Day 38/39 - Dubrovnik
7 settembre 2022, Croazia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
I started my day repairing my flat front tyre in the morning of the 6th. It wasn't hard finding the puncture in the inner tube. I also found the tip of a thorne of a previous puncture stuck in the outer tube, I assume that's what caused the recent puncture. While I was fixing the tube, Steven (German guy I met last evening) offered his help to pump up the tyre since he has a little compressor at his van. It took us around half an hour and the maximum pressure of the compressor to pump up the tyre in a way that the outer tube is aligned symmetrically, meaning there is no bumpy feeling while riding. I wouldn't have been able to get that done without Steven's help and actually thought I would have to go back to a bike repair shop again to fix it. So Steven saved me some hassle and I invited him for a coffee in Slano before leaving to Dubrovnik. 😊
Around noon I hit the road again, it wasn't too far to Dubrovnik and it was an easygoing nice road right along the coast. I have booked a hostel in Dubrovnik for two nights, I was really looking forward for a proper bed. Also, there is no camp site close to Dubrovnik and the closest one turned out to be more expensive than the hostel.
In the hostel in Dubrovnik, I met my bunk neighbour Marko from Toronto in the dorm. We chatted for about an hour and got along well from the start. After some time, another girl checked in the room, Lara from Germany. We immediately started talking since she was the first solo biking girl I met on this trip and she's also cycling to Istanbul! 😁👌 Lara and me decided to explore Dubrovnik together and get some food in town. So we walked around Dubrovnik in the late afternoon. It's a beautiful city but it was packed with tourists!! Haven't been in such a crowded place in a while. 😅 I also immediately felt the "Game of thrones" vibes when entering the old town through the thick wall surrounding the city. Also there were many GoT-souvenir shops around selling overpriced and silly stuff. I went in one anyways at some point. 😄 The first evening we enjoyed strolling around and exploring the little streets that go off the main road. We were pretty tired though so we went back to hostel to hang out there for a little longer.
The next morning, Marko, Lara, and me had breakfast in a coffee shop near by the hostel and got stuck there chatting until noon. 😅 It was a sunny day, Marko (who has seen most of Dubrovnik already) went off to the beach, whereas Lara and me wanted to do some proper sightseeing. On the way to the city we went into a bike store to stock up my spare inner tubes since I threw out both of the ones I had (one had four patches already and wasn't tight, the other one had a broken valve). We then strolled around the city again following a free Dubrovnik walking tour that I downloaded online, it also included some main filming locations of GoT. ;) Lara and me had a fun time in the city and shared some really nice conversations. In the afternoon, on the way back to the hostel, we went swimming in a really nice secluded bay where mostly locals were hanging out fishing, sitting together, and playing games. Having eaten out all day, Lara and me decided to do a healthy salad at the hostel and have some bread and dip with it. We initially planned on going out for a drink again, but were actually to tired to do so in the end. 😅 Lara planned on staying for another night in Dubrovnik since she wanted to do some trip planning, I planned on leaving the next morning. It was supposed to rain the day after tomorrow and I didn't want to get stuck in Dubrovnik. :)Leggi altro
Day 40/41/42 - Kotor (Montenegro)
10 settembre 2022, 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. 😁Leggi altro
Day 43 - From Kotor to Petrovac
11 settembre 2022, 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. :)Leggi altro
Day 44 - From Petrovac to Shkodër
12 settembre 2022, 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. 😂Leggi altro
Day 45/46 - Shkodër to Theth and back
14 settembre 2022, 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!! 😁Leggi altro
Day 47/48/49
17 settembre 2022, 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.Leggi altro
Day 50 - Tirana to Elbasan
18 settembre 2022, 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. 😊Leggi altro
Day 51/52 - Berat
19 settembre 2022, 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. 😅Leggi altro
Day 53 - Berat to Vlorë
20 settembre 2022, 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.. 🚲⛰️Leggi altro
Day 54 - Vlorë to Himarë
21 settembre 2022, 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. :) )Leggi altro
Day 55/56/57 - Himarë
24 settembre 2022, 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. 😀Leggi altro
Day 58 - From Himarë to Sarandë
25 settembre 2022, Albania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Lucas and me had an amazing breakfast on the rooftop terrace of the hostel. We could even choose what type of egg we want and enjoyed the sea view with a freshly made coffee. :) While Lucas stays in Himarë for another few nights, I planned on cycling to Sarandë today. The weather was supposed to change again with at least five days of rain ahead starting the next day and I didn't want to get stuck in Himarë for this long. :/ So I slowly packed my stuff and met up again with Jon, Sylvie, and the British guys to say goodbye (temporarily, I'll catch up with Jon in Istanbul again hopefully :) ). On my way out of Himarë, I met Fin again who we spent time with on the beach the previous day on the side of the road waiting for his group. Himarë really feels like a small place where all backpackers in Albania eventually meet up again. 😀 The initial hill I had to climb felt really hard, probably because I had a few days break from cycling and being honest, a little too much alcohol. 😅 I started to worry about the two big mountains that lay ahead of me this day and already decided on breaks on top of each of them. I needed some motivational thoughts to keep me going that day. :D
It was a sunny and really nice day, and the views during the ride were amazing and rewarding. I passed little villages, many kinds of animals on the road, even a baby horse! 😍 I don't think there are wild horses in Albania, they just let their animals run free everywhere and guess hope for the best?!😅 Once I passed the first mountain, I took a longer break before attempting the climb of the second one, when a pretty old car with a priest and a nun stopped to ask whether I'm okay. :D It looked really funny the two of them squished into that tiny car to be honest. 😄 Love Albanians, they are all so friendly and helpful. 💕👌
The second climb lead away from the coast with nice views of rather rural "backcountry" Albania. It's a lot less populated, very green and rather flat. Albania's geography is kind of funny, it's super mountainous along the cost and in the north, but central Albania is actually rather flat.
