AlbaniaQarku i VlorësRrethi i VlorësHimarëKodra Cakoit40°6’4” N 19°44’43” E
September 24, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
In the morning we checked out at the Filikuri Hostel and moved our stuff to Sun Bakers (three nights in Himarë, three different hostels :D). We then went for some breakfast at the same place we had dinner the night before. The woman recognized us again and was very happy to see us again. ;) However, she forgot half of our order and at some point we just decided to give up. 😅 After getting some snacks in a little shop where Lucas spoke to the owner in Greek (!! So surprised how many languages people speak), the three of us went to Filikuri beach, a secluded beach outside of Himarë to which you have to climb down along a pretty loose rope along the rock. At some point it's attached to a bush. 😅 For those of us being afraid of heights, it was impossible to go down there so we skipped on this plan and went to a different beach in Himarë instead. 😀 We went for a swim (there was an icy cold layer of water on the surface, but it was warm at the feet) and enjoyed the beach time together, making fun and joking around. Later on, we met up with Jon and some people from his hostel again to go up to a castle to watch the sunset together. It was beautiful up there and we got to see a colorful sunset over the sea. :) After, Chris, Lucas, and me went for pizza and pasta in a restaurant again before going back to the Sun Bakers.
Back at the hostel, we were hanging out at the bar socializing with other hostel people and having a few too many gin tonics. 😅 It was a fun evening though. :)
The next morning, Chris took a bus back to Tirana while Lucas and me would relocate to another hostel - again. This time we went to "Relax hostel", according to online references the owner is quite moody, which turned out to be true. 😅 I decided to stay another night in Himarë to have a beach day at Filikuri beach with Lucas and some other people from the hostel. :) We went down the rope to the beach which was indeed a little scary, but it was fine in the end. 😁👌 Lucas and me enjoyed some really good conversations and went back to Sun Bakers for a drink after, where we also met Jon again. :) It was a rather quiet night at the bar so Lucas and me went back into Himarë and got some traditional Greek food on the way to our hostel. Waiting for our food, we also randomly met Sylvia (Australian girl we met in Tirana hostel) again and two British guys. They joined us in the restaurant and we were sitting there for some time, which was fun and good seeing her again. :) It's a really small world travelling in Albania, we bumped into so many familiar faces in different hostels a the time. 😀Read more
AlbaniaQarku i VlorësPotamKepi Masunit40°5’20” N 19°45’15” E
September 21, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Still not fully recovered but having had at least one proper meal the day before (two slices of pizza), I planned on cycling to Himarë today. When I researched potential routes, I decided to take the longer route with less elevation rather than the mountain pass. To make sure the route is suitable for biking (I don't fully trust komoot anymore), I asked the hostel owner about it. He looked at me feeling very sorry and told me, that the route I plan on doing is under construction and not even locals know whether I could get through or not. He recommended me to take the mountain road, saying it'll be really hard but worth the views. 😅 My mind was not set on this mountain road at all, honestly. I still felt like I'm not at my best but I had no other choice but the mountain road. Luckily, Lucas and Chris were taking my bags with them on the bus, I wouldn't have been able to cycle this road with my luggage on the bike. We're talking 72km, 1600m elevation with slopes up to 14%. 😅 It's the hardest ride I've done so far.
I left feeling pretty lightweighted though, good feeling cycling without my bags. But after an hour I was on the foot of the mountain, looking up to it and thinking "that's it for the next 20km". 🙈😂
It was hard. Really hard. Luckily, going up this way I was mostly cycling in the forest, protected from the sun. Still, I got off my bike many times pushing it up the hill and even pushing the bike without bags was so exhausting. I was almost at the top of the hill, less than 2km to go, taking a break on the side of the road, when a van from Austria stopped. The older couple offered me to take me up the mountain and I gladly accepted. I would probably have pushed the last 1.8km anyways, my legs were cramping and I've already made around 1000m elevation.
