Wednesday, 2013/09/04

This morning, after breakfast, with the help of our porters, we get back to the motorcycles. A cruise ship is being dumped on Kotor. Good that we say goodbye to this place right now. These tons of tourists scare us a bit. We also refrain from buying water for the ride at the central kiosk. It is a very overpriced right here in front of the cruise ships.

We decide to continue along the fjord, although this is a detour, but the view from the lovely little road to the fjord and the opposite coastline just makes it worthwhile.

We also get us another snack for the ride. Our destination for today is Krujë in Albania. We are a bit excited when we approach the Albanian border. But the clearance at the border is easy. We are directed by the customs officers to a special motorcycle lane under the roof of the customs station out of the blazing sun. I the first at the control booth. Albania is listed on my green card, but not on the Italian green card. Therefore, we expected that my fellow rider will get problems and has to buy an additional insurance right here, but we are waved through very fast. We wonder for a few more miles if that was Albanian or Montenegrin control, but as there is no further control, we are in Albania.

You soon notice that in traffic as well, especially when it gets a little denser in cities. The driving style is then quite southern. We need Albanian money (Lek) and my fellow rider wants to buy insurance for Albania. So we ride to the first bigger city Lezhë. There I go to a bank to change Euros in Lek. In the bank, I am approached by a security officer. He speaks German and arranges for me to be the next to pass the long queue. Within a few minutes I am back with a handful of Lek. The automatic tellure of the bank does not work, so that my fellow rider can not get money with his debit card. The security guard tells us that there is no other bank in town. We believe him and ride on. At the next intersection my fellow rider asks for an Italian bank. We have to return to the place before. A few buildings away from the first bank is an Italian bank. F. gets money from there, but can't buy insurance there. Even before he goes to the bank, 3 children discovered us, who put us under mendicant terror. It just happens to us this once during our trip. I watch the locals talk to the children and give them something to eat (I think a few prunes). I have the impression that the children do not necessarily live by begging, and that it's more of a show or a play, but I am not really sure.

When my passenger comes out of the bank and gets money out of the automatic tellure, the children approach him. The children are pretty annoying, but unlike my fellow passenger, I already have some practice in a stoic attitude towards them while waiting. We start again, but after only a few hundred meters, we decide to return again so that F. can still buy an insurance. The bank employee told him, that there's a insurance company in the neighborhood. The begging children have fortunately disappeared in the meantime. The insurance issue can now be clarified quickly.

While waiting, I can watch life on the street. Many minibuses passing by, most of them full of people. Public transport in Albania is mainly privatized. Some minibuses with their destination on makeshift signs behind the windscreen stop where people are standing on the street and signal that they want to go the same direction. Very often, German-language inscriptions tell something about the former use of that vehicles.

On the street you can see many cars with license plates from Italy, Germany, France and Great Britain. These are often upscale vehicles. Presumably, there are some Albanians that earned some money abroad, because the drivers all look like domestic people. However, you can also see vehicles without any license plate and for older vehicles with foreign license plates, I suspect that these were imported including the license plate and now are just used as they came in. You really don't want to be involved in a traffic accident in Albania. That would be a pretty difficult business.

Soon after Lezhë we leave the main road to ride on a smaller road towards Krujë. Now we have Lek and can have our first fuel stop. In the process, the people (and there are always many of them) get me involved in a conversation and the gas station attendant fools me a bit. I'm supposed to pay as much as my fellow rider, whose bike always consumes a little more than mine. It's just a small amount, which is why I do not want to make trouble, I am rather amused. It will be one of the few times we get duped.

The choice of the minor road, however, makes us fear the worst for the ride through Albania, because this one is really absolutely bad and often we can only go at walking speed. It's amazing to see, how the minibuses drive on this kind of roads. Presumably, the drivers know every pothole from their daily rides. Once we have to pass a water hole across the street. As a precaution, my fellow rider rides ahead. He gets along well, so that I too can follow.

But soon we are back on a better road that leads east to Krujë. Before we look for a hotel, we still want to visit the castle complex. We park at a parking lot guarded by a parking attendant on a rather steep driveway. The parking keeper does not understand much, but my fellow rider offers him some of his almonds and me some of my butter biscuits. The ticket salesman is interested in our motorcycles and starts playing with the handlebars, which we do not really like. The "non tocare" of my rider does not seem to interest him very much. But we make clear that under a watch parking we also understand that the motorcycles will not be touched. Well, we don't have a proof for it!

A wedding couple comes down from the castle in traditional clothes, obviously just from the official photo shooting. Of course I take a picture of the two and we wish good luck in the name of Germany and Italy.

We get a ticket and walk around in the castle enjoying the view towards the Adriatic Sea and the view to Tirana.

Our travel guide recommends the hotel Panorama, which in the meantime (the travel guide is already 7 years old) has significantly expanded. We pass the hotel directly on the way from the castle and can sleep here for 25 euros per person per night in a newly built very luxurious room with a (somehow modest) breakfast buffet the next morning.

The name of Panorama really suits the hotel. From the window and balcony of our hotel room (the balcony parapet is only 20 cm high and it is about 6 meters down) we have a wonderful view to the sunset, which we enjoy, before we go out to the village.

The bazaar has already closed, but we are not so interested anyway, because only tourist garbage is sold there. So we walk up and down the pedestrian area and choose a bar for a beer. A young Albanian who speaks perfect Italian and studiying law in Bologna helps us ordering.

We decide to have dinner at the hotel, which is recommended to us by the young Albanian. In the main street there are hardly any restaurants, but many bars and cafes, which are well-attended at any time of the day.

Again we get a good and cheap food. In fact, we always eat well during our entire trip. After the meal, we treat ourselves to a digestif, a Belinkovic (?) In the same bar, where we have already taken our aperitif.