A Question Answered

Today, I took another trek to see Grandmothers. I set off to see Liqeni Babicë, which translates as Grandmother Lake. I was drawn because the map claims there is a hiking area by the lake. We'll get to that.

Also right around the lake are two towns. One is called Babicë e Vogël which means Little Grandmother, and the other is Babicë e Madhe which means Large Grandmother or possibly Great Grandmother. And I might have seen some grandmothers and maybe even some grandfathers, but not at the lake. I was the only one at the lake.

The lake with Babicë e Vogël in the background

What was referenced as a hiking area was really a dirt track for trucks to get down to the lake. There were no trails around the lake itself. It isn't a big lake, nor a particularly pretty lake. But it's a lake and in the summer probably a nice place to swim.

What was more interesting was the walk. Because it answered a question I had discussed previously with Alrica. One thing I noticed in Vlorë is that there are no cemeteries. I couldn't find any, not in the city itself.

When I took my hike out to St. Mary's Monastery and out to Cypel, I did pass a small cemetery on the way out toward Zvërnec. And there is an even smaller cemetery at the monastery itself. In fact, one of the people buried at the monastery is Marigo Posio, who is Albania's Betsy Ross. She was a political activist at the time of their independence in 1912 and she made the first Albanian flag.

Statue of Marigo Posio in Vlorë

But these small cemeteries couldn't account for the number of people who must have died in a place as large as Vlorë. My path to Grandmother Lake took me past, and through, the answer. Outside of the city, near Babicë e Madhe is a cemetery. Not just a cemetery, an enormous cemetery. It took me about 15 minutes to walk the length of it. So assuming I move at around 3 miles per hour, it was three-quarters of a mile long. I would guess at least an eighth of a mile wide. And it was packed full of graves, tens of thousands of them. They were right up against each other.

The area outlined in red is all cemetery

One thing that is a little bit sad in travel is that you will never fully understand the culture of another people. You can learn a lot but some things are hard to know, to understand, to communicate. Today it struck me that I didn't really know the practices of Albanians regarding their deceased loved ones. I didn't see a funeral today, but I did see several people coming out, by car or by taxi, to visit a loved one.

As I might have expected, many carried flowers. But what was different was how many of them also carried a ten liter container of water. So I took a closer look at several of the gravesites.

They all involve very lovely headstones, many carved in crescents and hearts and some just rectangular. Often a photograph of the person in life is included on the headstone. Many of the gravesites have a solid rectangular prism of stone over the ground, presumably where the body is interred. But some are more like a garden plot. There is a headstone, but then the gravesite itself has a rectangular border of stone. And within the border is dirt.

For many of them, nothing was growing in the dirt, or some had a few flowers planted. But for others, this plot was filled with flowers and small shrubs growing in the dirt. And the people visiting their loved ones with water were also watering the plants growing over their deceased family member.

I think the idea is beautiful: new life coming from the life of those you love. So even if my ultimate destination wasn't all I hoped for, I'm glad I took that walk today.

The Long Walk to Cypel

I did another trek. Yesterday I went out to Cypel. This is the point at the northern end of Vlorë. To the left is the bay, to the right, the Adriatic Sea. Of course, the water doesn't know which part it's in.

Vlorë Bay to the left, Adriatic Sea to the right, bunker in the middle.

Cypel is pronounced Tsoopail. The "c" is more of the "ts" sound like the "zz" in pizza. in fact, in Albanian, the word for pizza is pica, pronounced just like the English word. The "y" is the "oo" sound of foot or good, not the "oo" sound of choose or mood.

Cypel from above

It took me a little over two hours to walk there. I had seen pictures of Cypel, but these pictures were all taken from boats. They show the point from the bottom. As you can see, my pictures are from above. I could not find a practical way to get down from the top of the point without ending up in either the bay or the sea. And I wasn't sure I would be uninjured. And I wasn't sure I would find any way back, aside from swimming.

More Cypel, still from above

But I did do some quality scrambling over rises and rocks to get as far as I did. I know my son would have mixed emotions had he seen me performing my quasi-athletic feats. He would have been approving and proud that his father attempted and succeeded the ascents and corresponding descents. But he would also have the eye roll of disdain, knowing that what required my intense concentration to figure out where to put my hands, my feet, and occasionally, my bottom, would have been to him a trivial matter easily accomplished in loose fitting sandals and with his conscious mind occupied with question of subatomic particles.

Here is the path. I promise there were trickier parts to traverse than this.

All of that is beside the point. I made it and experienced my own sense of accomplishment for doing so. Plus, I got to take pictures.

Incidentally, along the way I crossed beside Naturist Beach Zvërnec. For those who don't know the alternate term, a naturist beach is what in America would be called a nudist beach. Some of you might be more curious what I saw there, as opposed to a Cypel. Sorry to disappoint you, but it was the first of November. We are way out of season. Though it was sunny, I saw no sunbathers, no one skinny dipping, nothing remotely risque. Unless you consider an Albanian man fishing as semi-scandalous. He was clothed, so I give it a zero on the suggestive scale.

What is interesting about the naturist beach is its location, right between the beach access for two hotels. I wonder how much privacy the naturists experience in the busy time of the year. Probably not as much as I had on my solo walk.