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Tuesday, April 18. 2006Leaving Skopje
(written 15/12/2006 in Sydney, Australia)
We had a very forgettable breakfast at the hostel (included in the price, but down in the dungeon - actually, can't really recommend any of the Macedonian food we had, but it's hard to top Greece, Italy and indeed what was to come). We walked back into market area in the centre of town to soak up a bit more of the unique atmosphere, buying some fruit on the basis that it's hard to get that wrong. A bit down the road we stopped and had some great coffees in a Turkish-style café, where the look the young waiter gave us could genuinely been because he hadn't given it to many foreigners before. As with all countries we visit, we went looking for magnet. However here, unlike any other city we have ever visted, there was not even one touristy shop to be found. We went into the information place again where the rather useless girl redeemed herself by pointing us to a tiny little stall hidden on the other side of the bridge - the one and only tourist shop in Skopje, the capital of this country. There we procured a bit of woodwork for gifts and a rather bland looking magnet. You can smell the oncoming capitalism in the air, but it has a way to go. Making the best of how cheap the place was, we jumped into an everything shop (we might call them a two dollar shop) and found ourselves some toothbrushes. An option was to visit the Turkish baths, but they weren't open yet, and so we contented ourselves observing the crumbling buildings for a while before deciding it was time to leave. Avoiding the urchins on the way out of town, we headed south along the tollway we had come in on, before turning east towards Bulgaria. Along the way through Stip and Strumica we drove through plenty of open farmland, where the primary form of transport was horses and carts. Best way to get around when you aren't in a hurry, and this part of the world sure isn't. We stopped to make cup of tea by the roadside, where it rained a bit, before stopping in the last town before the border to change our money into yet another strange pile of notes and coins. Another new country awaited, so we drove on to the Bulgarian border at Zlatarevo. Monday, April 17. 2006Skopje
(written 15/12/2006 in Sydney, Australia)
Up in the morning for a last breakfast enjoying the amazing view from our balcony we packed our stuff, bid our hostess farewell and grabbed a couple of coffees at a bar also on the water front. We moved our car from where I'd managed to shoe-horn it in the back streets a couple of days earlier, and decided against going back to the internet place, just wanting to get on the road towards Skopje. Since Macedonia isn't that big of a country, we chose a back road to take in some of the farmland on our way to the next target - north through mountain passes to Kicevo then across west to Prilep. Here we wanted to hike up to Treskavec Monastery, but after trying for a while couldn't find the road out of the village. Lonely Planet's directions are to ask someone for directions, then use a 4WD track or else walk from Dabnica. The latter was obviously our preferred task, but no matter how we looked we couldn't find Dabnica. So, we decided to push on, stopping in a roadside-stop for a cup of tea. This, like all over parts of Eastern Europe, was completely filled with rubbish. For such a pleasant country with gorgeous scenery there is no easy way to get to it as a driver and actually feel like you are away from society. We turned north towards Veles onto a faster but still crappy road, which eventually led us to Skopje, the capital city (official site). This place looks pretty much like it is - a once-proud communist capital now mostly a crumbling ruin, but everywhere you look you can see how gorgeous it must once have been. We headed for and found Feroturist Autocamp Park north along the river, but it was now a building development, with only a small cafe called Cafe Camping or some such to show for what it used to be. Another van had apparently tried the same and was just parked in a parking spot, having found nowhere official to do so. So, we needed another plan. We drove around some more, stopping at a couple of highly-priced places and deciding they weren't what we wanted. In the middle of town each time we stopped at traffic lights local kids tried to and in some cases did wash our windscreens, despite us very obviously saying no. Again sticking to our principles, we drove away without paying. If they want to run a business, they have to at least listen to their "customers"! Sure we could have given them some money, but that would only encourage them to annoy everyone else in the same manner. We eventually parked off a broken road, where Liz stayed in the car, while Tim headed off to the i to find somewhere to stay. That wasn't far from the car, but walking over the crumbled surfaces made if feel much further. The girl there had no idea about anything of use. In fact, the tourist industry in general really hadn't started to grow at all in Skopje. Perhaps most others realised