WHY You Must Visit BOVILLA LAKE & Albanian Hospitality !!

Albanian views OR Albanian hospitality – what’s better?
Comment below if you have an opinion.

Tirana to Bovilla Lake, the constant views, a flat tyre, cold beers and Albanian hospitality – WOW … bad turns to good and the good gets better.

What to expect in this Vlog:
– Cycling adventure from Tirana to Bovilla Lake
– Dealing with a tyre going flat on rough Albanian roads
– Stunning views of Bovilla Lake
– Incredible Albanian hospitality
– Traditional Albanian bakery food

Not only did I finally reach the stunning Bovilla Lake, but on the ride back, I had an unforgettable encounter with an Albanian man and what followed was cold beers, fresh pastries, and the kind of hospitality that makes Albania one of the most special countries I’ve ever been too.

Comment if you’ve experienced Albanian hospitality too.

#albania #tirana #europe #travel #solotravel #cycling #gravelbike

The last time I tried this mission, I capitulated extraordinarily, but I’m back in Tana and I want to get to Billa Lake. I want to see the extraordinary views that I’ve been promised that exists there. So, here’s the bike. It’s kind of ready to go. The front tire could definitely do with a little bit more air, but that’s okay. We’re going to hit the road anyway. I’m going to take my chest strap today. I’ve never used a chest strap before, but hopefully that provides a little bit of better footage today. So, I’m going to whack that on. I’ve got some spare batteries there. And I’ve got a couple of nephews that love watching my videos. Six and 10 years old. Shout out to you, Max. Shout out to you, Franic. Chesh, Max. It’s half 6 in the morning. It’s a Sunday. Let’s get on the bike and let’s see how we go with getting to Bavilla Lake this time around. Let’s go. Head southeast on Ruger Isa. Then take the first road. It said again 20 km exactly. It’s saying about an hour by car, hour and 5 minutes, but I don’t know. We’ll see how long it takes. When I was a little kid, I promised myself that once I had a car license that I would never ride a bike again because I wouldn’t have to. But the best thing I recommend as an adult is get yourself a bike. Got 1.7 km of gravel. Now, I’m not going to lie. A little bit worried about this front tire. Definitely need some air. Hello. Open. Yeah. I need some water. Little bottle. Little water in here. This one. Hello. Hello. Hello. I was just looking for little small. Yeah. Water. But small bottle. He has big one there to put in my B. Yeah. This one. This one. It’s here. Oh, that’s big one. Nah, this one. This one. This one. This one’s This one is good. Yeah, this is like This is good. This is It’s cold. Cold. It’s good. Only cash. Yeah. Here. Only cash. Yeah. That’s okay. 140. 140. Yeah. No. Ah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Have a good day. No, you too. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Oh, no. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. Thank you, sir. [Music] Thank you. This your chair or can I sit? That’s okay. Definitely had to stop and get a drink. Check out the view from this little village. All right, I’ve got 9.9 km to go for. Hello, how are you? Do you rent the bike? We don’t. These boys speak English. Hello. You speak a little bit English? No. Anyone English? I just Do you speak English? Little bit. No. I just less. They have the bikes but I just I need some air. Do you have pump? Do Do you Do you have No, you don’t have No. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There were ATVs there for for hire. So, I thought that if that guy runs that business that he might have a shed there with some kind of pump. 8.3 km to go. pump. I got 2.3 km to go. I’m pretty sure the Bavilla Lake supplies a portion of the drinking water to Tana. So, the water that comes out the tap, out the shower head, etc. Oh, yeah. I still got about 2 km to go before I get to Bavilla restaurant, but I’ve got to the lake. Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is drinking water because there a couple of guys behind me that are in police lookalike uniforms. Maybe they are even police. We’re going to keep following this road around there. So I think about a K to go metro restaurant. There you go. There we go. We’ve made it. That’s 20 kilometers on the dot. Bit over 2 hours to get here. There’s the Villa restaurant right there. And there’s the view. Maxarish. Definitely love this thing. Koh. Best thing I could have done was definitely buy this bike in Tana and see this country, this beautiful country the way I have been. So, are you open? Yes. Yes, we are open. Can I buy a coffee? Yes, coffee. Uh, extra. Thank you. Uh, Americano big one with a little bit of milk. Is that okay? Yes. Thank you. Coffee and water done. Now, I’m just going to leave my bike up there. I’m going to zoom in. There’s a staircase there and there’s a lookout up there. Up there really don’t know if this is the right way. Hopefully this little dirt track here connects to that staircase that’s on the side of the cliff. Definitely don’t think this is the right way. Either a heap of people like me have gone the wrong way repeatedly or I’m actually meant to keep going that way. I don’t know. Let’s go and see how to get to those stairs. Are we? It can’t be that difficult. What am I supposed to climb up these rocks up here or what? just not very obvious, that’s all. Now, I’m assuming if they spend all that money to make