A minimal amount of text for my day in Berat.

Me in private garden outside my hotel room window.

Midday, on my way to Berat castle.

Almost at top where the castle is located.

Ruins in Berat castle.

Panorama from Berat castle.

Rooster on tha roof, lots of active buildings within the walls of the castle in Berat.

Somewhere amongst those houses are my hotel.

View from within the Berat castle.

I relax with local beer after hiking all the way up a loooong slope to Berat castle and carefully descending the very same since it rained a short moment, seehe second to the top photo, and those stones in the road was slippery even without my Shimano SPD shoes and those metal clips - I sounded like a tap dancer on my way down from that castle.  Clícketi, click, click!

Free day in Berat, Albania!

Yesterday started as a great day, I got help from Eglantina, the girl I had coffee with and who was more than helpful during my stay in Gramshi, and got myself some sandwich with ham, cheese, mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup and potatoes!

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It was ok, nothing sensational but it was a very good start for a day in the saddle.

I can't thank Eglantina, her sister Ana and their mother enough, even without their kindness it meant a lot just to have contact with people again.

Eglantina on the left and her sister, Ana, on the right.

I've also come to the conclusion that distances and the monotony of riding long days gets worse by flat, straight roads. If I only had the time I would prefer hard, bad roads compared to big, trafficked roads. That leads me to the traffic here, I'd say 1 out of 5 drivers that pass me do so at either a very high speed or too close, the other four usually make an effort either to honk their horn to alert me that they are passing or just pass me with generous clearance. Or both.

So far Albania leads Macedonia in these categories; Best road signs, most friendly, least amount of thrash at roadsides and in streams and rivers. But Macedonia has so far been more beautiful in its landscape.

What they have in common are hundreds upon hundreds of modern buildings that all look done halfway, it's so common that either everyone, their family, their relatives and all other next of kin started building the same day or... well I have no clue really.

An extremely common sight in Macedonia and Albania.

Anyway, I am having a day off in Berat today in what gotta be the most romantic hotel in the world - just look at some of the pictures below;

The door on the left is the one that leads to a patio where my room is with an amazing view - sadly it's raining today but I will get some shots off as soon as it clears up a bit.

I feel like I live in a castle!

Hotel breakfast consisted of two wonderful types of cheese with bread and marmelade and a delicious sour cherry juice as well as omelette with spicy sausages and coffee - can't wait for tomorrow morning!

I love statistics!

So far these are some numbers;

Calories burned; 14832

Time on bike; 43,2 hours

Distance covered; 449,36 kilometers


I´m about a third of the way. Worth noticing is that the calories is based on bicycling at the speeds the GPS detects, so all those pushes up hills covered with snow, mud, rocks, gravel and leafs probably would increase that number quite a bit.
Also I don't stop the GPS when I take short brakes so time on bike is probably a bit less.

Update from the GPS!

Hello! I am Marcus GPS, I will be posting this on his behalf. If you ask me I think he has been a bit on the slow side...

Day 4 bicycling

Comment from Marcus; Started out ok, middle part went fairly fast then came the Road.

Day 5 bicycling

Comment from lazy boy; You can see where the Road ended...

Day 6 bicycling

Here he is again; Last part, from about the 55 kilometer mark was mostly flat, long roads with heavy traffic and major headwind.

My physical condition.

I am actually surprised that my body is handling this as well as it does, after all I am 38 years old and haven't trained at all for any extended amount of time. Sure I have pains but not as much as I would have thought, the biggest zones of pain are usually your wrists, your back and, of course, your thighs.

By the way, I am writing this from Berat, got there with no big problems today after a 90 kilometer day.

I will publish something slightly  more interesting tomorrow and will bid you all a good night with a shot of me eating wild rabbit and having a Albanian beer - both were excellent!

Best shot the waiter managed to pull off.

Be vewy, vewy quiet... I am hunting wabbit...

Challenges, beauty and sincere concern.

Day 2 (29/3-2013) in Albania had me get up at 5 AM since I wanted to break camp early to avoid getting spotted by people.

Screen capture from my video diary so its not my best side...

It continued on the same road as before, it kept going for 80% of the day and it managed to see to it that all four of my brake pads was worn out.

Shortly after the pictures below a shepard with lots of goats comes by and once his goats have passed he stops and we have a short discussion in sign language and I show him where I am headed and ask if he want's peanuts. He declines and at that point another shepard with goats comes along and he has five dogs with him that actually has spiked collars and behave extremely aggressive towards me.
This guy puts himself between me and the dogs, using his stick and picks up stones whilst yelling at the dogs to deter them from attacking me - once the dogs loose interest he turns around, smiles and heads on.

