[Switzerland – Albania] Join us in our ride through the breathtaking yet most underrated region of Europe – the Balkans. The Balkans have it all – landscapes from snowy peaks to beautiful beaches and a rich cultural heritage from Turkish bazaars to Orthodox churches. Ride along to find out what the beautiful Balkan tradition of "komsiluk" is.
Austria
Mountain pass, mountain pass, long valley followed by another moutain pass – our journey in Austria in a nutshell. The biggest highlight was the Grossglockner apline road, endurance test with 2'500 meters of evalation passed!
Encompassed difficulties: convincing a barber to shave off our hair, finding wild camping spots in the narrow valleys or moutain villages and not waking up the whole camping site during the Swiss vs. France world cup game. Also, we did not bring our fishing gear with us for nothing!
Slovenia
When crossing the border our previous endurance test had to be discared. Riding up a mountain pass with 35°C is a whole different story. Luckely Jane’s grandparents awaited us with plenty of food in Kranjska Gora.
From there we made a hiking tour of several days to Slovenia’s highest peak – Mount Triglav. Night rest was not a topic in the mountain hut, singing folk musing and dancing with brooms was the order of the night. After some serious climbing we made it to the top and soon continued our journey to Ljubljana.
From there we headed south and finally arrived for the first time at the Adriatic Sea.
Croatia
Croatia – the last day we encompassed rain during the whole journey. We drove across the island Cres and eventually reached Zadar with the ferry. From there we cheated ourselves with the bus to Sarajevo.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo, also called «little Jugoslavia », was for us the most interesting town in the Balkans. The city is still covered everywhere from scares of the siege. Yet the long lasting living together of Muslims, Christian Orhtodoxs, and Catholics uniquely shaped the city.
After spending a few days with the grand mother of a friend we cycled further to meet other family members of him. Fishing, Bosnian barbecue, Rakja and swimming in the cristal clear water was the order for some days before heading to Mostar.
Montenegro
After having reached the capital we headed for yet another mountain pass. For a brief time we actually were already in Albania but bordered again into Montenegro.
Kosovo
Crossing the border through the former war supply path was quite an undertaking. The light gravel road indicated by our navigation app revealed to be a path with big stones, fallen off trees and being an actual river for some sections.
In Pejëa a Kosovar living in Montreux spotted our Swiss flag and invited us to stay in his cousins apartment for free.
Komsiluk means neighborlyfriendliness and is truly lived in the Balkans. In Kosovo we did not have to spend one night in the tent but got invited every night without having really to ask for it.
On this journey we got invited several times by Kosovar people for drinks and a farmer even invited us to spend the night at his home with his family.
Having gotten sick by chicken meat from a buffet we were obliged to stay a few days in the apartment but finally got back on the road to Prizren. The Swiss/Kosovar diaspora seemed to enjoy our project - we got honked on and cheered on as if we would play soccer for their national team.
After some sightseeing in Prizren we cycled towards our next destination – Skopje, which was 100km and one big mountain pass away.
North Macedonia
Our journey to Skopje was no piece of cake, we did not take enough rest after our sickness and arrived completely exhausted to the capital city. We learnt the hard way that our mom’s were right – after being sick you need to take some time to recover ! After a day of rest we could not even cycle 5 km and decided to take the bus to lake Ohrid to cure for a few days.
Albania
All what was left to do was to cross Albania and get on the ferry that brought us to Ancona (Italy) over night. From there we took a bus back to Switzerland.
Useful Information
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Mathieu Gasser, Luzern (CH)
Hey! :) I love exploring the world and was used to do it by plane. But for 5 years now I am flight-free and made at least equally adventurous experiences. If you have any questions regarding the trip do not hesitate to drop me a message on mathieu.gasser@bluewin.ch