With exception of one small part, the roads in Albania so far were in excellent condition. I chose to continue on the same road along the coast. It was marked on my map the same way as the other roads I had used the day before. I expected it to continue this way, wide straight roads in good condition. But a little south of Durres, after the road went up and down a mountain with a spectacular view, things changed to the opposite. For a 100 km the road was narrow, nothing but turns and in terrible condition, bumpy as off-road. Average speed was maybe about 30 km/h. For the first time I was a little worried about my motorcycle, but it held. Most of the way there was nothing but pure nature. After a couple of hours I reached a small place, I think it was Vlore, with a little beach. There I saw a small group of people; they all had these big expensive Paris-Dakar Enduros, dirty as hell. They must have thought I was crazy when they saw me with my shiny 125ccm chrome cruiser traveling this road. Although the road was very difficult to ride, I was compensated with stunning sceneries and a feeling like being in true nature. Driving along this road I noticed something thin and long on the street. I didn’t see it as a threat; I thought it was some marking on the street so I continued on without reducing speed. Just in the last moment I realized that it was a big poison green snake. Unfortunately then it was too late for a maneuver, so all I could do was lift up my legs as high as possible and then I rolled over it. I was really surprised; I certainly didn’t expect to see snakes on my trip, even less snakes of this size and color and in the middle of the road. That was not the last incident. A little later I had to stop because a herd of sheep crossed the road. Another time I almost got into an accident with a pig that decided to run into the street behind a blind curve.
This was certainly one of the most adventurous roads I had chosen so far. After 7 hours on the motorcycle for a stretch of 200 km on the map I finally reached Saranda. I asked for a crossing to Greece but they told me that from Saranda there was no crossing, that I had to take the ferry to Corfu or to go land inward first and then to Ioannina. I was tired and my but hurt pretty badly after this bumpy road so I decided I would spend the night here in Saranda.

The next day I headed a little land inward because I was curious about to Skadarsko Jezero, the largest lake in the Balkans. When I reached it I decided not to drive around it but instead head back to the coast and then cross into Albania. When I was getting close to the border I was stopped by a group of policemen. They were friendly, only asked for my papers, were astonished about my motorcycle and told me that there was no border crossing where I was heading. They explained me the way as good as possible, again I didn’t have a detailed map of the country. After asking someone else later, this time an elderly man that was sitting on the side of the road I managed to get to the border. It was clearly not one of the main border crossings; it was only a small country road. After paying for another insurance I was able to move on.
Instantly I noticed the change in people. There were obviously few tourists passing trough here. Hundreds of children were just returning from school and when they saw me they started cheering and waving at me, it felt as if I was a king riding through the streets. That was certainly a very warm welcome to Albania.
It was a very poor and rural area, many people driving wagons pulled by donkeys. That changed considerably when I came closer to Durres, a domestic tourist destination, where I spent the night. The donkey wagons were replaces by cars, Mercedes to be exact. I think about 7 out of 10 cars were Mercedes, from the oldest model to the latest and greatest, everything was present, that was something I didn’t expect to see. In the hotels almost nobody spoke English or German but somehow I managed to get a room. There are tons of hotels and the beach is big, but for this time around, it was almost empty. In the night I switched on the television more out of curiosity. I was really surprised when I saw an Argentine TV novel being broadcasted with Albanian subtitles. I never saw anything from Latin America on Swiss TV, so it felt really wired to see it here in this country.

From Dubrovnik it’s not far to the border of Monte Negro. I had a little problem at the border because I didn’t have an international insurance form with me. I was able to buy a local insurance for 10 Euros and then I was permitted to pass. Shortly after the border I encountered something that looked like a Fjord to me, the Bay of Kotor. First I didn’t like it much because I had to drive all around it. But then I realized that it was actually a pretty nice place. I kind of understood the name Monte Negro a little better after the ride around this bay. On the way I stopped for a while in a place that seemed pretty popular with tourist. I don’t remember the name but there was a castle way up in the mountains that one could visit. It looked as if it was about to start raining any minute so I didn’t hike up there. I just ate two slices of pizza and then I moved on. On the way I found it interesting that there were so many police checking for speeding. Fortunately I was always within the speed limit. Passing Sveti Stepfan, a small typical fisher village I reached Bar where I spent the night.