I arrived in Sarandë in the late afternoon and not surprisingly being pretty exhausted. With regard to the weather, I booked a hostel (Hasta la vista hostel), which seemed pretty chilled. My first impression of Sarandë when I cycled through the town: a lot like Vlorë. It's mostly apartment buildings, little grocery shops, chaotic traffic. It's a harbour city where most people just pass through on their way to Corfu island by ferry. I liked the hostel and it's people though. Still, I felt like this beach town with not much to see isn't the best place to keep myself busy during the rainy days ahead, so I did some research the same evening and decided to take a bus to Gjirokastra the next day for a few nights but leaving my stuff at the hostel in Sarandë. :) I really don't like cycling in the rain. 😅
Happy with my plan, I phonecalled with a friend in the evening, cooked some dinner in the hostel kitchen and went to bed early. Again, I was pretty exhausted from the ride. Also I decided I will quit on drinking with hostel people for at least a week. 😅 I needed a break. 😄Leggi altro
Day 59/60/61/62 - Gjirokastra
29 settembre 2022, Albania ⋅ 🌧 21 °C
I planned to take a bus to Gjirokastra at 10am. Despite proper research and asking around locals, I couldn't get reliable information about bus departures and was told it's best not to rely on online information. 😅 So the hostel guy told me to just go to the bus stop around 10am. By bus stop he meant the road where the bus is driving along and probably stops if someone is waiting there. It's not actually a station, they stop on the road, causing even more chaos. 😂 On my way out of the hostel, the hostel dude ran after me telling me that there is a guy driving to Tirana by car and he will drop me in Gjirokastra, which is kind of on the way. He was also a traer from Saudi-Arabia with a nice rental car, another guy from Egypt also joined the ride, which took around an hour for me. We had to stop along to way to let hundreds of goats cross the street, but other than that no interruptions. 😁
Arriving in Gjirokastra, it was pouring (!) rain and I realized that the city is build along a hillside. Not sure where the hostel is located, I thought I certainly won't have to climb that hill - I was wrong. Soaking wet I arrived at the hostel, where I quickly got changed into some warm clothes.
Once the rain stopped in the afternoon, me and another German guy Fred from my dorm went off to explore the city together. It's got beautiful old town with Ottoman style stone houses similar to the ones in Berat. I think from the looks of it, Gjirokastra is my favorite place in Albania. :))
Fred and me also went to visit one of the 300+ year old traditional houses, Skenduli house, which was worth the 1.70€ entrance fee!! We were strolling around this massive house by ourselves for about 20min, kind of making up our own mind about what we're seeing ("this looks like the kitchen", ...), when a free tour started just as we were just about to leave again. We joined anyways and were so surprised about all the rooms we missed (we thought we've seen them all), their actual purpose, and all the details that turned this place into a proper history lesson. 😁👌 It's funny how the perception of a place can change once you know more about it.. we explored the city a little more but since it was starting to rain again, we soon went back to the hostel. Fred and a few others from the dorm hat to catch a bus to Greece at 5am the next morning.. so I already knew it's gonna be a short night in the dorm for me, too. 😅
The next day, me and another Australian girl from the hostel went to the Ali Pasha bridge together, which is a 30min walk outside of Gjirokastra. We were hoping for no rain but this wish wasn't granted unfortunately on the way there. Being soaked already we thought there is no point in turning back now, so we continued our little hike. It led through cute little neighborhoods of the city very high up on the hill. The locals there were living in amazing old buildings with heavy stone roofs, vegetable gardens around the houses and chicken running around everywhere.😁 Soon we reached a little path leading towards the bridge, the rain had stopped and it was a little misty. The perfect atmosphere for this kind of sight!! There were only two other people there at first but soon we got the bridge for ourselves. When we were about to leave, another girl arrived and we started talking. Turned out she's also a solo bikepacker (second one I met on the trip!! 🎉), Lea from France. The tree of us decided to hike back a different route back into town together and soon were joined by a very cute stray dog (she walked with us for at least 40min), and two other German guys in the middle of nowhere that looked suspiciously familiar to me. Turned out we met already at the bar of Sun Bakers Hostel in Himarë. 😅 As I said, small world in Albania and too many drinks. :D
Once we got back to the hostel we split ways with the guys again and the three of us went for a coffee. It was amazing to see how once the rain has stopped suddenly life comes back to the streets of Gjirokastra: We were sitting in the area of the old bazaar with lots of coffee shops around. Once the rain stopped, dozens of tables and chairs were set up again in the middle of the road within minutes. :)
Back at the hostel for some rest, I met Nele and her friends, who also met while travelling. We decided to go for some traditional food in a restaurant together later in the evening.
With people bringing people we were a big group of people in the end. Unfortunately, the food we ordered (we were all having vegetarian mixed plates, so little bits of everything for a fixed price) wasn't that great at all. It was a lot of pastry goods that didn't seem to be freshly prepared unfortunately. I couldn't eat pastry goods (especially spinach burek) anymore for a long time after this experience, kind of ruined it a little. 😅 We still had fun though. :)
Since the weather wasn't getting any better anytime soon and there was so much to see in Gjirokastra still, I decided to stay another night but relocate to another hostel the next day. The stone city hostel is honestly one of the best and most beautiful hostels I've ever stayed at!! It's in one of the old historical buildings with thick walls, stone roof and beautiful authentic interior. :) Once moved, I met up with Nele again. We planned on hitchhiking to the Blue Eye, a natural spring with crystal clear water and beautiful colour 40km outside of Gjirokastra. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain again and we decided to to try again the next day (it was supposed to be less rainy). Instead, we went into a cozy little coffee shop, tried multiple snacks and drinks over the course of some hours. While Nele read her book, I was trying to catch up on this travel diary.. ;) In the afternoon I went on a free walking tour provided by the hostel, which was amazing. The Dutch guy giving the tour has lived in this city for over 10 years and knew so much about the Albanian history (Ottoman times, communism and atheist campaign, fall of Yugoslavia, establishment of democracy), it again changed my perspective of the place a lot and helped understanding the country a little better. :) Being pretty tired and having a fiest going on in my hostel kitchen with every guest involved, I stayed in this evening.
