Day 8: Into Albania

At about 7:45 I was awoken by 2 travel vans with a Dutch couple in each. I wasn't exactly happy about being awoken so early by the sound of diesel engines.

The couples had just come off the ferry from Italy. I chatted with them a bit and found out they were on a world tour and had already bean through North and South America. They provided me with some electrical sockets and I started packing.

It was also the coldest morning yet. I spent the time from waking up till I left shivering. I needed to take care of some emails and do some research about where I wanted to head today. It wasn't until just after 12 that I was able to make off.

That was ok because the destination, Saranda, Albania, was only about 75 km away.

The first part of the ride was a bit of a climb to get away from the coast. But after a sort while I reached the Albanian border. I first went through the Greek checkpoint then after navigating a round-about, the Albanian one. There were hardly any cars or people trying to cross so passing went quickly.

Within the first 10 km of entering Albania I was surprised at how friendly people were. I had more people greeting me and trying to help me in that short time than in all of Greece. I was told be one of the cyclist that I'd past that Albanians were friendly but I didn't expect it to become so quickly apparent.

I wanted to take the road closest to the sea, so I took the road to Ksamil. The beginning of this road turned out to be the worst road I'd been on by far. Cars were not able to go more than about 5 km/h. I had it a bit better, only having to find a very thin path. This only lasted about 2 km, though. After that the road got better but not good. The scenery was good however, providing for a very nice ride.

Before one gets to Ksamil, one has to cross over a small ferry. This is not a boat, but rather a barge that can fit about 1 car and is attached by cable to both sides. Unfortunately, for the cars this barge was under repair and, thus, not in operation. I was in luck, though. For people, (motor) bikes there was a small barge floating on barrels with an outboard motor attached to it that could hold about 2 bikes and the operators lawn chair. I kinda giggled when I saw it.

On the way over the operator asked me where I was from he understood Germany and immediately started saying "Bundesliga, Bayarn Muenchen." I took that he was a Bayern fan and I gave the thumbs down sign that I didn't like them and he laughed. In the end, we got to the other side safely.

I quickly got on my bike and headed up the road. It turns out I should have stayed a little longer, though. Just on the side I got off at was a UNESCO world heritage site, Butrint. I noticed some smallish signs about there being ruins but only later, when I arrived at the hostel, did I realize what it was. Perhaps next time.

A short ride later and I was passing Ksamil and its beautiful beaches. About 10 km further and I had made it to Saranda. Saranda is a beach resort that swells to about 200k ppl in the summer months but has much less in the off season. It has a nice sandy beach and overlooks the northern tip of Corfu.

I stayed at a place called the Hairy Lemon. It turned out I was the only guest at the time. I wasn't alone however. There were 3 staff members; a guy from Taiwanese, girl from New Zealand and an Albanian/American. It was kind of late so I didn't go out again. The Taiwanese guy made fried rice for us all and we did some standard hostel talk. Having worked at a hostel in Hawaii long ago, I'm well versed in hostel talk. ;)

One of the things that I decided is that I'm going to start taking it a bit more slowly. It's not so much fun just pushing myself each day. I'd like to do more exploring, relaxing and reading.

I'm also going to be cutting my trip short by half a week or so. I've got a weeklong business trip that cam up which starts the day after I was planning on getting back. Would like to have some time to spend with the family before leaving for that.

Here is the route data for this day.