Goodbye Albania, hello Greece

We got some rubbish weather in Sarande and Ivan the Ukrainian needed to move on so I hung out with our new Italian cyclist friend we met on the road for a day before moving on myself to try and out ride the rain. It actually worked and by the arvo it was back to blue skies and I made it across into Greece with no problems at the border. so the advice I got from this Greek guy I met in Romania was good.

End of Albania the road went dodge for a bit.

50km or so and back to blue skies

Greece was a bit of a surprise and mix of awesome coastlines but a lot of dilapidated urban areas and the most roadside litter I've seen on the trip. Definitely the most bad smells with waste, nappies, roadkill everywhere along the road. I went down the north western coast which was now very quiet with the European season now finished.

Still super hot and really nice Mediterranean beaches and water. Especially the late arvos were just a dream to ride with the low sun and balmy weather (it was pure sunny blue skies). Some really good riding but the more beaches I visited the more I was realising it's hard to visit these pretty places alone. Price shock after being in Albania but Greece still pricier than I thought, especially the beer.

My travelling companion for the majority of the last six months.

Some nice little towns along the Greek coast

More tunnel trouble, however this time the council rocked up and took me through in their ute! Last thing I was expecting in Greece was formal safety and concern.

Beachside camp spot on the Mediterranean

My kickstand (which I bought back in my Asia trip) finally had enough. It served me well.

Goat traffic

Massive bridge that connects to two sections of mainland Greece together

At least someone in Greece is acknowledging the economic issues and at trying to take advantage of them.

I ended up covering ground much quicker than I expected and ended up catching up to Ivan who had met his girlfriend in a city outside Athens and one of her mates. So we had a good coupe of days, hired a car and check out some other areas (without having to pedal) and drove to Athens for a day as it was Ivan's only chance to see it. I tried to impress his girlfriend's friend who spoke no English (failure :) then back to the hotel we were staying for some fun beers on the balcony.

Awesome ruins from fortress that we just stumbled upon. 

Getting into the zone for the Acropolis.

Tortoise up at the Acropolis......for some reason.

It took me two days but I eventually figured out how to pronounce the Ukrainian girl's name correctly....didn't getting the spelling so I won't try. But had a great time hanging with them all.

Awesome ute.

Corinth Canal 

Road into Athens was good.

New meaning to the term 'abandoned vehicle'

So Ivan and I both then rode the 80km to Athens where Ivan was flying home from and I needed to decide where I was at.

I'd reached a point in Greece where I had felt that the journey was coming to an end. I'd achieved what I wanted and set out to do. I was contemplating doing a quick section of turkey and then fly from Istanbul (my original destination) but I'd kinda reached a point where I felt like it was just time to pull up. I'd ridden from one end of Europe to the other with a lot of hills conquered, met a ton of people, camped in some fantastic places and seen so much different culture and history. My mind was starting to focus on home so I had some good little last rides around urban Athens to soak up the last of Europe. The timing was also perfect for flights, that and I was just over having a sore arse all the time :)

So while my ride is now over, it felt like the right time to finish. I had unbelievably lucky weather and no major dramas.

8,098kms, 1 flat tyre, no crashes (no idea how I managed that). Big thanks to Marlene and Lena for being such great hosts in Austria/Germany, my family for the support and everyone who kept in contact and kept me sane while I was away.

Last Montenegro and Albania

With the weather looking better my new Ukranian riding buddy Ivan and I left Budva after another quick down pour.

Few cliff jumps before the rain.

This crazy serbian scaled the cliff barefoot and then did the big jump.

Before too long we caught up to Aimie, a swiss girl riding solo so she joined the crew on our way south.

Our arvo swim location.

Aimie was on a very limited schedule as she decided to join us through albania instead of bussing it as Albania a higher risk for a solo female. We learned that northern Albania was going to be nothing nice so it worked well that we would do some big km's to get to southern albania.

Ivan doesn't like the heat, but really just wanted to work on his tan.

The team rigs

crazy town, fushe kruje (otherwise known as fishy crutch). they had a massive bronze statue of george w bush......

old pill boxes littered the coadtline

we managed to avoidmthe worst of this big storm

albanian murel at the end of our record 150km day.

awesome Mediterranean water

Ivan got a flat just before the big climb.

Ive discovered on this trip my stomach doesnt like anti inflammatories and I somehow forgot this and took some for a pain in my ankle, resulting in a spewy  night. I was feelong shit but didnt want to lose the others so sucked it up with a big climb that none of us was aware of.

this photo definately does not do justice, but 1000m high lookong over the medditeranian.

road surface was amazing, the best and most enjoyable decent of my trip

hit 72km/h on a loaded touring rig

water so clear

Ivans gimbo goggles. We saidmgoodbye to Aimie who had to get to greece for her diving trip, Ivan and I chilled for 2 nights in Himare

Old navy base and submarine bunker

we stopped by an old fortress but didnt take any good photos of it.

heaps of little coves all down the albanian coast

Borche

Giving Ivan some offroad tips

this section had a great view

approach into Sarande after a day of detours that never paid off.

Albania was very different to all of Europe, very poor and undeveloped, very cheap obviously but the people very welcoming and always honking for support as they drove past.