Tirana – Berat – Vlorë – Himara: 267 km

Today’s menu: 112 kilometres, 1300 meters elevation gain, a bunch of rain. Need I remind you my bike weighs probably around 40 kilo’s? But there’s a pot of gold at the end of the road: Berat, Town of a Thousand Windows.

With Tirana’s energy and growling traffic in my back I set course. I pass tiny agricultural villages. Men push wheelbarrows filled with undefinable contents. Women carry bundles of sticks. It feels like I cycle back into time. After about 20 kilometres the roads starts to elevate. Significantly. The 12 kilometre climb takes me the better part of two hours. But man is it worth it. The views of the mountains and valleys below are spectacular. The woods are lush, screaming every shade of green. Hardly any cars pass me here, I even come across some other cyclists. After a short plateau, the thrilling downhill pushes cracked asphalt underneath my wheels. I love it here.

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Berat is pretty. The sloping hill is decorated with white houses, all with multiple large windows overlooking the adjacent river. Town of a Thousand Windows, albeit most of them broken, or belonging to uninhabited houses. It starts to rain uncontrollably the moment I ride into town. In a rackety hostel I meet two German travellers who I share Albanian food with in a small restaurant. It blows my mind. After the very tourist-minded Croatian coast, where authenticity made way for burger bars and pizza joints with ‘collective’, ‘club’ or ‘factory’ in their names, it is amazing to eat food that I have never seen or tasted before, let alone can pronounce the name of.

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My plan was to continue towards Gjirokaste, another one of Albania’s must-see’s. Luckily my good friend and fellow bike adventurer Marijn warned me about an essential connecting road simply not existing. When he followed this same route, just a month prior to me, he spent the better part of the day walking over grassland. I even consider doing the same. In the end however, I chose to ride back towards the coast, where infrastructure is a bit more developed and I skip Gjirokaste completely. Before long, the road I follow to Vlorë also somewhat disappears. Not completely, but the asphalt simply stops and what I ride on in return is a dirt road so invested with potholes it looks like the surface of the moon. Today’s rain has filled them all up with water and I get wet not only from above, now from below too. After a while however, my hands sore from the bumpy ride, I don’t care about the water anymore. I’m so soaked, I just can’t get any wetter. Let the rain fall, I’ll paddle. With that acceptance, I start to enjoy the day again.

Vlorë is unmemorable. Just a city. A wide arterial road leads to a boulevard where high-rises overlook the bay. At night it rains like I may have never seen before. Streets turn to rivers. City trucks try to suck water from the overflowing sewers but it’s hopeless.

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I rather cycle in the rain than to wait it out. Or maybe I rather rest on a sunny day than a rainy one. Whichever it is, possibly both, makes me set out the next morning again. Clothes still half wet from the day before. It’s worth it. The Llogara pass is up there with the hardest climbs I’ve done so far, but it might be the most beautiful one too. Impressive rock formations, sometimes completely bare, other times covered with thick pine forests, hairpins as far as the eye can see, and at the top a heavenlike panorama in which the ocean reflects the sky so perfectly it looks like they’re the same. Downhill, going about 50 kilometres an hour, my back brake snaps. My heart jumps. Luckily, there’s no corners for the next 100 meters. One hand clasped on my front brake, I put my right heel on the road. My shoe scrapes the asphalt, and just before the next hairpin I’m able to come to a full stop. I adjust my brakes right there and then, and shakingly I continue the descent.

On the other side of the mountains the clouds have passed, only to return as I near Himara. “I need a rest day”, I think as the sky opens up again. Recharge my batteries, definitely do laundry. Once I roll into the tiny town, and the adorable hostel, I feel like this place will be perfect for a day of simply hanging around.