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 :-)