Wandering Southampton, and welcoming the Emerald Princess to port.

It was a gorgeous day here in Southampton yesterday. High of 25C (77F) with sunshine and a few clouds. Exactly what they forecast. 

We went and did some exploring around town, and some pre-cruise shopping. Ended up spending about about £40 ($73 CAD, $53 USD) on clothes.

Arrived in Southampton

When we left off in our last blog post, we were sitting in the premium lounge at Rome airport waiting for our scheduled 12:45pm flight to Amsterdam.

And then I started getting notifications from KLM that our flight was delayed. First to 1:15pm and then to 1:45pm.

Goodbye Albania, hello Italy!

Writing this from the Premier Lounge at Rome Airport (FCO).

We left Berat at about 10:30am Monday morning and did the longer drive up through the mountains on the old road towards Albania's capital city of Tirana.

We're going on vacation!

Well, our time here in Albania is just about up. And we're ready to move on. It's been a good visit, but we won't do it at this time of year again. Spring or fall are the best times of year to be in Albania, so while I'm sure that we will return, it won't be in July!

But of course the only reason we came here was because of the dental work, so at least that is now done.

A new credit card

We haven't done very much the last two days because it's been too hot. The temperature went up to 41C (106F) both days, so we just stayed in the air conditioning and only went for a walk in the evening after the sun went down. 

So that made for lots of internet time, and we ended up signing up for a new credit card.

Doing some financial planning

We've been semi-retired since 2007 when we sold our house at the age of 45 and bought a motorhome. We didn't plan to be semi retired... that's just the way it worked out, and it's the only description I can come up with when we look back on the last 18 years!

But because we did it the way we did, there were periods of time where we didn't have a lot of money.

Another great day exploring, but man that water was COLD!

When we had been on the group tour the other day through Osumi Canyon, we had been talking to an Italian couple who had done another canyon hike just the day before... to Holta Canyon, which we had never heard of. 

It was an hour and a half drive from Berat, but that's what we have the car for! So we took off early yesterday morning to do another canyon walk. This one was self guided though... and free!

Not very good value

So, a week from today we will be boarding the Emerald Princess for our very first cruise.

The main reason we're going on this cruise is that 1) one of the stops is Greenland and 2) the price was really good.

You need a lifejacket for this hike!

Back in 2021 we did a rafting tour of the Osumi River Canyon here in Albania. It was a lot of fun with some great scenery. 

At this time of year the water levels are too low to do rafting, so instead they run guided trekking tours through the canyon. You don't need hiking boots though... you need a life jacket for this hike!

The credit card is getting a workout!

In the past week or so I've booked a whole bunch of flight tickets. Our expensive Halifax to Ottawa flights on August 28th, our fairly expensive one way flights from Ottawa to Mexico City (connecting in Toronto) on October 8th, and I just finished booking our daughter and her family tickets to Mexico City!

In case you missed it, we're going to have a house near Valle de Bravo starting in October. And we're already making plans on the best way to make use of it.

Visit to the Byllis Archeological Park. And, bought some more flight tickets!

I'll tell you about the flight tickets first. 

We've had our flight to Canada booked for quite a while because I got a super cheap deal back in March on a one way flight across the pond from Barcelona direct to Halifax, Nova Scotia on August 19th.

Dental work complete!

We walked into town and back three times yesterday. It doesn't feel like much at the time because it's only 2kms each way, but when you do it there and back three times it adds up to 12 kms (7.5 miles) throughout the day!

The first time was for my final dental appointment at 9:00am.

Scenery near Berat

I went into our Princess Cruises app this morning to check something, and the first thing that comes up is "12 Days Until Embarkation"!

Which means our time here in Albania is going by quickly! We fly to Southampton on the 29th, which is only 10 days away.

There's a festival going on this weekend!

When we were walking through the central plaza here in Berat the other day, there was a lot of activity going on.

It turns out that the Berat Friendship Festival takes place this weekend!

Just found out the cost of my dental work

Just for some background, I had my two center upper front teeth removed about twenty years ago. I think it was in 2004 or 2005. The two teeth were in bad shape. Very crooked, broken, and the dentist said they weren't worth trying to save.

They made me a removable denture that I had for probably five years. It was relatively inexpensive, but annoying. And at the time, I didn't know there were other options.