riding through kosovo

I don’t know how or why really but I made it to Kosovo. What did I know about Kosovo before getting there? Not much. What do I know now? It’s a vibrant and action packed place, these few days were some of the most eventful of the whole trip in terms of interacions with locals and just odd serendipitous encounters. Overall great time, would recommend.

We’ve arrived, baby. Is just like in the photos. Road ends. Concrete blocks. Gravel road continues in between two massive cliffs. All right, let’s cross into Koso. This side is just a rock slide. But yeah, we’ve entered Kosovo. Nice. High up. Look at these action shots. Damn. Damn Bino. Some sort of Albanian Kosovo monument. [ __ ] this proper canyon road, man. Oh, this is so sick. Oh [ __ ] Tunnel. What the [ __ ] Jesus. Oh my god. I had the biggest pothole in the tunnel in the dark. The [ __ ] back of the bike flipped out. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] That’s sick. It’s just open. Hell yeah. What the hell? Someone’s got a porch. This is sick. Every store is just called market. It’s pretty funny. A building. This place is super cool. There are a bunch of people. I That was McDonald’s. Uh, had a Big Mac. It was great. It was actually really good. [ __ ] double burger. Had cheese. Had like two eggs in it. Bunch of cucumbers, pickles. It was It was great. I recommend McDonald’s. Don’t know what the second day is about. So many statues in here. So chaotic. Cars everywhere. People walking everywhere. A bunch of weird shops. Like look at this. Everything’s random. Man, this place has such a vibe to it. It’s like a big old mix of everything. Can feel the Albanian influence. You can feel the Yugoslav influence. You can feel like, man. Yeah. Feels like Kosovo, I guess. A lot of construction work. A lot of [ __ ] under construction. Like this developing for sure. Not the best uh biking conditions, but you got the mountains to the right and the cus of a plane to the left where it’s just flat. Pretty cool, [Applause] man. I don’t know what the population of Koso is, but the the road I’ve been on has never like turned to countryside. It’s always been either in the street or like this. I’ve been in this town for a while now. Super like everything is on this road. Like look, I just we just passed 4 seconds for [ __ ] uharmacies and gas stations as many as you like. Like super super weird. I don’t know. Can’t describe it. We are now entering the other big town on the way to prison, Gakova. Um I don’t think I’ll stop. I think I’ll just keep going and camp in the countryside between Pris and Yakova. Holy [ __ ] This is the first traffic light I’ve seen in [ __ ] months. It’s totally useless. It’s absolutely useless. I guess for the government building or whatever. This place is popping. I’m now on some sort of highway, but it’s got a [ __ ] massive shoulders, so I’m happy. Uh yeah, probably going to sleep in one of these abandoned buildings along the way cuz we still got 30-ish kilometers to prison. Time’s ticking. Sun’s setting. old bridge. Damn, that’s a old old bridge. That’s sick. New bridge, dude. That’s a [ __ ] cool ass bridge. All zigzaggy. [Music] Need some gas. Go to fat oil. Whoa, they going to die. Fat oil. fat oil. So, some sort of abandoned via there’s jumping platforms down here. There’s a campsite you have to pay for down there. I’m thinking we just go up here. Yeah, I think that’s what I’ll do. There’s a restaurant there where I can maybe poach some Wi-Fi off. But yeah, this this is a [ __ ] cool spot. All right. Uh there’s a family that just came over to take a look at the bridge and stuff. But up there, this is a good camping spot. So, I’ll just eat now. Wait for the sun to set. I’m going to go set up up there. All right. Set up the tent. Uh going to go to bed. Pack this [ __ ] And uh here the tent. I don’t think it rained last night, but condensation, man. So, I got to I had the rain cover on, too. So, I had to leave all that [ __ ] to dry. This the spot. Some dudes just passed by. They’re like, “No way. You’re from Canada.” Super happy to just talk. They don’t give a [ __ ] that I’m set up in their park, whatever. So, that was cool. But yeah, I’m taking my time cuz I’m like two hours away maybe from prison. I used the time drying to uh super glue my shoes back together, which was successful. Um, you know, they still got big old holes and [ __ ] but at least the the bottom part, this part of the shoe is not going to come off from the sole won’t come off from the rest of the shoe. So, let’s go super glue. Also super glued my finger. Um, but yeah, now I’m going to pack [ __ ] up. Back on the road. That was an interesting experience. I just stopped in some random shop in the middle of nowhere. All of this a euro50. And uh, it’s all good. That little girl who’s like 10 is the one working. She’s the one who puts the cashier and everything. Crazy. Just