Vlorë

When I woke up this morning I still felt a little weak and shaky, but at least I was hungry. Taking it as a good sign, I ate a banana and some plain bread from the hostel breakfast. I didn't touch anything I had the day before that made me feel so sick. 😅 Actually, I didn't feel like burek for a long time after.. 😅

Around 10:30am, I had my bags packed and left the hostel in Berat. I would see Chris and Lucas again later in Vlorë. The way down to the main road from the hostel was a huge construction site and about half way down a truck blocked the way. The Albanian workers helped me lifting my bike and my bags over the truck and I could start 9my day trip. :) Before finally hitting the road, I wanted to get a postcard of Berat for myself though, so I went into the city first. :) Also, I passed Bruno again, the local who gave us a nice tour on my first day. :)
The road to Vlorë was mostly flat with only 500m elevation and doable slopes. However, I felt exhausted from not eating the previous day so every little climb felt like a huge mountain to me that day. I had to take a lot of breaks and it took me much longer than expected. The ride was nice though, I cycled through many little villages in rural Albania and the road was not busy at all. :) I also met two French bikepackers on the road on a tandem they've been travelling for two years already. Very inspiring! :)

Arriving in Vlorë, I was finally back at the coast again and first time seeming Albanian beaches. Vlorë has a rather modern vibe, it doesn't look anything like Berat. There's many big apppartment buildings along the coast, many of them under (endless?) construction. I met Chris and Lucas in a coffee shop by the beach after dropping my bags at the hostel and taking a shower.
Later that evening we walked around the city and went up a hill to a fancy bar/restaurant. On the way up there through really dark alleys we wouldn't have been surprised if we'd been attacked by the many barking dogs in the neighborhood. We got a fright anytime we heard something moving around us. :D We concluded that neither of us would have gone up this way by themselves ever. Up at the restaurant (we were the only guests), we ordered some wine and a coke for me and enjoyed a surprisingly nice view onto Vlorë at night. :) After a while up there enjoying the drinks we went back down along the main road, which had street lights for the most part at least. Walking back towards city center we got hungry and the three of us ordered a 🍕 Margherita family size together. 😅 We also found a really nice looking road with lanterns and bars, but there was really no vibe there and we only stayed to watch some dogs and cats interacting with each other. We gave them silly names, so we called the cat "Russia" which was bullying a dog we named "Schengen". Think I was high on sugar and the others had too many drinks, it was funny though. 😁
After, we strolled around forever searching for a nice bar by the beach, but the one we liked on Google was closed already, the others had no vibe and no guests at all. There was only one busy bar that played really loud music, but other than Chris no one wanted to go there, so we eventually just went back to the hostel, where we went to sleep soon. It was already quite late and I had a pretty big day ahead.. 🚲⛰️Read more