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.

More from Vienna

Okay, so other than the statues, the best thing we did in Vienna was go to the Zoom Museum! It's a museum for kids & I LOVED it. Here's photos and a video of me playing and having a really, really good time. Oh yeah...and a bonus photo of me playing hide and seek with a curtain!






Okay, the real question is, why on earth did my mommies make me wear this silly thing? I look ridiculous--it's so hard to be dignified when you're a baby.

But, I think I got them back when I hid behind the curtain and tried to look scary!

Statues in Vienna

I had a GREAT time in Vienna last week! My mommies and I visited statues, statues, and more statues! Okay, well, maybe we did a few other things too, but really, what could be as important as statues? Because you seem like you want to know, we also went to the Natural History Museum (which I loved), my mommies dragged me to a lot of clothes shopping, and we did look at a couple of historical things here and there. But mostly we looked at statues. (And I think my mommies ate a lot of sushi after I went to bed at night.) Oh yeah, and I went to a really fun kids museum, which will deserve a post all of its own.

Me and Gutenberg





Okay, I admit it, I fell asleep for a while, and completely missed the statue in front of the Parliament building. But I hear that my mommies got to enjoy a yummy Thai meal while I was sleeping!


Look at all the statues between the Natural History Museum and the Kunsthistorisches Museum!


And I had a great time with this really fun elephant statue in front of the Natural History Museum.



See, here's me playing with the elephant. And following the 'ducky.' What, you don't think a pigeon is a duck? All of the rest of the birds in my books are ducks, why can't a pigeon be a duck?


This statue was in front of the Secession Building (note the gold cabbage looking thing in the background!).


I'm in good company here, hanging out with Strauss!

For my elf Diana

Why Diana is happy I don't live over her head right now! (Even though I know she misses and loves me very much.)