Thank you for liking Albania!

After my mom travelled back home I have made my way to city near Greece border in sothern Albania. For me, Albania has been one of the most challenging country to cycle, but at the same time one of my favorites. The mountains have continued and the is just stunning. I cycled the cost of Montenegro and started miss mountains, so I planned to cross Albania through the north east mountain region called Valbone national park. Unfortunately my bike broke down after the border with Montenegro. Even if Skoder is a town with thousands of bicycle, I didn't manage to find a new chainrings for my bike. The chainrings had had some problems since Bosnia, but by gentle hammering and the chain was running in it smoothly.

So I had to put travel to Tirana with bus, in order to hunt this part. Earlier in Montenegro, I had met two beautiful girls on the wheels and we had planned to meet again in Skoder. We never met again because my Tirana trip, but I was happy to share few days with Claire and Biene. Hope to see you somewhere on the road again!

Tirana is town full of everything and the traffic seemed not to have any laws. Yet, I felt more comfortable to cycle there than in some towns in Finland. The car drivers are used to share the road with horses, dunckies, cycles and everything else that moves forward.

I stayed one full day in a cycle repair street in Tirana, while the owner was calling around to find the chainrings. There is actually one street, where around 7 shops are selling second hand cycles and fixing them. While waiting for the new set of chainrings, I got some beers, lunch and listened stories of people in the cycle repair place.

From Tirana, I had to make a decision, either to head back up north to the Alps of Albania, or continue towards south. I already liked Albania, so I wanted to explore more of the country. Therefore, I decided to go down south. Leave alps for next time.

So, I got to explore Albania. I choose a national park that I wanted to go, before crossing the border to Greece. Also took some random roads in meanwhile. With this kind of route planning, I learned that the roads in Albania can change very sudden from perfect asphalt to very poor rocky roads. The main roads are in very good condition, but the rest are a bit more challenging. Good experience for me to learn more about my bike, what I can do with it and what I should think twice. Now, I have gotten very unsure, if it will make its way through poor roads in other parts of the world. Well, time will show.

The people along the way were once again the most warm hearted. People were running behind me to bring me water and wish me good luck. I have not bought any vegetables yet, because the veggie-sellers refuse to take money from me. In the villages I get my water normally from the cafeterias and they invite me for coffee. When I have told that Albania is one of my favorite country so far, people often say: thank you for liking Albania and give me some more food.

It has been said that Albania is the most dangerous country in Europe, but nothing else than good things have happened to me. I love the fact that the bordering countries are very suspicious for one another and trying to worn me for the next country I am cycling. Once I have entered people say the same for the next country. In Albania, people tell me that as long as I stay in Albania, nothing bad will happen to me or my stuff. In Albania the family relationships are thigh and to be alone as solo female cyclist, i feel that people are taking me into their homes with open arms. Poverty can be seen, but at the same time the new government has put lot of effort to spread the money for new infrastructure. Lot of men are unemployed and are sitting in the cafeterias or roadsides of villages and towns.

Along my route there was a beautiful historical town Breat, from where it was one day cycling to the national park. The canyon was stunning and the road was good for long time. Unfortunately it has rained heavily the day before, so when I entered into the national park the road was more like a mood pool. I carried my bike for some hours but there was no end with the mood, so i was once again stuck. I managed to get out from there and into Gjracaste town located close to border of Greece.

Exploring canyons in Bosnia and Montenegro

Bosnia has been so far one of my favorite country to cycle.  The people are extremely friendly and helpful. There is three different ethnic groups of people in Bosnia: Serbs, Bosnians and Croats. There is also three different religions, which are represented next to one another in most of the towns: Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims. For me, as a person who is just passing by, the diversity of people's backgrounds is interesting, but in local level it does cause some attention once in a while. 

The Bosnian war ( 1992-1995) can be still seen with abandoned houses, poverty and land mine warnings along the roads. The important towns are already rebuild, but the land mines are still in the forests, which for me meant that the places to wild camp had to be chosen carefully, but it is still possible. The corruption rate is high and therefore the money, which is focused for locating the mines goes normally into wrong pockets. During my cycling in Bosnia, I stayed quite a bit with locals with different backgrounds, also the stories of the war had many varieties, so I will not present any of them here.

