoughts floating around in my head.

Have you heard of Harold? I thought everyone had, but it seems as if not everyone has. It's a great concept and one I have remembered since I was younger. When Harold can't sleep at night, he uses his purple crayon to create adventures. Whatever he draws becomes "real." It's very simple, simple story lines, simple characters, etc. None of the fast paced, over-stimulating stuff of current kids shows. Bubba loves it. I do too.

I still have a ton to do before we're ready for Christmas. I keep thinking I'm ahead of the power curve but it turns out that I'm not. I think I was at one point - I had most of the presents taken care of a while ago. It's the wrapping and sending that's taking longer than I planned. I mailed several boxes earlier this week but have at least three left. Then I still need to wrap all of our own presents. My parents are coming to spend Christmas with us and will be here Friday so I need to finish soon. We also still need to plan our menus. My wonderful husband is feeling very Italian lately and wants to do the Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve. We've thought of about four or five fish dishes but I'd like to talk it over with my step-mom since she's the big cook.

I've kind of been out of control lately with buying books and Project Life materials. I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to go on a book diet in 2012 and I think that made me react like I always do to any diets - I want more of what I can't have. So, I guess you could say, I'm stocking up. My plan is for at least the first quarter of 2012 to refrain from buying any new books (including Kindle or Nook books). We have so many books, we even have some in storage! I need to read what we've got so I can pass them on and not move with them again. We'll see how it goes - I'm kind of a book addict. There are worse things I guess...

Bubba is ready for nap time so rambling is done for now...thanks for listening.

Rosemary Cornbread

We are having Thanksgiving with family again this year. And once again, we don't have to cook! We did volunteer to bring a few things though so hopefully that will help alleviate some of the guilt at not doing much of the cooking.

Imagine two eggs in front... 

One of my favorite things this time of year is Rosemary Cornbread. I found the recipe 7-8 years ago and have made it almost as many times. Every time, I wonder why I wait until the holidays to make it. It's so easy and tastes great!

All you need is 2 boxes of Jiffy Corn Bread mix, 2 eggs (lightly beaten), 8oz plain yogurt, 1-2 7.5 oz cans whole kernel corn (I only use one because I think it's "too corny" with 2 cans) and 1 Tbsp rosemary. Mix it all together, pour it into a greased (spray) 9x13 pan and bake 20-25 minutes.

It's a nice change from plain cornbread and goes great with turkey and gravy. If you get a chance to make it, let me know what you think.

WW - Beautiful Apples

Dinosaur Food

I have been a bit obsessed lately with the idea of Dinosaur Food a.k.a kale chips. I first heard about them in a Tweet from Soleil Moon Frye (@moonfrye). You can find the original post/recipe here.

 I think kale is such a pretty vegetable. It's bright green and the leaves are so pretty - curly and just fresh looking. Looking at it just makes me want to use it in something...hence the kale chips. I'm not sure how else to use it yet. I'm sure I'll find something good. In the mean time, crispy superfood - awesome!

Even ripped up into little pieces, kale still looks good...The recipe says to bake for 15-20 minutes. I'm not sure what kind of oven the poster was using but my first batch was way too well done after only 12 minutes. They turned out very bitter and burnt tasting. I don't think even dinosaurs would have eaten them...

The second batch has turned out a bit better. I took some pictures but none of them look very good. Trust me that the chips look pretty good. They still have a nice green color and aren't bitter like the first batch. I probably should have left them in the oven another minute or so but was too worried about burning them. They are very brittle/fragile and I can't imagine they'd last very long so I'm glad I only made a small batch this time. I'll have to wait and see if the husband and/or Bubba will like them or not.

Quark

When I did Immersion Language training in Germany (many moons ago) I learned to love quark. The family I lived with used it for everything - main dishes, desserts, snacks, etc. It was awesome!

My husband has had to live with me extolling the virtues of quark for years as well as listening to me gripe about why you can't find quark here in the US. After all, quark is a dairy product (kind of a mix of sour cream and cottage cheese without the curds). American cows are no different then German cows, right? It's the same milk which can be used to create the same kinds of products - so why not quark? (That line of thought also happens to lead to all kinds of other questions - why does Kellogg's make different cereals for the European market that one can't find in the US, why does Coke taste different in Europe than in the US, etc.). Quark is actually pretty healthy - it's very low sodium. For example the carton of quark in my fridge says it has 70 mg of sodium (3%) compared to 380 mg (16%) in the low-fat cottage cheese. So if it's relatively easy to make and good for you, why don't American dairy producers make it?

