My Recent Trip to Albania

You may or may not know that my husband Andi is from Albania. He immigrated to San Diego with his parents at the age of 6, but still has a lot of family back home in Albania. This is my third time visiting the country. It’s such a beautiful country full of rich history, amazing food, friendly people, gorgeous scenery, and did I mention the amazing food?

Here are some of my favorite memories:

Swimming in the sea! This is by far my favorite thing to do in Albania. This trip we went to Vlore and stayed at the Marina Bay Resort. The water is crystal clear and heavenly.

Eating! There is so much good food. Think Mediterranean food combined with Italian food (pizza, gelato, grilled veggies, fresh fish, feta cheese, freshly baked bread, lots of meat, and lots of fresh fruits and veggies, etc.). We also found the best sushi place, that had this amazing crab and cucumber salad, where the crab and cucumber were sliced into really thin ribbons. We had a lot of family dinners, and yes, it’s just like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding where they pile food upon food onto your plates and say eat! eat! eat!. So, I came back home a little plumper, but it was well worth it.

A very cool thing happened and my husband’s family got a street named after his late father, Vladimir Dervishi. We got to visit the road for the first time and had a big Dervishi family dinner with 40 people. If it wasn’t for Andi’s father bringing them to America (this is a really cool story for another time, and perhaps will someday be turned into a movie because it’s so cool), I probably would have never met Andi.

Visiting Nena Oli! This is Andi’s grandmother on his mother’s side. She is truly the sweetest grandma ever. I no longer have any grandparents still with us, so I feel like she is also my nena as well. Andi has a close relationship with her and FaceTimes almost everyday. She is in a nursing home in the mountains outside the capitol, Tirana, in Albania. We went to visit her almost everyday we were there. She was so happy to see us!

We did a quick stop for a few days in Florence Italy before coming home. Amazing sandwiches, gelato, artwork, and architecture. Florence is beautiful and I would love to go back when I can spend some more time there!

And last but not least, I got to spend time with my favorite person (my husband) in his homeland.