Day 85
So, after breakfast I headed West through the mountains in the direction of the Albanian border crossing at Lake Ohrid, however, as I was nearing the border I saw the dark clouds massing and just managed to get in to a petrol station before an enormous thunderstorm rolled in keeping me drinking coffee for nearly 2 hours until it passed.
When I eventually crossed the Albanian border it was late in the afternoon so my first task was to get a SIM card and cash.
All of the countries that I had visited since leaving have their own currencies and none of them use the Euro. This caused me some issues, the first being that at all of the border crossings that I had used there was a distinct lack of places to change the any currency. The second was that some of the currencies, like the Serbian dinar can not be exchanged once you are in another country. Therefore I had to try and estimate how much local cash I would need for each country in order that I was not left with a load of unusable cash once I had left that particular country. However, once I had purchased a SIM car and I was back online and I quickly found a nearby hotel run by a really friendly owner who sat and spoke to me in English for over an hour. He sat and told me about his family and his country after which I ate some local grilled meat washed down by a local beer, superb! My hotel was very nice and well worth the 20 Euros that I paid for my large comfortable room.
Day 86
I got up the next morning and I ate a breakfast of local cheese and some fig jam made by the owner’s wife. Now, I don’t really like figs but I have to say that this home made fig jam was absolutely delicious and once I had packed the bike and said my farewells to the hotel owner and his wife, I set off for the coastal city of Sarande. The road took me due South close to the Greek border before turning sharply North following the East side of a range of mountains before turning South again on the other side of the mountains to Sarande. From what I encountered I would say that Albanian roads fall in to 2 broad categories, either long stretches of perfect tarmac or tarmac roads that have been unmaintained for so long that they have disintegrated in to rubble strewn obstacle courses.
Either way quire enjoyable most of the time except when you encounter the latter as you run a corner carrying a bit of speed.
However, the scenery in this part of Albainia is quite breathtaking and it was a great place to ride through.
Despite these observations, now and then other obstacles were encountered on the road, most of which were quite large and quite mobile.
By late afternoon I had arrived in Sarande which I found to be little different from any other coastal tourist destination that I had ever been to.
I obtained a room at an overpriced hotel for about 35 Euros, the cheapest available, and spent a restless night being constantly wakened by passing traffic or late night revelers heading home.