Skip to main content

//Day 55 /5-05-22 /Tirana

The 55th day on the 5 day of the 5 month…

Today was a chill day. I planned to stroll through Tirana some more, visit 2  musea, pickup Back Horse and chill. I succeeded in all my my objectives except visiting the 2 musea, on ne of them - the National art museum - was closed.
I woke up at 9.00 this morning, which I think is a new record. Had breakfast and headed for the National Art museum….the one that was closed. The weather was still good, somewhat more cloudy. I strolled through an area which I didn’t visited yet. Offices, expensive shops with fancy bars and restaurants. Roads lined with trees providing shade. The second museum I planned to visit is called the House of leaves, the former secret police HQ , now turned in a museum covering the Hoxha repression, spying technics,…After having visited the national museum of history and Bunkart I did not learn anything new. A lot of documents presented, some interesting video and incomprehensible graphs of the number of people arrested…I would not recommend to visit this museum but rather go to the Bunkart museum…

I received a call that Black Horse was ready, and strolled to the Bikeshop. Although my throat was already better I thought it was a good idea to buy some icecream and treated myself on a copious portion. The bikeshop, Tirana Pedal, had done a great job. The had cleaned BH, put on a new bike chain and cassette, installed new brake pads and swapped the inner tube of my rear tire. I also bought some “rustinekes” and a spare tube. I’m ready to ride the next 3000 K.

I rode Black Horse to the hotel, bought some lunch and chilled until late afternoon. In the evening I went for another stroll and had  dinner on shish Kebaps, meatballs filled with spinach, salad and fries in a typical Albanian beer and grill restaurant.

Tomorrow should be a relax cycle day. 110, almost flat to Shköder. Rain is expected but only from 14.00 onwards. My plan is to start early so I will arrive at my destination before the rain. The day after will be more challenging with 2500 meters to climb. Another 2 days and I will be , although shortly, in Montenegro. It will be good to be on the road again. 























Lessons learned.  
  • Musea in the Balkan are closed on the most unpredictable days.
  • You can have a shave in Tirana for 1 euro.
  • Based upon the sound yesterday evening Albanians are bigger fans of Real Madrid then Manchester City.

Comments

  1. Leentje Vanlee5/5/22, 10:00 PM

    What a shame ghe museum was closed.
    I'm glad Black Horse is healed and you're almost healed! Loved the photos!
    A shave for one euro... wow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liliane vanlee5/5/22, 10:06 PM

    Weer blij met jouw verslag van vandaag en zoals ik lees zijn jij en black horse in super form om de reis morgen verder te zetten hopelijk zonder regen.
    Slaap lekker en geniet morgen van je dag.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lieve meirsman5/6/22, 8:10 AM

    het zal deugd gedaan hebben van eens langer te slapen, een rustige dag mag ook wel eens, het waren ook weer leuke, mooie foto's

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

//Day 77 /27-05-22 /Salzburg

Yesterday evening a tired-looking young man arrived by bike and setup his tent next to mine. The theory of personal space was not something he mastered well, although plenty of space he placed his tent no more then 2 meters from mine. During the night strange sounds erupted out of the young man’s  tent ; a mix of farting, rambling through plastic bags, heavy sighing,….In the morning I friendly said hello but the only response was a short grunt… Today I planned to visit Salzburg and had a slow start with a lengthy breakfast of coffee and sandwiches with “schinken”…Around 10.15 I walked to the bus stop which conveniently connected the camping with Salzburg city center in 15 minutes, in addition the camping-lady explained me that today public transport was free…. I got of the bus at Salzburg Old Marktplatz and headed to the Salzburg’s Museum der Moderne , the modern Art Museum, to visit 2 exhibitions. The first a solo exhibition of Richard Kriesche and the second a photo exhibition of...
5 comments
Read more

//Day 10 /21-03-22 /Kecskemét-Szeged

I doubt that Hungary, the Hungarians  and I will ever become friends. The landlady of the pension where I stayed  last night was the exception of the rule on how I experienced the Hungarians the last week, she was  ; warm, interested, communicative, a visible ‘joie de vivre’ and a look to the broader world. I’m aware that it is not possible to build a correct view on people and a country based upon a brief cycle trough of a couple of days. I decided to run  a little test today to investigate the Hungarian social skills: I waved and said hello to every person I met - Roughly 75 % ignored me, 20 % actually looked me in the eye but did not give any further reaction and 5% waved back, or said hello - the test population was more then 100 people, with a mix of women and men. Rest my case. But it is  not only the people, it is also the landscape ; monotonous, flat, little or no trees, grey-brownish, crossed by electricity lines, straight lined roads, empty streets, …E...
6 comments
Read more

//Day 50 /30-04-22 /Menidi-Igoumenitsa

I woke earlier then my alarm clock. But would only be really awake when a MF dog surprised me when I was 30 minutes cycling on a small road. The lady-hotel owner was really motherly when I said I did not take a breakfast (at 8 euro not really market conform) and  gave me a fruit juice and, some cake and 2 boiled eggs. I saddled Black Horse and started cycling passing the 3 lazy hotel watchdogs . I cycled to the beach and had a cake and 2 boiled egg breakfast.  Not a lot happened today except that the cycling today was great. I did 130K , of which a big part on small unpaved roads and no people to be seen. The first 50K was somewhat flat afterwards I had to cross the mountains to reach the coast. Luckily I passed a small town before so I had a sandwich and bought some cookies as lunch. The unpaved roads, often with steep climbs, where challenging but really great. The views well… Plotting a route on a map involves always some unknown factors : roads that only exist on paper, a ...
3 comments
Read more