Lake Ohrid and to Albania

I found out this morning that the hotel I was in had only been open for 10 days. No wonder everything was shiny and new and worked. I set off round the Macedonian side of the lake effectively skirting the edge of the national park and arriving back exactly where I started at 130 pm. I couldn't really say I saw a lot of the lake until I climbed a pass to 1600m and looked over it. The lake water really is crystal clear. Apparently you can see to a depth of 20m….






I had a vaguely uneasy feeling about crossing over to Albania. Everyone seemed to see them as some sort of bogeymen. Anyhow, I pointed the bike east and headed over the pass and the world is definitely different over there. For one thing, credit cards are useless. I had been relying on mine to buy fuel everywhere and even though the VISA sign is up, nobody takes them. This is a strictly cash economy and it is pretty buggered. Amazing to think that Albania has such an illustrious history…look it up.




The country is littered with these dome shaped bunkers. Apparently there are approx 700,000 of them of various sizes making 24 for every square kilometre. The rabid stalinist leader Enver Hoxja was big on self defence…so they started digging and building in 1967 and didn't stop till 1986. Now, these things are a real problem as they are everywhere and obviously quite tough to get rid of.

I arrived in Tirana having in interesting ride through the montains and even passed through a village called 'MULLET'. The southern european aggressive driving streak must surely reach it's pinnacle in Albania and especially in Tirana. I thought it was bad in Marrakesh….I was being bullied out of the way left right and centre. Then, stuck in a queue of traffic at some lights, the street kids started on me. First one started stalking my bike testing and pulling at my gear. Then the little shit started trying to steal my USB charger cable….next he made a grab for the throttle trying to rev the engine and pull the brake lever. I thought 10 years old or not, you are going to get a broken jaw matey….. two more were round the back doing what I couldn't see. A truck new to me advanced and nearly squashed one kid into the next car. This didn't bother him one bit. Fearless little Fuc$$rs. The lights changed and I bolted for a gap and thought I am well out of here. I decided I had enough of Tirana….the whole incident spooked me.

I calmed down after about 30 minutes of riding on the highway out of town. That's when I noticed that almost every other car in the country is a Mercedes….they love them. Next best is a VW but Mercedes is definitely king. I checked myself into a hotel in a town called Fier an hour south of the city. I wandered the round town tonight and everybody was friendly. Just watch out for the street kids.