Wednesday, 2013/09/05

Today the destination is Dhërmi on the coast. Again we have a pretty hot day.

On the way we make a detour to Berat to see the castle (Kalaja). In the city we ask for the way, as we don't find signs - as so often in Albania. We need to go up a steep road with smooth cobblestones that require some concentration while riding over them.

The castle itself is not very interesting, the streets around the castle are much more interesting. On the way to the castle we pass an inn which offers traditional dishes. The outside guests have nice food on their plates and we decide that we take a lunch break on the way back.

When we return from the castle, we take a seat outside the inn. An excited and completely ineffective host, sweaty and with a big belly comes to us tells us, we can not get anything for lunch, since two tourist groups have announced themselves and they will be busy to handle them. We try it again with a young woman who is not that less effective in serving, but also unsuccessful. My fellow rider gets into conversation with an Albanian family which lives in Italy and is here for a visit. They talk about conditions in Albania and Italy for a while. Finally, my fellow rider tells them that we just wanted to have lunch here and the woman goes inside the inn and puts in a good word for us. And we get a delicious pita and something else and are happy about the meal.

For paying we go inside the restaurant. The chaotic innkeeper comes to us and we try to get the bill. Somehow there is a misunderstanding and he suddenly becomes completely choleric, throws the money that we have given him on the floor and rages around in the restaurant. We do not really know what actually happened. Fortunately, a German and Italian speaking Albanian tour guide is reassuring and tries to clarify the situation. Not two minutes later, the innkeeper already pressed us to his chest and treats us as old friends. Pretty crazy story.

We lie down nearby the motorcycles in the shade for a while and doze. Here we come to a conversation with a German who has his toddler in his arms and tells us that he and his young family have been traveling around Albania for three months. They have taken a break for the first time with the child. Well, why not, we think. Soon the destination "beach" calls us for today and we continue our ride. We are also looking forward to the Llogara-Pass, which we will cross shortly before the coast.

The route from Berat to Fier corresponds partly to the warnings for bad roads in Albania, which we have noticed during our travel planning. You always have to watch out for potholes. You have to admire the drivers of the minibuses here, who have the habit of using the full width of the road to avoid the potholes.

After Fier, we first get the wrong direction at Levan. As we notice, my fellow rider asks at a bar in the middle of nowhere. The guys hanging out there are totally drunk. We immediately leave that place before the situation becomes unpleasant.

The Llogara Pass is the highlight of the day. The curvy ride up the pass is much fun and on the top of the pass the view is fantastic. Riding down to the coast is a pleasure. The views of the mountains covered with clouds are magnificent and we spend a lot of time looking at these natural beauties.

First we ride down to the coast and pass Dhërmi. We ask a French tourist, which is walking along the road, where's the best place to stay at the beach. We have to make the decision between renting a room somewhere along the main road, or to ride down to the tourist beaches, where it's quite touristy. Since we want to take off a day or two from riding for enjoying the beach, we turn back and down to the coast. My fellow rider spots a pretty nice property, where rooms/apartments are rented. We rent an appartment for two nights.

After the usual shower, we walk the few hundred meters down to the beach bars, although the woman who has rented the rooms and who also takes care of the restaurant offered us to eat there.

The beach clubs are quite large, but there aren't much customers and service is very unprofessional. In the first restaurant no waiter shows up, so we choose to go to another restaurant. But also there, the service is quite bad. We are a bit frustrated and annoyed that we did not eat in the small private restaurant of our condominium, but nevertheless the food is delicious.