Xhaferraj

Since it's getting colder at night, the tent is usually wet in the morning from condensation and morning dew. While Lara and me were packing up our stuff, Dan fixed his flat tyres (yes, plural). The tree of us decided to join forces for cycling to Shkodër in Albania. :) Since Chris felt like he's on the way of getting sick, the couple decided to stay at the campground for another night for a proper rest.
Through an application called warm showers, Lara found a place for us to stay in Shkodër, tjat was our goal for the day: it's called Eco-social farm and is located just outside Shkodër. It is a project funded by the EU in that it employs locals, also, there are many other projects in process on the farm such as a reforestation project. Camping there is based on a donation, it sounded like a really nice place so Dan and me were grateful for Lara finding this place to stay. :)

Starting in Petrovac, the road soon took us back inlands and up a hill. It was a beautiful and a surprisingly good road through little villages, past many mosques, donkeys, and olive trees. On top of the hill we had a break in a coffee shop with a beautiful view over the countryside. Soon after the break we reached the border to Albania. This was the weirdest and funniest border crossing I've ever had so far: I'm always not sure where to line up, the car line, the truck line (rather not?!), or if available a passenger line. We decided for the passenger line and walked towards a little cabin. The guy working in there seemed really busy since he had to check both the passengers on our side and the cars on the other side. He opened the little window, looked at the three of us with our passports in our hands, asking "Where are you from?" - "Two Germans, one from the UK" - "OK, you can pass." He quickly closed the window again and turned away. 😂 He didn't even look at our passports. 😅 Slightly confused we continued to cycle towards Shkodër. One can recognize the difference between Montenegro and Albania, suddenly there were much older cars on the road, even more mosques present, and the houses became smaller. Suddenly there were so many flies, it almost seemed like they knew to stop at the border. I'm pretty sure all of us accidentally swallowed at least one of them while cycling. 😅

Not long after we arrived at the Eco-social farm, where the volunteer James was showing us the place. He hasn't been there for too long yet, so he wasn't entirely sure what was going on with all the projects, but we liked it anyways from what we've seen!! :) There were some really cuddly and well fed cats and dogs around, who constantly tried to sneak into the kitchen area. ;) We decided to cook some curry together in the evening with the other people on the farm, set up our tents and took the bicycles for grocery shopping into Shkodër. Such a good feeling riding without luggage!!

My first impression of Albania/Shkodër: it doesn't feel like Europe anymore. It was a rather chaotic, less developed and reminded me of some places in Southeast Asia. We cycled past little huts were little children were playing right by the side of the street, supervised by their 6 year old siblings. There were lots of street dogs and cats in miserable condition, garbage, and the sound of the prayers from a nearby mosque in the background. To get into the city center we crossed a pretty instable looking wooden bridge with huge holes in it. It let to a more modern inner city shopping area, were we got groceries for the curry. On my way out of the store, I walked around the modern shopping center and found a slum-like village right behind it. There were lots of people selling vegetables on the street, also lots of donkey carts were standing around. I felt like Shkodër is a city with two worlds in just one place. The rather fancy new modern world with nice cars and shopping centers, but if you just turn around a corner the people are a rather poor and the infrastructure seemed less developed.

We got back to the farm in the dark and cooked two really nice curries together, while having some Albanian wine and nice conversations and laughter. 😊 Also, we got to see some Albanian wildlife on the farm: a huge wolve spider crossed the terrace, carrying its baby spiders on the back. I'm not scared of spiders, but I certainly don't want this spider close to my tent. 😂Read more