Macedonia Nov 08

This is a country with no officially recognised name, fought over by Bulgaria and Greece, neither of whom will allow them to use the name 'Macedonia'.  Greece has its own Macedonia within their own territory and fear that they'll lose land if they are allowed to use this name.  Bulgarians previously lost land to Macedonia, the part where the two brothers who invented the cryllic alphabet were born.  Proud to claim this feat as their own, they are also adament about not using this country name.  Despite the fact the Alexander the Great was Macedonian, these silly discussions continue

The border check into Macedonia was a bit of a concern, as the Aust. Govt. website warned that all currency must be declared upon entry or it could be confiscated on exit...   Nasty.  So our nerves were sharpened for the border process.  When the passports are collected at the Bulgarian side, we pull over to wait for the police to play terrorist bingo with our passport numbers.  Jumping off the bus with the other passengers, Mands felt the need to use the toilet.  Noticing most of the men using the nearby grass as their toilet, we think this a little unsavoury, but nothing too unusual.  Hoping to find the toilets, she noticed many of the female passengers headed to the back of a nearby building.  It appeared obvious that it must be the bathroom, but wondered why they were queuing around the corner.  Upon approaching one lady, in the "queue", Mands asks "toilet??".  She laughs heartily, points round the corner and says "Damas!", meaning ladies.

Yes, the ladies was in fact a shadowy spot behind the building.  Everyone patiently waited until the previous person had finished and then peed behind the border guards' building...  Very odd but hilariously funny!  A local explained it never used to be like this, but was happy it was so much easier to travel these days.  Apparently the currency check is also a thing of the past, so we happily continue on our journey.

Skopje

Upon arrival, again at night, we once again pack up from the bus station and with the help of our laptop map, we began to search for the hostel, where we'd planned to meet our Finnish friend.  A couple of taxi drivers were very helpful in directing us, even though we weren't interested in paying a fare.  They literally stop in traffic to explain the way, ignoring the honking drivers with little concern.

We find our hostel and are told our Finnish travel buddies have headed out for food.  So we do the same and plan to bring back a couple of beers to start off the night.  We find a chicken roll shop, but the beer fridges are locked.  Aparently their liquor laws prohibit sales after 7pm...  Suprisingly, we find the Finnish guys trying to do the same thing as us - buy beer!  Realising that we needn't go back to the hostel before going out, we head out for a night on the town.

Hopping between some very nice bars, we begin a drinking competition with the Finns, who can down quite a few. 

Skopje has a great range of bars, and Mands befriended some locals between drinks, to be pointed towards some cool bars.  Entering some very swanky bars and loud nightclubs, we prefer to head back to the drinking bars where we can actually have a conversation (are we getting old?).  As these all closed at 11pm, we ended up in a local night club.  After Mands told them off for trying to charge us double for the entry fee, we settled near the bar for a few.

The club was good fun, with lots of hands in the air singing of national songs to dance beats...  Quite amusing and very Macedonian.  Turned out to be a live performer and appeared to be very popular!

Heading home around 2am, we survived the gauntlet of gypsie kids keen to climb into our pockets.   They were far more brazen than other countries. We are guessing the cold is making them a little more desperate.

Feeling a little rough the next morning and unable to sleep in like the Finns, we kick back with some brekkie and laze around on the padded floor.  Once they finally rose, we did a quick tour of town, stopped for a desperately needed coffee in the old Turkish Quarter.  Then it was time for our bus to Kosovo, so following our well-travelled friend, Ilmari, he directs us back to the bus station, which seems to take forever.  Arriving with only minutes to spare, we buy our tickets and board the bus.  As it heads out, we pass the place we'd just walked from, about 100m down the road.  Appears Ilmari took us the longest way through town!!  Grrrr, just because he travels lightly!

 We return to Macedonia on our round trip, after Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania.

Lake Ohrid

This was our last chance to relax and enjoy our time in Eastern Europe so we had scheduled a few days here.  Upon approach, we get excited by the beautiful surroundings of green hills with freshly fallen snow, sweeping down to the small town that is nestled apon this huge lake that stretches between Albania and Macedonia.  In the distance are snow-capped mountains, providing an alpine backdrop to this picturesque town.