I left Banja Luka with heavy mist, and had decided to cycle to Jajce and continued from there to Sarajevo. I followed Vrbas river canyon, my first time in a canyon with my bike. I couldn't believe my eyes, in every turn the canyon side was rising higher and with the mist, it was like a view straight from fairytale. The road was not busy with the cars, so I enjoyed the quite ride. I had heard that there is many tunnels in Bosnia, but luckily the once on this road were relatively short. I have totally forgotten that now is September, but the read and yellow colors on the leafs reminded me that the autumn is coming also to Balkans. Jajce was beautiful town with waterfall in middle of the city.

Vrbas river has a big dam 15km away from Jajec and old man, who took care of the machinery invited me for a coffee, which got extended to lunch. Sometimes without common language the conversations can flow even better than when having same language. As I mentioned, people in Bosnia were super friendly. People were so eager to help and open their houses for me, that I spend only two nights wild camping. Compared to other countries I have visited, Bosnians (especially men) did not believe that I had cycled from Finland. The common reason was that woman cannot do such a thing, since our gender is not strong enough. When the moms of the houses heard that I am cycling, they sat next to me the rest of the evening hugging me and holding my hand.

My favorite part of the road started from Sarajevo towards Tara canyon in Montenegro's side. The uphill started slowly but surely. The road was not busy and there was small cute villages along the way. After one downhill, I got very confused when my bike was not moving as easily as it had done before. I stopped and checked everything on the bike but did not understand where is the problem this time. I took a deep breath and looked behind on the road and realized that the problem was not on the bike, I had started to bike uphill again.. It just did not feel like it since the last uphill was steep for long time. I had to laugh for myself and was wondering if anyone else is getting confused with up and downhills..

The uphill continued around 40km (sometimes I rolled down as well, but just to be able to climb up again). When I reached the top and looked the views and the way I had climbed, I was just so happy, I had climbed all the way up and partly without noticing! I feel like a queen and my own winner on top of all the hills. When the tiredness arrives, the head is bigger problem than the tired legs. During the paddle my head is telling me to give up and stop by telling me that I will never make it up. The other part of me tells me that just continue slowly slowly and I will see that none of the mountains will go up forever, it is just illusion. Until now, I have believed the positive side of myself and that is the strongest energy I have to get on top of the hills. Therefore on top of all the mountains and hills, I am my own superhero. Gives lot of self courage and believing.

After the uphill started 20km downhill straight into another magic world. Another canyon, but steeper and higher than the one I did before. Honestly, I cried and I laughed. I stopped in every kilometer to admire the beauty of it. I think, when being alone the beauty of the nature around me just gets very deep inside, I have time to sense. There is no people to talk, share the experience so it's possible just to feel the beauty of the nature. 

After a while, I met Canadian cyclist coming up and he told me that there is another solo female cyclist 15min ahead of me. I said quickly good bye to this messenger and was speeding down like a rocket in order to meet another girl on the road. I thought that 15min is quite a bit of time but maybe she will stop to eat or enjoy, so I will meet her. I know there is another girls alone on the road, but so far I have not met any of them. Sometimes it feels, that there is only men or couples doing bicycle touring. 

After one and half hour, I found her from the crossroad looking at the map. How happy we both were to meet each other's and decided to continue to Tara canyon together. What would be better than to share the most beautiful part of the road with another girl on the wheels! Lena has been cycling alone in South America and she was perfect companion for the next day. For Tara canyon, I don't really have words to describe the beauty of it. The water on the river was blue like a glazier water. This is absolutely special place in Europe. Thank you Ferran for telling me that this place exists :) We found abandoned house from side of Montenegro and put up our camp there. Lots of old fruit trees with plums and apples on the yard. 

Montenegro has been good place to cycle as well. The tunnels are sometimes long, dark and small, but they don't last forever. I normally have a headlamp, because otherwise in some of the tunnels it's pitch dark inside. I went into one of them without a lamp, but had to return outside, because it was impossible to see anything. People keep being friendly to me, I slept in backroom of mountain restaurant, helped the owner through the busy times and learned a lot about people in Montenegro. 

Now, I have been on holiday with my mother and aunts enjoying the sea and sun, food and Maria's company in the evenings. Perfect.