One month

I really liked the length of this trip.  Most of my other trips have been around a week - that's great, but you have to be pretty focused on getting to where you're going.  If you want to take a few days off or take a side trip it will take most of the time you have.
My big trip was 3 months, which is great for going anywhere and doing whatever you want, but the price is that it's too long to pretend you haven't dropped out of society.  I had to quit my job, that sort of thing.  Those aren't necessarily negatives, they're just big, significant things you have to get sorted out first.

For a month, I was able to put my career on hold but not sacrifice it.  I've stayed in touch with customers and suppliers for Sinewave Cycles.  And yet we've had the freedom to travel at whatever pace we want and let our route evolve along the way, all while getting to Dubrovnik, and farther to Albania, in plenty of time. 

So, it's interesting how each of those lengths comes with different advantages and sacrifices, both at home and on the road.  Most importantly, though, is that I know how lucky I have been to be able to do these trips for even a week, let alone a month or three.

I'm on a boat

We've made it on to the ferry from Albania to Italy.  We spend Wednesday in Bari then fly to Munich, Frankfort, and Boston, then take the T home.

Now that my own transportation is out of my hands for the first time in a month I suddenly can't wait to be home.

Bicycling Albania

I was going to title this something like "further thoughts on Albania", but I figured it would be more equitable to  narrow it to something like "thoughts on bicycle touring in northwestern Albania"

We had a terrific first day, as detailed in previous posts.  However, even ignoring the food poisoning, it's really not a great area to ride a bicycle.  There are three types of roads through the area - the unbikable freeway, the poorly paved secondary road, and dirt roads.  So, we bumped over potholes, gravel, and non-pavement for much of our time here.  There are less cars, but when they are there they are also weaving around potholes, making us nervous.  

The small villages and farm roads we passed the first day were great - happy waving people and friendly kids.  Now, we were in slightly larger, more decaying towns.  And there's lots and lots of trash here.  It's everywhere.  I'm sure there are socioeconomic reasons for it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't wear on you throughout the day.

I really want to like Albania.  I want it to be an undiscovered jewel that I was lucky enough to pass through.  I heard that the mountains are beautiful (although you'd need at least a mountain bike, and possibly a jeep) and also the south.  So it's entirely possible that we passed through a less attractive part of the country.  So, I won't judge the entire country or all the people, but I'll report that biking through the area we did was not great.

Sick day in Albania

On Sunday we left our campsite with the intention of biking to Tirana (the capital) and staying in a hotel.  We made slow progress over bad roads and reached Fushe-Kruje (Xhorxh W Bush square, to be exact) at around 4:00.  Alicia wasn't feeling well so we decided to stay at a campground that was just a mile down the road.  The campground also had a hotel and we actually moved into a room.

In summary, Alicia became sick and a few hours later I did too.  Not sure what did it - something that lived in the panniers for too long?  Some tainted water?  Who knows.  We woke up yesterday and still felt sick - not so stomach sick, more achy and tired.  We watched a lot of Albanian TV (lots of soccer highlights and American music videos) and slept.  We re-upped the room, committing to staying here another night.  Around 3:00 we started feeling better.  I biked back into Fushe to get some money to pay the hotel bill.  We got some food to eat and read by the pool.  We called it a night and hoped for a full recovery the next morning.

So now it's the next morning, and I'd say we're just about better, which is great.  We'll get some breakfast and bike the 25 miles to Durres (where we get our ferry), skipping Tirana.  So, the official diagnosis is 24 hours of food poisoning.  

It was nice that we were both sick rather than just one of us, allowing us to commiserate with each other.  I think it would be tough for the healthy one to be cooped up here all day.

The exact same thing happened to me and my brother last year in Michigan.  We got sick at the end of a day, and spent the next day feeling exactly like I did yesterday - tired and achy and barely able to move.  But by the afternoon we started to recover and even biked 20 miles that afternoon to the next town.  Since I felt so similar this time I hoped for a similar 24 hour recovery, and it looks like that has happened too.

So, we're 80% healthy and back on the road in a few hours!

Xhorxh W Bush

We had a long stretch today on really, really bad pavement - sometimes just dirt and rocks (and this is the second biggest road through the area).  That road finally ended in the small town of Fushe-Kruje, where we pulled into a small park to sit and rest for a moment.   There was a statue of a man smiling and waving - I assumed it was a monument to a friendly mayor or local farmers or something.  I looked at it and said, ha, that looks like George W Bush!  Looking closer...hey, that IS George W Bush!

What I was able to learn - the US has helped Albania over the years, from their overthrow of Communism to their recent membership in NATO.  Bush visited this small town in 2007.  In addition to the statue they named the square, a street and cafe for him, and several places he visited were declared national monuments.

I have to admit, it's nice to stumble upon something like this.  It's been a tough 10+ years for our international reputation but I guess we've done good in this region.

Albania-take 2 Alicia's perspective

I honestly cannot believe that we made it to Albania!
We have been here for about 8 hours and this country has already had quite an impact on me. To quote my mom, "it makes my heart feel full"

It is quite a juxtaposition from Croatia and Montenegro both in terms of biking and culturally. The scenery here is beautiful and mostly flat (my kind of biking!)  As soon as we crossed the border we had to stop to let someone lead his giant cattle across the road and then we stopped further up the road to let a horse pulling a wagon of hay get up a hill. When we wave to people as we pass, everyone has responded with a wave  accompanied by a huge smile!

As soon as we crossed the border, there were many Romani children and women asking for money. It is heart wrenching to watch these little kids knocking on car windows and walking through traffic. It is such a difficult situation.

As Dave mentioned, we found a wonderful campsite and have had a lovely evening. We have passed many mosques on the roads here and just heard the call to prayer broadcast from the minaret nearby, which is something I have never heard before!

Overall, I feel like Albania is a pretty special place and I definitely would like to return here again sometime to explore more! Maybe Albania wants to hire me for their tourism board :-)

Albania!

We made it out of Montenegro intact.  This morning we left the coast road and cut across some mountains (no big deal this far into a trip) and came out just short of the border.  Our other border crossings were two steps - stop at the end of Croatia, then again at the start of Montenegro.  Here they had just one building.  There was a window where we gave our passports to the Montenegrin official, and he tossed then across a desk to an Albanian official.  We shuffled over to his window, took our passports, and were on our way.

We stopped in the town of Schkoder.  A pretty sketchy approach, and then a nice city center.  Old men were playing chess in the park.  We made some lunch and gave our bananas to some kids.

We had planned to reach the town of Lezhe, but when we passed a campground in Barbullush we knew we'd have to stay.  They had an empty, grassy campground, a restaurant, and, OMG, a swimming pool.  A stunningly beautiful pool (or is every pool stunningly beautiful right now?  No, this is really nice).  It was 3:00 and we had about 40 miles done, so this wasn't getting off the road too too early.  We're within a day of Tirana, and that was the goal for tomorrow.  And there's not much we know about camping or lodging around Lezhe, so this is probably a good call.

So, ironically, here we are in the (I think) poorest country in Europe, enjoying our nicest lodging experience.  Mixed feelings about that but it feels mostly like an end-of-tour treat.