We have emailed a guesthouse to adise of our late afternoon arrival, but unfortunately our taxi driver doesn't know the address.  Stopping along the main street, we are practically pounced on by a local who is offering us accommmodation.  We refuse, saying we have booked already and the taxi carries on a little further down the road.  We agree to hop out and find our own way and as we pull up, we are again approached with offers of accommodation and again we throw them off.  Must be desperate times at this time of year, in the current financial climate!

Walking back up the street, again we hear someone offering accommodation, and we respond that we already have some and continue on our way.  The next thing the guy says "Mandy Rogers?", which somewhat surprises us.  We turn to meet the young guy, who advises us he's Antonio, the owner of the guesthouse we have booked.  Oh!

He settles us into our large private room and explains how to access the hundreds of TV channels.  We then head downstairs to his and his parents living quarters and are welcomed with a nice hot cup of fruit compote.  Mmmm, delicious!   He gives us a map and explains the sites and offers us warm jackets as we make our way out.

And wouldn't you know it, it has started to snow, the last of Mark's wishes being granted!  We walk around in the fading light and experience the wonder of the white flakes, amused by the fact that we'd been swimming in the ocean only days before!  Then, taking in the selection of cafe/bars, we decide on a pub crawl to while away the evening.  Doing as the locals do, we ordered fancy coffees mixed in with a selection of spirits, before finally trying some of the famous Macedonian wine.....which was not tooooo bad, but has nothin' on a good Aussie bottle!

The Turkish cuisine for dinner, left a little to be desired, but we nonetheless wandered home satisfied though not at all sleepy....and decided that the locals could keep their late night coffee drinking for themselves, as we liked to sleep at night!

We started the day with an attempt at breakfast by the lake.  Purchasing some muesli and bananas, we just needed to find some yoghurt.  But three supermarkets later, we were still without.  The last store we found had a couple of small tubs, so off we went to the lake's edge.  No longer snowing, it was still rather cold, but we were determined to enjoy what we'd set out to achieve.  Finding a pier that protruded into the lake, we found a place amongst the seagulls and settled down for brekkie.  Only when we opened the yoghurt tub did we discover that it was not in fact yoghurt, but sour cream!!!!  It was just the other day that I had spoken too soon, when an Aussie room mate had been complaining of buying the wrong thing every time he went to buy yoghurt.  I claimed that we'd never had a problem, obviously dooming us for this exact moment!

We spent the rest of the day sightseeing, mainly a scattering of quaint little medievel churches - our favourite being on the edge of the lake.  There were also a number of Roman ruins, including a fortress on top of the hill and a well-preserved ampitheatre where performances are still carried out today!  They were obviously still discovering new sites as well, with an archeological dig going on within the old town.

Having ticked off the touristy things, Mands set herself on the shops, desperate to buy a few articles of clothing that she hadn't been wearing for three months straight.  Boys don't seem to mind these things.  So, with Mands decked out in a new outift, we head out for dinner.  Settling on a nearby restaurant attached to a butcher (our kinda place), we manage to find a waiter who speaks English and he explains how it all works.  Selecting from a display of freshly prepared meat, it was then cooked for us and brought out to accompany our all-you-can-eat salad bar and bottle of red.  We loved the little local restaurant, but once again the food was nothing to rave about!!

We were a little concerned about finding our way back to Sofia in Bulgaria, where our flight was due to depart, and were worried we'd have to waste time in transit.  We had anticipated a bus ride to Skopje and then a change for Sofia, and did not particularly want to spend another night in Skopje.  Therefore we were stoked to discover that there was a direct, overnight bus to Sofia, giving us another full day in this sleepy town.  That morning was sunny and the temperature was back up to about 18 degrees - crazy after the recent snow.  We spent the day shopping, wandering around the lake and just chilling out in the cafes.  Down to our final denars, we had to budget for the day, which certainly made us realise how little you can spend when you want to!  We even had enough leftover to buy a block of chocolate.

When it was finally time to board the dreaded overnight bus, after the only too recent Kosovo-Bar music-blaring, light flaring bus ride, we were a little wary.  But aside from the 2am border crossing and the 4am arrival, it was a reasonably decent journey with a double seat to ourselves and lights out immediately upon boarding....at 7pm...meaning reading wasn't even possible.  A very different experience indeed!

So then we head back to Bulgaria, for our final night in Sofia (scroll down to the bottom of the page for Sofia).