Had to change all four brake pads and it took some time. 

Smooth as a baby's bottom!

Amazing scenery from my ride along the Road. 

I was truly grateful for his help and continued, the real dangers on this road was mostly the shepards dogs since I passed a lot of those most was calm tho and since it was raining and together with the thawing snow it created a lot of water going across the road on many places and you could see landslides was a real risk. Despite this I met cars several times on this road, not often but at one point a couple of young guys drive up to me in their big 4x4 SUV and ask where I am from and if I wan't help.  I politely decline and get some info about the route that's left, I started this day by planning to reach Berat, and when I finally hit asphalt I realized that was never gonna happen, my hands hurt from all the shaking and gripping the brakes so once I reached Gramshi I got in touch with a women sitting on some stairs with her mother. As she had been to Norway she spoke excellent English and helped me found an ATM.

I was thinking of taking the bus to Berat since I had booked hotel nights there for two days but was told by her that no buses or cabs would take me at that time - it was too late so she suggested I stay at a hotel and asked me out for coffee later in the evening. I thought that was a good idea so I did just that.

It was nice to speak with locals and actually have contact with people even if I have had phone conversations with my dad and brother. So the day turned out well, today I got a 70 kilometer day to Berat where my brother helped me postpone my hotel booking for one day.

I will upload what was recorded from this day by the GPS once I reach Berat.

Albania welcomes me!

I have been out of circulation if you get my meaning, slept in my tent in the middle of nowhere so I barely had cellphone coverage. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I left Ohrid in high spirit and with knowledge that my first part of the day I had planned, around 100 kilometers, getting close to Gramshi via Pogradec and Maliq, would be difficult with a lot of climbs.

Yeah, yeah, scenery is beautiful - look at the signpost dammit!

Anyway, it was in high spirit I reached the border crossing area it wen't very smooth but you weren't allowed to take pictures near it so this is the best I could do.

Yay!

Yay 2!

After this I headed towards Maliq, it went fine on a smooth road with wide shoulders. Entering it I asked a police about the route to Gramshi as my GPS lack a lot of roads in it's software for Albanina. He pointed my nose in the right direction!

From this point on the roads got bad at a alarming pace.

Imagine going through this with a bike weighing 30'ish kilos more than usual.

But it was downhill most of the time so it was kind of exciting, your mind goes into high gear and you constantly have to choose paths and change sides on the road. At one point I  me a, what I think was, german couple who helped me pinpoint where I were and about how far I had to go. This day ended in the last two-three hours on roads like the one above.

Since it was a ride in a valley between mountains and on mountain wall roads it was next to impossible to find anywhere to camp so when I had like 20 minutes of light left I chose a place, any place, just to get "inside". I shot some video from inside the tent with my tent lantern but it was pitch black anyway so I will do something with it once I get home and start editing my video from this. I had problems sleeping because I was uncomfortable about sleeping in a tent, you listen after the slightest noise, after animals, people and everything else. Luckily I had a river near me so it kind of drowned out most noises, I only heard a small animal scurrying about outside at some point.

However I did take a picture of the camp site the next morning.

A really horrible campsite I know but it was the best I could find..

I will upload the GPS tracking later as I haven't been able to transfer it yet due to lack of WiFi.

A little relaxation in Ohrid, Macedonia.

After an breakfast of ham & cheese omelet together with coffee and juice - it seems to be the breakfast of every hotel here, well except Hi Skopje that had that giant bun and sour milk, it was good tho and that bun lasted a big chunk of the day for me.

Anyway, I was off to see some sights of Ohrid, namely Samuil's_Fortress, Church of St. John at Kaneo and Saint Panteleimon. The first two was amazing, the church for it's location and incredibly tranquil gardens and paths just near the lake, the fort because of its mighty structure and unbelievably spectacular vantage points. While the Panteleimon was beautiful too it was a huge restoration project around it and inside as well so it didn't make it as attractive. None of the church or the Panteleimon allowed photographs or video to be recorded inside. I got a lot of both outside these places tho.

A panorama from Samuil's fortress.

Saint Panteleimon.

Church of St. John at Kaneo.