The other day, while shopping in the commissary, I saw cartons of quark! Not just quark but low-fat quark too. I obviously had to buy some. Not just to have it again and to introduce my husband to the wonders of quark but to let the commissary know (through my purchase) that people appreciate having the opportunity to buy it. All day I was excited to get home and try it.

Imagine my disappointment when the berry quark dessert I made was horrible. Despite honey, vanilla and sugar mixed into it, it was bitter. Un-edible bitter. Or as my husband so gently put it, "this stuff burns." What went wrong? Did I not let it sit in the sugar long enough or too long? Was it bad quark? Is my memory of it completely wrong? Aargh...I was so looking forward to it - not just for eating it again but as a way to bring mack some of my good memories of living in Germany. Of course I still have those memories, I had just been hoping to share them with my husband through this one food.

I still have about half of the carton of quark left. I've not completely given up. I just need to find the right recipe...

Orange Food

I really hate cooked orange food...the smell, the taste, the texture...they're all yucky!

However, last night at Smokey Bones, we had sweet potato fries and they were amazing! So good! I actually chose to eat them instead of the regular french fries. Those who know me, know that is a huge deal.

I just bought the cook book "Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2" at Kohl's (for $5!)...I REALLY wish they had the recipe for the sweet potato fries...maybe I'll try to figure it out myself. It seemed as if they had a very light tempura coating and then sea salt...mmm, mmm, mmm.

If you have any ideas or have a great sweet potato fry recipe, let me know!

On a side note, still trying to figure out the "read more" thing...not sure why it shows up on every post even if there's nothing more to read...? Please bear with me.

Royal Wedding

The crowds, the church, the uniform, the dress, the vows, the kiss, the second kiss...What a Day!

First off, I have an awesome husband! He knew how much I wanted to watch the royal wedding live, so he woke up at 0240 to make sure I was awake and downstairs to get set up for my TV watching.

A lot of people have said they don't understand what the big deal is with this wedding or why people would want to watch it. Personally, I have been looking forward to it since they released the date.

I remember watching Diana's wedding when I was 9 and thinking it was magical. That was the beginning of my interest in all things royal. I don't really remember ever wanting to be a princess or even playing princess, but I do remember being interested in everything about Diana. To this day, I'm always interested in seeing pictures or reading about Europe's royals. Luckily, my mother subscribes to Bunte magazine so I get lots of pictures and articles (and an excuse to practice my German).

I have been so excited - last night I could hardly get to sleep. This morning, I was so excited I didn't know what to do with myself. So I made English Breakfast tea and baked scones. They actually turned out pretty good. My husband took some to the office and reported back they are a hit!

I always thought scones were hard to make. Luckily I found a pretty easy recipe on Allrecipes.com which only took about 20 minutes (plus 16 minutes of baking). The only thing I might have changed would be to add more chocolate chips and cut them smaller.

The whole morning was amazing. It really was magical. It seems a little silly to call it magical or even to have such feelings for people I will never meet and will only see on TV or in pictures...However, I would not have missed it and am so glad I got up early to watch it live.

I loved Kate's dress. As soon as I saw it, I was reminded of Grace Kelly. What a beautiful dress - so perfectly regal, stylish and simply perfect. Her veil was so sheer - almost as if it was made of fairy fabric (or "delicate as spiderwebs" as my mother said). Her perfect posture only made her seem that much more regal - a true princess (or Duchess, as the case may be).

I also really liked her sister Pippa's dress. It would have been a beautiful wedding dress itself. As soon as I saw her I thought of how confident Kate must be to let her sister wear such an incredible dress. Most brides want to make sure they won't be upstaged by their Maid of Honor or Bridesmaids - Kate obviously has the confidence to let her sister shine and look beautiful. It helps that Kate herself was so radiant and gorgeous...

There were so many little moments that seemed to make the day so special. Prince William waiting to look at Kate and Prince Harry looking back and saying something to William; Prince William's face when he finally sees her; their intimate smiles at different times throughout the wedding; William and Kate leaving the church and riding in the open carriage; and finally, the kiss. Waiting for them to come out onto the balcony seemed to take forever. The second kiss was worth the wait - what a wonderful display of their love for each other. Wow.

I could keep going...I wish I had some kind of memento but I keep thinking of it being relegated to some drawer or box. I'm sure they will come out with some kind of special edition magazine or journal with stories and pictures of today. Maybe I'll get one for Mother's Day!?

St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

This year, I wanted to do something special for St. Patrick's day but hadn't been able to think of what...as soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to try it. 

