Day 59: Tirana, Albania

Tirana is a very vibrant, hectic, metropolitan city and probably nothing like you might imagine. We had a lovely lay in and did our third clothes wash in two days! We wandered the streets of the old communist region that was only opened to the public in 1991 and is now full of cafes and small shops. The buildings are painted brightly to cheer it up and shake off the grey era. We found a statue of Mother Tereasa with arms wide open offering us a hug and a bell of peace which is made from old bullets collected by children in 1997. We walked the main square with its 8 lane roads which gives you the ultimate adrenaline rush whilst attempting to cross let alone cycle! We went to the Sheriton hotel to make full use of their air con and watched Indiana Jones at the cinema to treat ourselves. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hostel mentally preparing ourselves for the hills to come which we have been avoiding for approx 1 month but are now inevitable!

Day 58: Tirana, Albania

Stats... 59.73km in 3hrs 6mins. We woke up feeling a little worse for ware but very appreciative of their clean floor to sleep on. We said our fairwells and headed along the very flat straight road to the capital Tirana. Kris raced a young lad on his bike and we saw a sign for Istanbul saying 1109km when we had guestimated 900km... nightmare! The roads into Tirana were hectic, busy, dirty and dusty. We made it to the central square and continued onto the backpackers hostel with ease surprisingly. The hostel is very clean and friendly and a sight for sore eyes in amongst the mayhem. We showered and put every item of clothing we have into the laundry! We waited for the weather to cool and made our way into the city for a quick nose leaving our main sightseeing for tomorrow as we have decided to have a day off here to enjoy the vibe of the capital. We ended up going to see the bucket list at the cinema and sitting in the main park where all the locals come with family to be sociable and enjoy the cooler part of the day.

Day 57: Lezhe, Albania

Stats... 121.87km in 7hrs. On the road at 7.30am and gradually made our way along the hilly coastal road. It was busy and we saw a lorry that had overturned over the side of the crash barrier resting on trees above the steep drop to the Adriatic. We finally left the coast and headed inland to the border which after a stonking hill then gently rolled downhill all the way through lovely quiet very pretty roads. We crossed into our 14th country and paid the 20 euro tax required of us. Just on the other side we met Desire from The Netherlands and her Albian husband who invited us for a drink. They had not seen each other for a year and we gate crashed their reunion! They gave us some local money for a drink as we had nothing and we made our way to Skodra which was our intended destination for the day. However, on arrival we were still feeling strongish and decided to continue South to Lezhe. We ran out of water and when we arrived we were discussing at an ATM how much money to get out when we heard English! We asked Jenny and Denise for help who were a couple of nice young Americans who were from the peace core and working in Albania. They kindly invited us to their Independence Day party at Winifreds appartment being 4th July! We jumped at the offer and a few beers later the Anti English celebration was going well. We met approx 20 Americans and ended up staying at Leslie and Beccas appartment. We chatted and shared stories with Peter for ages as he had cycled across USA. The night was bizarre but brilliant... thanks to our new American allies!

Day 56 Budva, Montenegro

We met our bus today at 8am for our trip to the Ostrog monestary. Kris believes this may be the monestary in the cliff where jackie chan performed a stunt in Armour of God rather than the monestary in Slovenia that we cycled to. Many miracles are meant to have happened here and many people visit to pray over the Arch Bishops bones in the belief that it will cure serious illnesses. We arrived back at our hostel with the intention of getting on our bikes but the air conditioned room was to inviting so we chilled watching tv literally!

Day 55 Budva, Montenegro

We met our tour bus at 6am and left on our way for a whistlestop tour of 80% of Montenegro in a day. We started with a view of Skadar Lake and continued to the capital Podgorica. From here we headed North to Tara Canyon via a national park with an impressive lake. Unfortunately we did not know the name of half these places as the tour guide only spoke russian! We made our way over a famous 125m bridge that straddled the 1.3km Tara canyon. The road snaked through massive mountain ranges to Durmitor National Park with a quick stop on the road side for some home made honey. We also stopped at a monestary where we cleansed our sins by drinking holy water. We had lunch by the black lake and finished the rest of the tour on the bus being scared of the very high windy roads, thunder, lightening and hale stones.

Day 54: Budva, Montenegro

Stats... 36km in 2hrs 20mins. We know its short but there is a reason for it! We began the day leaving at 7.30am and continuing along the coastal road heading for Albania. However, on arriving at Budva we found a travel agency that offered both tours to Durmitor National Park and the Ostrog Monestary which are two major highlights of Montenegro that we definately wanted to see but due to shortness in time we were unable to cycle there. We found a Hostel and were given free drinks including a sample of their local 53% proof brew. We wandered into the old town in amongst the soaring temperature and booked onto the tours for the next two days. We spent the rest of the day chilling in our air con rooms and the sea.

Day 53: Stoliv, Montenegro

Stats... 94km in 5hrs 30mins. We left at 6.30am after coffee and croissant breakfast and had about 25km mainly uphill to the border crossing into our 13th country... Montenegro. We passed by the first town and there was a temperature reading 34 degrees and it was only 9am. We stopped not long after for ice creams then 5mins up the road for an hours rest in the shade. We then took the coastal road around a basin leading to Kotor. This was very picturesque and lasted approx 20km. It felt as though we were going round in a massive circle... if only they had built a bridge! We arrived in Kotor dripping from sweat and feeling tortured having just cycled in the heat past millions of people cooling in the sea. We had 2 ice lollies each and were informed that the nearest campsite was 2km up the road. We set off with the intention of walking back in to Kotor to sightsee later in the evening however 2km turned into 10km when we finally came across a small family run campsite. The owners nephew chatted to us and we jumped straight in the sea to cool off. The nephew was a lovely man who offered to drive us into Kotor in the evening and show us around the town and drive us back. We jumped at the offer and had a brilliant night finding out about the history of the town and enjoying the atmosphere of a town by night.