Surrounder

So I left the hotel, heading down the motorway, this time in the correct direction. The Autobahn here is rather different in style than back home, while the pavement itself was quite OK, the rules are lax indeed (again, this was in 2012): a few cars joined the motorway from the opposing direction, cutting through the middle section, then there were fruit stands lining the road. At times, on the two lanes, one lorry was overtaking me, which was being overtaken by a bus, which was being overtaken by a car. Hmmm. There are lots of Mercedeses here, some battled, others shiny new, with powerful engines. One more typical thing: almost everyone honked at me, here, honking means: buddy, I am coming, I have spoken. Then they come, no matter what the situation is. Well, actually they did brake a few times, at least I would not be writing this blog.

Not sure from where, but somehow I found energy to make an ascent to the city of Kruja, where Iskanderbej had his castle and the town also has a nice bazaar, with carpet manufacturing. The ride uphill was strenuous, a strong incline, but was definitely worth it. From the castle there was a beautiful view of the surroundings.

I thought of continuing uphill, but everyone I asked advised against it, saying the road would be horrible. So I though of back-tracking to the motorway : no, I thought I would be clever and took a paved backroad. Not a wise decision. The pavement ended, then came a dirt road, which also ended, so I was riding through some path of sorts, next to a nice lake, but then there was a lot of mud at some places, my bike and my shoes looked like I came from a battle with Iskanderbej. For the first time on this trip, I seriously started pondering about the meaning of life, the universe and everything - and made a hard decision: even though I would have loved to see the rest of the country, I am being slaughtered by the roads. The thought materialized in my brain: maybe it's better to ride on somewhere else.

Anyhow, I found the blacktop again and it brought me to Tirana, the capital. There was a traffic jam on a four-lane road and there were about eight lanes of cars, so riding past them was hardly an option. Tirana has some large boulevards, even some bike paths, but it is not a very touristic place.

I had no compelling reason to stay in the city - and now I was set on leaving the country. Therefore I pressed on towards Durres, the largest port of the country, where ships would be leaving for Italy.

Getting there was also a bit challenging, same story as before, the road was in a bad condition. At time, I made a climb, but the descent was even harder than riding uphill.

Reaching Durres, I found a hotel right on the beach (life is anyhow a beach, isn´t it?), just in time to watch Germany trash Greece (4:2).

Nite nite!