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy Roni's Weigh...well, she has another blog called Green Lite Bites where she posts healthy recipes. Between the two sites, I read about and got the recipe for Simple Green Cupcakes - perfect for St. Patrick's Day!

It's a very simple recipe:

1 cup applesauce

4 cups raw spinach ( I don't think I actually used that much, but I used a lot!)

1 Box store bought white cake mix

Sprinkles

Puree the spinach and applesauce to mush

Dump cake mix and puree into a large bowl and mix on medium for 2 minutes

Pour into cupcake liners (I ended up with about 18...)

Add sprinkles, if desired

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees

They turned out really green and were delicious! I think this will become a new St. Patrick's Day tradition (and maybe other times throughout the year too...).

As Roni says, they aren't necessarily health food, but hey, if it's got spinach and applesauce in it - it's way up from what I normally eat!

Cool Winnings

I can't even count how many contests and sweepstakes I have entered in the last few years, but I never seem to win anything...

A few weeks ago, I entered a contest on the BlogHer website for Fage Yogurt. It's really good Greek yogurt that Tom and I discovered a few years ago. And I won! I finally won!

The Fage arrived today. Two each of: 2% and Fat free plain yogurt, cherry, strawberry, peach and honey. The cool thing about Fage yogurt is that the fruit (or honey) is in a small container on the side. So you can mix in as much or as little into the yogurt as you want.

We like using the plain yogurt to make Tzaziki, a Greek appetizer/dip. The following is an easy Tzaziki recipe:

Ingredients:
16 ounces (2 cups) of thick Greek yogurt (like Fage)
4 to 10 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated cucumber (Kirby or "English")
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoons of lemon juice

Preparation:
Prepare all ingredients in advance. Dry the cucumber between sheets of paper towels.
Combine oil and lemon juice in a medium mixing bowl. Fold the yogurt in slowly, making sure it mixes completely with the oil. Add the garlic, according to taste, and the cucumber. Stir until evenly distributed.
Serve well chilled.
The garlic taste will become more pronounced the next day.
Good for about 3 days if kept refrigerated.
Yield: about 2 1/2 cups

Last day in Albania

After leaving Shkodra, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. A friend of V's husband had recommended it, though neither of our friends had ever been there. We were pleasantly surprised when the food came out. Salad and bread to begin with of course...then an amazing fish platter which looked way too big for four people. Amazingly enough, we finished just about everything on the platter - except the octopus and one lone fish no one could fit in. My favorite was the fried red fish. No idea what kind of fish it is, that's just what V called it - "red fish." I wasn't too sure about it since it looked like the whole fish was simply dropped in a pan and fried (head, eyes, tail and all), but it had a wonderful taste and consistency - just a bit crispy on the outside and tender on the inside...just thinking about it is making me hungry for it.

Following the fish platter, we had duck. The restaurant is supposedly well known for their duck. There were pictures of ducks on all the walls around us...so all I kept thinking while we were waiting was someone going outside to round up supper. When I say "duck plate" you may imagine slices of duck breast, pleasantly arranged on a platter...ah, nope. Try three little duck bodies, with the necks still attached, just siting on a white plate with a couple lettuce leaves around their little butts. Despite my hesitation based on the fact it looked like a tiny little duckling had been plucked and broiled just moments ago (which I guess it had been), I tried to eat it. I guess since it was a wild duck, it's supposed to have a special flavor but it tasted like liver to me. Since I'm not a fan of liver, V's husband ate mine. The meal ended, as usual, with a fruit plate.


On the way home I took several pictures of houses and scenery along the highway. As I had feared all week, my camera battery died so I didn't get very many. Next time, I'm bringing an extra battery or two as well as an extra memory card.

We had dinner with Valbona and her brother-in-law, packed and got up at 0400 on Saturday morning (4 Apr 09) to make our 0630 flight. It was sad to think of leaving, especially on such a historic day. Outside our hotel, everything was getting set up for a huge concert and celebration of Albania officially joining NATO. During our whole visit, throughout Tirana and in the smaller towns, there were flags and banners marking the occasion. We were amazed when we got to Frankfurt Germany that there was hardly anything on the news about Albania and Croatia joining NATO. Instead everything seemed to revolve around Pres. Obama and welcoming France back into NATO. Funny how different things seem important to different people at different times. If we had not been in Albania at the time they received their official invitation to join NATO and on the day they officially joined, we may not have even realized it happened. But one would think the major news stations would have at least mentioned it...Either way, I am glad we were there for it, even in such a small way.