that lookout up there that they build actual man-made stairs, they would make it clear and kid-friendly as well. But, okay, so there you go. It’s not very well marked. You’re not going to have any barriers in the initial part. It’s going to be nature made steps out of rocks. Check this out. There she is. V do now. [Music] That’s the windy road that you follow to get all the way up here. Promise you now too, like the road that I was going on last time to get to this place was in a completely different direction. So, I wasn’t even close to getting to this particular spot. Back at the bike, back at the restaurant. I’m going back to the city a different way. And I’ve just stumbled across this lake here and this view. Look at those mountains. You wouldn’t believe it, but I was just riding back to my Airbnb and this guy was beeping at me and smiling and beeping and then telling me to pull over. And funnily enough, he said I’ve seen he’s he’s seen my videos. He lives in the UK now, but uh he’s back here visiting family and this is obviously always going to be home. But we just had a yarn and his English is excellent and we he said he invited me in for a coffee. So he’s just gone to park the car now. Here he is now. Is it okay? Yes. You recognize me from the video. What’s your name? Zenny. Zi and Rob. We’re going to have a coffee on the video. Show me. Can you see more videos? I just walk in with my bike and you let me park over there and these guys obviously know each other and said it’s okay to film. So, got a beautiful little cafe. This yours? This your place? I love it. Yeah, it feels really good. Yeah. Coffee? Yeah. What you want? A maro, please. Big one with a little bit of milk and uh You want a cold coffee or? No, hot one. Yeah, hot one. And And bottle of water, please. I know you’re cycling, but you want a beer? I’ll have a beer with you. Beer, man. And you want Albanian beer? Definitely Albanian beer. Okay. You want big or small? Big one. Coffee one. We big one. Yeah, big one. What? Before I left you. Yeah. I was like thinking I was like, I’m going to see this guy in cuz you were like and I was like, I’m going to see this guy. And a few people have like messaged me and uh lots of Albanian, not lots of Albanians, but most of the comments are from Albanians and like, welcome to my country. Have fun. be careful of the Rocky, all that sort of stuff. And in my head, I was like, it’d be really, really nice to bump into somebody, you know, like if someone sees me and says hello, that’ll be super cool, you know. Thank you, brother. Nothing. Thank you. Yeah. Is this your favorite beer? Yeah. Beer is one of my favorite beers. Guest first. Yeah. Always go first. That’s the hospitality in Albania every time. Look at that. There you go, man. I give you this one cuz less bubbles. Yeah, once in a while once in back back in the days they used to be that’s why. How do you say cheese in Albanian? Yeah. Zer. Zour. Zer. I learned that when I had the Rocky kn. It’s good beer. Did you fix it up? Sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, brother. Thank you so much. Very nice place. I love it. And but it’s okay. All right. So, the plan is we’ve had a couple of beers, but we’re going to we’re going to go and have something to eat. We’re going to find something. But it’s Sunday and it’s summer, so not everything is open around here. Yeah. So, we’re going to see if we can find something. Yeah. This guy has the most interesting story ever. It’s not my place to tell his story. I’ll never tell it. But it’s just crazy. Like, you meet you meet somebody and you sit down with them. You start talking and you get to know each other and man like this guy has done some crazy stuff like not in a bad way like just to turn his life around and Oh man. Thank you. Appreciate it, man. crazy. I just want like big heart but so brave like you would never like you’d never imagine it like he just looked like a normal guy but the things he did as a young man to leave this country and end up somewhere else is absolutely everything is a lesson you know you go through everything so so much courage and so brave you know we’re here to help each other and I met up today I’m so happy about it you know of course you know brack We got ice cream here. We got the goodies there. Got to eat some proper food. Do you want to eat some proper food? Yeah, I haven’t eaten anything yet. Yeah, I’ll get it. I’ll pay for this. No, no, you got that. I swear. I swear. Come on. Denny has treated us to some like Albanian pastry. So, yeah. This is breakfast. Which one? This one. Yeah. Yeah. So, here I have some like uh Albanian sausage with some mushroom and cheese. It’s kind of like warm. Tastes good. Yeah, you do good. It tastes good, but depends on the spirit. That’s good. Look how flaky that is. That’s it. A little bit of breakfast, little bit of brunch, and met my new Albanian friend. So, we’re going to catch up tomorrow at 11:00. Zen is going to come pick me up. We’re going to do some cool stuff. So, it’s going to be really cool to jump in the car with him and till tomorrow. Thank you, brother. I really appreciate your hospitality, man. Thank you so much. Anything anything you need. This is Albania, man. If I I’ve said it, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. You got to get here. The people are beautiful. The people make the place of any place. And this place is awesome people. So, thank you, brother. Thank you again. I mean,