I rode up to the last town before the border crossing and, as usual the street was closed off. Which again, was luck, because I was forced to ride through the city center of the town which was just a brutally depressing, but incredibly fascination collection of post communism high rises. I have to admit that I'm fascinated by the communist architecture.

I had to ask a couple people how to get to the border and they told me to go straight, then make a right and follow the main street. I took a right and followed a 'street' wide enough for a smart car. I wish I would have taken more pics, but I didn't. Anyway, after riding this street for more than an hour and cussing at my non working Garmin GPS I finally arrived at the Albanian border...just seconds before I would have turned around.

The first border post was deserted. After waiting for 5 minutes I lifted the gate myself and some guy came out yelling. After looking at my license plate he started smiling and let me through. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad smile ;O).

In between the border posts I had to fend off two of these stray dogs, and literally had to kick them in the head to let go. There were some border guards sitting on the side of the road watching the entertainment without moving a finger.

I arrived at the last border post, and it was deserted again. After 10 minutes some guy came out on his cell and started checking out me and my bike. After another 10 or 15 minutes he was finally finished calling his boyfriend and sent me to another guard. First I had to pay for some insurance again, then he wanted 10 Euros for some other 'tax'. I asked him why 'Euros' if the Euro is not Albania's currency and he opened his drawyer and said and said: That's because it goes in here. I told him I would give him 5 Euros if he let me take some pictures of the border and he agreed with a smile.

Great, I thought, Albania really seems to be exactly what I heard about it...