Pasta Vongole

Vongole...Vongole...Vongole - this is a very cool word, exotic even. Especially when it's said in Albanian (or in Italian with an Albanian accent)...Who would ever think something that sounds so interesting would be so disastrous?

As I mentioned previously, the night we went to Durres and had dinner, V's husband talked me into trying the Pasta Vongole. Turns out "vongole" is Italian for clam...turns out clams and I don't agree too much...

So, starting at around 0230 while my darling husband was safe in snooze-land, I was at the beginning of a very long, arduous journey of "recovering" from food poisoning. Or at the very least a horrible collision between my delicate stomach and yucky, disgusting gray blobs that are loosely termed "clams."

While being sick is never fun, it's especially bad when you're stuck in a hotel room for one of only four days in a new country. Luckily, V had made sure we had reservations in a really nice hotel, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I eventually realized that time wasn't on my side (as in, as the day was passing, I still wasn't getting any better) so the men went and got me some medicine. By early evening, I was able to go to the park for a short stroll with the others. We then went to their apartment for dinner. V made lasagna and her mother made another traditional Albanian dish (it looked good - yogurt, meat, cheese, etc...). Unfortunately, I could only pick at the lasagna and didn't even try anything else except for bread and water. Despite that, it was a nice dinner and we enjoyed spending more time with V's family. We had brought several small gifts for everyone so we presented them after dinner. It seemed as if everyone liked what we had chosen for them...

Most of the stuff we had planned to do on Thursday, the day I was sick, we moved to Friday in hopes I would be recovered enough to travel. Luckily, I was...I'll tell you all about it in the next post.

Durres Albania

After spending the morning in Kruja we went to Durres for a short tour and dinner. Durres is about 30 minutes from Tirana on the main (only) highway.

My friend V was born in Durres and spent the first six years of her life living there with her grandparents. Why she lived with her grandparents is actually a very interesting story. Her father started working as a translator when he was just 17. He was very good at his job speaking fluent German and Chinese among other languages. To stay on top of things (vocabulary, etc.) he read a lot. Since the communists limited the types of books available, he asked some friends to send him some books from Germany. They sent dictionaries and other books to help him with his work. One of those books was Freud. Somehow the Communists found out and he was punished. His punishment was being sent up into the mountains to live for 8 years. The mountains were not healthy for a young baby so V was sent to live with the grandparents in Durres and her parents visited every month. It's like something out of a book, yet the people who lived it are right in front of you. Amazing.

Durres is a very old city. As in ancient. As in founded in 627 BC! One of the amazing things about Durres is the history right in the middle of it. You can walk down the street and up a small hill and right in front of you is a 1st or 2nd Century Roman Amphitheater. It is supposed to be the largest in the Balkans and is thought to have seated 20,000 people. It wasn't discovered until the 1960s so there are houses all around it, and one or two decrepit looking houses are actually inside the fenced off area. There are some other Roman ruins in other parts of the city, one set we looked at was a ring of pillars. Or what used to be a ring. Now there are only 5 or 6 pillars still standing. Turns out they were planning on building in that area when they discovered the ruins. The contractors tried to hide it/cover it up (so they could keep building) and destroyed many of the pillars before they were stopped. The mayor supposedly gave them permission to continue but the Prime Minister over-ruled him.

This debate really got me to thinking about how to appreciate and save our past while still making room for our present and our future. My first thought was "how in the world can they destroy such a historical find?" My next few thoughts concerned how many similar finds must have been destroyed either unknowingly or because the builders didn't care. Then I realized that with such an old civilization, there must be things of historical significance everywhere. Centuries worth of people living in the same area must at some point have cleared away the old in order to build new and "better" living, working, farming areas. How in the world, especially in such a small country, do you decide what to keep and what to "throw away" in order to allow growth and expansion for the people living today?

We also drove up a small mountain to see the former home of King Zog. Ahmet Zogu was elected as Albania's first president in 1925 but then declared himself King Zog in 1928. King Zog had a palace in Durres which was supposedly very fine in its day, having been decorated and furnished by his aristocratic wife. Unfortunately, in 1997, following the collapse of the pyramid schemes, the palace, which had been turned into a national museum, was targeted by vandals and the many paintings, furnishings, etc. were stolen. Now it sits as a sad reminder of what used to be. V and her husband seemed genuinely distraught at the sight - sad their own countrymen are/were capable of such unnecessary damage and sad that part of their history is gone forever.

We had dinner at one of their favorite Italian restaurants along the beach. Salad, pizza and pasta. As we already had experience with the size of the pizza from our night in Milan, I planned on just having a couple slices of his. V's husband talked me into trying some of the pasta too. When the pasta arrived, there were nasty little gray clumps with stinger like things sticking out of one end. Turns out, they were little clams. Now I only like clams when they are the Howard Johnson's type of fried clams. As in, so much breading and dipping sauce that you can't really tell what it actually tastes like. These were not Ho-Jo's clams. I ate some of it to be polite and then handed it off to Tom in exchange for his pizza.

Following dinner, we walked along the beach for a bit. Not in the sand, they have a paved area similar to a boardwalk. We stopped for some gelato, walked a bit more and then headed back to Tirana, getting to bed around 2300.

Kruja Albania

On 1 Apr 09, our second day in Tirana, we went to Kruja (pronounced Kru-yah).

The day started out with coffee, of course. My husband has really taken a liking to Espresso, though I hope he will never get to I's regular 10-12 Espressos a day.

The drive to Kruja was relatively quick. It's about 32 km from Tirana. That's not really what made the trip so short. Driving in Albania is an art form and requires courage, a lot of courage. As "I" said when we first got there, "the only rule is there are no rules." There is only one main road, the "highway." The other roads are a crapshoot, some are OK and some are downright terrible. Most of the cars seem to be four-wheel drive or off-road capable types of cars -with good reason. No matter the condition of the road, they go fast. Very fast. And they take the art of passing to the next level. It doesn't matter if you can see the expression on the face of the driver heading toward you, if you want to pass the car in front of you, just go for it. The car you are passing will slow down enough for you to get in front of them, and/or the car coming toward you will swerve a bit to allow room for three cars while you're passing. This gets a bit trickier when there isn't enough room for the other car to swerve or make way. Not that this stops people from passing...my husband says he's ready to try driving the next time we visit - I don't think I'll ever be ready to drive in Albania.

On the way into Kruja, we drove past the cafe/bar where Pres Bush had coffee during his visit to Albania in 2007. The changed to name of the cafe to the "George W. Bush Cafe." V's husband wanted to stop and have coffee which would have been cool, but we were on a timeline so V could teach at 1400.

Kruja is a very historical city for Albania. It's over 800 years old and is considered to be the center of Albanian resistance to the Turks. It was the site of a huge battle, in 1450, between the Albanians (joined together by Skanderbeg) and an Ottoman army that outnumbered them 5 to 1. Skanderbeg is considered to have saved Europe and Christianity by keeping the Ottomans from crossing into Europe.

They took us to the Citadel in Kruja and the Skanderbeg Museum which is located in the castle. On the way up to Kruja Castle, built between the 5th and 6th century, we walked through the old bazaar. I really wish we had had more time so we could stop to look at everything. It amazed me that there was so much in the bazaar, especially since it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere on the side of a huge mountain. I could have happily bought quite a few things to remember this trip, but we didn't have time (or the available weight in our suitcase).

The Skanderbeg museum was built in 1982. It struck me as out of character for the communists to build a museum in memory of the man who gave Albania it's nationalism.Wouldn't it make more sense if the communists had tried to erase Skanderbeg from the Albanian mindset? Instead, it seems they realized that Skanderbeg was such a huge national hero and would only grow more popular if they tried to erase the memory of him.

We received a private tour of the museum with an English speaking guide. In addition, quite a few things in the museum had descriptions/explanations in English. It was very well set up and showed a lot of the history for the area. I was a complete geek and took a picture of the bathroom in the museum. It's probably not very cool to talk about bathrooms and toilets but I'm going to. If you don't like it, skip ahead.... Everything I had read about Albania before our trip talked about how it was still a bit behind the rest of the world and not to be surprised by hole-in-the-floor toilets (and to bring your own TP). As I had seen/used these before (during my trip to Bosnia and Serbia) I was prepared. However, everything we had seen so far was pretty modern (at least compared to holes in the floor) so I was surprised when the museum had the old kind of toilets. Despite the hole in the floor thing, it was very clean and no big deal...

Next to the citadel was the Ethnographic Museum. It was essentially the home of "rich" people from the 14-15th century and set up to show the visitor traditional Albanian life. We got to see tools they used for grinding corn, weaving and pressing grapes as well as how the home would have been set up at that time - bedrooms, eating area, etc.