Around 5min later, they dropped me off on top of the mountain and the view was just stunning. I stopped to take pictures many times on the way down and mostly rolled down the hill without using the breaks inbetween. It was pretty windy from the front, so naturally I couldn't go super fast. Still, felt like flying and I've almost forgotten about the pain cycling up. 😁
Annoyingly, passing the big mountain was only one part of the elevation gain that day. I still had another 30km and 600m elevation ahead of me along the coast on the way to Himarë. It was a beautiful road, but it was a fight. 🙈 A mean one actually: I would find signs all the time stating 10% slope for the next e.g. 200m. And once I've passed that, there would be another sign saying 12% elevation for 300m, and so on. 😅😑 On the plus side, I spent some time with a group of donkeys on the side of the road, they were really cute. ;)
I arrived in Himarë in the late afternoon after around 6 hours of cycling, and being absolutely exhausted. I dropped my bike by the beach and went straight for a swim, even though it wasn't that warm anymore. I soon met Chris and Lucas by the beach and we went to the hostel together. It was on top of a hill (whyyyyyy...) and they had to push my bike for me. 😅
After checking in and having a shower, we went out for dinner. I ordered pasta and we shared some fries and sides together, which was nice. :) I didn't care about my sore stomach anymore, I was so hungry, it just had to deal with it. 😅
After, we went to the bar of the Sun Bakers Hostel, where we would relocate to the next day. It's more like a party hostel with lots of young people. While Lucas was socializing, Chris and me were hanging out at the bar, chatting and watching people. We didn't feel like we fit in actually. 😄🙈
(For some reasons, this app won't let me post more than 10 photos/1 video anymore per footprint, so I'll just make some extra footprints for Himarë. :) )Read more
AlbaniaVlorëPërroi Morovoshit40°26’53” N 19°29’43” E
September 20, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
When I woke up this morning I still felt a little weak and shaky, but at least I was hungry. Taking it as a good sign, I ate a banana and some plain bread from the hostel breakfast. I didn't touch anything I had the day before that made me feel so sick. 😅 Actually, I didn't feel like burek for a long time after.. 😅
Around 10:30am, I had my bags packed and left the hostel in Berat. I would see Chris and Lucas again later in Vlorë. The way down to the main road from the hostel was a huge construction site and about half way down a truck blocked the way. The Albanian workers helped me lifting my bike and my bags over the truck and I could start 9my day trip. :) Before finally hitting the road, I wanted to get a postcard of Berat for myself though, so I went into the city first. :) Also, I passed Bruno again, the local who gave us a nice tour on my first day. :)
The road to Vlorë was mostly flat with only 500m elevation and doable slopes. However, I felt exhausted from not eating the previous day so every little climb felt like a huge mountain to me that day. I had to take a lot of breaks and it took me much longer than expected. The ride was nice though, I cycled through many little villages in rural Albania and the road was not busy at all. :) I also met two French bikepackers on the road on a tandem they've been travelling for two years already. Very inspiring! :)
Arriving in Vlorë, I was finally back at the coast again and first time seeming Albanian beaches. Vlorë has a rather modern vibe, it doesn't look anything like Berat. There's many big apppartment buildings along the coast, many of them under (endless?) construction. I met Chris and Lucas in a coffee shop by the beach after dropping my bags at the hostel and taking a shower.
Later that evening we walked around the city and went up a hill to a fancy bar/restaurant. On the way up there through really dark alleys we wouldn't have been surprised if we'd been attacked by the many barking dogs in the neighborhood. We got a fright anytime we heard something moving around us. :D We concluded that neither of us would have gone up this way by themselves ever. Up at the restaurant (we were the only guests), we ordered some wine and a coke for me and enjoyed a surprisingly nice view onto Vlorë at night. :) After a while up there enjoying the drinks we went back down along the main road, which had street lights for the most part at least. Walking back towards city center we got hungry and the three of us ordered a 🍕 Margherita family size together. 😅 We also found a really nice looking road with lanterns and bars, but there was really no vibe there and we only stayed to watch some dogs and cats interacting with each other. We gave them silly names, so we called the cat "Russia" which was bullying a dog we named "Schengen". Think I was high on sugar and the others had too many drinks, it was funny though. 😁
After, we strolled around forever searching for a nice bar by the beach, but the one we liked on Google was closed already, the others had no vibe and no guests at all. There was only one busy bar that played really loud music, but other than Chris no one wanted to go there, so we eventually just went back to the hostel, where we went to sleep soon. It was already quite late and I had a pretty big day ahead.. 🚲⛰️Read more
AlbaniaBeratSt. Spyridon40°42’10” N 19°56’47” E
September 19, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Both Jan and me were heading off early around 9am. I had a mostly flat route to Berat with good road conditions (according to the guy from the campground) ahead of me, but didn't wanted to arrive around lunch time already. Jan went off north to North Macedonia.
