Elbasan/Albanien – Thessaloniki/Griechenland
Mit dem relativen Chaos in Albanien haben wir uns arrangiert, kommen zurecht, freuen uns über angenehme Menschen. Zum Beispiel gab es noch folgendes Zusammentreffen. Kurz vor der Ausreise wollen wir albanisches Geld zurücktauschen, wir hatten wenig gebraucht. Es ist jedoch nicht genug, um auf einen in Scheinen auszahlbaren Betrag zu kommen. Man erlässt uns einfach etwas (oder der Bankmanager zahlt aus eigener Tasche?). Das passiert nicht zum ersten Mal, aber in einer Bank ungewöhnlich. Anschließend weist der Manager einen bewaffneten Wachmann an, unsere Räder zu bewachen und lädt uns zu einem Kaffee ein. Er im Anzug, wir deutlich weniger ansehnlich. Er möchte sein Deutsch benutzen, welches er gelernt hatte, aber nie gesprochen. Es ist ausgezeichnet. […]
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Elbasan/Albania – Thessaloniki/Greece
Hello Spyros! ;) We arrived in Greece! Well, as I said, we are back down to sea level, here in Thessaloniki, where I had already the chance to spent a wonderful week last year in October, also as a guest with Mary and her parents. We were flatmates once, in spring/summer 2004, during my final time in Potsdam and her time there as an Erasmus student. It is a very nice feeling to be here again – this time all the way by bike. It was the first stage you can say, our first month, like a warm up for us and the bikes for the things to come! – and we can say, that everything so far went very well – our mood is very good and the spirits are high. After almost 3 days bike-break now we are ready for the next stage, Thessaloniki – Cairo!
Looking back now and also because we were asked this question here, we both see our experiences in Albania as the most important so far, as the most impressive, not to say the ‚best‘ (that was the question) and maybe to explain it a bit better why – there were the personal contacts with the people there, for example the young manager of a bank in Likhazd (I have to check the spelling again later, sorry) who, when I was exchanging the rest of our Albanian Lekas at one of the counters, asked me for some time for a coffee, because he was interested and because he wanted to practice his german, which was already very good – and he never was in Germany, just in Greece once! So we had a wonderful cup of cappuccino with him acrosss the street and our bikes were still in front of the bank under the eyes of the armed guardian. Although, we have to add here, that we never felt unsafe or feared about our bikes or bags. Would that happen in England or Germany for example? I mean between a bank manager and a cyclist on tour, who could be sometimes easily stamped as a homeless ;) just because he is interested and wants to practice the foreign language, not to show off or something like that? I think, no, it would never happen! The question is Why do I think, it would never happen?
But back to our way to Thessaloniki. We had some cold nights up there in the mountains of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M.) as you can see on one of the new pictures – you just keep all your warm clothes on before you wrap yourself and start to count the shooting stars and satelites again… ;) One evening a police car passed and stopped us – I thought automatically, damned, because of our strange/weak lights? But they were smiling, a man and a woman, just wanted to have a closer look at us and the bikes and ask the normal questions where we are from and where we are going, that was all! In Bitola, in an internet place, we also were told, that there were two french recumbent cyclists, a couple, passing through this town 3 days earlier on the way to Bulgaria. The Owner gave us the newspaper article – maybe we will meet them! Well and then there was the border to Greece already and some lonely, winded greek country side streets, a greek church in the morning with a singing male voice from inside, the little village shop, the friendly, helpful farmer, who, when we asked him for some water, was running away with a smile, to get some more from the village well, the trailers full of cotton in the plains between Edessa and Thessaloniki, the warm Welcome on a sunny Friday afternoon, Marys new home and her warm Welcome, of course – Thomas birthday yesterday, a visit in a bike shop, a map of Turkey, our next destination and finally – time and the opportunity for a long call with Elisa in Bogota! ;)
Tomorrow morning the bags will be packed again and fixed to the bike. There are still about 450 km of Greece ahead of us and a little more before we leave good old Europe…
Thanks again for all the help and the support we have received so far!
Maik
pictures to this article: Elbasan/Albanien – Thessaloniki/Griechenland : Fotos
Split/Kroatien – Elbasan/Albanien : Fotos
Split/Kroatien – Elbasan/Albanien
Reisewetter: Um Split milde 20°C; später starker, Kälte bringender Wind mit Windgeschwindigkeiten bis 95km/h und frostigen Nächten aber sonnigen Tagen; der erste Regen.
Weiter geht es auf Balkan-Ländersammeltour – Kroatien, Bosnien und Herzegowina, das jüngste Land Montenegro, Albanien. Spannend dabei die Abwechslung die jede Grenze mit sich bringt. Jedes Einzelland hat andere Gesichter, selbst die ganz kleinen – neue Landschaften, neue Kultur, plötzlich auftauchender muslimischer Einfluss, … . […]
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Split/Croatia – Elbasan/Albania
There we are, back down to sea level, in Thessaloniki/Greece, as guests of Mary and her friend Christina. It is Sunday the 12th of November 8:45pm and about time to write some lines about our way from Split to Elbasan…
But before I start, I want to say thanks again for all the nice comments – we did not know so far that we had to approve some of them first – so now they are all there to see. It seems that it is a very good way of sharing our thoughts – no matter if they are critical, challenging or philosophical – we are happy about your comments and will also answer questions, when you have some.