The next morning, Nele, me and some more people I met during dinner all wanted to go to the Blue Eye together by bus. Since there are two routes back to Sarandë but only one going past the Blue Eye, we though it's best to join forces in convincing the bus driver to take the old route. Funny story about buses again: we got to the bus station 11:50am, bus was supposed to leave at noon. Almost there a taxi driver asked us we need a ride, we said we'll take the bus at 12 to which he replied there is no bus, next one is at 1pm. But we saw the bus already, so we got in thinking it would leave in 10min. Well, it didn't it left at 1pm. 😅 But at least we were somewhere inside, it was raining heavily again..
It was still raining heavily and we were soaked and cold when the bus stopped for us at the Blue Eye. Since we had to pay full ticket price to Sarandë anyways, we decided to stay on the bus and skip on the natural spring. The weather was just miserable..
Back in Sarandë, Nele also checked in the same hostel. I was happy to find my bike and stuff untouched even though I stayed away much longer and a nice new crew of volunteers and guests at the hostel. It was a cool vibe. Nele and me were cooking together and later played shithead with the hostel crew (Victor, Fabio, Dimitri, Mike, ..). :) So much fun!!Leggi altro
Day 63/64 - Back in Sarandë
1 ottobre 2022, Albania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
It was Nele's last day in Sarandë before catching a ferry back to Corfu the next day. Again we wanted to get to the Blue Eye, either hitchhiking or by bus. Attempt Nr. 3..😅 It was a little too late for either option already, we slept in and got stuck chatting with hostel people until at least 2pm. So we finally gave up going there after all and went into Sarandë for some second hand clothes shopping (not that I have room for that in luggage 😅🙈). However, business hours in Albania are strange and many shops are closed during the day but you would find them open at 10pm. We both found some nice clothes though. I so many days of rain I finally got myself a proper rain coat (funny one with sea animals on it including their names, such as Mr. Crabs) and a warm sweater. We eventually got surprised by rain again and rescued ourselves into a coffee shop, again. 😀
In the afternoon, the sun actually came out and we went to a beach outside Sarandë where we met up with the hostel people. Even though it wasn't that warm anymore I went for a swim. In the evening we were playing shithead again in the hostel, cooking and sharing food, and having a good time sitting together. :))
The next morning, Nele and me had porridge breakfast together and said goodbye around noon. Not sure what to do with my day, I joined Victor, another Victor from Switzerland (who I randomly met again in Vreece a few days later), Fabio, Dimitri, and Mike for a very delicious fish soup in a local restaurant nearby. After, we decirer to go up the castle for sunset (according to Victor that's a must do 😅). It took us around 1.5h to get up there, some of us where taking it really slow and we have to wait for them all the time, which was fine though. 😅 On the way we also found one of the thousand little one-man bunkers that are everywhere in Albania. I had a look inside, certainly wouldn't want to spend much time in there even though I'm not claustrophobic. 😅 On top of the hill (we missed sunset by a few minutes but the most beautiful colours appear after sunset anyways..), we found a poor little monkey in a cage probably belonging to the restaurant. We fed him some nuts and a banana and refilled his water. It was sad to see and certainly not the kind of attraction tourists would want to see.. we left a bad google reference for the restaurant but only referring to the monkey, cannot say anything about the food..
The view from up there was amazing though, one could see all over Sarandë, Corfu, and also in the direction of Ksamil. After a while it was raining slightly so we decided to head back to the hostel. We were planning on having a nig movie night in the downstairs hangout area and got some snacks for it along the way. We were watching a movie called 'The art of travelling' on YouTube, which was entertaining to watch as a group as we would comment on it all the time ironically. ;) It got pretty late when I went to bed and I planned on cycling to Greece the next day.. I'm already used to lack of sleep from hostels by now though. 😴 😅Leggi altro
Greece
15 ottobre 2022, Grecia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
I will catch up on Greece soon, but not to forget the details about Turkey I'll continue posting them the same time. ;)
Bodrum
25 ottobre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
I had a really good sleep and it was easy to get up in the morning, which is nice for a change. :) So I wasn't rushed with packing, breakfast, and the checkout and got to the ferry terminal in time. It was a pretty big chaos there actually since multiple ferries were about to depart but all passengers going to Turkey had to pass the same border control check point and were gathered in the same crowded waiting area. Not much fun with a bicycle. 😅 The ferry ride took only 25min but again we had to queue for a check point once we arrived in Bodrum. They let pass without checking luggage or anything at all.
I then cycled into town and searched for a Turkish simcard. Since prices for the tourist packages vary depending on the shop, I asked around multiple stores and ended up getting a vodafone 25GB/4 weeks free whatsapp usage package for around 17€. The people in the store were super helpful and friendly. Once everything was set up I went to marina for a second breakfast/lunch, I was pretty hungry. I was sharing the bench with a guy, who I eventually asked where I could store my bicycle safely while I'm off sightseeing. Via google translater he recommended me to ask the people working in a supervised parking lot nearby, which turned out to work fine! 😁 I'm usually not into museums that much, but there's an underwater acheologic museum in Bodrum!! That's where I spent the next two hours, looking at 2000 year old sunken wrecks that they've recovered and stuff they found with it! It was certaiy worth the visit. After the museum, I strolled around the bazaar area and got some amazing bakery goods that I'm still trying to find elsewhere again. :D I then picked up my bicycle and cycled to the mausoleums and theater a little outside of Bodrum. The mausoleum is one of the seven old world wonders and it's probably the only one where you can wander around between its remains and actually touch the stones!! It was pretty cool. :) I also met a Brasilian guy there and we talked a little, which was nice.
Around 7pm I arrived at my couchsurfer's place Onur. He accepted my last minute request the day before since my former couchsurfer got sick. Just after I dropped my stuff, we were almost immediately heading to a batchata/salsa dance class that he's currently taking. It was so much fun and luckily only the second lesson, so it wasn't too hard yet. We were around 9 people and the course was held in Turkish, of course. 😅 Such a fun experience. :)) After the dance class we went to a bar together with the dance class people, where some of them were participating in a darts competition.