It was a pretty scenic route through rural Albania. I cycled through lots of little villages, endless stretches of farmland, also seen some oil raffineries on the way.
Arriving in Berat, I had to push my bike up a very steep hill to get to the hostel. Also, there was a construction site right on the way and I wasn't sure whether I could actually get through. 😅 The people working there were really friendly and soon a lady approached me in English. She is a construction engineer supervising the construction site. She was the only woman there and I was quite impressed. Haven't expected a woman to be in this position in Albania, I actually haven't really gotten into touch with woman in Albania generally. From my impression, they are way less present in the daily life compared to other western European countries.
I arrived at a beautiful hostel (Berat Backpackers) around 1pm, got my stuff sorted and showered. The hostel itself is amazing, it's in one of the historic buildings in Berat and a very cozy place with multiple terraces to hang out outside. Soon after I arrived, I met Chris, Lucas, and Jon again. We were hanging out outside talking and playing UNO, for which we made up our own rules due to a lack of special cards in the deck.
Rules included: you can make up a new rule anytime one changes the colour, which ended up in "communism" scenarios where we collected all cards again, shuffled and distributed equally, and times where we were only allowed to speak Spanish (works for everyone but me) and German (works for everyone but Jon). In one game, we decided that the person having the most cards wins once we run out of the drawing deck. 😅 We had so much fun playing. 😁
In the afternoon around 4pm we went on a free walking tour with an Albanian guy called Bruno. He's originally from Berat and explained us a lot about the Ottoman Empire, the social benefits of being of a Muslim back then, and the communist time. We finished our tour in the castle on top of a mountain. It's the only castle in Europe (? Not sure anymore) which still has people living in it. It's basically a little village with houses, shops, and restaurants in it. After the tour, we met up with a French couple and went into a traditional restaurant in the castle for dinner together. We ordered a lot of delicious food and shared it. :) It was a fun dinner, we were six people from five different countries (Argentina, UK, USA, France, and Germany). We talked about languages a lot, since half of us (Chris, Lucas, and Jon) are really good with languages and I realized once again that I really want to learn Spanish at least. 😅
In the evening of my first day, we were sitting together until really late talking, drinking wine and enjoying some nice conversations. :) We were a accompanied by a very cuddly and highly pregnant cat, that kind of belonged to the hostel (they call her Racoon 😀).
The next morning, Chris and me went up the castle again for sunrise, which we missed because we got stuck watching a dog bullying two free running horses inside the castle. 😄 It was really funny to watch and we gladly missed out on sunrise over the mountains for it. We then went back for breakfast at the hostel around 9am. We got burekts with different fillings, some fresh tomato and cucumber, and break with fig jam. I then went back to my room for some rest, but felt pretty sick just shortly after the breakfast. 🙈 It didn't get better until the afternoon, where I finally threw up (sorry for the details, but it I felt so much better after). 😅😄 Weirdly, nobody else felt sick from the food and we all basically ate the same thing. My stomach was still struggling a little so I didn't actually eat anything that day anymore and had a low tolerance for smelling any kind of food. 😅 Still, I got myself together and went to a coffee shop with Lucas and Chris, where I had a coke. I also managed to buy some bananas in the grocery store, but felt like laying down again after, which I did. Lucas and Chris were cooking pasta in the evening, I didn't feel like eating though. Pretty tired and exhausted I went back to bed at 9pm and fell asleep shortly after. The three of us had already booked a hostel together in Vlorë for a night the next day, however, I wasn't sure whether I would be able to cycle already. 😅Read more
AlbaniaQarku i ElbasanitKatundi i RiPërroi i Zaranikës41°5’59” N 20°1’45” E
September 18, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
