Day 2: Transit to the southern Albania
Continuing the trip through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania
GREECE 2025
9/18/20253 min read
Border crossings
After a quick breakfast in our apartment, we packed up the bike and continued towards the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. There was a queue at the border, but we got through quite quickly. We then headed towards the Montenegrin border, passed through Trebinje and then started ascending up into the mountains. Another queue at the exit from Bosnia and Herzegovina, then we drove about 3 kilometers to the border crossing to Montenegro. The queue at the border was much longer there and progress was very slow. It took us almost an hour to get through.
We drove on towards Nikšić. The road was wide and good, so I was able to drive a bit more dynamically and leave cars behind me. The descent into the Nikšić valley rewarded us with a magnificent view of Lake Slansko. We continued towards Podgorica. The road was quite busy, but wide enough to give us enough space to overtake the cars.
In Podgorica we refueled, found a park to rest and ate something from our lunchbox. From Podgorica, we continued towards the Albanian border and then on towards Shköder. As soon as the road climbed a little, we could see Lake Shköder in the distance. We passed Shköder without stopping, as we still had almost 4 hours to our destination for the day, the coastal town of Vlorë in southern Albania. The roads were generally good and not too busy. We stopped several times to give our butts a rest.
We reached Vlorë when it was already dark. The city is big and I had to drive through it. The traffic is heavy and the drivers are a bit pushy. To make matters worse, some roads were closed due to construction work and traffic was diverted to side streets, which made the traffic even more chaotic. It was good training to keep the bike balanced, look in all four directions, avoid potholes in the road and follow the stop-and-go traffic.
And then there was another problem. We didn't have mobile data, so I couldn't use Google Maps. I knew the name of the hotel and the name of the street. But in Albania, it's quite normal for buildings not to have numbers. And the road where the hotel was located was about 5 km long, winding up and down hills with sharp bends. I had a few phone calls to the hotel and a stop at a bar down the road to ask for WiFi and directions. The people were very friendly and willing to help.
Finally we arrived at the hotel and unpacked. I asked the man at reception where I could leave the bike overnight and he showed me the place and looked at me strangely as I started to put all the anti-theft devices on my bike: Disk lock, 2m long 12mm steel chain with 14mm steel alarm lock and a motorcycle cover. "No one will do anything to the bike, this place is fully equipped with surveillance cameras," he said. "Better safe than sorry," was my reply.
Boža wasn't feeling well, she started coughing, her airways were blocked and her throat hurt. She wasn't feeling very well on the first day, but it got worse that day. She soon went to bed.
