Blogs from Macedonia, Europe
December 31st 2011
Skopje I arrived in Skopje at around 11pm. I had written down where I was supposed to go, but had managed to loose the piece of paper. This turned out to be a big problem as the bus station didn't have any internet cafe. Eventually I managed to find a tourist agency with internet and managed to convince the reluctant and wary worker to let me use her internet, after our attempt at communication had failed. So I scribbled down the address again and then after failing in my attempt to find the hostel on foot, I hailed down a taxi driver who accepted the one or two remaining euros I had, even though it is not the currency in Macedonia. This only got me a skip, hop and a jump from the hostel however and ... read more
August 20th 2011
Hey folks, I just spend the last month in Macedonia and Greece trying to understand what should be the name of what certain people call FYROM and others Macedonia. The Greek does not like that region a lot and could not stop debating as soon as you say the name Macedonia. In the country itself, must people have better things to talk of and some are making everything in their power to upset the Greek the most they can. Building an enormous statue of Alexander the Greet was a great way to do so... If you take out the politics (which is the main subject in that part of the world), you will discover an amazing country, full of stunning landscape, charming mix of culture. In Macedonia there is something for everyone. If you enjoy hiking ... read more
August 6th 2011
After the capital in Skopje I headed out towards the Macedonia/Albanian border and arguably the delight in Macdeonia's crown - Ohrid. The town of Ohrid lies beside the beautiful lake that also bears its name and in the summer it is awash with tourists. I couldn't find anywhere to stay in advance as all the hostels were booked up, however, I had heard that on arrival at the bus station you get mobbed by residents offering you home-stays so I chanced my luck and hoped there were some waiting for me when I got there. As it happens there was a reception party waiting and one of the most vocal was a huge bear of a man offering me a room but I wasn't that comfortable with the prospect of sleeping under the same roof as ... read more
August 5th 2011
Having visited the northern Balkan countries in June I decided to wrap up the remaining southern countries during my trip in August which is why I found myself in a hostel in Skopje. I bumped into 3 friendly Brits in my hostel and our paths would cross several times over the next few days. We teamed up with 2 Aussie girls and the six of us headed off to the old town for the first night of boozing for the trip. We ended up in a microbrewery drinking out of his huge container and listening to a local band singing eighties pop songs - Rick Astley is still not giving you up:-). The next day I had a walk round the town centre and like many other Balkan cities is it undergoing a huge rebuilding phase, ... read more
July 26th 2011
Yes I know, I had to look up on the map where it is too!...east of Albania and North of Greece. It’s a small country, with a population of only 2 million. So why did we head there? Well the roads heading south in Albania were reportedly worse than the ones we had already experienced! Hard to believe! We thought it would be good to visit a new country and had heard that Lake Ohrid was nice, so we went to find out. No problems at the border, only they did not have electricity at the time and had to log all comings and goings manually which took time. We also got stung for 50 Euros for the car insurance. We eventually found a campsite 15 km from Ohrid town alongside the lake. They had recently ... read more
July 14th 2011
This is a strange point in my trip. With only ten hours left before our tear-filled departure from Skopje, nothing has sunken in yet; I am still reeling from thirty-three days in this wondrous southeastern European land, yet I must accept that it's almost over and that yes, I must leave it temporarily. Composing a well-written, clever summary of my last week and last impressions is the last thing on my mind! So without further ado, expect to hear more when I am back in America; I plan to seize my last precious hours here with my mind dressed in full carpe diem attire. Ciao!... read more
July 12th 2011
Had I reached Macedonia yet? I wasn’t sure. I knew very little of the place before I arrived but the little information I had I played dumb. I knew Greece and Macedonia had some problems, but what? As a person with a Greek background could it be possible to fall in love with a place, which I should say doesn’t exist but does depending on whom you talk to and what name you call it. All I knew was that Macedonia there are two – one in northern Greece, the other a country from the Former Yugoslavia. The other thing was that Macedonia claims Alexander the Great as their own. With that little knowledge I set off to get an understanding of a place 7 years ago I heard as ‘boring, don’t bother.’ When I left ... read more
June 27th 2011
I am going to start off by saying that I think this is the tannest I have been in my entire life. We just got back from five days in Ohrid, a lake town about two and a half hours away from Skopje and the most popular vacation destination in Macedonia. Hotels are rather expensive there, so most people opt to rent rooms in a house, which is what we did; Natalie and Nina stayed with family, but David, Leo, Sean, Filip, Sashka, and I all stayed in a house with rooms for rent. The days we spent at th beach, for the most part, and at night we went out, sometimes until very late. On some days we slept past one and didn't get to the beach until after four! It was a blast, and ... read more
June 19th 2011
This was a tiring weekend! Sashka and her parents took me to two different monasteries in two days; I'll begin with Mavrovo. Yesterday we drove about an hour southwest of Skopje to Mavrovo, a village where most of the houses act as summer homes for those living in Skopje. The village is on a placid lake among the green mountains, and there are two other villages across the lake similar to the one we passed through. We stopped at a cafe to eat our breakfast, and I had a Turkish coffee, surprisingly. That prepared me for the twenty-minute drive through the winding mountains on a road wide enough for only one car, which means that one finds oneself in a predicament if one approaches a car coming from the opposite direction. Anybody who has traveled much ... read more