Around 11pm we took a taxi back home, we both had to get up early, Onur for work and me to get out of the building. 😅 It was a really fun time with Onur and his friends and the best first day in Turkey I could have imagined!! 😁Leggi altro
Bafa Gölü
26 ottobre 2022, Turchia ⋅ 🌙 13 °C
I started cycling around 11am, even though I left Onur's place around 8:20am already. I was craving a proper breakfast which I got in a very nice coffee shop around the corner. After, I was changing the leaking inner tube on the front tyre. It has been leaking for at least two weeks already but it was sufficient to add air every couple of days. So I couldn't be bothered changing it yet. Also it would probably involve going to a bike repair shop again to get the bump out after changing the tube, so I wasn't really up for the hassle unless it was really necessary. 😅 However, in the last days the leaking got worse, so after I had breakfast I stopped in a car park nearby to finally change the inner tube. I also found the cause of the leaking, a tiny bit of a thorne was stuck in the outer tube still and probably punctured the inner tube. Plus I managed to get it done almost properly by myself, so there was no bump in the tyre that required professional fixing. I was pretty proud of myself and it saved me some time. ;)
The route I took was quite nice for the most part. I planned on heading to Lake Bafa/Bafa Gölü today to meet up for a night of camping at a so called Tabiat Parkı in Kapıkırı with two other couchsurfers. These Tabiat Parkıs are some sort of nationalparks where free camping is permitted. Some of them have basic facilities, some don't. They all have a beautiful countryside in common! 😊
Initially, after leaving Bodrum, I had to climb up a hill and the road was super busy unfortunately. During both my breaks along the side of the road road, military was walking past me curiously but didn't ask any questions. I don't think I look intimidating enough to search me luckily. 😅
About half way to the lake, I stopped in a city called Milas around 2pm in a beautiful coffee shop filled with local old ladies. I ate some delicious rice pudding there that looked like Tiramisou and had a basic conversation with the local ladies using hands for communication, they couldn't really believe I'm cycling by myself I think.😅
With another 35km or so to go, I continued cycling in the afternoon. By chance I also passed the ancient Greek site of Euromos right by the street, so I stopped for a quick stroll (entrance just around 1€) and the place fully to myself, except for a team of researchers who were excavation some of the ruins still. :) One of my favourite roads so far was the road along to lake to Kapıkırı. The sun was about to set behind the lake on my left hand side, and stunning rocks on my right. The villages I cycled through were pretty rural, there was a lot of farming going on. Arriving at the Tabiat Parkı with the sunset, I met Kamir and his wife and quickly set up tent before it got dark. I then realized, that I must have lost my spare 1.5l water bottle that I'd like to have for wild camping, and shops were kind of far. I managed to get water in a restaurant close by, even though it was closed. Again, people are incredibly helpful and friendly here!!
I then cooked some pasta and got eaten by the mosquitos in the meantime. 😅 There were so many due to the freshwater lake.. -.- I was really looking forward to a shower or a swim, but there were no facilities there and you couldn't get too close to the water due to the low water level and the mud along the lake. So a quick wash was all I got that evening. :D Later in the evening, we were sitting together on the beach, chatting watching stars and listening to music. :)
When I went back to my tent, I spent at least 15min chasing the mosquitoes inside. Stupid me, I didn't close the tent properly while cooking.. -.-Leggi altro
Didim
27 ottobre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Just before sunrise, I woke up by the muezin singing. I don't know why, usually I don't like the religious practices too much, but it was actually really beautiful due to the peaceful atmosphere at the lake. I couldn't really go back to sleep after but also didn't want to open my tent to enjoy the view onto the castle due to the many mosquitoes around. 😅 Around 9pm, we slowly started packing up our stuff (Karim and his wife are travelling by motorbike), and together we drove/cycled to a little guest house in the village to have some chai there and enjoyed the authentic atmoshphere of the place. Since it was not far to Didim, the place I was staying for the night, I had some time to explore this area with the two couchsurfers. 😊 After getting some snacks in a tiny little supermarket (one tiny room), we walked around the village a little. Thanks to Karim and his ability to speak Turkish, it was a whole different experience for me!! E.g. we went into some private backyard where some thousand year old pillars were laying around, surrounded by chicken and goats. 😅 Kamil was constantly talking to locals getting useful information (and pomegranates) from them! 😁👌
After exploring Kapıkırı, we went up the hills behind the village to discover some old Roman ruins. We wandered around there for at least two hours, sometimes not even following a path but climbing. It was a lot of fun! :) In a really nice spot on top of a hill with an amazing view onto the lake, we had a break and ate the pomegranates. :)
Around 1pm we slowly made our way back done, which involved proper climbing and helping each other down. I'm glad I explored the village and ruins with them, but my achilles tendon wasn't too happy about it actually. 🙈
Almost back down, we ended up on a field with cows, who didn't bother about us at all. But when we wanted to cross the field on the other side of the stone wall, a very aggressive donkey almost attacked us!😅 It was bizarre, funny, and a bit scary at the same time. I've never seen a donkey behave this way, he was making weird sounds and was aggressively running towards us, so that Kamil had to jump the wall back to the cows. 😅 We eventually found a way around the donkey and back in the village , were we then split ways. The two were heading towards Antalya, whereas I was going towards Didim. Before leaving the village, I bought some bracelets off the local ladies there sinceI didn't really spend any money in the village camping was from free and I wanted to support the locals a little. :)
The 45km to Didim were mostly flat with nice lake views along the way. :) I took some breaks and arrived at my couchsurfer's place (Aleyna from England) around 6pm. After a shower which was deperately craving, I cooked us a Persian dinner and we were chatted about very spiritual topics. I couldn't really relate but was interested to get to know her way of thinking. 😅At some point she was talking conspiracy theory stuff and showed me youtube videos, which was a little odd but I didn't felt like arguing about it. Also she was so convinced, it wouldn't have made a difference I think but ruined the couchsurfing experience, so I decided to move back to topics we can both enjoy. :D She also showed me her singing bowls (I found myself having one placed on my head at some point 😂), which was actually a nice experience. 😅 All in all, it was an interesting couchsurfing experience and I had a good time, even though me and my host are very different and did not agree on fundamental things! I think it was a good life lesson for practicing tolerance, one can still have a great time with people when focusing on common things I think. 😊Leggi altro
Kuşadası
29 ottobre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
I got up around 7pm and slowly started packing my stuff. My couchsurfing host Aleyna got up around 7:30am and made us coffee, which we had while chatting until 11am. 😅 So I left her place quite late for my route plans but anyways. :D I then quickly got some breakfast from the bakery down the road and started cycling along the coast towards an old village called Old Doğanbey first, which was recommended to me by Kamil. It was a nice route through little villages and there was a lot of farming going on along the way. Around 2pm, I locked my bike at a car park in Old Doğanbey and was friendly with tourists and locals who wanted to take pictures of me with them. 😅 Especially in Turkey people are interested in me a lot in a very friendly way when I show up by myself with a bicycle. 😅 I then walked around the village for an hour with its beautiful old Ottoman style stone houses! Such a cute place and totally worth it the climb up the hill to get there! 😊 After I had some lunch that I brought, I continued cycling around 3:15pm with another 50km ahead. I don't know why, but since Turkey I generally start cycling a lot later while not having as much daylight anymore, not the best combination. 😅 When I was on the way down from the village, I was barked at by a dog on a property on the side of the road. It happened to me quite a few times that they shoot out at me kind of aggressively. Nothing ever happend though. This time I managed to get a short clip of the dog barking at me. He was wiggling his tail though at the same time. 😅 Still, it took me some time to get past him and he did approach me quite closely barking at me when I walked past..
