Cycling Albania - Going Back in Time // A Bike Touring Short Film // Part 4 - Albania

Hello. Hello. Hello guys. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Bye bye. Welcome to Albania. Another country. Nice. And now at the beginning we're off to the city of Skoda, where we will stay at an eco-farm, eco-social farm near there. And then we haven't really planned that much more except for a night in Tirana, the capital, sometime next week. But because wild camping is completely illegal in Albania, where we wanted, like and also at the coast and so on, we really want to take our time in Albania and have some nice slow days. There was just this deluxe resort in the middle of nowhere. Well, it feels like it's the middle of nowhere. Because actually it looks like, actually it looks like this most of the time, just dry fields. Strange. We are in Skoda since like maybe four o'clock. We're sitting in this cafe and we're finishing up our Croatia video and just now exporting it. We are finally done with editing and exporting our video. It only took us like four and a half hours sitting in that cafe. Thank God it's really cheap in Albania, so we didn't spend too much money there. Yeah, and it's really interesting. While we sat there, the city came to life. It's really awesome cycling through a city at night, especially when it's really coming to life and when it's so chaotic. It's, I don't know, it's just a really, really cool atmosphere. And yeah, we're still on our way to the warm showers, but we're almost there. Hello. Hi. So here's your room. Oh wow, this is amazing. I will bring some towels. Oh, we have towels. Okay. Man, we are the luckiest people ever. We have this awesome little room for our warm showers and this is from on this eco-social farm, so it's kind of like an inclusion farm project. We decided spontaneously to stay one night longer on the eco-social farm because it's just so nice here. Luisa is repairing her front tire because it's still a bit flat. So did you find the hole? I did. What was the problem? Second hole? The second hole, yeah. Thank you. Bye-bye. We're just now leaving the eco-social farm near Škoda. We had a really great time there. That's why we decided to stay a day longer. Yeah, and for the following days, we will just take our time because we want to be in Tirana on Tuesday. Today is Sunday and it's not that far. Oh, glass. Yeah, glass everywhere. And maybe tonight we will wild camp at a beach, hopefully. So now we did 2,000 kilometers already. So we're cycling along these little back roads today and the road quality is amazing. It's paved brand new but on the left and on the right, you have these little farms and our warm showers host in Slovenia, Peter, he described when he told us how these countries were because he cycled through them, he described it as going back in time and with every country further south, essentially you go back in time more and it's really like that. It really feels like just going back in time and the farms are smaller and the ways of life are simpler. This is the first time we bought water. Okay. So we're driving down to the coast. Well, we're essentially at the coast now but now we're really reaching the coast and we already saw kind of that it was super busy, like so many people at the beach and we thought like, oh, we'll drive somewhere where there's not so many people a bit out of the town and so but it's so full, holy crap. Yeah, I don't think we're going to find anything that's empty. So we're leaving the beach immediately again. So now I guess no swimming and we have to look for another place to sleep. So we're not in the best mood because we're just trying to find like a spot to cook and to sleep for the night on the coast because wild camping is legal in Albania but so far everything is so full and touristy and dirty, just trash everywhere. I got a flat tire at the front, really lost air really quick so it's probably some glass or something. Still searching for a camping spot and we're leaving again. There are too many ants and it's actually not that perfect. We might have found a spot now here. Man, this day just keeps getting better and better. Now we just set up the tent, we want to cook and yeah, this massive dog just came. I mean he seems nice at least but now it's just laid down next to our tent. So new day, hopefully a better one. Starting with new optimism. Yeah. Let's see how this goes. There were two fishermen just fishing over here this morning who woke us up when they arrived with their little mopeds. So we slept pretty long actually, until seven. Not much river left. Just like in the middle of nowhere here, it's just like a Lamborghini. It does not fit at all. I don't, I wouldn't even want to drive that car on these roads It's just potholes everywhere. So today we are much happier with our cooking and probably camping spot than yesterday. It's just the side of this field and yeah, it's a small path but I don't think anybody gets here because it ends there. And what's the best? No trash. So this ended up being our camping spot for the night after all, after we cooked over there. So we're on our way to Tirana today, where we have a hostel or hotel, we're not sure, for one night. And we're going to meet Uta again, who we also met on Brac in Croatia. And then we still have to decide if we are going to go back to the coast and cycle along the Albanian coast a bit more or if we're going to go inland and maybe even through North Macedonia. Well, it is a little