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I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging “please, please, please, let me win the lottery.” Finally, the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says “my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket.” So now I get the joke, and I bought three tickets. One of my favorite jokes from my favorite movie “Eat, Pray, Love”.

After watching it for the ” I lost counting number” times, on 5 Jul 2020 in the middle of the pandemic time, I decided to have a journey in north Albania.

I have been there a couple of times, but this time was different. I was psychologically overloaded from the lock down. I gained some kilograms and lost my job. All I needed to collect my power and restart again.

I called one of my best friends and the adventure began. The original plan was to stay in Shkodra one night and after to do some pretty cool hiking in Kermend, in Valbona and Theth.

I remember people were so happy to see us and most of the time mistaken us for foreign travelers.           I remember their hospitality and how relief it was for them to share with us that difficult time they were passing through. Some of them even refuse to take money from us and give their help with transport for free. The most difficult part was the logistics of our trip because we did not have enough money to rent a car and the public transport was absent most of the time due to the lack of tourists. But this did not stop us.  I remember nature, blooming everywhere. The forests looked greener, we could find fruits everywhere and fill our recycle bottles with fresh water from the mountains. I remember the silence, everything was so quiet and magic. I was hoping hiking would have helped me lose some Kg , but with the delicious food cooked by the owner of the guesthouses I ended up gaining some more.

We spent 12 unforgiving days in the mounting and I remember that this was the best decision I could have made on that time. It helps me reinvent myself and appreciate the things I have taken for granted.

Traveling from now on will not be the same but should be considered an essential human activity that is important for boosting mental health and personal growth through experience and explore.

Small communities shall play a bigger role in the future. Instead of visiting crowded places, we can make a difference traveling in small towns that were already fighting economically before the pandemic.

This will avoid mass tourism and focus on sustainable tourism. Quality needs to be over quantity and travelers should seek for responsible travel policies. We need to protect what we love and not be forced to stay away from it so it can be healed.

I hope we will have the joy of planning the trip soon and this time before booking rethink how we can have a safe journey in a new undiscovered place, protecting nature and helping each other to overcome what happened. Reinvent the way we use to travel and think how the impact of it means a lot to all of us.