It was pretty flat first until Söke, where I had a short rest for another snack. It was pretty late already and still another 20km to go and a huge 300m elevation hill ahead, which I was a little worried about regarding my achilles tendon (more on that when I finally catch up on Greece). Just before approaching the climb past Söke, I wanted to add some air to my backtyre to make it a little easier. In doing so, I almost ruined the valve when unplugging the pump hose, so I left it screwed on the valve and decided to fix it later. 😅 I slowly made my way up the hill amd got to see a beautiful sunset on the way down. Still had 15km to go though, really not the best timing today.. I arrived at couchsurfer Erhan in the dark and pretty exhausted. 😅 He immediately understood my need for a shower and some food and quickly cooked a delicious meal for us (he has a cooking education)! :) We had dinner and some glasses of wine on the balcony with beautiful views onto Kuşadası together, it was really nice. :) Being super exhausted and him having to get up early the next morning to go to Istanbul, I went to bed around 11pm. I initially planned to wake up early since he also had to leave super early. He left me the keys though and told me multiple times that I should stay longer and enjoy having the apartment for myself for the next day. 😅
Well, I did not get up early and stayed in bed around 9:30am. So I decided to take the offer of another day of rest in Kuşadası. ;) I then got breakfast at the bakery close by which I enjoyed on the balcony with a beautiful view! 😊 I could see the city properly now during daylight and also three huge cruise ships in the harbour. 🙈Before exploring the city together with another couchsurfer I was in touch with, I fixed my tyre issuepn the bicycle. 👌 Çağlar picked me up by around 2pm and we went for coffee together at the seafront. :) He's a nice guy and I enjoyed the conversation with him about Turkey and its people a lot. He showed me around the city, which was super busy with lots of events (live music, dances, stages) since it was independence day! 😁 That also explained the overwhelming amount of flags hanging everywhere!! We walked around inner city, onto a peninsula with a castle called bird island and the drove up a hill to an Atatürk statue next to seen the sunset from up there. :) Next we went to a place called ladies beach and other beaches locals would go to, which was nice. He dropped me off at home by 7pm. I did some grocery shopping and cooked some pasta for dinner. :)
Then, I slowly packed stuff and made a little present for Erhan as a thank you for when he gets back from Istanbul. Initially, Çağlar and me wanted to go out again in the evening but I was really exhausted with a big day ahead of me. So I stayed in and wanted to sleep earlier for a change (obviously didn't happen..). 😅Leggi altro
Ürkmez
30 ottobre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
I left my couchsurfer's place around 9am, went to the bakery across the corner again for some breakfast sandwich and a snack for the way, and started my trip for the day. I left early to have enough time to explore the ancient city of Ephesus, which is almost on the way up the coast from Kuşadası. I reached Ephesus after about an hour. Since the site has just opened, it wasn't too busy yet. :) I could also park my bike with the security people, so I wouldn't have to worry about all my stuff, which is always a good feeling wandering off. :) When entering the site, one had to walk through (it was hanging almost to the ground) the largest Turkish flag that I've ever seen. :D Not sure if it was only there due to independence day and the festivities, but it was enourmous!! I first went to the remains of the church Mary which was off the main track a little, then I went towards the main sights including a huge Greek ancient theater (yes, Greek, they've really been everywhere) and the remains of the third biggest ancient library. By that time, many tourist busses have arrived and the place got super crowded unfortunately. After around 2h on the site, I continued my trip to the north. I didn't quite know where I would stay that night and how far I would get, I didn't have a couchsurfer, the cities along the way were also not big enough to find hostels there. So I decided on camping. There were many campsites indicated on Google maps along the way, most of them rated pretty poorly. 😅 But I didn't really care too much, it was just one night. The road along the coast was pretty nice with beautiful views. I could see across the bay to Kuşadası even. The only annoying thing was the strong wind from the front, which really slowed me down a lot.. it'll remain this windy all the way to Istanbul locals told me.. 😅
About 65km and 5pm, I decided to stop at a campsite in Ürkmez. It was really hard to find since there was no sign on the road. When I asked a guy on the beach (couldn't speak much English), he pointed to the beach and said "no camp, sleep here". :D Eventually I found the campsite which was a huge construction site. Besides one older guy, Nader, who lives in a cottage on the campground, no other guests were there. The locals were fixing cottages and painting facilities when I arrived. Nader was also the only one able to speak English. He invited me over to his cottage and offered me to cook in his kitchen instead of my little camping stove, which I later did. Well he did actually, he insisted. :D After setting up my tent, I went for a nearby grocery store. I got some sort of turkish dumpling but didn't know what sauce I'd have to eat with it and didn't want to embarras myself bringing pesto or something like that, so I asked the lady in the store via Google translater and she had a lot of fun bringing me all these ingredients that are way too much in size for just one dish and to take on my bicycle (a whole pack of garlic, spices, 500g of yoghurt). Since it wasn't expensive, I took it with me anyways and decided to leave the things with Nader. In Nader's cottage, he insisted on preparing the food for me and I gladly accepted. Pretty sure it was much more authentic and more delicious what he prepared compared to what I could have prepared. 😄 It was really good and he also offered me fresh herbs, onions, and reddish with it. Later on he put some fruits and walnuts on the table, not long after that we were drinking his selfmade Raki. 😂 The Raki was surprisingly good!! I also really enjoyed talking to him, even though he's 76 years old he's quite young in mind and is very curious about what young people are up to nowadays and what they think about the world. :) He also shared his personal life story with me and showed me pictures. He lives in the cottage for about two years now, his wife is in a long-term caring facility close by due a health condition. I had a really nice evening getting to know him, Turkish food, and the country better through Nader. He also insisted on preparing me Turkish breakfast with Ayran in the morning before I leave. :)
It was a pretty cold night, temperatures drop down to 10°C now and even though my sleeping bag is pretty good, camping is not that much fun anymore. 😅 I wasn't too cold though but it wasn't warm enough either to sleep properly, unfortunately.Leggi altro
Güzelbahçe
31 ottobre 2022, Turchia ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
