OH MY GOD. I just had THE best meal of my life! Why, you ask, was this simple little tortellini dish so blissful?!? Well my friends, for the past 2 days I have been inflicted with a severe case of "acute tonsilitous" (strep throat) and it's so painful that I can't eat. It all started...well I don't know when it started exactly. Fred and I chilled out in Cofu for a few days after having a wicked time in Albania -- Fred taught some Gypsy kids how to juggle (I took pictures) through the American Peace Corps. We sort of did a Peace Corps shuffle in Albania and it was great hanging out with them and seeing them work on community development projects and stuff....it made me want to look into CIDA internships again...

So anyway, Albania turned out to be an extremely friendly country! People were always willing to help us and I felt safe the whole time I was there! Just don't get me started on the bus system - oh wait - there is none. So we managed to take the boat to Cofu Greece, after witnessing and intense and colourful (to say the least!) difference of opinons between the two ferry lines and the weater was great! Stayed in a Youth Hostel called the Sunrock really good price, breakfast and supper included and it's right by the beach! The weather was great, probably like 27 degrees so I got some son tanning in.

So, remember how I was talking about strep throat? WELL. From Corfu we had to hitchike to Monodendri since there are only two busses a week....So cars were passing by and passing by, finally a Priest came to pick us up and dropped us off in the village since it was close to his -- this means he made a 15km detour for us! So, from the humid beach to dryer, colder mountain air = no good. Also, falling in the river on a treck that would lead us nowhere the next day certainly did not help. That's when the fever set in. Worse thing is, we only found the path to the Vikos gorge AFTER wandering arround for 3 hours cold and wet in the trees and rocks...so for two days now I have not been able to swallow without searing pain shooting throughout my body. I have been hungry for two days and pretty much unable to eat...but there is hope! I went to the doctor's today, and although he didn't prescribe anything for the pain, whatever pills he got me taking seem to helping a bit.

Alors, afin de boucler la boucle: right now, I just had the best meal of my life.