Gratitude

One Thing I planned to do for some time now and is a bit overdue by now. Here is to prayers:

Danke

Dziękuję barzo

Dakujem vám

Köszönöm

Hvala lepa

Puno hvala

Hvala Vam

Faleminderit shumë

Blagodaram

Mnogo blagodarya

Efharisto poli

Çok teşekkür ederim

... to the lands and its peoples. I had the privilege to see the best of you.

Day 64: Budva-Shkoder

I woke up several times from the rain during the night. But to my releaf it stopped raining by the time I went for breakfast. I changed my plans to explore the inner country of Montenegro and stained one the coast. I'm craving a day of relaxing, but I want to find a place worthwhile, so I decided to try my luck in Shkoder and take the short road to reach it. from there I want to head in the Albanian mountains in the north. After studying the topography and and osm I found some small roads and interesting terrain to look for a challange. But first I need regather.
To road along the coast lead through one hotel town after another. I also realized why the fijord yesterday was not like the rest of the coast, at the entrance there was a big signpost with the unesco logos on it. Crazy that these days, if you want to protect a beautiful place, you need uneso-regulations or make it a national park, where you charge visitors at the entry to support an army of rangers cleaning and protecting the place. If you don't do that, the mans avarice for profit will destroy it all. Stupid white man.
This morning when I checked out, I saw a postcard of a nice old town. I asked the beautiful receptionist if this is from here, and she said that indeed it's the old town of Budva, ten minutes from the hotel. I completely overlooked it yesterday, while my eye was caught by all these hotel complexes.
In bar I went for a coffee and here it was time to say goodbye to the mediterranean sea, snif.
From bar I took a smaller road taking me up in a higher valley and away from the coast. Looking back to the sea, I saw a couple of rain clouds emptying themselves over the sea, moving towards the coast. Better the sea gets a bit "sweeter" than me getting soaking wet.
As I rode through the suburbs of Bar, I got more and more reactions from the people. In the valley there was also agriculture, something I had not seen in Montenegro yet. And suddenly, looking at the cretes of the hills south of the valley, I felt like something rattled in the memorybox. It was nice to see these bear white-gray rocks, with sharp characteristic shapes. They were surrounded by autumn colored trees. This is the second time now. The first one was during a snack stop with the english boys. We chose a small lagoon, and there was also a statue of Maria in a small grotto. Probably these memories where from my childhood from one of those times my family and me took the land way to reach Greece  during a summer holiday. But this is around twenty years ago and the ghosts I encouter are so weak, that I'm not sure if they are there at all.
As this valley slowly went down towards the plane where I expected the border to Albania and not far behind the city of Shkoder, the clouds and the fare mountains of the Albanien alps were a spectacular view.
After the border reaching suburbs againg I could not help noticing that all the wealth and shinyness seems to be concentrated at the coast. Some make a lot of money in real-estate and the others get feed up working around the hordes of all-inclusive-tourists.
But the kids here were really cool. Almost all oder them greated me, or ran towards the street stretching out the had to get a five from me, or shouting stuff I interpreted as encouraging.
Traffic in the city was chaotic, cyclists were using both lanes of the street in both directions and small motorcycles, often with ladies sitting one the back with both legs on one side (ladylike) were contributing to the tumult. The cars were watching out though, actually everybody was, and nobody seemed to abuse one the gas pedal. So it was a rather relaxed chaos.
I stopped at a hotel a bit away from the center to ask what a room costs. It turned out to be rather fancy. When I said to, the receptionist that this is too porsh for me, he shrugged and replied; "it's not poor it's traditional"
The town does not have a very touristic allure, but there was a tourim information where I got help to, find a cheap accommodation. On they way there at a crossroad an old man was asking me where I come from, luckily his son (I assumed) was there and translated. He also was joking that he has a daughter to marry.
I like the city, quite authentic.

Day 63: Meljine-Budva

I was woken up by ab short shower in the early mornig. After breakfast I went along the coast, which lead me into the fijord of Kotor. It was a nice and relaxed ride. Tourim industry is rather discrete on this part of the coast compared to those forests of advertisements along some coast roads.
While I was having lunch in Perast, some very important people embarked in some limousines right in front of me, and took of accompanied by some police. They were not bothered by me handling my knife, that is the drives were not, one of the guys getting on the back seat was looking a bit askew at me though.
In Kotor there was more traffic and in, the meantime there was a shower. The road to Budva brought me back to the open coast, where clouds, sun and water were spectacular to watch. Before reaching the city, there was again, more intense rain.
I was very disappointed by this town though. I did not like it after a first look around. The two hostels from internet research, I did not find. So I tried a couple of houses renting rooms. No succsess. So I ended up in a cheap hotel. I wanted to have a days break tomorrow, but it looks like nothing is keeping me here. after sunset a thunderstorm hit the coast.
It will be hard loosing a couple of degrees one my way east, away from the coast into the mountains. Also the bad weather comes from the west and I risk travelling with the bad weather.

Day 62: Dubrovnik-Meljine

It was a cosy eavening with Paul, Micke, Jannis and Phil, accompanied by quite a bit of beers and wine. Outside a thunderstorm came over Dubrovnik and I was glad having made the decision too stay in a hostel. By the time I got to do my internet stuff it was late and when I was done with that, it was morning.
I had a turbulent sleep with crazy and chaotic dreams. Having still the camping rhythm, I got up shortly after seven, and the wine orgel the beers or the combination messed up my head a bit. After a long breakfast I went back one the road by 10. The wind was strong and the sea was rough. I had to climb the steep hills around Dubrovnik to join the main road towards the border. When I reached the crete, the wind smacked me around the head, that I was getting a bit dizzy. So after the climb I fought with head wind again, only today it was stronger thant ever before one my trip. I did not find the force to properly face up tom it, even after several breaks, I did not find enough strength to get into the flow. The air was warm, but the wind pulled a lot of heat and I, felt feverish.
Around three p.m. I finally reached Igalo, what I marked as first etape. It turned out to be the last one too. After having a coffee and hanging like hit on the head, half present, in a chair I set out too find a camping spot around four. I got luckey and found a camping site between the small towns, that even would accomodate me for free.
To boost the moral and strengthen my body I decided to eat in a restaurant. After some wandering around I found a nice one, where I got a veal soup, salad and beef steak. It was all fresh, even the fries, and very well made. While savouring this delight the following line crossed my mind:panta rhei! (cheers Marcel)