Riding the north coast of Albania now, stayed in Durres, from where I’m posting this from an Internet cafe that actually has Internet. They only have satellite access in Albania. Today I will cross into Montenegro and then into Bosnia and then I will quickly be in Dubrovnik, Croatia. I wish I could stay and explore more of Albania but it’s on my list for the future. The ruins – Roman, Byzantine, Greek – are fantastic, and the geography of the south and the interior are fantastic. The northern coast isn’t so geographically spectacular, however the cities are fascinating – Albania is under construction. In 5, 10 years it just won’t be the same. For example, the Roman city that has no cafes, no admission, nobody – you can just go walk around in it. Maybe when they get the roads fixed the tourists will come and there will be the usual circus around these places. Right now you walk around and feel like you’re actually in that time period, or as I said before, feeling like India Jones. The weather is hot and humid, my Olympia suit is holding up great – lots of vents and air flow. It’s tough to wear a helmet in this weather but safety first. Nobody else does, so it’s obvious I’m a foreigner from miles away – also nobody has bikes here over 500cc, max – most are 250’s.
Regarding security – I haven’t had problem #1 in Albania re theft, even only encountered two gypsy girls, minor nusiance, and that was on the Durres beach tourist strip. Met people from Slovenia, Kosovo (I clasped their hands and gasped, "SO nice to meet you! I’m SO glad you’re okay!" They must have thought I was insane, but maybe they realize they’d been on the news so much.)
This circle around the Adriatic is so far a very good motorcycle travel experience. More later, hopefully from Dubrovnik I can upload photos.
Carla
