Day 144 – EU – Montenegro/Albania [Bar to Shkoder]

15/07/20

44km

  From Bar (Montenegro) to Shkoder (Albania)

Europe

Crossing into Albania on a fine day of running with near perfect conditions all along

The air was cool as I left Bar this morning, around 18 Celsius, no wind… I was gearing for a perfect day on the road and it did not disappoint

It is quite amusing how a crossing from 1 country into another can bring quite dramatic changes – when on a map, it’s just literally one meter from here to there. It is all in the details.

I remember vividly the crossing from France to Italy on the coast. From one village to the next, the architecture was fundamentally different, with brightly coloured houses built on the side of the hills suddenly taking over the French classic architecture patterns of the South. It was striking.

There have been more. But today, as I entered the 9th country of the World Run (Albania) the changes were stark for quite a different reason. And not only just seeing more minarets around. Throughout France, Italy, Croatia to name the major countries only, I would often spot cyclists on their bikes. Dressed in their club’s kits, riding fancy bikes, I’d spot them mostly at the weekend, sharing the road with them on early morning deserted country roads.

As I crossed the border into Albania, on a Wednesday morning, I suddenly saw quite a lot of people on their bikes. Except they were mostly old men, riding slow on half deflated and rusty bicycles. I also spotted quite a lot of horse carriages, used to go around the villages – I’ve been passed twice this morning by galloping carriages! This is a first on my journey.

Oh and one other interesting fact today. At 10:59 exactly I took a break. I opened my mobile phone to check the remaining route on Google Map, from my position to the hotel of the day. Suddenly my connection was down and I received a text saying: “your current consumption of data is above 50 Euro, please connect to your account to reactivate data on your phone”. I was locked out, how was that possible?!

Well, in my “Europe” contract from FreeMobile, Albania is excluded! I had no clue. And as I connected to the Wifi at the hotel, I looked at the bill which read: “10:59 to 11:01: out of contract data use: 62 Euro” !!!! Wow!!! That’s hefty!!!

I appealed for help on my Facebook Page and a friend recommended I should download my maps from a Wifi location (hotel) and the GPS from my phone would locate me on the map as I run – not using data. I hope this will work, as I got 10 days of crossing Albania ahead of me – and it would otherwise cost me too dearly!

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: