Albania – Place to Enjoy – Irgendwo ist immer Sommer

At first we were stopped by the heavy rain. Then by the only travel guide on paper we have carried with us since seven weeks. This guide have had made us so keen on a country we do not know much about. The biker of Montenegro who strongly recommended the Komani Gorge; the Munic campers who said we cannot miss the little camping paradise at the coast. The guys who have been more then impressed by the UNESCO world heritage cities Berat und Gjirokaster. Tirana, the capital, where we enjoyed the ife in a metropolis, stayed in a great hotel, bought a jeans and a dress, means back to our former life :-), many very friendly, open and warm people who invited us for an espresso, shared their home with us or smile and wave on the streets, continously changing landscape. In total we have not seen so many dark red lightening fields of poppies, free range hens and their children; the sea, lakes, gorges and still snowcovered mountains. It is fun to buy on the street fresh fruit and vegetables which are all grown here, look in the minimarket for the supplements to complete the meal which can be a challenge 🙂 The whole does cost only a little portion of what we pay in Western Europe, Australia or the US. In between there is always time for an espresso. Each of them is better than what we get in Germany. (It is worth to compete with swiss coffee.)

Komani Gorge: a sense of norwegian fjords. We had a private tour organized by the campsite owner.

Under the bridge

For the Komani tour we had to stay overnight, a new experience:

That is the bridge at the river. Please take a look on the stovepipe on the right.

That is the chimney of the fireplace in the restaurant under the bridge. The ceiling remained without plaster.

Next door there was the entry to our `´hotel´`

But that is not the standard. We often ride through cultivated farmlands and beautiful simple homes and houses. Tirana is awesom, with uncountable bars and restaurants, shops, young people on the streets and bike pathes! But there are also trist areas with blocks of flats and a lot of rubbish and plastic thrown away. That is really a problem here, typical for poor areas, isn`t it ?