After a nice french toast breakfast with the hostel crew, Jan and me left around noon to Elbasan. On the way out of Tirana we cycled through an area of newly build fancy houses. After about 15km we reached the bottom of a pretty big mountain that we had to pass. There were three ways to Elbasan, but only one of them is suitable by bicycle. Ian sent me a message the day before to tell me which one not to take - super helpful. 😅 The main road involves a pretty long tunnel, so that doesn't work out. Another one has a pretty steep uncycable mountain. So we were left with option 3, a 900m elevation but doable mountain with stunning views. We slowly cycled up, each of us with an own pace, and took some snack breaks on the way together. At one point, a huge dog ran besides me along a pretty small fence. Got a huge fright and thought he would jump the fence, but luckily he didn't. 😅 We were almost on top of the mountain when we again stopped at an amazing view point, where we were joined by another German bikepacker shortly after. We had a chat, took some pictures and moved on after some while. The ride on top of the mountain as well as the way down was simply amazing. 😍
We arrived in Elbasan around 5:30pm and set up our tents in the backyard of a restaurant, which happens to be a campground as well. Also, there was a Lavash (car wash) station infront of the restaurant which also seemed to belong to the same place. 😄 Jan and me decided to cyclethe 4km into Elbasan for a stroll around the city. About half way there, Jan suddenly had a puncture in his front tyre. Obviously, we didn't bring anything to fix it with us since we left all our luggage at the camp. In the end, I cycled to Elbasan by myself, Jan went back to fix the tyre. After a stroll around town (not that much to see honestly, but maybe I was in the wrong place), I got some groceries for dinner and cycled back. This time I took the main road though, there were too many dogs on the other road I took into town and it was already dark.
Back in the camp, we cooked pasta and had a nice chat with a German couple who arrive in a van. They also offered us watermelon, which was nice. :) Since it got pretty cold at night already, I went into my tent early, phone called with a friend and eventually went to sleep. :) Tomorrow I'm heading to Berat, where I'll meet up again with Lucas, Chris, and Jon. 😊Read more
AlbaniaTirana41°19’42” N 19°49’5” E
September 17, 2022 in Albania ⋅ 🌧 24 °C
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.Read more
AlbaniaQarku i ShkodrësTheth42°24’7” N 19°46’19” E
September 14, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Other travellers at the farm recommended me to go hiking in the mountains in the north of Albania. They actually said "you cannot miss out on that". Lara has already planned to go there via hitchhiking, so I joined her for the trip. We could leave our stuff at the farm and hitchhiked into Shkodër in the morning, since we had to get some little things done there. I got an Albanian simcard with 35GB data and Lara got a proper backpack for hiking. Also we got a really nice burek breakfast for less than 1€ in the city. 😁
To summarize our hitchhiking experience:
We made it to Theth with four rides. 🥳 In the first car were two locals who picked us up outside Skhodër and brought us into the city center. Both of them were smoking, one of them weed. I just hope it was not the driver.. I put on the seatbelt. 😅 What was really ironic was the "no smoking 🚭 " sign hanging from the mirror. 😅
Second ride was also local. He was taking us 15km outside of the city to a cross road towards the mountains. Rich guy, nice, and very religious (he was about to drive to a nice church for 1.5 hours). 🙈 We talked a lot about Albania and he told us that most people only earn around 300€ per months, that police is pretty corrupt and that lots of young people leave Albania since they cannot find jobs.
Our third ride was again a local guy who could only speak Albanian and Italian, so that was fun. 😂 He brought us half way up the mountain road to Theth. Lara tried to communicate with him in Spanish, he seemed to understand a little, it was fun. :D
Last ride were two locals again, I assume father and son in a pickup truck with lots of groceries. So Lara and me were sitting in the back with a stack of eggs between us. We had to stop twice on this curvy and steep one lane road to pour water onto the overheated engine. 😄 Also they stopped for us on a really nice spot with an amazing view to get some good pictures taken. :) The two locals basically drove home to their place and dropped us of there. It was outside of Theth, but the younger one who drove and understood some English pointed towards the cow's pasture saying "Theth".
