Somewhere along the Camino Laura decided that exercise and the outdoors were pretty good organizing paradigms to our travels. With that in mind, we decided that maybe we would try our hand at bike touring through Europe somehow. As we were meeting friends in Greece we started eyeing ways of acquiring bicycles in Athens and then, due to Schengen visa limitations, we would leave the area as quickly as possible and to stop the clock of our ever diminishing time in the Schengen region. That meant taking a bus from Athens to Albania. With this vague plan in mind we got back to Athens from Crete and hit the ground running looking for bikes and the necessary equipment we would need for touring up the coast. After two frantic days of running around Athens on a bike equipment shopping spree (on a serious budget) we had acquired the bare minimums for putting this phase of our travel into play. The bikes we bought used from a bike rental agency in Athens and they are some seriously trustworthy beasts. (Laura has run over goats, dogs, wild boar and one small ox and the bikes just kept on trucking.) We bought some panniers for the luggage, some dry bags for our camping equipment, some bungees to lash it all together and then we were on the next overnight bus to Albania. We had our first run-in with the ole “no possible, problem, problem” schtick at the bus station that first night because of the bikes and gear, but Laura handled it like an old pro insisting “No Problem, No Problem” until the rides were loaded up and secure.
We awoke in a new country at four in the morning as the party goers were headed home from the clubs in their Porsches and Land Rovers. (Wait, where were we?!) One of the nearest towns across the border and near the coast was a town called Sarande and its known for its beach party scene. We made our way down to the water front to watch the sunrise and see the beautiful ocean front town come to life. After a morning on the beach making the best of it we finally made our way to our AirBnB. Our host was a sweet older woman, and despite the fact that we didn’t understand a word of the rapid fire Albanian she was volleying at us, she made us feel extremely welcome. We had opted to spend a couple days in Sarande to get our bearings and do some actual planning of the trip. After a couple of really nice days there and feeling like we somewhat knew what we were in for we hit finally hit the road!
The morning we left was a doozie of an introduction into what the future would hold for us. Sarande, being on the coast is at sea-level. That meant that the very first kilometers that we had to deal with were heavy city traffic straight up a hill! After a couple of arduous kilometers we finally crested the ridge behind the city and the first of Albania’s incredible views and downhills opened up before us. That very first downhill is one that neither of us will forget any time soon. That day was the first of many grueling hot days with plenty of elevation. 25 kilometers later we made a west bound turn down to the beach we were camping at that night and had the first of many AMAZING coastal downhills. The feeling of seeing the blue Ionian Sea down below us as we raced down windy turns was one that we started to relish. We arrived at the beach only to discover we had missed a turn and were at the wrong beach! No matter, we asked one of the beach bars if there was camping nearby and they graciously offered their beachfront as our evening’s campsite.
The next week was filled with more of the same, thigh-burning uphills followed by downhill sections that felt like we had wings. We camped on some incredible beaches and were dumbstruck by the beauty of the coast, the friendliness of the people, the inexpensiveness of the food and drink and the ease of which we were taking to our new mode of transport. One beach, Gjipe Beach, we had to hike the last 2 km down to. It was at the mouth of a surreal canyon and had some of the most amazing water and a great international crew of travelers working at the eco campsite that was the only bar and accommodation for miles. To be sure there were some heinously difficult moments of pushing the bike up 10% grades through the heat but somehow it was all worth it.
Toward the end of the first week we opted to take our first ride in a vehicle to summit the Llogara Pass as it would have been far too much effort given how heavy our bikes were. The next day we enjoyed 12 kilometers of downhill and entered a flatter less dramatic section of Albania’s coastline. It was still a beauty to behold and bike through but it was somewhat more “normal” bike touring. We fell into a nice schedule and saw some incredible sights (camped at ancient Roman ruins) and enjoyed seeing the Albanian countryside. Two weeks and almost 400 kilometers after we had begun we were in Shkoder, Albania and from there took one more bus to Kotor, Montenegro.
The intention of going to Albania was initially to get out of the Schengen region as soon as we could and do some “practice” touring for what we thought was the main event (Croatia). It turned out to be some of our favorite moments (and cheapest!) of the journey. We both agreed that Albania was definitely going to be put on our list of places to return to as we barely scratched the surface of things to see in the country since we had stayed near the coast. While the country still lags far behind much of Europe in a lot of different ways, and we started to get a sense of the struggle that Albanian’s face in the day to day due to their economy and governmental structure we both felt that the warnings and admonishments against traveling there were somewhat overstated. Albania is a beautiful country with awesome people that are incredibly surprised by seeing two Californians traveling through their country and they’re eager to prove the naysayers wrong. Falimenderit Albania!
Albanian Adventures!