So lets rewind, back to Split/Croatia: We stayed there for one night in a hostel and spent the following day taking pictures, doing laundry, enjoying the colourfull markets and the sunset on the sea side before leaving the city on our way South. This is most of the time not as easy, if you are with a bicycle and demands all your concentration, even more if it is getting dark. But you also get used to that and this night we found this wonderful spot for our bikes and the sleepingbags and it was still warm enough to write some lines in my journal! The next morning we continued our way along the coast. The afternoon brought us the first raindrops, while we were enjoying some fresh citrus fruits. Then there is a small strip of Bosnien terretory you have to cross, before you get to the southern part of Croatia. The weather was windy and wet, so we had to put up the tent for the first time, had some diner and were hoping the best for the next day. Then it was still very windy but fortunately no more rain. To get to Dubrovnik from the north you have to cross a long white suspension bridge and because of the strong wind not an easy thing to do. We had to push the bikes slowly forward and also down, over to the other side, where a sign informed you about the wind speed of 95 km/h…
Dubrovnik is well known for its touristic quality and definetly worth a visit, but we stayed there just a few hours. The night was coming… On the border to Montenegro we got our first stamp in our passports and were surprised to pay our breakfast here in Euros again. It is the worlds youngest nation and with about 0,7Mio people also one of the smallest. They celebrated their independence from Serbia just about 5 months ago, on the 3rd of June 2006 and somehow you can feel that they are doing fine. After a pleasant break in a nice park we pushed the pedals again and spent the night next to a beautiful orthodox monastry after asking one of the inhabitants. On our second day in Montenegro you could see, that even a small country like this has its diversity. We left the seaside, a smaler street lead us up the hills and further south, we saw the first donkeys, the first minaret and in the distance snow covered peaks. Albania. Over there, on the other side. It is always a very special feeling to pass a border and this time even a bit more. There they are, 4 soldiers, the backs towards us, patroling and blocking the street, but smiling when we were passing them on our strange vehicles. Then the actual check point. A lonely place with some simple buildings, not really well kept. For this stamp we had to pay – 10 Euros. But now, let’s see what it is like this country, which is for many just known from the news for the Kosovo conflict and the immigrants to Italy. Also for us it was somehow still a mysterious country on the european map, although we grew up on the former socialistic side of Germany. The first city, Shkoeder, is not far, we need money and something to eat for tonight. But we needed some more time to adjust to what we saw, cycling through the outskirts of the city, crossing the river and looking for the centre, a bank, a cash mashine. It needed the first contacts with the people there, the kids, coming closer when I stopped, first loudly, then slowlier, respectful, wanting to shake my hand, what we did, and just have a closer look. Or the woman in the little shop, or the one who sold us some fruits on the street, maybe these first, very positive contacts gave us already a different, a more relaxed view, when we were leaving the city and a little later were looking for our first albanian ‚campsite‘. On Sunday we arrived to Tirana, the capital. On the way we were passing countless unfinished buildings and remarkable many furniture shops. You see almost only german cars and almost only Mercedes, also from time to time very expensive cars, passing a donkey-wagon, or passing slowly the mud holes in the side streets or sections which are ‚under construction‘. Well, these are images, still in my mind, the contrasts between the ones in these cars and behind these furniture shops and the kids playing in the rubbish, the socialistic monuments and mosaic, with a woman holding up a gun and all this damaged trash containers without wheels, the chaotic but still somehow safe feeling on the streets, the many radar controls and policemen in general and very important, the friendly, respectful and helpful people we met. In Tirana we were also looking desperatly for a place to shower – but neither in the sports palast where there were a judo tournament and a woman volleyball match, nor in the hotels where we asked we were successful. So again, after a quick internet shop stop, we left the city to find a place for the night. And this time we decided to ask somebody. Thomas did it. It was already dark and after a while there was a friendly man, who could speak english and also some german and he lead us to a ‚church‘ how he called it, where we finally were invited to stay for the night, to have a shower and some diner together as well. Wow! I was a bit overwhelmed about this change and about the opportunity to talk to some people from here. The headmaster was a friendly man, a missionar from South Korea, then there was Lisa a young albanian woman, two young albanian men and two japanese sisters sitting with us on the table. Afterwards we got a short introduction in their relgious beliefs and their work as a peace organisation and had the chance to exchange some thoughts and opinions. They are part of the Moon movement, founded by Mr. Moon and his wife in South Korea in 1954 and maybe known for their international and interreligious mass weddings, which, I told them right away, looked a bit scary to me and reminded me first hand at the communistic idea of equalization, which does exactly the opposite, it erases individual and cultural differences, which are so important! Wouldn’t it be at least possible to have these mass weddings much more colorfull? Where everybody wears the clothes, which reflect his cultural and religious background? Well, of course Thomas and me exchanged some of these thoughts later on and also got some more information from the world wide web (wikipedia) But again, not to get a wrong impression, we enjoyed our stay there very much and are greatful to these people, who were welcoming us openly.
With rain gear on again we went further east, high up the first mountain range and then down again to Elbasan, where we had the chance to post these pictures…
Maik
pictures to this article: Split/Kroatien – Elbasan/Albanien : Fotos
Klagenfurt/Österreich – Split/Kroatien : Fotos
Klagenfurt/Österreich – Split/Kroatien
Nach Österreich durchqueren wir in 2 Tagen das kleine, aber landschaftlich schöne Slowenien. Ein Faktor, der unsere Stimmung als Radfahrer maßgeblich beeinflusst und leider auch immer den Eindruck von einem Land, ist der Straßenverkehr, in dem wir uns behaupten müssen. Die Fahrt von der österreichischen Grenze zur Hauptstadt Ljubljana ist geprägt von Straßen, die für Radfahrer gesperrt sind. Alternativen werden nicht angeboten, sind zumindest nicht ausgeschildert. […]
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