After that I went and had a light lunch of salami, Skopsko beer, Red Bull and something that looked like fries but had a flavoring of hot dog. It cost 200 denar and that's about 3,3 euro so that is 30 SEK, meaning it's really cheap here.

In the afternoon I wen't through my bike and adjusted some things - I think the saddle has been a bit much tilted backwards as I had a little pain in my... well... you know after yesterdays ride.

Tomorrow I am passing into, what I believe, to be the gem of the trip - Albania, the first major goal there is the town Berat which I will tell you more of once I get there. It is however about 170 metric miles there so I will camp for my first night and divide it into two days, also I plan to stay there one day extra if nothing unforeseen occurs.

Right, I am off to get something to eat and then stock up on food, water and supplies for my continued journey tomorrow!

Day 3 as tracked by the GPS.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/289390969  (Click "Spelare" or "Player" to see it playing out, top right corner)

Still on schedule!

Yesterday was exciting and beautiful as well as hard to the point I felt like I was gonna faint and had symptoms of fever.

It started out going out of Mavrovo early and after getting to the same intersection I was at yesterday but with my first target set for Debar I hoped for good roads.  Luckily my wish came true, I was accompanied by a beautiful mountain stream and it was 97% downhill.The rain was pouring down and I had a headwind against me the whole day of cycling but with those descents and the speed I was travelling by made the hairs on the back of my arms stand up. The scenery was amazing, huge mountains and I navigated through canyons and ended up in Debar, 5 Swedish mil, in record time of under three hours - compared to the day before when I managed to go 3 mil in over 5 hours.

On the bridge going out from Mavrovo town.

Taking a breather at a reststop with shelter from the rain, 

A bridge just before Debar. 

And far, far down there is the bridge from above...

Panorama of sunset over the mountains in Struga with the beautiful Lake Ohrid .

What I have learned from today is that I have to stock up on food and water and take more, shorter breaks for food and water intake - I felt sick when reaching Ohrid.

I have noticed some weird things and some not so weird things so far. The least weird thing is that I realize that when the harder parts occurs and when the headwind makes going up even the smallest slope difficult I focus on breathing and trying to keep a varied grip on my handlebars. I also have noticed that my legs, at times, feel like they are working without me having anything to do with them - almost like they were a being of their own.

Lastly, due to having way too little to eat and drink today I feel I am gonna try this distance'ish again with better food and water and then see if its worth it - otherwise I am gonna remap the route to settle for 6-8 mil days because its a vacation after all.

Day 2 as tracked by the GPS.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/288828900  (Click "Spelare" or "Player" to see it playing out, top right corner)

If you zoom in just south of Vrutok you can see the  hardest part.

Summer yesterday winter today!

Well this day was Hard with a capital H. I started out with hotel breakfast and packed my gear.

Omelet with coffee and juice, yum!

I left Gostivar with no problems aiming for Mavrovo National Park and the plan was to go towards Debar after that. A short ride after Gostivar I found a small village where the villagers shook their heads when I said I was going to Mavrovo by the route passing their village - in hindsight I understand them. It was a nice village tho with damns with like hundred upon hundred of fish!

Fishies!

Ponds of fishies on the right!

After the village I got onto smaller roads, and I ended up being chased by 4 big dogs, they just barked away tho and their owners came running like mad to stop them. Ceasar Milan could work 100 lifetimes in this country and not get away the anger in all these dogs.

After them dogs left I started a steep climb on stone and mud roads, after a while I reached a beautiful spot and shortly after that an tree looking to fit in Lord of the Rings.

Panorama of mountain village.

Me, my bike and Treebeard.

At the picture above I had pushed my bike mostly up steep, horrible stone and gravel roads - when I saw a small pile of snow I smiled to myself thinking I wasn't expecting that. But it got alot worse, the road consisted of stones, sharp ones that made pedaling impossible, then to mix things up alot more snow started to scatter the road with tracks from big offroad motorbikes. The parts without snow was mud and leaves that got stuck at the brakes on the bike together with snow and then it started to pour down raind - all this while pushing my bike so my arms hurt in roads going like "s" and steep upwards.

After a long while I reached asphalt, I couldn't take pictures of the road before that due to rain however a shelter near the road just before Mavrovo made it possible,

Just after reaching top of the worst road I've ever seen. 

After reaching Mavrovo town my toes was freezing and my hands as well, the shoes and gloves are the Achilles heal of my gear so far - mostly because the shoes are summer shoes with a lot of venting so the rain goes straight through and the gloves seem somewhat waterproof but not completely

I was so cold so I cut the route short and check into a hotel as there is active ski season here still, 3 Swedish mil took 5 hours compared to a training run back home in Sweden when I did the same distance in 2 hours.

