The highlight of the past two weeks was Kamryn's visit to Albania. She spent nearly 10 days with us and they went by way too fast. She was on her way to Paris for a semester abroad with BYU. We took her with us to the YSA Conference in Vlore and did some Mom, Dad and Daughter sight seeing around southern Albania. Photo is of Kamryn's arrival at the airport in Tirana, Albania. Mom could hardly wait to get to the airport.
This is the 16th century Muradi Mosque located in Vlore, Albania. It is thought to have been designed by Sinan Pasha (1489-1588) who is considered to be one of the founders of Ottoman architecture.  Because of all the running around I did (getting supplies, dropping off and picking up young adults etc.) during the YSA Conference, I spent some time in center part of this beach city. The mosque is on the main road in town.
Saturday night after the YSA Conference had ended, we stayed in Vlore and attended Church there. After Church we were invited to lunch at the Snow's home. Elder and Sister Snow are the humanitarian missionaries for the Church in Albania. He is also the Branch President for the Vlore Branch of the Church. In the photograph from left to right, Kamryn, Mom, Sister Snow, Elder Snow (from Colorado), Elders Shields and Hewett. Apparently the Elders had a "kitchen problem" at their apartment. I teased them that what they really were doing was getting a great home-cooked meal from Sister Snow.
Late Sunday afternoon we headed south to Saranda, Albania.  Saranda gets its name from a 10th century church, located up the hill from the center of town, which was dedicated to 40 (saranda, in Greek) Chrisitian legionaries who were put to death in 320 AD. The city has long been a tourist destination for Albanians during the summer. But summer ends like a curtain following on a play August 31st. We had no problem getting a very nice hotel room. The above picture is from our hotel room looking across the horseshoe shaped bay at sunset.
Photograph looking from our hotel room towards the Greek island of Corfu. The southern border of Albania is shared with Greece and the island of Corfu is close enough I think I could swim to it. Missionaries are not to leave their mission so I stayed on the Albanian shore.
Just up the coast from Saranda are some beautiful little villages, this is photograph of Himara, Albania.  Next time, I think I'll stay here. This portion of the coastline is known as the Albanian Riviera.
Also north of Saranda is a fortress built by Ali Pasha Tepelena. At one time it was a small island, but it is now connected to the coast by a narrow causeway. It was the best preserved "castle" I've seen in this country, but was completely unattended. Here's a short little history lesson: Ali Pasha Tepelena was a "bey" or "pasha" appointed by the Ottomans. By way of diplomacy and violence, he became very powerful and ruled all of southern Albania and a good portion of Greece.  By 1820, the huge area which he controlled was beginning to worry the Ottorman rulers who dismissed him. He refused to hand over his territory and for 17 months the Ottomans besieged his castle at Ioannina. In January, 1822 he was killed and his head sent to Istanbul.  Moral of the story: don't lose your head of any material thing.
Between Vlore and Saranda is an old Soviet submarine base. In the photograph you can see on right a small opening into the hillside which allowed Russian submarines to "hide" under the hill here in what is called the Bay of Palermo.
Part of Albanian Riviera. It was near here that Julius Caesar landed with 7 legions of Roman soldiers in 49 BC during the Roman civil war. 
Kamryn with the Adriatic Sea.
South of Saranda is the ancient city of Butrint which became an urban center in the 4th century BC. It became a Roman colony in the 1st century AD.  Even the Venetians fortified Butrint. From Butrint you could control the straits of Corfu and access to Lake Butrint and its fisheries. This photograph is taken from Butrint's acropolis and the archaeologists' headquarters looking toward Corfu. Notice how narrow the strait is between Albania and Greece. By the way that's now the Ionian Sea out there, somewhere between Vlore and Saranda the Adriatic becomes the Ionian.
The 6th century baptistery of Butrint which was the largest baptistery east of the Adriatic apart from the one in St. Sophian's in Istanbul.
Apparently, Butrint was destroyed by an earthquake in the 4th century AD. This is photograph of the theater which could seat 2,500 people.
At the entrance to the theater are some re-used blocks. That is they were re-used by the Romans sometime around the 1st century AD. On them are inscriptions which are considered "documents" which recorded such matters as the freeing of slaves.
On our way to Girokastra there is a famous underground spring set back off the main road in some oak trees called The Blue Eye (Syri i Kaltër). During the communist era, it was a place that only the communist bosses were allowed to visit. It has not been completely explored, but the guide book says the pool is over 150 feet deep.
Mom and Kamryn at The Blue Eye.
Above the town of Gjirokastra is the citadel. Though people were living here as early as the 3rd century BC, the walls did not go up until the 6th century AD.  During World War II the Germans had some anti-aircraft fortifications on the citadel and there was an airfield in the valley below used by the Italians for their ill-fated invasion of Greece. Most recently the citadel was used as a prison by the communists.

Photograph looking across part of Gjirokastra, the Drinos valley and the Lunxhëria mountains opposite.
Now here is a great story. Located on the citadel is a United States T-33 "Shooting Star" jet trainer. Because of technical difficulties it was forced to land at Rinas Airport near Tirana, Albania in 1957. The pilot was returned to the US, but the plane was put on display by the communists as a "spy plane" and a symbol of the external threat which the communist leadership claimed was attempting to overthrow Albania during the Cold War.  It played right into the government's propaganda on why they needed to build over 400,000 bunkers and pillboxes. The plaque now located next to the T-33 admits all of this. 
Gjirokastra is a UN Heritage site and it was also the boyhood home of Albania's most famous writer, Ismail Kadare.  He said this: "It was a surprising city, which seemed as if it had come out of the valley unexpectedly, on winter's night, like a prehistoric being, and clambered up with difficulty, stitching itself on to the side of the mountain. Everything in the city was old and made of stone, from the streets and fountains right up to the roofs of its big houses, a century old, which were covered with stone tiles the colour of ash, like so many huge carapaces. It was difficult to believe that under these hard shells the soft flesh of life thrived and was renewed."

Ismail Kadare, 'Chronicle in Stone' (Kronikë në Gur), 2000.