I woke up early already around 5am since it was pretty cold. 🥶 I stayed in my sleeping bag though until it got light around 7:30am and slow started packing my stuff together. By 8:30am, I went to see Nader for breakfast. :) He prepared a boiled egg with lots of spices on it, also cut some fresh vegetables and prepared Ayran and tea. It was really nice having a proper breakfast inside somewhere. I've gotten so used to grabbing some bakery stuff along the way by now. Around 9:45am, I was back on the road and almost immediatly had to climb a medium hill. On the way down I saw two bikepackers on a tandem going the other way, so I stopped and we talked a little. :) First time meeting bikepackers in Turkey. :) When talking about places to stay (I again had no clue where I would end up this say, probably camping again), they recommended me a very responsive teacher couple they found on the app warm showers. I know the app and used it together with Lara in Albania, but don't have an own account yet. So I thought I will figure out the sleeping situation for the day during my lunch break in Seferihisar. With a strong front wind, I arrived in Seferihisar around noon and went for a Pide restaurant with lots of locals sitting outside. It was so delicious, it even came with a salad and some sort of dip. I then downloaded the warm showers app, set up an account and found the teachers immediately. I wasn't sure whether they would respond in time, so I was just about to write another person, too when they responded and invited me to stay with them. :)) Only thing, they wanted me to get there by 3pm since they would be out in the afternoon and evening, but it was doable. I got there around 3pm and they immediately made me feel comfortable, offering me to help myself in the kitchen with all the food in the fridge and prepared me a tea! Such a lovely family with a beautiful home!! :) Also there were four really cute kittens running around in the garden. 😁
The couple left for some family meeting around 4pm and I could enjoy their place by myself, showered, ate, and rested a little. In the evening we were sitting together talking, they also recommended me nice placed to go to in the area! :) I'm so happy warm showers worked out immediately, it was absolutely worth it the registration fee and I'll probably use it a lot in the next weeks in case couchsurfing won't work out. I'm not so keen on camping anymore and it'll get even colder and more rainy soon since I'm travelling north..Leggi altro
Izmir, first two nights
2 novembre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
I took my time this morning having breakfast with eggs and fresh bread that the family put out for me. They've gone to work already in the morning but I said goodbye to them in the evening before. Before leaving, I played with the little kittens outside in the garden for some time, they're absolutely gorgeous and I hope they will be taken care of well.
The ride to Izmir was pretty relaxed, only about 20km, all flat along the seaside on a cycling road, just perfect. :)
My couchsurfing host David was available from 3pm on, so I had some time left in the city before heading to his place and gotten a little hungry. So I searched for a nice Pide place and started walking towards it. I soon realized, that it is located right in the middle of the big and busy bazaar in Izmir. 😅 It was already too late to turn back, I was pushing my bicycle through crowds of people, I then arrived at the Pide place where I immediately was approached by a Turkish family eating there. They were amazing, keeping an eye on my bike and stuff parked around the corner, offered me to try all their food on the table, and even offered me to stay at their place if I want. Such nice people here, I cannot put it in words. :)
Around 3:30pm I arrived at David's place, we managed to get my bike and bags into his appartment in which he just moved in, and had a coffee together. :) From the moment I arrived at his place he made me feel like home and we got along really well, felt like an old friend I've known for a long time. In the evening we took some beers and went out to a square on the seaside, from which you can see an amazing sunset and met up with some Turkish and international friends of him. They were super nice and we had a fun time in a bar and a delicious vegan restaurant after. 😊 We were heading back home around 11pm since he had to work the next day, I was pretty tired, too actually. Just outside his building, we found a huge and beautiful junk of tree, that David has been walking past for the last few days thinking he could make something nice for his apartment out of it, like a lamp. Having had some drinks, I was pretty conviced the two of us can manage get this at least 3m long piece of wood up the stairway to the sixth floor. 😂 So we tried, but already at the front door another guy had to help us to get it through. 😅 We managed to get it almost up the first floor, but there was no room for turning the corners. So eventually we gave up and brought it back out onto the street - again the guy had to help us. 😂 We placed it on the side of a construction site, thinking nobody would touch it there and that we'll get a saw tomorrow to cut it into smaller pieces. Still laughing about it I eventually fell asleep. 😅
The next morning, I was woken up by the noise of the construction site and saw from the balcony, that the branch of the tree is gone. 🥴 When I went downstairs, I asked a construction worker about it via google translater, he went to the guy in the digger to ask and came back with the news that it was been smashed - such a shame.. :/
A little sad about it still, I went to explore Izmir inner city by foot for some hours. At first I searched for some street art graffity, particularly a certain one with a girl with a bicycle from a Serbian artist. I found many other ones through google maps, but not this one. So I asked a group of younger people on a break from working at Pizza Hut whether they know where it is. 😅 One guy immediately took my phone, went into Google Street view and "walked" the streets of Izmir. After minutes he gave it back to me, having found the location of the street art. 😄 It was really funny, we talked a little and I then went off to the location of the graffity I was looking for. After that, I strolled around the old Bazaar (much easier without bicycle), had some really nife food there from some sort of a cafeteria, and went up an old castle called Kadifekale. The previous evening, David told me about a neighborhood that is considered not to be the safest at night, but I forgot the name of it. While walking up the hill to the castle, I kind of felt like I've ended up in this specific neighbourhood, which David later confirmed. It was a lot less developed than the neighborhoods close to the seaside, lots of men were sitting outside on the street who seemed a little confused about me walking around there, very young kids were playing by themselves on the stairs not being supervised at all, and all kinds of animals were running around in the streets. I did not feel uncomfortable, but I was certainly drawing unwanted attention towards me. 🙈 On my way down from the castle (the views were nice, lots of begging kids up there though which I find really hard to deal with), I was approached by a few men asking for my number, which I politely declined.