A well deserved pork chop with fries and Macedonian coffee afterwards.

Tasted as good as it looks.

After dinner I strolled away to a shop for some late night snack - this church is quite a known tourist attraction here and its usually half submerged below water but it was low tide I guess. Still beautiful at dusk.

What was great about today is when it was the hardest on that damn hill climb and I was freezing with snow up to my ankles and rain showering me I noticed several times I smiled to myself despite the sweat pouring and my heart beating like a jackhammer - I am living my adventure.

Oh. My. God. (Day 1 cycling)

Today I started the real vacation, the plan was to go from Skopje to Gostivar and a little past it to pitch my tent for my first night outdoors. At the moment I am sitting in a Hilton hotel and I ate a hamburger from a place called Amigo here in Gostivar last night.

So why did I end up here, well to make the story somewhat short I will try and cut it short.

Leaving Skopje after going up and down sidewalks and getting chased by my first dog wen't fine - it took a while but I managed. I headed to Matka Canyon, a incredibly beautiful place - a natural reserve with huge mountains and rivers with crystal clear water. The ride there was through a small village with quite a steep climb and the sweat was pouring and my thighs was burning after only two hours on the trip - I had to walk parts of it since it was too hard.

Matka Canyon

After that I decided to use my compass and took a chance at going further up the mountain by using the compass and my map and just using the GPS as a tracking device. I went through some really poor villages as well as a lot of buildings that was half finished, big mansions scattered some parts of the route kind of in mid production.

After really getting high up and when the villages, people and civilization disappeared I realized I needed my GPS - it started with suggesting a mud road which was terrible, scattered rocks all over but I was happy because it was this I were looking for. Then it suggested a turn in the road where there wasn't any road to turn to so I just went offroad and hoped the road would show up - it did a few minutes later, two dirt tracks cutting through grassy plains.

At the start of the mud road.

Mud road turned into this.

This is the road I ended up on after going offroad where the GPS said I should turn .

 After 30 minutes or so I started reaching small villages where people looked with big eyes on me, I smiled and waved left and right - it was amazing.

A little later I realized something had gone very wrong with the navigation, I had pre-planned a route to cut across and go diagonally between Skopje and Gostivar and skipping Tetovo tho since I just used the GPS to get me to Gostivar and not use the road I had planned it took me straight down to the highway again not anywhere near where I planned to go.

So I felt I didn't have the strength to climb up on the mountain again I started following the route along the highway, a mid-sized road not with the best scenery.

But with those delays I ended up in Tetovo late and after going around there for quite some time to find the way out of the town and south towards Gostivar I realized it was gonna get dark before I reached my goal.

My legs were aching incredibly and I just battled on, small towns seemed to scatter the entire route and in the dark with potholes, speed bumps, cobblestone streets and very bad patching on the asphalt parts I was getting quite low.

When I finally reached I felt I had to choose an hotel because it was too late to pitch my tent somewhere where I never been before. I asked a guy who walked with me to a hotel called Elena but it had stairs right in the entrance so I looked for something else. After a couple of people that I've asked talked a bit among themselves they suggested Hilton and for the second time another guy and his kid walked with me for like 10 minutes to show me where it was - the kid guarded the bike while me and the man went inside and asked for a room of which they had.

So that's my first day cut short, the longer version will be in my video diaries when I get home.

Oh, this is the route as tracked by the GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/288662192 (Click "Spelare" or "Player" to see it playing out, top right corner)
 

Hotel breakfast!

Got some big bread thing and some sour milk/yoghurt type thingy!

Besides that, it was freezing in my part of the hostel last night so a handyman came with a radiator - guess it's a soft start for camping eh?

Slept like a baby!

On the way!

Two shots of me with my baggage waiting for the cab. I'm in it now, destination Arlanda.

A map...

... to the right of the route I plan to take, it's not written in stone tho and to view it fully you have to open it in a separate window and be sure to select page 2 when you have viewed page 1.

A box!

The box!

Here is the small box, I pack it in a cardboard box so I can discard it once I reach Skopje, Macedonia as I fly home from another town ( Thessaloniki, Greece ).

I bought some candy since I plan to travel the road less traveled as much as I can when I reach those small villages I plan to give it away to the local kids.