So we started walking through thorne bushes, past confused looking cows on a small path that we kept on missing, over some adventurous improvised wooden bridge, until we finally got onto a proper path again with guest houses near by. We haven't booked anything but thought we'll just show up and ask for a place to stay for one night. The first guest house was full unfortunately, but the very helpful older lady called the neighbour who still had room available. She lead us over a cow pasture again, the neighbour picked us up half way. The place he showed us was just amazing, it was basically a little tiny house with a double bed and one single bed as well as a little bathroom. The views on the mountains were amazing and there were so many animals running around this place: little pigs, huge sheppard dogs, a horse, sheep, chicken and roosters,... it was simply beautiful.😍 Also, it was reasonably cheap with around 35€ for both of us, including breakfast and I think he said lunch (didn't get lunch, but never mind. :D).
We both had a nice hot shower (it was much colder in the mountains and we needed to warum up!!) and spend some time for ourselves enjoying the outside area. In the evening we had dinner in the main house. We ordered some local fish which was deep fried, along with fries and something they call "paprika with milk". It wasn't what we expected, at least it wasn't milk but some sort of sour joghurt, also it wasn't hot. 😅 Wouldn't order it again but it was worth the experience of trying something new. ;)
In the evening we were having a bottle of white wine and some snacks that we bought in Shkodër before and watched Netflix and Youtube to make use of the tons of gigabyte I got with the Albanian simcard. 😅 It was a fun evening and I slept really well. :)
I planned on getting up super early the next morning to start hiking with the sunrise around 7am. I was awake around 6:30am, but unfortunately breakfast wasn't ready yet. 😅 So I had to wait and it was actually 8:30am by the time I could leave. The breakfast consisted of a pancake, fig jam, feta cheese, a boiled egg, some butter, and a glass of very fresh milk. It was still pretty cold in the morning, I was wearing multiple layers of clothes, but as soon as the sun came out it warmed up quickly. I filled up my water bottle in the natural spring next to the main house and started hiking (best water ever, it tasted so good!). Lara started hiking a little later but we would soon catch up again on the mountain. 😅
There weren't many people on the hiking trail yet. The trail was really well marked and was going up the mountain through forest and open grass land. About 20min into the hike, a cute little dog joined me for at least half an hour. She would occasionally run off but always come back, I had to actually be careful to not accidentally bump into her while hiking. I also passed two Italian girls, who were just about to pack up their tent. They were camping in the most beautiful spot with amazing views. We chatted for some time and got along really well. They told me that they parked their car in Valbona and plan on driving to Montenegro the same day. We said goodbye expecting to meet again on the trail at some point, as we did later. 😁 About two thirds up the mountain, I found a big rock on the side of the trail with a beautiful view onto the valley. I decided to stop there for a break. After some time, Lara passed the rock and joined me on her break. :) From there on we hike together to the pretty crowded peak at about 1800m elevation. From there we had an amazing view on the valley on other side of the mountain, which we had to hike through to get to Valbona.
On the way down, we passed a little coffee place (basically just a hut with a few benches) and got a mountain tea each for around 4€ - pretty expensive but we felt like it and also it's the middle of nowhere. 😅 That's when I also met the two Italian girls again. I actually wasn't feeling too well that day and it didn't get better during the hike, so I felt like going back to Shkodër as soon as possible rather than staying in Valbona, so I asked them whether they could take me back to Shkodër on their way to Montenegro (it's literally on the way). They were happy to take both me and Lara back to Skhodër, so the four of us hiked back to their car together. :) In the car park we had a really nice picknick with whatever we all had left over, it was delicious Italian fusion food (I tried Frise Integrali for the first time, so good!!).
Around 4pm we started driving back to Shkodër. It's a curiosity to me that it's around 80km distance between Skhodër and Theth, the hike on the other side of the mountain to Valbona was around 16km, and suddenly the ride back from Valbona to Shkodër doubled to 192km!!! The ride was beautiful even though it was a one-lane road for about 60km with curves inside curves. It was crazy. The views onto the river/lake down in the valley were stunning though. It soon got dark and it took us around 5.5h to get back to the farm. The Italian girls were pretty exhausted and Lara and me invited them to stay at the farm for a night for a proper shower which they were craving for on our costs as a thank your for the ride. 🙂 They loved the farm and we all cooked together delicious pasta with porcini mushrooms that the girls found in the mountains. It was a fun evening and I went to bed quite late, even though I was super exhausted. I'm so glad I went on the this spontaneous trip to the mountains, it was worth it!! 😁Read more
AlbaniaQarku i ShkodrësXhaferraj42°1’34” N 19°27’37” E
September 12, 2022 in Albania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Since it's getting colder at night, the tent is usually wet in the morning from condensation and morning dew. While Lara and me were packing up our stuff, Dan fixed his flat tyres (yes, plural). The tree of us decided to join forces for cycling to Shkodër in Albania. :) Since Chris felt like he's on the way of getting sick, the couple decided to stay at the campground for another night for a proper rest.