put her phone out to charge out here. Bridge I’m supposed to cross. This doesn’t exist. Let’s see what it looks like. Okay, there’s a passenger bridge. [ __ ] dude, what is this chaos? Oh my god. Yeah, they just took down the old bridge. That’s the most ghetto [ __ ] I’ve seen. Look at this damn. They just nuke the old bridge, made a dam and Oh my god, that’s so good. Oh, dude. Well, they built this bridge over there in the distance. Oh, you can’t see it. It’s too small on the camera. Basically, they just put a bunch of pipes, like, you know, the big metal pipes for like streams going under the road. Just stack them up and put dirt over them. That’s a bridge over there. [ __ ] I love this place. Oh [ __ ] another bike packer. Met Lawrence from Germany. And boom. He’s headed to prison, too. So, I’m joining him. Uh yeah, he had a he stayed in Gakov, the town I had just passed yesterday. And now uh [ __ ] met on that bridge, which was pretty funny. Oh, we’re going to wait for them to pass yet. Oh, that’s so cool. That car. [Music] There goes the pavement. [Music] [Music] [Music] I’ll just be chilling around here somewhere. Waiting for Jack to arrive. Cool ass mosque. Uh I met up back up with Jack. Said bye to Lorenzo. We tried to go to his hostel. It was full. So uh we realized there was two of us. So we just booked a room with two beds in this mint hostel thing. And uh yeah, for for €22, €11 each. Like Yes. Running the Hyundai TV. Is it maybe maybe these buttons do something? Oh, not you turned it off. That’s That says standby. Oh, standby always means turn it off. Okay. [Music] Oh, [Music] nothing. Lot of gold chopped. Oh, hell yeah. Only the min remains. Dude, I love this. I [ __ ] love it. I [ __ ] with it. Like ultimate worst setup you could have, dude. I didn’t know you could have a X laddles with just random fish in there. You’re a nice supporter. Really nice supporter. We got Slovakian whiskey. Irish whiskey from Slovakia. West Cork. Irish product of Ireland from Slovakia. Yeah. Then they got it’s Dublin. Dublin’s best from the United Kingdom. It literally says right here, product of Ireland. It’s from the UK, man. I’m here. Quro. Nah, not French. It’s Italian. [ __ ] This is so funny. And if you if you’re not sure, you can get some Polish Robbie Bobby. Poland. I feel like we could find a a clothes market here or something. Yeah, I’d be down. You can just kind of You have pots. wet pots. It’s really just the wild west. You got just you just kind of show up and show your wares and some people buy that. €230 for this. Can’t go wrong. Can’t go wrong. We’re back at the rail tracks. What? What are you schizophrenic? Oh, there’s a cat just laying there. Hey, that cat does not give a [ __ ] Yeah. [Music] 21 savage in one ear, Albanian folk in the other ear. Well, their meat meatballs be cooking. That’s my burger. [Music] Up along the along the road. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I think it just doesn’t look as if there’s a trail. No, there’s no trail. They’re already an American research team are already doing studies off. Stop here. Yeah. This is all that for nothing. I just genuinely believe that was a that was probably a [ __ ] great a golden age. It was probably a [ __ ] incredible time, man. I don’t know. I feel like I feel like our generation is kind of just as much through a golden golden age. I guess we are in a national park. But so beautiful, man. Yeah, you can see all the beauty all the way. Look how far you can see. Like 30 m. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It’s okay. We got it. It’s all good. Okay. Can we come to you? Okay. Perfect. Those [ __ ] man. Oh, yeah. They’ll they’ll protect for their lives. The [ __ ] They literally defended their lives. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was cool. Can’t believe he’s Serbian. Dude, I do not think it’s 90%. No. I don’t think either. Yeah, I heard it way too much in town and like maybe Oh, look. Look back, dude. No, we’re we’re as far from the Serbian part as possible. Whereas we’re close to the Albian part. Albania is right over there. I know, but like there was still from I remember from the from the map that showed the result. Yeah. of the referendum. Oh, yeah. Holy [ __ ] Okay. This is what we’re looking for. Damn. Just walking up a mountain. Holy crap. Holy. This is it, man. That’s the one. That’s 2044. You got it. Just got it wrong. Got it wrong. Yeah. Okay. Three, two, one. [ __ ] Only got one. No, I got Let’s munch on these first cuz dude, we [ __ ] we would we would survive the [ __ ] road. They’re so long that it’s um a little bit Yeah. And then you look over there and it’s just showers. Not that way. Yeah, there. Oh, yeah. You could see the peaks behind the peaks. All right. The mosque. [ __ ] dude. They literally build it like a house. Yeah. No different. It’s a house of God, I guess. [Music] I didn’t [Music]