Durres

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to visit Durres with some friends from church and work.

Durres is an old coastal city that was once the capital of Albania; it is now undergoing rampant and somewhat frenetic development as a beach resort town.

Valerie loooooved playing in the sand there although it was too cold for swimming!

In some ways, Durres is still an agricultural community.

And of course, the remnants of the communist era remain: those pink and blue concrete mushrooms are old military bunkers.

We enjoyed a delicious Albanian lunch with the Yzeraij family - this is only a small part of the spread! To the far right you can see little Isaiah - he's about Valerie's age and she appreciated his sharing her toys with her!

Whenever V sees this picture she says "Val-val fun play sand, share cow with you, Val-val fall off swing, Val-val crying, Mama get BIG hug"

Gabriel enjoyed his first time playing in the sand as well!

Our host for the day enjoying the view from the patio of his hostel. They open for business in May and we're thinking it would be a nice place to go with Anita and her family when they come to visit!