From Tirana to Tennessee: Our Emotional Return from Albania

Albania Mission Trip Day 10

Sunday, 14 July 2024

When my alarm went off this morning at 1:30 am, the first thing I saw was a text from our son Bill that there had been an assassination attempt against President Donald Trump. This on a morning when we have an international flight back home to Tennessee via Vienna and Washington, D.C. Needless to say, it wasn’t hard to get wide awake despite the ridiculously early hour.

I’ve always felt like the hours between 1 am to 3 am feel like they are too late to stay up while simultaneously being way too early to get up. At least the 5-plus hours of sleep we did get last night were good ones and we should be sufficiently rested to navigate a day of crossing a large chunk of the planet.

Altin, Juliana and Esina Kurraj graciously met us at the hotel Giulia at 2:15 am as planned. Joe and Charlotte jumped into one of the rental cars being driven by Altin and Esina, Frieda got in with Juliana in the Kurraj’s personal car, and Tim and I got in the second rental car. About 45 minutes later, we had dropped off the rental cars at the Tirana International Airport, said some very brief goodbyes, and headed inside.

Here’s Tim and Frieda while we are waiting to check our bags. It’s 3:06 am.

By 3:50 am, we had properly caffeinated.

At 4:30 am we got on our plane to Vienna.

And at 4:55 am, we could see Albania disappearing from our view. I think we all felt a sense of sadness given what a wonderful week and a half we had just experienced.

I love this picture of Tim Bubar. I too was looking out the window, but my memory of the view from the aisle seat on the other side of Frieda, will always include his body language during this bittersweet moment for all of us.

We deplaned in Vienna around 6:15 am on what could only be described as an absolutely gorgeous morning!

Given our approximately four hour layover in Vienna, you might have thought I would get some other pictures of us there. I didn’t. But I assure you we did drink espresso and coffee.

The most Third World experience of our entire trip was the 3-plus hours we spent at Washington Dulles International Airport. We were immediately struck with how dirty and run-down it looked, and at how incredibly rude employees were. I felt a tremendous sadness about the first impressions anyone coming to the United States would have for the rest of their life. Without reservation, I would say Washington Dulles is THE worst airport I’ve been to in many years and I’ve been to a lot of airports.

At 5:25 pm local time — 11:25 pm in Albania — we mercifully boarded our third and final flight of the day.

At 7:30 pm local time — 1:30 am back in Albania — we were inside the McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville Tennessee. Note that at this point, we had been up exactly 24 hours.

Frieda and I said our goodbyes to the Bubar’s after baggage claim, and headed home to Harriman, Tennessee. By 9:30 pm or so — after being awake for 26 hours — we were sound asleep to dream about this incredible church mission trip and adventure to the amazing country of Albania.