Balkan Day 9 - Off to Durrës

After the breakfast buffet set up in the courtyard, each of us had to engage in the annoying task of packing our suitcases and somehow closing them. After everyone successfully completed this task, we loaded the buses and embarked on a one-hour journey to a restaurant high up in the mountains run by Emelda's parents. Since the winding roads were not made for our two bulky tour buses, we all got off further down and 'hiked' up the switchbacks. We were all well fed at the restaurant. However, we couldn't stay there for too long as we had to travel another approximately 2 hours to Shkodra, the second-largest city in Albania. It took us a while to find the right church where our concert would take place in the evening, but this obstacle was quickly overcome thanks to our guide, Emelda! Before we started preparing for the concert, we quickly had a snack at a small hostel which was very tasty.

Our concert at the Katedralja Kisha Fraciskane Djuhadol started at 19:00. This church is celebrating its 100th anniversary on Sunday and impressed us with its amazing acoustics. Singing was twice as enjoyable with such great acoustics, and we had a fantastic concert. The audience was thrilled, especially when we sang the traditional Albanian piece 'Lule bore'. After we finished our program, we sang it again together with the audience, and it was a wonderful feeling to touch and make people laugh! Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for long afterwards as we had to embark on another three-hour bus ride to Durrës. We reached our hotel there around 23:30 and were relieved when we could finally shower and go to sleep.