Through an application called warm showers, Lara found a place for us to stay in Shkodër, tjat was our goal for the day: it's called Eco-social farm and is located just outside Shkodër. It is a project funded by the EU in that it employs locals, also, there are many other projects in process on the farm such as a reforestation project. Camping there is based on a donation, it sounded like a really nice place so Dan and me were grateful for Lara finding this place to stay. :)
Starting in Petrovac, the road soon took us back inlands and up a hill. It was a beautiful and a surprisingly good road through little villages, past many mosques, donkeys, and olive trees. On top of the hill we had a break in a coffee shop with a beautiful view over the countryside. Soon after the break we reached the border to Albania. This was the weirdest and funniest border crossing I've ever had so far: I'm always not sure where to line up, the car line, the truck line (rather not?!), or if available a passenger line. We decided for the passenger line and walked towards a little cabin. The guy working in there seemed really busy since he had to check both the passengers on our side and the cars on the other side. He opened the little window, looked at the three of us with our passports in our hands, asking "Where are you from?" - "Two Germans, one from the UK" - "OK, you can pass." He quickly closed the window again and turned away. 😂 He didn't even look at our passports. 😅 Slightly confused we continued to cycle towards Shkodër. One can recognize the difference between Montenegro and Albania, suddenly there were much older cars on the road, even more mosques present, and the houses became smaller. Suddenly there were so many flies, it almost seemed like they knew to stop at the border. I'm pretty sure all of us accidentally swallowed at least one of them while cycling. 😅
Not long after we arrived at the Eco-social farm, where the volunteer James was showing us the place. He hasn't been there for too long yet, so he wasn't entirely sure what was going on with all the projects, but we liked it anyways from what we've seen!! :) There were some really cuddly and well fed cats and dogs around, who constantly tried to sneak into the kitchen area. ;) We decided to cook some curry together in the evening with the other people on the farm, set up our tents and took the bicycles for grocery shopping into Shkodër. Such a good feeling riding without luggage!!
My first impression of Albania/Shkodër: it doesn't feel like Europe anymore. It was a rather chaotic, less developed and reminded me of some places in Southeast Asia. We cycled past little huts were little children were playing right by the side of the street, supervised by their 6 year old siblings. There were lots of street dogs and cats in miserable condition, garbage, and the sound of the prayers from a nearby mosque in the background. To get into the city center we crossed a pretty instable looking wooden bridge with huge holes in it. It let to a more modern inner city shopping area, were we got groceries for the curry. On my way out of the store, I walked around the modern shopping center and found a slum-like village right behind it. There were lots of people selling vegetables on the street, also lots of donkey carts were standing around. I felt like Shkodër is a city with two worlds in just one place. The rather fancy new modern world with nice cars and shopping centers, but if you just turn around a corner the people are a rather poor and the infrastructure seemed less developed.
