From the European luxuries to the Balkan fields

Friday August 23, How to cover 450km in 10 hours (452 kms)

After the breakfast in our yard, we loaded our motorcycles and headed towards the capital. There are two roads leading there, the old and the new one. Both seem bumpy and scenic on the map.

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We chose the new one in order to move faster. It had a lot of traffic but the canyon of river Moroka (Tara) was amazing.

Balkans are full with well loaded trucks

As soon as we entered Podgorica, we turned left and headed towards the nearby borders with Albania.

What I have lately read about this country, made me a bit scary, even if I have prior experience, back from 2008. The first images however are European. New roads passing outside villages and with many signs. We couldn’t believe our eyes…

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But everything nice comes to an end… And for us the end came as we entered the town of Shkoder, were two kids greeted us by throwing water to us. In the town absolute chaos prevails. Potholes, do not allow you to move in a straight path, cars, motorbikes and bicycles come out from everywhere claiming priority, a lot of people, who do not fit the sidewalks, share the road with other vehicles, street vendors with their merchandise hanging not only on the pavement but in the road too, and too much noise.

There are no signs but thankfully the GPS managed to get us out of this chaos.

The rest of the story is not suitable for any kind of motorcycle. About 100 painfully kilometers, crossing a small mountain range, with narrow streets, countless potholes and many trucks that left a little bit of their load at every turn.

Eventually we found a little better tarmac. And just when we’re ready to celebrate it, a zigzag furrow appears… Probably the contractor who had to pass the optical fiber (or something like that anyway) was in a hurry to finish his work and decided instead of following the direction of the road, to cut it across, passing from one lane to the other. To prove what I’m saying :

90% of the vehicles that we met, was old Mercedes and BMW

The endurance test of our suspension ends when we reach near Kukes. According to my information (thanks John from motoraid.eu), it’s the starting point of a fresh paved road leading to Peshkopi. There are no signs, so we ask some locals who show us the right way.

The route is beautiful, the scenery is pure alpine, but we are so tired that we cannot enjoy it. it’s already 5pm and we have a long way ahead.

Crazy bumpy road… but with dirt on some blind turns, herds of animals and some kids that throw us stones…

We make a stop to rest next to a gas station, where Stratos feeling tired -as usual- dumps his motorcycle in the middle of a sloping side street. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a really old Mercedes makes its appearance and tries to climb the relatively steep uphill road. The car struggles as it has five young passengers and just before reaching the top of the hill, smoke starts coming out from the hood. As Stratos had not the time to move his motorcycle, the Mercedes didn’t make it and rolled backwards. The scene is like from a Kusturica film and it is so ridiculous that we cannot restrain our laughs. Second attempt for the Mercedes, with more speed and more smoke, and finally the car manages to reach the nearby gas station – pub – restaurant – strip club.

We reach to Peshkopi, a town that I want to erase from my memory, but I cannot. Roads without asphalt, dust, potholes and camouflaged speed bumps. In the first two, I took off…

Pelopidas is following my steps…

Although Peshkopi looks like a big town, we can’t find a gas station that accepts card or euro, because we do not have exchange cause as we are just crossing the country. As we exit the city towards the borders with FYROM, we stop at a new gas station and ask the kid at the pump:

– Credit?

He looks at me like he has seen an alien…
– Card?

His look remains the same… I am starting to believe that I am green, but I continue…

-Euro?

To get the answer in Greek :

– Do you speak Greek?

A funny scene follows where the gas station owner, the kid and four local customers, all speaking Greek fluently, since all of them they have worked in Greece in the past, ask us what we think about their country and none of us answers… We didn’t want to be rude, but we were so tired, that no one could find a nice word to say…

We fill up our tanks and cross the borders. Thinks are really better… at last…

It’s getting dark and we still have a lot of km ahead of us. The road beside lake Debar is amazing and recently paved (actually the tarmac is so fresh that probably the road works ended yesterday). I really want to drive again on this road in daytime… someday in the future…

At about 9:00 we arrive at Ohrid and head to the apartments Marina.
Check in and we move fast towards the city center, where we come across some celebrations with dances from various countries of the world.

We hang out for a while and then head to the pizzeria of Leonardo, in which with 6€ per head, we had one pizza each, two salads (all together) and quite a few beers…