that there was nothing of great interest anywhere to be found. Plan B was the Lonely Planet-described "best budget beds in town" at the Ferijal Youth Hostel. We could park out the front overlooked by the staff - always a relief in unknown parts. We grabbed a passable twin room, dumped our stuff, and set off into town. The main part of town had a market where we spent a while wandering around, stopping for a very late lunch in touristy but nice-looking café. It was traditional food, but perhaps not prepared as nicely as it could have been, but we were hungry. Even worse was the dodgy ice cream we got nearby, which we survived a couple of licks of before chucking it. Communism may have managed to give most people what they want, but the sooner Streets or Peters set up shop in Macedonia, the happier people will be. The Skopje Old Town has quite a bit of Turkish influence around, and we looked at the outside of old some old Turkish baths and wandered around the back streets generally, feeling like we were in a small version of Istanbul. With less touts, less mosques, and far less tourists. Eventually we wandered back to the hostel over a different bridge, admiring the colossal communist architecture, old apartment blocks, hotels, past outdoor bars set up so the more modern, discerning, more well-heeled, Westernised Macedonian youth could admire what their forefathers had built for the common good while sipping hyper-expensive scotch or other imported products. We walked on, back through carparks containing terrible communist cars (one entertainingly emblazened with a Ferrari sticker), instead having some coffees at the restaurant under hostel where plenty of locals were enjoying card games and chatting the afternoon away. This was actually a reasonably nice part of town, mostly well looked after. Our evening was spent in the room, our heads swimming a little at the changes we had seen in only a few days. Sunday, April 16. 2006Internet access finally!
As you have probably seen, we have managed to get the laptop online and lots of blog entries uploaded. Note that you may have to use the controls at the bottom of the page to go to "Next page" as there are so many it doesn't all fit on one page!
Also, we are having a little trouble uploading photos, so some of the links are broken in the earlier ones and no photos from the later ones. We still look pretty much the same though! Still happily married and in Macedonia today after a little trouble getting across the border yesterday - not that often they get an Aussie and a Brit (according to her passport anyway) in a French car turning up their border post, we expect. Hope to do more blog tonight as we spend a second night in Ohrid (our room overlooks the lake) relaxing before moving to the capital Skopje and then on to Bulgaria. Lazing in Ohrid
(written 15/12/2006 in Sydney, Australia)
We woke early to sound of bells, and enjoyed a great breakfast on balcony overlooking the lake. What we didn't have however was coffee, so we wandered off into town in search of some. Through the cobbled and mostly run-down (despite being the most popular tourist destination in the country) old town, we saw the 900-year old plane tree, which over it's life has housed both a café and barber shop, but now just sits in the middle of a square looking rather important. Some of the houses looked so amazingly decrepit that it was always a surprise to see that people were managing to live in them. We bought some apples from Macedonian man in the markets, asking him in German where to get some coffee from. He directed us to a great little place a couple of streets away where we struggled with the phrasebook to order coffee, but the result was up to standard and about 80 cents! Off again through the mostly charming old streets, we were accosted by Stefan, a vendor of Turkish-style coffee pots. In German he explained that his name was on the bottom, and hence we deduced he had made them. My day-two Cyrillic managed to confirm the word Stefan, so we were happy overall with the discussion. Enough so that we decided to buy one of his little pots, for the sum total of about $3. Other important purchases needed to be made and proved new sources of language barriers - me some socks and the both of us some more supermarket stocks. Most important was more of the tasty wine T'Ga Za Jug. We'd grabbed and enjoyed this the day before based purely on the name (how can you go wrong with Chug a Jug?) and wanted plenty more to travel around with. Still couldn't get over the price barrier, but when people earn so little then the prices have to reflect that. It was interesting that all brands were local, almost nothing imported as to do so would be way too expensive. The products were just as good, but the remnant of communism that was the home-grown products gave the place a very unique feel. Most excitedly, we found ourselves an internet café (hence the other post on this date), where they even allowed us to plug the laptop! Joy was us, and uploading we went. Lunch was back on our balcony, where we caught up on emails and blogs we had sucked from the internet as fast as possible. Boringly, it was back to the tried-and-true pizzeria for dinner. Saturday, April 15. 2006Into Macedonia - Ohrid
