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Tagged from Gypsyprincess with albania

Travel blogs tagged with albania:

The Beach

13. September 2008 | en

We started out in Greece and ended the day in Albania. We spent the morning on a slight detour driving through Papingo. This was one of my favorite places on the trip so far. I want to come back to Greece and have a proper Greece tour by motorcycle.

My first impressions of Albania were of fantastic beauty marred by the garbage everywhere. If the Turkish toss their litter wherever they want, the Albanians dump their weekly refuge wherever they want. It is really sad to be driving around and having your breath taken by what your seeing, only then to wish you never had it in the first place when you round the corner into a garbage dump and its awaiting stench.

We decided however to attempt to camp on a beach recommended by Joscha and Ed. They said it was hard to get to, but once down there it was isolated and beautiful.

By hard they meant craters commonly found on the moon.

The first part of the trip down I managed. It was bumpy, but (dare I say it) my riding in terms of dropping the bike has vastly improved, and since the accident in Turkey I now had a full week with no bike drops whatsoever! Until about 15 minutes into the descent down to the beach when the bumps, holes, and rocks, gave way to deeper holes, and bigger rocks surronded by gravel.

I was doomed, and it was getting late, dark was chasing us, going back up was not an option, but then going down was not appealing either. So Patrick drove down his bike with all the luggage attached, and came back for me and my bike.

But we did have a lovely spot on the beach, marred only be the creepiness of the one man bunkers that you find everywhere in this country, but in particular abundance on this beach!

Tags: Beach Camp! albania
Map: N 40° 16.722 E 19° 58.748

Created at: 20. September 2008

Let It Rain

15. September 2008 | en

We escaped the beach by seconds. Literal seconds. We woke up to a gray day, and we decided to stay in the tent and read and relax. We debated staying another night (we had not had rain since Bulgaria and we were not looking forward to confronting it in honesty) but we had no food and no extra water. So it was decided, Patrick would drive both bikes halfway again, and I would take over where I had managed to get to the previous night.

I have never been so scared in my life. I actually closed my eyes and prayed to god as we bounced, bopped, and BANGED our way up the hill. If feeling it the night before disturbed me, SEEING it the next morning made me wish I never suggested we try to reach the beach.

But we survived, ;) and I drove the rest of the way up sans dropping, AND as soon as we got up we literally watched the clouds roll in and drown us.

So we never escaped the drowning, we just escaped the part where it happened on that horrendous road, OR being rained out on the beach.

The rain refused to stop however, and so in Vlore we checked into a hotel.

Tags: Vlore albania
Map: N 40° 45.404 E 19° 48.390

Created at: 20. September 2008

Guess A Title, It Should Have Rain In It...

16. September 2008 | en

We woke up to dodgey weather, and since we had been riding since Istanbul without any days off we decided to stay the extra night and hope the rain would pass us. Vlore is a nice little beach town, and the day turned sunny and made for a pleasant stop. My brother is getting married in Cuba in April of 2009 and so we know we have 2 weeks of beach vacation coming up then, so we have not been taking advantage of the beaches on this trip!

Tags: Vlore albania
Map: N 40° 45.404 E 19° 48.390

Created at: 20. September 2008

Tirana

16. September 2008 | en

We woke up to sunshine and we went for it, only to be doused in rain 15 minutes into riding off.

It was torrential downpours, and so we decided that as sad as it was we had to skip the nice road to Tirane, and take the main (and faster) road to the city, and again book ourselves into a hotel! We are having no luck in Albania, which kind´ve sucks because our first day was so fantastic with the riding.

The hotel was interessting though. Paintings of naked women on the walls. SO weird.

Tags: tirana albania
Map: N 41° 32.941 E 19° 81.736

Created at: 20. September 2008

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