Hiking in the hills

Every Saturday there is a group hike in Tirana called the Hash (Hash House Harriers). Hashes happen all over the world--it's basically a group of people who run/hike on a regular basis together. In Albania there are lots of the people from embassies and NGOs along with some Albanians.

But, the great thing about the hash in Albania is that we get to go into mountains that are beautiful, but that we couldn't otherwise see. (My mommies say that there are no trails or trail maps.) People who know the area (the hares) go and mark the path in the morning with flour...the rest of us meet and hike the trail later in the day. About 50 or 60 people go every weekend--some run the trail, some walk the trail...and the familes who have kids like me usually bring up the rear. At the end we all meet to eat something. (And for those who choose to partake, beer is also a big part of the tradition--for some reason, I never get any.)

The trails we hike are basically sheep trails (and I love that we get to see sheep and cows). There's lots of scrambling through bushes and avoiding mud...and Mama Melissa gets a great workout carrying me in the backpack carrier (she doesn't get to fall asleep when she's tired like I do). But I love the views, and overall, it's a lot of fun. Here's a couple photos from our last hike (with our new friend Meghan, who was here from London to conduct a training for the research project Mommy Mindy is working on).

The last shot is a picture of Kruja, a nearby town where we had dinner after the hike with some of the other people from the hash.