(written 15/12/2006 in Sydney, Australia)
We had a bit of a drive across no-man's-land to the border crossing into Macedonia, where we found a long queue. Plenty of locals trying to get in, amongst our obvious foreigners. As our first real border crossing, it was interesting to see just how seriously the non-EU countries were trying to keep EU people out. I would have expected the other way around, but this was a little surprising. When it was our turn, we faced off the menacing-looking border guards and presented what we thought were enough documents. A lot of gesticulating later, we got the feeling that something was missing. They were happy enough with us (after working out that my wife wasn't French, that's why she has a UK passport), but the little blue car from France was more of a challenge. We knew that outside of the EU most car rental agencies don't ensure you, but we had specifically chosen a Citroën because all the countries we wanted to visit were listed as covered for insurance purposes. The piece of magic required turned out to be a "green card" hidden underneath the top-level papers by the Citroën girl. Upon presenting this, the tone of the guards changed amazingly. One wandered over and wanted to shake my hand - it turns out he loves Sydney! Knowing it at least to visit, he became my best friend for about fifteen minutes, taking my passport for a while as I trudged across the border on foot to get myself a Visa (Liz, having an EU passport, didn't need one). The visa process was a little strange - I had to swap some Euros for Macedonian money, some of which was kept for a visa and the rest returned to me as change. Minus a tidy profit, no doubt, but the value of new currencies always takes a while to understand. Receipt in hand, I crossed back into no-man's-land to find my new best mate. True to his word, he'd organised everything for me and it was back in our car, on our way. Waved into a new country by the border guard - not bad! For a while on the road nothing looked too different. Lots of pretty crappy cars. Our first town - Bitola (where we much later learned Liz's beautician hails from) - consisted of crazy old communist apartment blocks, swarmed around by ancient vehicles of all types, still running. Old tractors, communist-era cars, and trucks which seemed like they would live forever - in truck terms they already had. But overall, especially outside the cities, there were far less people around the place. About an hour along markedly less-well-repaired roads through beautiful forests brought us to the town of Ohrid, on Lake Ohrid. World Heritage-listed, and one of Wollongong's sister cities, this place had been on our list ever since first planning an Eastern Europe trip, and it didn't disappoint. Well, the only blight on the way in was some local kids with a big rope across the road attempting to extract money from foreign-plated cars. Not quite knowing what to do, we stopped safely, before continuing on with no protestation. Handing them raw cash isn't going to solve any problems. The road ended at a promenade, where plenty of other people, Macedonians and tourists alike had parked and wandered along the beautiful lake's banks. Oh, and beautiful it certainly was. Stretching all the way to the next country, Albania, mountains were around all sides other than ours, where instead we had this gorgeous little township of Ohrid. We parked the car, and set off wandering into the old town looking for the rooms recommended by Lonely Planet, Lucija's. The description does it justice - "balconies overlook the lake, and the patio is right on the water for a swim". Truly one of the great accommodation finds of the trip, we grabbed a top-floor room in this huge empty-nester's house. She showed us around between cooking a meal for her remaining family. After moving the car, we, however, set off for some food of our own. We'd spotted a little pizza place where we settled in with a couple of local beers and pizza for the price of about a pizza back in Greece. We could tell we were going to like Eastern Europe! The next stop, a supermarket, was also crazy cheap, so we grabbed some dinner items and other supplies that would last us for many further countries. The afternoon was spent relaxing on our balcony overlooking (and right on) the lake. Being a Eastern European country originally under the influence of the Orthodox church (rather than the Roman like some others), everything in Macedonia is written in Cyrillic. Purely to get around on our own, I invested a bit of time on our way here to learn it a bit. It's amazing to see the words take shape in front of you once you learn the characters - like being a kid again. We also tried our phrasebook a bit around the place but didn't have too much success to start with. We didn't feel much like a big dinner after our big lunch, and since it was getting cold we lazed inside watching English-language TV for while before bed.
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