I got a little exhausted and hungry after being back in the city center, also David was off from work soon, too. Once we met at home we went for groceries and cooked Mantı and some Lebanese dish I learned from my host in Kuşadası together. It was delicious but also very rich in garlic. :D After being out all day we both wanted to stay in and enjoyed some nice conversation and shared some stories. It was a nice relaxing evening. :)
I will post some more pictures of Izmir in the next footprint. :)Leggi altro
Izmir, Day 3 (earthquake night) + 4
4 novembre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
In the morning of the 3rd, I slept in at my couchsurfer David's place and spent the day organizing some stuff (upcoming trip to Pamukkale, hosts, routes, washing, fixing things on the bicyclez etc.). In the afternoon, I also went out into the city again for a stroll around before heading back to David's place in the late afternoon. I would move to another couchsurfing host for the next two nights a Turkish family with a four year old son. :) So I waited for David to come home from work to say goodbye. We had a tea together, chatted a little and by 6pm I was back on the bicycle to Bornova, the university area of Izmir about 8km away. It got dark already and I had to go on the city highway, which was really annoying due to traffic but I eventually made it.
Arriving at my hosts place, Olcay, Şeyma, and Güneş, they had ordered Pizza for all of us along with some other food they had prepared. They were were friendly, even though Seyma didn't really speak much English, Güneş obviously neither being four years old. 😅 We were talking until 11pm, when we all went to bed. I was sleeping on a couch in the big living room. Their appartment is located on the sixth floor of the building.
At 3:29am, I suddenly woke up from a weird noise, almost like a thunder but from underneath the earth. Being woken up from deep sleep, I didn't quite understand immediatly what was happening when suddenly the entire building started swinging horizontally for what felt like a long time, but actually only around 10 seconds. It was pretty intense, I cannot really put dimensions onto the movement of the building, but I think I wouldn't have been able to properly walk during the earthquake. I was sitting straight up on the couch in the dark, being very confused until it was over again. Next, I heard the imentire building coming alive, my hosts got up and lights were turned on, also the next door neighbours on the other side of my wall woke up. Luckily, Güneş slept through the earthquake!! I then also got up and met Olcay in the hallway. He checked in on me, making sure I'm okay and told me that earthquakes happen quite often in Izmir since it's a pretty active seismic area. The last notable one has happened just two months ago. However, this one appeared to be a lot stronger than the previous one (4.9 as it was later confirmed). Olcay told me that there may be more but less strong earthquakes following during the night, but the building we're in is built on good ground, so it shouldn't be a problem. We all eventually went back to bed, but I couldn't really sleep anymore. I was also receiving messages from friends in Izmir checking in on each other to make sure we're all okay in the middle of the night, which was comforting. :)
The next morning, I woke up early due to the elevator tests they were running to check if the elevators go through without issues after the whole building has been moving. After some phone calls home and a long breakfast, I took the metro into the city again and strolled around Kemeralti market, clock tower square, and some other nice spots in the city. :) I went back to my hosts around 6pm to cook some sort of "Linsen mit Spätzle", a traditional South German dish with salad, for them with what I could find in the Turkish supermarkets. 😁 Olcay helped me preparing it and by the time Şeyma and Güneş came home, dinner was ready. We are together but I then went out again to the weekly couchsurfing meeting in Izmir with David. :) It was so cool, there were so many people from all over the world as well as many locals! :) It was much fun and around 1am I took a taxi home to Bornova. The taxi driver didn't speak much English and was going to wrong way initially, which I saw on Google maps. 😅 So he had my phone in one hand for navigation and his phone in the other hand for speaking translation while driving. 🙈😅 I got home safely though. :) He also told me about his experience with the latest earthquake. He was in his car driving when it happened, very scary. I generally felt like people in Izmir looked more tired today compared to previous days.. 😅
The following morning I had breakfast with Olcay and Güneş, Şeyma was already off to work. Around 10am I left their place again and dropped my stuff at David's place until the next day. I was going to Pamukkale for one night by bus(es).. 😁
Regarding the photos, I added some impressions of the Kemeraltı bazaar in Izmir. :)
Also, here's more news about the earthquake:
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/earthquake-hi…Leggi altro
Denizli / Pamukkale
5 novembre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Once I dropped my bicycle and my stuff at David's place again, I went off to catch a minimus to Denizli. I didn't check the exact departure times but they told me busses leave hourly and according to the friendly service person, it "only takes 2.5h to get there". Unfortunately, when I arrived at the bus stop, I just missed one by minutes, so I had to wait 40min for the next bus. I got myself some breakfast and snacks from the little shops around, which was actually life-saving because the trip took much (!) longer than they said! :D Retrospectively, I'm not surprised about that actually. The first minibus was a shuttle bus to the main bus station outside Izmir, where we then hopped on a regular sized and pretty modern bus. All tickets had a seat number, but half the people on the bus didn't really care about it, which caused some discussions for those who insisted on their reserved seats so that they can sit together. Another pretty Turkish thing is, to serve çay (black tea) on the bus multiple times, they were also going around with a Turkish lemon water for hand refreshment that smells really good. The service on the bus was really nice, but of cause it didn't just take 2.5h to get to Denizli, but around 4h. It was already 4:00pm when I arrived in Denizli. Planning to head back to Izmir the next day, I really wanted to get to Pamukkale the same day, again via minibus from Denizli bus station. I couldn't find the minibuses at first and asked around, until a helpful guy told me the minibus departs from the underground platform nr. 75 - turned out there are really this many platforms! :D The minibus left almost immediatey and just 20min later, driving through cute little villages, I arrived in Pamukkale.
