Day 47/48/49

Looking at the weather forecast, I decided to leave to Tirana this day instead of staying in Shkodër for another night. It is supposed to rain for the next few days in Skhodër area and I didn't want to get stuck there. Also, I had to get my phone fixed, which for some reason wasn't reliably charging anymore. I was constantly waiting for the moment of the phone being out of battery and not charging anymore at all, pretty stressful. 😬

The two Italian girls, Lara, and me had nice porridge breakfast with fruits together in the morning. It took me some time to pack my stuff and I finally left the farm around 12:15pm: First I found my front tyre flat so I had to pump it up, next I realized after 10min of cycling that I have left my little bag with passport, money etc. in it at the farm, so I cycled back again. 😅
Finally on the road, I could enjoy around 100km of mostly flat terrain and good road conditions for the most part. I had a quick stop in Lethë to get some fruits and have a snack. After 50km, komoot lead me off the main road onto a rather shitty small road for just a few kilometers. I've been on this road for less than 500m, trying to avoid the huge holes everywhere, when I accidentally drove into one of them and heard my back tyre deflate within seconds. It took me about 40min to exchange the back tyre. The few locals that drove by (only guys actually) all stopped and asked whether I would need help, which was nice. I was almost done, when a German bikepacker drove past and stopped. He helped me getting the chain back on properly and we chatted for some time. He was travelling much lighter on his gravel bike then me and I told him to go ahead since he's probably faster than me, which he was. 😅
Shortly after (I was stopping again to chat with two bikepackers from Belgium), Lara drove by.😅 We were both surprised to bump into each other, I thought she would be way ahead of me since she left earlier and the delay due to my tyre. We continued cycling together toward Tirana for some while. We were looking for food in a village when a friendly local shouted "Coffee coffee" at us. Funnily we replied "Mangare mangare" (many Albanians speak Italian due to their history with Italian invasions and we didn't know the Albanian word for food). We decided to stop anyways and sat on a table next to the group of men in the coffee shop. They ordered food (meat sandwiches) from the neighbouring shop and a coffee for Lara in the coffee shop for us, which was super generous and friendly. Turned out that one of them lived in Germany for a while and could speak some German. It was nice talking to the locals about their country. :)
After a few more kilometers, Lara and me split ways again since she wanted to see a village up on a mountain. Having flight mode on all day to save my phone's battery, I really wanted to get to Tirana to get my phone fixed. Suburban Tirana started about 15km prior to the city center. At first, many home decor stores occurred along the road, then the traffic became more chaotic and kind of dangerous. 😅 I went off the main highway into the city center and took small side roads instead. It wasn't faster at all since these are basically gravel roads with huge holes and a lot of by garbage. The area I rode through was probably one of the poorer living areas where people live in shacks rather than houses. The closer I got to the city center, more modern buildings and shops came up. After 30min of city traffic, I arrived at the Milingona City Center Hostel.
I was pretty hungry and wanted to get my phone fixed the same day, so I went into the city. In a little phone repair shop, the guy checked the charging port, cleaned it and applied spray. He convinced me it's the charger not the phone causing the charging issues, so I got a new charger and it's working fine since then. :) Foodwise I decided on Asian Wok, haven't had it in a while. I went to bed being pretty exhausted but happy that day. 😊

The next morning, I enjoyed some French toast breakfast in the outside sitting area of the hostel. Close to me where two Germans talking in a very familiar dialect, I was so sure they must live close to where I grow up. Turned out they are and they actually even know my neighbours - small world.😅
The world became even smaller when I talked to Chris, a guy from England living in Karlsruhe only two houses away from a friend. 😅

Chris also hasn't seen much of Tirana yet, so we decided to walk around together. Lucas from Argentina, who was a late-night arrival in my dorm also joined us for a while. :) We got coffee and tried some local pastries, which were delicious and ridiculously cheap!! Lucas stayed at the coffee shop for a business call after, whereas Chris and me continued our stroll around Tirana. We ended up walking quite a bit through multiple (?) downtown areas, around a lake in the south of Tirana and all the way back to the hostel, while having some deep talks. :)

Back at the hostel we met up again with Lucas and some other people staying at the hostel, including Sylvia from Australia, Jon from the US, Steffan from Germany, and many more. We all went out for traditional Albanian food in a close-by restaurant. The food was great and it was a fun evening (maybe so because Chris didn't get his food until we everyone else has eaten already, even tough we reminded the waiter so many times 😅). Afterwards we went out to a bar in the old town and had some cocktails there. :) However, bars/nightclubs seem to turn off the music by midnight all over Albania, so we didn't stay for too long. I was pretty tired anyways and went to bed once we got back to the hostel. :)

The next morning, Lucas, Chris, Jan (from Czech Republic), and me decided to go to Bunk'Art 1, which was recommended by Steffen in a really funny way ("I felt miserable and depressed after"). 😅 We got there by local bus and spent around 1.5h in there. The bunker was used for military operations and save place during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxhar, who ruled from 1944-1985. It was indeed a little spooky in there. After the bunker and back in the city, we discovered a wine tasting festival. Not having eaten much all day, we went there and tried multiple wines. 😅 We ended up buying three different bottles that we would share later on in the evening. Once back at the hostel, we organised a group dinner with at least ten people and decided to cook pasta with two different sauces together, which were delicious. 😁 We sat in the kitchen common area all evening, drinking wine and talking. Well, especially Peter, a 60+ year old Spanish/American solo traveller, self-called millionaire travelling with a big teddy bear was talking. 😄 However, we could all take away some life-lessons from his stories. 😅 It was fun though and we went to bed quite late. The next morning I was planning on cycling to Elbasan together with Jan, who's also bikepacking and on the same route. I would meet up with Chris and Lucas in Berat the day after, it's too many kilometers and elevation to cycle to Berat within one day from Tirana.Okumaya devam et