Teth, epic hike part 2

We postponed the start of our hike because it was raining. We have raincoats, but our sneakers are not waterproof, so we were a bit worried about getting wet early in the hike. Luckily the rain pretty much tapered off about 30 minutes into the journey.

We heard the first hour or so was fairly flat along a riverbed, and to save the kids' energy for the tough stuff, we hired a 4x4 taxi to take us to the hike start. We met a lovely Swedish couple in the taxi who we connected with several times over the hike. The woman shared her Swedish cow songs with us, something high pitched but nicer than yodelling.

The first couple hours of the 9km+ trail were fairly steep with NO views due to the clouds. We mostly kept our spirits up, but when we got to the peak and couldn't see farther than a few meters, it was really disappointing. And cold!

On our way down the other side of the mountain, suddenly the clouds ended and we could see for miles and miles. We were so happy to see the view! And it was beautiful.

A number of entrepreneurs have set up shop along the mountain path, so you can have hot drinks, ice cold drinks cooled by the mountain stream, snacks, set up a tent or even get a bed. Really nice feature of the trip.

At the end of the hike we tried a "short cut" to get to our guest house. At first it was lovely walking down the side roads, but eventually we ended up on a very steep goat trail coming down a steep mountain side. After many hours of walking, we were exhausted. As a little gift, the goat trail did lead us right to our guest house. Everyone was happy for a shower and a rest.

We wandered to an agroturismo place for dinner, where an older, traditional Albanian couple grows and raises all the food they serve. Lucky for us, an ethnic Albanian couple from Begium were also there, and they acted as translators. We had an epic meal, heard many stories from the other guests, enjoyed the hygge vibes by the fire, and were invited to watch the cows being milked for the next day's cheese. Very very special experience.Read more