We got back to the farm in the dark and cooked two really nice curries together, while having some Albanian wine and nice conversations and laughter. 😊 Also, we got to see some Albanian wildlife on the farm: a huge wolve spider crossed the terrace, carrying its baby spiders on the back. I'm not scared of spiders, but I certainly don't want this spider close to my tent. 😂Read more
MontenegroBudvaKaluđeracČupanjica42°11’54” N 18°57’56” E
September 11, 2022 in Montenegro ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Lara and me started around 11am with our ride back to the coast in the direction of Shkodër in Albania. We initially had to climb a very steep hill with slopes >10%, which was quite challenging but worth it the final last views on the Kotor bay area. It's such a beautiful strip of land, I will certainly come back to it!! 😁 The ride down on the other side of the mountain was fun as usual, we were pretty fast and enjoyed not having any cars on the road. ;) We got back to the coast near Budva with stunning views on the coastline. The light was amazing, with a dark sky and rain over the sea nearby but some sunshine coming through still, love this combination of dark and bright. We also met two other German bikepackers just before Budva, Sina and Chris, who also went into the city. Budva is a bigger city with a nice old town in which we stopped for a look around and some lunch. Sina and Chris left before us though and we found a nice little note of them by my bike. :)
Lara and me didn't need to rush this day and had many stops along the road to enjoy strolls in the coast cities anytime we passed one. The only rather annoying thing about this plan is the fact that we always had to cycle up the hill again to get back to the main coast road. So we accumulated quite some elevation as we were riding along the coast. 😅
Our second stop was Sveti Stefan, a cute little town on a peninsula in the sea which for some reason we couldn't enter. It seemed like it was only accessible by boat from the sea, there was no way for us to enter it from land. It was still nice exploring this place from the outside and we enjoyed a nice swim in the cool water on the peninsula beach. 😊
Past Sveti Stefan, on another climb up the hill, we met Chris and Sina again. We decided to team up since we all kind of had the same plan for the night: finding a nice spot to wild camp. Lara and me wanted to cook something, whereas Sina and Chris wanted to eat out. It was already a little late when we went into Petrovac for a pretty cold fresh water shower by the beach. Sina and Chris went off for a restaurant, whereas Lara and me started searching for a nice wild camping spot outside Petrovac. Since Montenegro is mostly very hilly, it wasn't easy to find one without having to go up a hill for another few hundred meters, which is quite exhausting with the bicycle. We checked out some side roads just outside Petrovac, but couldn't really find a suitable one. Either they were too close to neighbouring houses, or dogs were on the property that wouldn't stop barking at us aggressively, or there were thorne bushes everywhere. 😅 So eventually we gave up since it was dark already and went to a campground nearby, were Sina and Chris joined us shortly after. On the campground we met another bikepacker, Dan from England, who cycled a the way from Portugal. Lara and me invited Dan for some pasta since Dan didn't have a stove and hasn't been eating warm dishes much. No clue how he could survive like this. 😅 It was a nice evening sitting together, talking and having fun. :)Read more
MontenegroKotorGurdić42°25’20” N 18°46’13” E
September 10, 2022 in Montenegro ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
I left Dubrovnik around 10am and realized soon after leaving on top of the first hill, that I accidentally forgot to return the hostel key. 😅🙈 I really didn't want to cycle back and all the way up again, but also wasn't sure whether they would even notice and if they would charge me for it. 😅 The volunteers at the hostel didn't seem to really care too much, but I decided to call them and send the key back via mail. So I went into a post office and I had a funny conversation with the lady working there. She didn't understand that I was cycling and not having an address within Croatia, not even a hostel/hotel one. So she eventually gave up and just wrote down the address of the post office as a sender. 😅 I then called the hostel and the person speaking didn't even expect me to send it back, guess they are used to keys going missing. 😅 When I decided to send it via mail, I had to go back down a hill that I just climbed since it was the last and only post office I passed within Croatia before entering Montenegro. Standing at the red lights when I was about to cycle up the hill again, a taxi driver next to me gave me a soda drink out of the passenger window, which was really nice. 😁
