Road to Albania - the way home - Bosnia and Croatia

We wake up early in the morning and quickly pack our things. We stop once more by the
restaurant where we drank the night before to have a quick breakfast. It is a bit too salty for all
of us but we eat up and head out on our way. Soon we reach Bosnia and it is a gorgeous day.

We are following a GPS which takes us on a little detour. We end up crusing around Bosnia more than we planned, but we see some abandonned buildings
and some old land mines!

As we past one city we see a bunch of old stones. I decide to stop and check it out. So glad I did! Turns out it is an ancient cemetery from Roman times!

After taking a few pictures we stop at a water hole for some swimming and fishing. No success with the fishing, but the swimming was great!

We don't stay long as we would like to reach Croatia before night fall. We make it, find a little appartment to stay at in the town of Gradac, and have time to walk the beach at sunset.

In the morning we get a much better view of this costal village.

For the next 3 days we enjoy time at the beach...

drinks...

and watching turtles have sex!

Unfortunately we have to head home home eventually.

We make it to Split at night before getting back on the train and heading to Prague.

All in all it was an amazing vacation! I can't wait to find out what adventures our next trip will bring!

Road to Albania - day 8 - Kosovo to Montenegro

We slowly wake up as the sun starts to shine on us and our motorcycles. The hotel staff was nice enough to let us crash outside of their hotel for free!

We order some breakfast and coffee and then slowly pack up our belongings to head back out to the open road.

As we wonder through Kosovo we try to find our way to the border of Montenegro. We decide we will head to Kolasin and get a better map and then decide from there. We enter the city in our GPS and let it take over. After about 20 minutes on one dirt road we reach a bit of a problem: rocks and holes made from grenades blocking the road... for cars at least!

Radek goes to check it out...

And as Radek and Mrazik decide what to do I take some pictures of the gorgeous view.

We notice a sign stating that we are leaving Kosovo... but nothing about not crossing the border.

After thinking about it some more, we decide to go for it. The GPS did say it was ok! We take the motorcycles easily past the "blockade" and head up into Montenegro. It was worth it, the view we got on this dirt road was spectacular!

At the top of the hill there was a memorial site, we figured it was for some war but were not sure which one.

And the other side of the mountain was just as beautiful!

There was also what looked like an old bunker. I personally wanted to go exploring inside but was persuaded by others in the party to not even think about it.

We head back down the mountain, seeing farmers here and there. Soon the road turns to asphalt, and when we have to stop due to a bee in someone's helmet I take some more pictures.

We reach Kolasin and get some food and find a map. We decide to head on even though it is raining. Luckily it didn't rain much and soon the clouds started to break up.

From the highway we were on you could see a nice view of some of the cities below, getting a real feel for how high up we were!

And I pause for a beauty shot.

Soon the highway starts to become smaller and has less and less traffic. When I see goats in the road I realize we are no longer on a highway.

We head to Savnik getting a bit lost. We end up in a residential area where the children were very interested in our motorcycles.

Deciding to go a bit further, we eventually find a pub for dinner. A man there says that we can sleep in his garden with our tents. I go to bed early, being a bit sick. When Radek and Mrazik make it later, Radek wakes me up to show me the stars. A most amazing site, as we are away from the city and there is no moon in the sky the stars are shinning brightly. Another great day on our adventure!

Road to Albania - day 7 - Kosovo

We wake up in the morning to another beautiful day in Albania.

As we pack up and ready to head out we don't even consider if it will be difficult to get to the road. After all, the small off road trip to the camping site was not so hard. However, heading out proves to be a bit more difficult, and Mrazik ends a bit stuck.

After a bit of pushing, we got Mrazik free and headed off, back to Byram Curri.

We had tons of Albanian money to spend and no place to exchange it. So we went shopping! Walking around the markets was a great cultural experience.

Radek purchased tons of Raki (the Albanian national drink), I get a scarf and a backpack. The backpack was an interesting experience, the seller tells me it is 8000 leke, which is super expensive. I was confused. A guy on the street stopped by and translated for us (he was in the US), turns out that it was only 800 leke but because of the money change, some people say 8000 for 800 while others say 80 for 800. Talk about confusing!.

After stalking up on water, souvenirs and gifts for our family we head off to Kosovo. We reach the border realizing that there is no gas station, so we turn around and go to the last one we saw. It's a good thing, we spend some Leke and exchange the rest for Euro. At the gas station was a poor dog with a injured mouth just hanging out. I felt sorry for the guy, had to take a picture.

We head back to the border, excited that there is nobody else waiting. We find out, however, that we are missing the papers. Remember way back when we entered Albania and someone told us we needed to buy some motorcycle papers for our motorcycle, but then someone else told us no? Well that "no" was wrong, and now we were having some trouble leaving Albania! Luckily a guy coming from Kosovo spoke French, and was able to translate for us (I know some French) the problem. We ended up paying 2 Euro each and heading off.

The Kosovo border was interesting as well! Turns out we needed to buy expensive insurance for the motorcycles (20 Euro each!) just to legally ride there. However the guards were very friendly with us and spoke great English. They asked us if we wanted our passports stamped. Of course! He then stamped Mrazik's passport, paused, and then told us if we were going into Serbia it might be a problem for us... errrr... So Radek and I skipped the passport stamp! Hopefully for Mrazik there wouldn't be a problem!

Finally, we reached Kosovo!

Not too far from the border we reach a town and stop at a small coffee shop.

The drive was interesting, nothing special, but Kosovo seemed a lot greener than Albania for some reason.

We reach the city of Pec and are surprised by how many foreign troops we see! Most were Italian, but we also found some Czechs!

All in all Pec was pretty nice. Though not super rich, it looked better off then the Albanian towns we went through.

We decide to head to Kuciste, and we were surprised by a gorgeous road.

Not only was the road smooth, but it was full of twists and turns, and cool rock tunnels!

The scenery was breathtaking as well!

Though we weren't planning on sleeping in Kosovo, we loved the area we were driving in so much we decide to stop at a small hotel/pizzeria. The restaurant area and hotel was new, like a wood cottage, and fit in perfectly with its surroundings.

Fresh fish were circling the outdoor eating area, keeping the drinks cold.

It was a perfect spot for relaxing with beer and wine while Mrazik figured out where we would be heading tomorrow.

After a few drinks we looked back at some pictures of our trip before going to bed. An perfect end to a perfect day.