I wrote this last night, April 29th. It’s now the night of the 30th and we’re at a hotel in Athens. I don’t have time to update about today, so enjoy this news from yesterday and I’ll post (with pictures!) as soon as I can. xo Last night was our night in Nis. It’s actually a pretty nice town...there’s a street with lots of little cafes that are extremely cheap thanks to the exchange rate. Nate and I ate at the Pleasure Café...we both had fufu fruit drinks, he had a sub/panini thing, I had a steak salad and we shared [View Full Entry]

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The bus got into Skopje at 545am. I had to change bus and the bus to Ohrid left just pass 6am. Got into Ohrid at 945am. At the bus station an elderly gentleman asked me if I was looking for accommodation and I said yes. He was riding a bicycle so we walked to his house which was a 10 minute walk from the bus station. He said he can give me a room with an attached bathroom for Euros 15 per night and a room without an attached toilet for Euro 15 a night. Vesna from Belgrade told me I [View Full Entry]

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Well we actually had breakfast in this hostel but it was slightly uninspiring. Rob as usual made the most of it by having as much toast as a person can consume. It was too smokey to sit around in the kitchen for long so despite the snow outside we went to explore the city. The road into the centre was very flooded so we had to be careful whilst we walked. We took it in turns to avoid the rubbish and holes in the pavement and being soaked by cars driving past us. We easily found the centre of the new [View Full Entry]

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Mazedonien [View Full Entry]

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Journey and First Night Met a Czech guy called Vladmir on the train and we travelled north of the border playing chess and drinking beer. Arriving in Skopje was an experience, walked from the train station down a familiar road to Kisele Voda to where the hostel should be, but couldn't find it (in fact, I walked past it 5 or 6 times without ever noticing it was there!) Thanks to Macedonian good will, I quickly accumulated a troupe of about 5 guides, of whom only 2 spoke English, and between us we hunted it down. The hostel itself was pretty [View Full Entry]

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Hello bloggers! Since we last blogged we have travelled down the Turkish west coast through the Greek Islands and now up to Macendonia. From Troy where the last chapter ended we continued south along the Turkish Mediterranean coast to Bodrim via Bergama and Selchuk. Bergama was inland somewhat and the site of a huge Roman archeological site complete with amphitheatres, arches, aquaducts and temples (all ruined) on top of a rather dramatic hill overlooking the town and surrounding valley. The countryside has been devistated by millenia of overgrazing, deforestation, and olive growing and more recently major drought. So all in all [View Full Entry]

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Ive been to the Former Yugoslav. Rep. of Macedonia 4 times, this is my last trip there. The people of Macedonia are very friendly and inquisitive they will ask you many questions trying to get to know you. Everyone wants to learn English it seems. I met lots of friends in Macedonia and actually made friends with a small family in Tetovo, which is a small town near the capital of Skopje. This is a budget friendly place, prices are very low compared with Western Europe or even the USA. The family I met on the train from Thessaloniki, Greece has [View Full Entry]

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Upon arrival in Ohrid I was quite surprised by what I found. I had read a bit about this town and the lake, how it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of ancient buildings and how the Cyrillic alphabet was invented here in the ninth century AD. I had also seen a lot of photographs, nearly all of a little church sitting on a cliff above a deep blue lake. Well that is only half the story. Tacked on to the side of the old town is a lively modern resort. There are lots of restaurants, bars, cafes, shops, banks, [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! I am using a strange keyboard that has y and z switched. Try to overlook that if I have spelling errors with those letters. I also cant use an apostrophe or quotation marks. Walt and I walked over the Old Stone Bridge and explored the Ottoman section of Skopje. A young couple was exiting the Orthodox Church after getting married. Two musicians serenaded them as they left the church. The Kale Fortress overlooks this section of town. Only3 of its original 70 towers remain. This city is 2000 years old and has suffered many floods and earthquakes. When buildings [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everybody! We spent Saturday afternooon exploring Thessaloniki. We went to the Roman Forum, Paradisos Bath ruins, the Arch of Galerius, the White Tower, several Orthodox churches. We went through a park and I saw a woman jumping rope, my favorite exercise. I tried to communicate with her and found out that she was from Afghanistan. Today has been great! We caught an early train from Thessaloniki to the capital of Macedonia, Skopje. We had a cabin with 6 seats that we shared with a super, nice guy - Chad. He is working for a contractor in Kosovo. Our trip flew [View Full Entry]

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