Syvota – Ksamil 75.90km cycling 🚴♀️ 4.34.31 ⏱ 16.6km/hr ⬆️ 755m ⬇️ 715m
We had the best sleep 😴 in our cozy air conditioned apartment in Syvota, a little sad we couldn’t sleep in. Of course we could have, since we are on a holiday and theoretically we can do whatever we want. But if we want to cycle we kind of have to leave early to make use of the cooler morning hours. We already knew the day would start with a big climb ⛰. The first three kilometres were all up but once we reached the top the view was amazing. We made new best friends along this climb. From now on, sorry friends, ocean breeze and mountain shadow are our besties.
When we made a stop to take some pictures we were attacked by a swarm of fruit fly look-a-likes. Sweat 😓 and sunlotion make a perfect glue for flies. They were absolutely everywhere so we stepped on the bikes and raced down the hill.
Our first real stop was in the harbour city Igoemenitsa. From here ferries ⛴ go to the islands and also to Italy. We had an espresso fredo, what else George Clooney, and a little snack: an apple cinnamon twister for Mas and spanakopita (Greek filo and spinach pastry) for Suuz.
Afterwards the road continued towards some other towns we can’t remember the names of. We went up and down, the view stayed amazing for almost the whole part. We had to stop quite often cause it was already close to 30C around ten o’clock. Refill our bottles with cold water, that turned hot again within half an hour. The road kill of today was mostly unidentifiable but we also spotted some flat snakes 🐍, salamanders 🦎, and even a coffin ⚰️. The dude in the car was just smoking a cigaret with the doors open, enjoying the view. With a coffin in the back of his car.
Around noon we sadly left Greece 🇬🇷 behind us. There was a bit of a wait at the Albanian border. Not cause it was so busy but because they had to check every passport and type name and number into their computer manually 🖥. One by one. We were melting in the hot sun so Mas made us cut the line in front of some angry 😤 looking Moldavian people in a car.
We left Greece and all of a sudden the landscape also changed. More dry, naked hills instead of the lush green ones we got fond of. Saying farewell to Greece 🇬🇷 made us think over some of the best 👍🏻, and worst 👎🏻, things of this country:
- The stunning landscape: beaches, coastline and clear blue waters
- The horrific smell of the garbage, dumped everywhere
- The roads, broad and nicely paved
- The friendly people, greeting you and giving you a lot of space on the road
- Good food: okay it’s a little the same, lots of meat, Greek salad, and fish, but it’s all fresh and well made
- COFFEE: Greek people make great strong coffee and all seem to own decent espresso machines (espresso fredo to the rescue!)
Our first stop in Albania 🇦🇱 was to get another cold drink. We also brought our leftover pizza from yesterday to eat for lunch. And so we did. Just after the pizza 🍕 break we had to go off the main road, which gave us a good scare as it was all gravel and it looked like we had to cycle on this thing for about 15 kilometres. But after a few hundred meters it seemed like our route app ‘Pocket Earth’ missed a perfectly good road. This hardly ever happens so the app is forgiven.
Back on the main road life was good again. Fellow cyclists told us about the friendly Albanians and drivers that give you a lot of space on the road. Until now all we got was the finger🖕🏿and a lot of testosterone on scooters speeding past and driving in the middle of the road trying to piss us off.
After a tough and insanely hot ride we finally made it to the little ferry ⛴. It was more like a floating piece of wood pulled to the other side by a cable, but it did the job. From the water we could already see the road winding up again so we decided to steal some shadow in the backyard of a hotel 🏨 to cool down for a bit. A friendly hotel employee shared his thoughts on the selection of Ajax ⚽️ with Mas.
It was another 4 kilometres to the hotel we booked. With a pool 🏊🏻♀️. So we manned up (thanks Kyle) and completed the final stretch. When we arrived the hotel manager told us to take a shower first before we were allowed in the pool. Maybe it was the smell, maybe it was us covered in white salt and flies. But after a quick shower we dived right in and spent the rest of the afternoon by or in the pool 🏊♀️.
Ksamil is a touristy beach 🏖 resort town but for the moment still very quiet. All the restaurants and hotels were doing their final building maintenance, getting ready for the big tourist invasion in a few weeks. After a pretty good dinner of seafood linguini by the beach, we went back to the hotel to watch the nations league final on our iPad in our airconditioned room, go Dutchies!