After the museums, we drove back so V could teach her marketing class at the University of New York in Tirana while her husband, Tom and I went to lunch. We went to the restaurant where V and her husband met. It was a very nice, small Italian restaurant. We started with salad and these incredible sauteed mushrooms. They actually tasted like some kind of meat - very, very tasty. The "first plate" was three types of pasta. The "second plate" was "shoulder of beef" and potatoes. We finished with a fruit plate of sliced apples, oranges and kiwi. As usual, there was wine and water with lunch and followed by espresso for the men. As we were leaving, we were told someone who worked for V's husband, when he was the Minister of the Interior, had paid for our lunch. I didn't think stuff like that really happened...it was almost like being a celebrity.

After all that walking and food, all I wanted was a nap. So V's husband went to get some work done and we collapsed for an hour at the hotel. We met up again at 1800 and drove to Durres. Durres will be the next post...

First Day in Tirana

We arrived at Mother Teresa International Airport in Tirana on 31 Mar 09.

My husband exchanged some Euro for Albanian Lek at the counter in the airport while I went out to meet V and I. We had been a little nervous whether they would be there to meet us since there had been quite a few changes to our travel itinerary and we hadn't been able to get a phone call to go through. Note to self: don't book flights to essentially third-world countries on airlines floating above bankruptcy.

After checking in at the hotel, Tirana International, and the first of many, many coffees (where we were informed we wouldn't be allowed to pay for anything), we drove to see their son, D, and a bit of Tirana. One of the first things we saw was a car with an Illinois license plate! Small world! If only we'd had the camera out to snap a picture...Throughout the trip, I think we ended up seeing plates from about 15-16 different states (NY, AK, NJ, TX, etc...my husband probably remembers them all).

We had the first of many, many Italian meals at "La Tavernetta." We started with the salad bar - not the usual salad bar, most things were very fresh but dipped in, sitting in, or soaked in olive oil. V served me to ensure we tried everything and got the best stuff. It tasted much better then it looked. After salad, we had pasta with prawns (little beady eyes and antenna included), followed with a chicken dish for the men and finished with a fruit plate.

After lunch, we went to the apartment to pick up their. We met V's father and sat for a while talking and drinking some very good (in my husband's opinion) whiskey. Then we went to the mall for more coffee. From the inside, the mall could have been in any state in the US - different stores of course, but otherwise pretty similar. Following coffee, we drove up one of the mountains to get a good view of Tirana. We actually went up to the hotel we were originally booked in for the trip last fall that never happened. Thank goodness we didn't stay there - very nice place with great views, but way out of town and the roads were horrible! We would have been stuck.
The night ended with a dinner of traditional Albanian specialties made by V's mother. We started with a cheesy spinach crepe dish and salad. Then, wow, this amazing northern Albanian specialty made of meat, cheese, yogurt - I have no idea. It was served in a dish for two people and was incredible. The name sounds something like "fergess" but I don't know how to spell it or what's really in it. Then there were Albanian sausages, vegetables, and a pork dish. Then, as if that wasn't enough, we finished with a platter of three different Albanian desserts - a northern Albanian cake which was really good - not very sweet but a nice texture and good flavor, Baklava, and "Kadaif" which made me think of worms squirming out of phyllo dough but was actually quite tasty. I was corrected in that the worm-like noodle things were some kind of spaghetti dessert thing ("vermiccelli-like pastry"). I am not describing it right and if we hadn't been in V's parent's home, I might have gotten a picture of it (the picture here comes from Wikipedia). Regardless, it was good. What was really amazing is that V's mom worked until around 5 PM, then went home and made all this stuff. We started dinner around 7:30 PM (which turned out to be one of the earlist dinners we had while there) so she didn't have a whole lot of time, but managed to have a beautiful table set and wonderful food. I was quite impressed.

V's parents are really interesting. The type of people you can spend hours talking with and constantly learn something new. It helped, of course, that they both spoke English and German (add in Italian and Greek and you still haven't covered all their languages...). We spent a lot of time talking about politics - both in Albania and the US. The Albanian elections are coming up in June so there were many discussions concerning their party and the current administration. We also talked quite a bit about Albania joining NATO, which was set to offically happen the day we left (4 Apr) and there were flags and signs all over Tirana celebrating that "miracle of freedom."

We got back to the hotel around 10:30 PM. Needless to say, the day was quite long, especially after having spent the day before in Milan walking around quite a bit and then going to the airport pretty early for the Tirana flight. Surprisingly, the bed and pillows in Tirana were the most comfortable of the whole trip and despite all the coffee and copious amounts of wine, whiskey, raki and water throughout the day, we slept very well.