The real Balkan

This was one of the few days that started with a nice down-hill ride to the town of Cetjine, which used to be the capital. It`s a nice town with many museums, statues and a monastery.

One more hill to cross, offering wonderful views - and then it was all the way doooooooowwwwwwnnnn to the coast, to the great coast town of Budva, with an old town surrounded by a fortress and nice beaches.

The next town was Sankt Stefan, a little private island with beautiful houses, which is pictured on the cover of every book on Montenegro. For entering it, a fee would have had to be paid - as I found it a bit of a rip-off, I just took a photo and went on. Hmmm, writing this a dozen years later, I would today bite the bullet and pay the fee...one more reason to visit Montenegro, where I had since been thrice.

I continued on the coastal road, taking regular refreshes in the sea, it was so far the hottest day of the year.

Then I left the coast road for a horrible climb, but it lasted only a couple of kilometers, I reached a plateau where I cruised into the evening, and I was getting close to the next border, that of Albania. The scenery was definitely Balkan-like.

Entering into Albania, back then, in 2012, was a bit of a culture shock, at least at the beginning. I felt like being on a different continent altogether. The English-language knowledge has suddenly dropped to zero and the number of stray dogs has proportionately increased, I had a few chases that evening (i.e. it was me who was being chased).

I reached the of Shkoder, with a quarter a million inhabitants, it is a melange of Orthodox and Muslim religions. I found a really nice hotel right in the middle of town, the price was more than reasonable. There was a large mosque right across my room. My first task was to buy a map of Albania, to figure out where to go next, but I left that exercise for the following morning.