Biking through the Balkans

Another cycling adventure.

After we cycled to Milano two years ago, this year the boys came up with the idea to skip the Western Europe part and to fly out to Slovenia to cycle through the Balkans. Our first idea was to go from Zagreb to Istanbul but after Dirk found cheap tickets to Ljubljana and something was up with Turkey, just like that, the plan shifted to go from Ljubljana to Athens. On Friday the 27th of September we found each other in the basement of Schiphol disassembling our bikes to fit in the boxes and embarking the plane to Slovenia. Five guys total, some of them I hadn’t seen for a while. Few weeks earlier we met up in Utrecht, I thought maybe to go over some organisational stuff, but all we did is drink beer, have fun and get wasted. Which I really like about the vibe in this group: we more or less have the same attitude, nobody stresses too much and we’ll just take the day as it comes: everything will be alright. In the same mindset we still didn’t book a return ticket since we first wanted to see how the first week ended up going.

Slovenia

Of course this very cheap ticket to Ljubljana departed at a very unusual time, why else would it be cheap? So we touched base at the Slovenian airport around 2230h. All the bikes arrive safe and sound, but before we have all the bikes ready to go it’s around 2330h and the complete airport is desolated, no staff, no guards nothing. We drive off into the dark. It’s a one hour ride to Ljubljana center and we are very excited to start this trip.

The next day we saddle our aluminium horses for the first time and take off, destination Croatia. The slight drizzle soon dissapears and the rain jackets can go back in our bags. After 10km Bob’s bike is unable to shift and we discover a worn out housing for his front derailleur cable. We discuss. Can we fix this ourselves? Maybe he can just manually put his chain to a lower or higher gear when needed? Then somebody pulls his phone out and speak the liberating words “guys, there is bike shop literally 100 meters down the road”. The guy from the bike shop knows his shit and he patches up Bob’s bike within half an hour. His epic words during the repair: “This bike needs a proper check-up”. Well, we didn’t dare saying that we were just 10km in and still have 1790km to go..

Slovenia is nice. Reminds me a little bit of Switzerland (but then maybe the AliExpress version of it) because of the green sloping meadows and the wooden houses. They do have bike lanes but they basically are on the curb of the road and the curbs interfere with perpendicular roads all the time, which makes it a bumpy ride. I’m constantly thinking how Rogli and Pogi would cycle here.

Croatia (and a little bit of Bosnia Herzegovina)

In Croatia we basically cycled the complete coast from Rijeka to Dubrovnik. In the cities we normally booked an apartment and outside of the cities we stayed at the many campings that Croatia has to offer.

Another habit we picked up in Croatia was that for every 10km we cycled we drank a liter of beer in the evening.

Montenegro

Although we only sleep one night in Montenegro, the country leaves behind a really nice feeling. As soon as we cross the border we enter a city that has a super relaxed vibe, clean streets and nice architecture (had to Google it, name is “Herceg Novi”). We have a nice coffee break at a restaurant that is a little bit too fancy for our sweaty bodies. We cycle on towards the Bay of Kotor and take a ferry to bring us to the other side. The next hour we cycle next to the water on to Kotor. It is beautiful here. High-rising mountain tops and cute little villages next to the water.

Kotor is out of this world. It’s basically a fort and you enter the old city through big medieval ports. The old city is cute, but of course it has to pay the price called “tourism”. Super coincidental the Netherlands plays a home game versus Montenegro for the World Cup qualifiers, so we have no problem finding a pub that is broadcasting the game. We go out for drinks and meet people from the hostel we stay at.

Albania

In Albania the real adventure starts. We decide to leave the coast, because we’ve seen plenty of it already. We cycle to the capital Tirana. People are super friendly (especially compared to the grumpy Croatians) and are waving to us from anywhere. Cars stop, windows open, everybody is happy and happy to see us. Of course the beauty of a country makes you remember it, but for sure the people also have a big share in how you conceive it. And because of the people Albania is awesome! (also the natures is beautiful).

A few things are very remarkable in Albania:

Everybody drives a Mercedes here! (rumor has it that the old Mercedeses were the only ones that could handle the old bumpy roads years ago and therefore gained an impressive popularity)
There are so much unfinished buildings, skeletons everywhere.
In contrary to the people, the street dogs here are as grumpy as they were in the previous countries
Honestly I don’t see many, but there should be a lot of old spherical bunkers here. Heritage of a very suspicious old leader. Just Google “Albania bunkers” for more info.

From Tirana we cycled to Berat, another very photogenic old town with many old Ottoman houses that cascade down the hillsides. After spending the night in a hotel, which probably was a very fancy hotel 50 years ago, we set foot for Gjirokaster. The night before we planned a route via Strava Routes and we were fully confident that it worked out again, like it did for all the other routes that we planned via the platform. In retrospect it was a bit strange that the app multiple times suggested other routes, that were just a very long way around and we ignored it. Anyway, we started driving and the first 35km was perfectly fine. After some rain and a coffee break in a small cute village we started following a very new tarmac road with very little cars on it. At some point the tarmac just disappeared, out of nowhere, it was gone. Luckily there was still a dirt road, the sun was shining and no worries yet. Five minutes the road split left and right. Our GPS told us left, but that road was going through a small river. After some discussion we decided to just follow the GPS route. We took off our shoes and socks and pushed our bikes through the river. When putting on our shoes again we hear heavy engine sounds coming from the other direction. Motocross riders. We signal one of them to stop. To the surprise off everybody it was a Flemish dude participating in some kind of tour or race. We ask him if the road continued and he responds that there is a road but that it’s not made for cyclists. We discuss again, but we also don’t really have a plan B because that would probably mean we have to go back 35km. We continue. At some point the dirt road is gone and we just find ourselves pushing our bikes up a very steep hill. Sometimes we’re on the GPS route, sometimes we’re off. There’s no roads anymore, sometimes what seems to be a hiking trail of some sorts. We have no choice other than to just continue. We push and push, cycling is no option. The terrain also get’s very rough, we have to push our bikes over big rocks. Our bicycles are suffering and the first bikes start to loose bolts. We are pushing our bikes up a mountain now for two hours already and the mood is not getting better. We see some abandoned houses and try to see if there’s anybody there that can help us, but nobody’s there. Three hours pushing and still we are going only up, there’s still no sign of any dirt road let alone asphalt. It’s half past three already and we’re still up on this goddamn mountain with no sign of any road that will get us out of here. Then suddenly we see a pickup truck slowly making its way towards us. We stop him and ask him if he can help us. He only has place for three bikes in the back of his truck. Twan and Johannes are pushing through, me and Bob and Dirk are putting our bikes in his car. The truck is only going a little bit faster than the bikes, but at least our bikes are not breaking down due to the rocks. Half an hour later we make it to the village on the other side of the mountain. The path was so bad that I’m even glad the car didn’t brake down. Fifteen minutes later Twan and Johannes also make it down. We take a small break and discuss our plan. It is five o’clock and we have 55km to go. The sun sets around 19:00 so we can just make it. We decide to just pound the last 55km through and go for it. We are lucky that we drive through a beautiful valley that is relatively flat. Golden hour is upon us. We are super tired and drive like maniacs behind each other. But man, that sun going down in that valley was a gorgeous view. Like plan we arrive in Gjirokaster around sunset and the last bit we are in the village. We quickly book a hotel via booking.com next to a gas station and set sail towards the hotel. That night we have a well deserved meal in a nice restaurant and have some well deserved shut-eye.