adventurous to drive through Tirana. And we have just completely taken over this room. So we're charging everything, airing stuff out, drying the tent, doing some washing. We're gonna meet Uta soon. And right now we're on this kinda big square. Took some time to decide which way to go after Tirana because at first we wanted to go to the coast again. But after we were so disappointed at our first time at the Albanian coast, we didn't want to have that experience again and thought it might be nicer and emptier to go east. So now we're cycling towards the Urit Lake. I'm definitely not feeling so good. We were out for dinner last night and for some drinks and I don't know, I must have messed up my stomach eating something. I don't know. Yeah, but I'm definitely had diarrhea all night and definitely don't feel so good. I don't have any energy today, so let's see how far we make it today. We want to avoid some heights, some up and downs, so we're using the highway again for a short time because it goes through a tunnel so we don't have to go over the mountain. So far it's really okay here. Really empty. We have a whole line for ourselves. So we're still on the motorway. I'm really not feeling good. I really messed up my belly and I had to relieve myself at the side of the motorway behind the bushes. And I just have no energy at all. And it's pretty cool cruising with like 50. It's definitely one of the cooler things I've done. Oh, I'm actually feeling a lot better now. And yeah, since we've come up the highway as well, we've just been on these little dirt roads. They're pretty bad, like the condition, but you do drive through these little tiny settlements. It's not even a village, it's just a few houses. And yeah, it's just really a nice change. And it's pretty clean here actually as well, because there aren't any tourists or like no masses of people that come by here. Bunkers everywhere in Albania. So we're gonna take this spot tonight. Just on some field, but it looks pretty unused, the field. And the view is amazing. Cheers. So tonight we have some local beer from Koča, where we're gonna be in two days. And we have a couchsurfing host there. We're just talking about it. We're so glad that we have our petrol cooker and generally we're super happy with our cooking setup. Because even now in Albania, it would have been really, really, really hard to find just like some gas canisters for like a gas stove. And here there's a petrol station on every corner. So getting petrol is really no problem at all. Alright, storm is coming. Doesn't look good at all. So we're scrambling a bit to pack everything up. Just dragging these out of it before we put on the bikes and the guitars. But damn, that looks dark. We did it. We're in the tent and it's not raining yet. Oh, nice. Yeah. And let's see if a thunderstorm comes and when. Yep. So as you can see, it did rain last night, but there wasn't a real thunderstorm. I think there was a little bit of lightning and thunder, but not really above us. So on every corner in all of Albania, there are these car washing things, stations and a lot of petrol stations as well, often combined also with a hotel and restaurant. And it's just crazy because I think literally every person in Albania has to wash their car at least once a week for all these car washing stations to have a purpose. It's really funny. There are not that many roads going to the Orid Lake, so we're taking the main road. So far there is traffic, but it's okay. So now that's where we have to climb today to reach the Orid Lake. Just a bunker on the beach as you do. So today we ordered some Turkish coffee. I guess that's how you do it. Oh, that looks rich. We just found the coolest place to do some editing. It's like a Greek restaurant. But we're still in Albania. But we're still in Albania, but almost in Greece, so at least it's legitimate. And it's super cheap. It's really nice to sit in this pavilion. And it just got even better because we ordered some food, but just pointed out the menu because they don't speak any English here and tried to explain we don't want any meat or something. And now we got this awesome salad, some just potatoes, bread and tzatziki. All together with the two cokes and everything. I think it's like six euros or five euros. It's really nice. Okay, so now that we're close to the Greek border, we wanted to let you know which route we took through Albania in the end. So we entered here and then spent one night on the eco-social farm, went to the coast, which we didn't like. Then a bit inland to Tirana, which is here. And then we decided to go inland and to visit Lake Orit. And that's why we cycled there and there. This is Lake Orit. And then down here to Koača. And then we will continue here and cross the border to Greece at Krystalopi. We are just now leaving Koača, where we spent one night at Dario's place, our couch surfing host. He was really nice. He cooked for us and then we went out for some drinks. This morning we went out for coffee. Our last kilometers in Albania. And Albania is ending on a really beautiful note. Look at that view and the fields and meadows. It's so nice. Hello! There it is, the border to Greece. Actually no, that's a petrol station. All right, now this is the real border. Yeah, this looks much better. I don't know if you can see them, but there are the flags. We made it to Greece. That's so cool, because it was the first big destination we wanted to reach and we did. Awesome. Yeah, see you in the next video.