To walk on this amazing white limestone structure, you have to take your shoes off. Still having issues with my achilles tensor inflammation and being all taped up on my left foot and leg, it was a little painful to climb the limestones without the extra support of my shoes and orthopedic insoles, also the tape came off at some point. But it was still really enjoyable, I arrived about an hour before sunset, which was really stunning, even though it was pretty touristy. The rock pools are naturally formed by white limestone and filled with warm light blue thermal water. Unfortunately, due to increased tourism in the area, many hotels where build with thermal baths, taking too much of the thermal water for these purposes and leaving half of the natural rock pools in Pamukkale dry. Such a shame to ruin the place people want to actually visit in the first place.. I also explored some of the ancient city ruins just behind the limestone formation: Apparently Kleopatra used to come to the city to take a bath in these thermal springs. The ancient temple around her thermal pool has collapsed into the pool due to an earthquake though, so now you can take a bath while sitting on fragments of ancient pillars. Unfortunately, the pool was closed when I got there. After watching a stunning sunset with all kinds of different colours, I slowly went back into the village to have a look around an catch a bus back to Denizli. In a little shop, I found a nice postcard but the shop owner didn't want to let me pay and insisted on gifting it to me, being super happy about young people still writing post cards. :D
While waiting for my minibus back to Denizli, I was talking to a group of students from all over the world, who study in Denizli. I was sitting with them in the bus, exchanging experiences living and travelling in Turkey, when one guy from Pakistan asked me one of the most interesting and kind of weird questions I have come across during this trip: "Who gave you permission to travel alone by bicycle?" I was a little confused, asking what he meant and saying that I don't need permission to do this, to which he responded that I must have asked my parents or brother to go travelling like this. I again assured him that I didn't. I think he was a little confused about my way of travelling solo on a bicycle as a woman and said that it wouldn't be possible for his sister to do that, neither for him since his parents wouldn't allow it. It's always interesting talking to people with a different cultural background, he's 25 years old, living his own life in a different country but still cannot decide soley for himself.
Arriving back in Denizli and again had to figure out the minibus system of the city to get to my couchsurfer's place. I stayed a night a Simge's place, a psychologist living by herself in a cute little appartment with a cat. She had cooked for me a delicious soup and pasta when I arrived, even though I wanted to invite her out for dinner. Turkish hospitality at its best, I haven't made such amazing experiences in any other country I travelled so far! We were chatting and drinking tea until really late at night. She told me about the Turkish tradition of fortune telling with the remains of the coffee grounds in the little coffee cup. Mine looked like a scared ghost. :D It was really nice evening and I enjoyed spending time with her. :)
The next morning she made delicious breakfast for the both of us, we continued talking for a bit and I left her place by noon to head back to Izmir.
The trip to Denizli and Pamukkale, even though it was short, was really worth it, not just for its sights, but also for the people I met there, the conversations I had, for getting a glimpse of a city that's less touristy and inlands, and for learing how to deal with the minibus system in a strange place. ;)Leggi altro
Izmir Part 2
8 novembre 2022, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
After leaving Simge's place, I found my way back to the Denizli bus station and got a bus ticket back to Izmir. This time, the bus wasn't as comfortable and much smaller. Weirdly, we got stopped twice along the way and the police came into the bus to check ID's. Maybe they were searching for someone, but I actually think it's more like a routine procedure. Half of the time on the bus, a little girl was sitting next to me sleeping. The other half, her mother was sitting there, a young woman. Thanks to google translator we could have a very basic conversation. Arriving at the bus terminal in Izmir, there was no shuttle bus back to the city center of the bus company, and it took me ages to to find the right bus stop. I asked around and everyone seemed to know where it is, but it turned out many times that it wasn't there.. :D After some time I got on the bus and made it back to David's place, who had cooked some delicious pasta by the time I arrived. :) I initially planned to stay one more night and continue my trip the next day, but with my sore foot and the weather predictions, it didn't seem like I could cycle to Aliağa the next day. David kindly offered and actually convinced me, that it is absolutely fine to stay longer, he had another couchsurfer coming, Ilkin from Azerbaijan, for some nights the same day and said it would be fun for the three of us to hang out a little more. So I decided to stay a little longer and help David finishing the setup of his living room furniture. :D
The next day, David was at work, I decided to join Ilkin on his walks through the city and showed him some of the places that I discovered and enjoyed in the previous days. Also, we were trying to find this very famous coffe fortune teller at the Kemeraltı bazaar that Simge has told me about. Apparently, people come from all over the country to get his advice! ;) We didn't find him, but still found some great places to have Turkish coffee. It was great walking around with Ilkin since he could speak to the Turkish people. I learned a lot from him and we had lot of fun finding cats in the weirdest places (in shop windows next to wedding dresses, watches, etc.) In the evening, when David was home from work we cooked some sort of improvised German "Spätzle" together, had some drinks and really nice talks. :)Leggi altro