The ride to Kotor in Montenegro was challenging since I wanted to visit a really nice beach (Pasjača beach) off the main road. So I went on a less busy and rather shitty road with lots of ups and downs to get there, but it was absolutely worth it. :)) Even the walk down to the beach through a tunnel was really nice and the beach itself just beautiful. I went for a swim and spend and had lunch there, before I hit the road again about an hour later. It was already 3pm and I wasn't even half way there. At the border to Montenegro I had to wait for about 20 minutes at the first check point to get out of Croatia. While waiting in the line, I chatted to a group of Greek bikers on motorcycles. They approached me and gave me some bandaids since I was bleeding on my leg, the pedals scatched it when the bike was about to fall while waiting in line. It looked worse than it actually was. 😅 I passed the check point without problems and thought I'm in Montenegro already, but actually wasn't for another kilometer. Then I approached the next check point, again had to wait for 20min for no reason but finally got in. I only had about 20km left to Kotor and it was a beautiful and flat ride along the bay! It was so far one of the most beautiful rides! To cross the bay, I had to take a little ferry that operated every 10min and only cost 1€ for the bicycle - I was in love with Montenegro already. 😄
It slowly got dark and I decided to stay at a little camp site just 8km away from Kotor, which was recommended to me by Leo. The old cute lady didn't speak any English, the camp site was really basic (the shower was basically just a steel frame with a curtain and privacy depended on the direction of the wind 😅), but it was right by the sea and really nice. I knew there was rain to come in the night, but I thought it wouldn't be too much fine to cycle to Kotor in the morning to stay in a hostel there until the weather is better again.. turns out I was wrong, more on that in a minute. 😅
Just when I finished setting up my tent, a group of guys in three old cars arrived at the campground. The cars had stickers all over and a number on the door, I've seen many of the around in previous days already and wasn't sure what was going on. They seemed to drive around randomly everywhere. I haven't been able to ask them what was going on since they always just drive past me and were kind of in a hurry. So I saw a change in getting answers and approached on of the guys in the car on the campground. He told me it's an annual Polish charity rally happening for the 16th time with changing destinations, this year Durrës in Albania. To be part of it, you have to raise a certain amount of money by sponsors. One can only participate with old "communist" cars. All donations are going for children in need (education, orphanage) in Poland. It's not about winning but making it to one of the two winning fields. The rally is called Złombol and I love the idea behind it. 😊 The guys invited me over for a BBQ they planned on having, but first had to convince the old lady of the campground that it's just a "Mali BBQ", not too big. 😅 Eventually me and the eight guys were sitting by the fire, eating stew together, drinking some self-made wine they bought from the lady for 3€/1.5 liter, and chatted. 😊 It was a really fun evening, they gave me stickers of the Złombol rally for my bicycle, taught me Polish swear words (Kurwa) and we laughed a lot together. 😊 They wouldn't believe me it was about to heavily rain during the night and the next day, so they didn't even bother setting up their tents but just slept on the mattresses outside. 😅 One of them, Jakob, was convinced that 90% chance of rain referred to rain in 90% of the area but we're in the 10% of dry area. We sat together until really late and when the rain actually started suddenly and heavily, he had to wake up his friends and helped them setting up the tents really quickly. 😂
I woke up around 6am due the thunderstorm despite having hearplugs in. It had heavily rained the entire night through and my tent was basically sitting in mud. Also the heavy wind and the fact that I couldn't attach the tent properly to the ground (too rocky) lead to the decision of quickly packing up my stuff as long as it's kidney of dry inside the tent. I could feel water coming in from below already and the tent was about to collapse from the wind. I was soaking wet when I was done packing and relocating my stuff including the tent into the bathroom area of the campground. I then decided to ask the lady whether I could leave my stuff at the campground for a day or two and catch up bus into Kotor to stay at a hostel for a night or two. She didn't mind and told me to wait infront of the shop nearby for the bus, who was supposed to come hourly. Since it didn't come, I bought some breakfast instead and went back to the campground to have breakfast with the Polish guys. It had stopped raining for a few minutes. They have rescued themselves into the cars and abandoned their soaking wet tents. 😅 We had breakfast together and I took the next bus into Kotor, where I arrived being freezing cold and wet at 11am, asking whether I could check in already. 😄 The hot shower was the best one I had on this trip. After some rest, I strolled around Kotor in the afternoon. A beautiful old city with a city wall in the mountain!!
The next morning (rain has stopped), I took the local bus again to get back to the campground and to pick up my stuff. I set up the tent for drying in the backyard and took the bike for 40km ride around the bay area. So nice riding without luggage!! 😁 On the way I talked to a British couple about Albania, they weren't fans unfortunately and gave me all their Albanian money because "we are certainly not going back". 😅 It was good getting their opinion on things, but I still feel like making up my own mind about it. ;)
In the evening, Lara arrived at the same hostel in Kotor and we went out for dinner in the city with another cyclist from France. It was a nice evening and the vegetarian Pita with fries was amazing. 😁Read more
