Saturday morning in Pogradec

Villages along the way - a farm

The air is crisp, filled with wood smoke.  There is a little ice on an occasional roof.  Welcome to Progradec.  Look on a map of Albania and you will find that we have traveled to the east and south.  Pogradec is located on the banks of Lake Ochrid, seemingly directly across from Ochrid, Macedonia - Joe’s pastors’ conference was held there some years ago when I traveled with them and introduced a table runner to the pastors’ wives.  Now, a prize for the first person who can tell me what is so special about Lakes Ochrid and Prespa (I think that is the name, I am without internet right now and relying on my memory, a little dangerous)...they are unique lakes.

Podagrec is not as well developed or as quaint as Ochrid.  I expected that.  Even so, it is a “destination,” and serves as a vacation spot for Albanians, Europeans and others.  There is a special fish here - the Coran fish...I think it is spelled differently, but I’ll have to take a peek at the menu again.  It is a speckled trout of some sort... understand that I am NOT an ichthyologist, but, I saw it described as such.

Two painting schemes... a family feud?

The trip here was full of switchbacks, and we traveled in quite a rain storm.  Ah, that it could have been rain in California!  It snowed yesterday morning here in Podagrec, and there was snow mixed with rain on the trip here. This morning (it is about 6), Bill and I will take a walk, and try to find some Ochrid “pearls.”  There is a special bivalve which is only found here, from which they make “mother of pearl” necklaces, at least on the Macedonian side.  I’d like to show some of my friends in Albania a product made in their land which is quite sale-able to those outside of it...I’m looking for a way to spark those creative juices.  Pray that a vision can be cast for these friends of mine!

There were many villages along the route here, and villages also dot the shores of the lake.  Bill, the official photographer (and on the right side of the car), took several photos of family farms en route.  There is something so exciting about spring - the fresh green of new plants, new life.  The grasses here are tentatively poking their heads out, making the mountains a lovely green.  When I was here before it was in the fall, and the landscape was more arid.

Macedonian villages

OK, so what is unique to my eyes...cows grazing in the public park across the street.  When I mentioned this to Alban, he said, “Of course, there is a village nearby.”  Livestock grazing in the park must be typical....I have seen a man grazing two goats in a neighborhood park in Tirana, a single cow along the river in Tirana...but here there were a dozen or so and a donkey.  It’s good use of a resource, though, just different for me.  There are no lawn mowers in evidence, so to have a few quadrupeds taking up the slack makes total sense.

Socializing around a fishing boat

Podagrec is less prosperous than Tirana...you can tell from a quick walk around town.  After stopping at Tirana East Gate (brand new and the biggest mall in the Balkans, I’m told) to replace my neck pillow, this is a big contrast.  But, the people do what I have seen in most cities...in the afternoon (after the rain finally cleared), they get out and just stroll along the main thoroughfare.  Here they stroll along a broad sidewalk at the lake’s edge.  There are teens playing table soccer - a concession by a fellow who is having a wonderful time talking with colleagues around a fishing boat.  There are older wives and husbands ambling along, multigenerational groups of women with their children and infants, some others are walking alone.  Along the walkway Is the Presidential Palace - a retreat built for Enver Hoxha which is now a governmental retreat, complete with a small building which looks like a hotel with, perhaps, ten rooms, a large residence and then a dormitory for the security forces.  There are no cattle grazing there.

A walk through the city is much like one through Vlora - small stores and repair shops, some new apartment buildings and the older communist era apartments.  There is an Orthodox church with a sign saying “Happy Easter,” a priest animatedly conversing with several middle-aged men on the porch...some colored jars along a temporary shelf which I decide are similar to Easter baskets...perhaps?

But the air is brisk and clear, like the mountains in California after a rain.  We will go to see a Christian mission here - there are several, especially from northern Europe... Germany, Switzerland, etc.  They have helped with sanitation (raw sewage was traditionally dumped into the lake) and have started other health projects for the people here.

I am looking for traditional arts - so, we’ll see what we can find.  Must go now, others are stirring, and we have lots to do.

Pafshim!!

PS - Sorry that I can't seem to move the photos around!  So, they are all grouped at the beginnng!