Blogs from West Macedonia, Greece, Europe - page 2

Our tentative plan is to wheel our stuff from the apartment to the town square, a distance of about a block, and then to either catch a taxi or take the metro and then the bus to the bus station. We quickly spot a taxi, but I am unable to communicate to him where we want to go, and so we give up. At the taxi stand, we find a driver who can under stand the address in combination with my bus driving pantomime and we are soon on our way. I find it interesting to compare the various taxi dashboard “shrines” around the world. In Thailand it was distinctly Buddhist - here it is a small metal relief of the Mary and a baby Jesus that adorns the dash. The taxi ends up costing not ... read more

A cookout was planned at Pappous and Yiayia's house in Mikrokastro for everyone to come say farewell to Steve, Alice and Magda. We’re not sure whose idea this was or how it ended up being here, but Xristos did at least volunteer to man the barbeque. Steve and I slept in a little and Magda went to Siatista with Xristos to buy paper goods, soda, beer and meats for the cookout. She bought 17 kilos (about 40lbs!) of meats!! Holy Crap!! Steve, Alice and I drove into Kozani to get the CDs, souvenirs, luggage locks (for the bus), tape and packing materials. First we went to the liquor store and bought (to bring back to the States) a bunch of different ouzos and tsipouro. Tsipouro is a strong distilled spirit containing about 45 percent alcohol by ... read more

Since we were in Santorini; Steve has been talking about going to Chalkidiki to visit his cousin Stergios, who works at a restaurant in Pefkochori, a beach resort area. The original plan was to go straight to Chalkidiki from the airport in Salonika, which would have made perfect sense since the airport is actually on the peninsula of Chalkidiki . Chalkidiki is a peninsula that resembles a hand with three ‘fingers’. The ‘fingers’ are named Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos from bottom to top. Kassandra is the most developed and is where Steve’s cousin is for the summer and Athos is where Mt Athos and all the monasteries are (off limits to women and non Orthodox men). However when this was first brought up, Xristos decided that we should wait until the weekend, so he and his ... read more

A couple of problems sleeping last night first it was really warm in the upstairs where we were staying as there were no screens so mosquitoes and flies came in if you opened the windows and also a dog barked right outside our windows off an on all night. Steve ended up getting up and chasing the dog down the street to get him to stop. So we resolved to buy some fans first thing when we went to Kozani (the closest city) to solve the heat problem and I wore earplugs when I slept for the rest of our stay in the village. Magda had gone to the bakery for some ham and cheese croissants for breakfast, so we ate those and drove into Kozani to look for fans and to use the internet café. ... read more

Hármas határvidéken fekszenek a Prespa tavak, Görögország, Macedónia és Albánia osztozik rajtuk. Aki erre a vidékre ellátogat, egyből rájön, hogy miért nem akar a tavaktól egyik ország sem megválni. Már az odaút is lenyűgöző, ahogy a hágón (Pisoderi Hágó) átérve elénk tárulnak a tavak, visszanézve pedig havas hegyeket látunk. A két tó, a Kis és a Nagy Prespa tó 850 m magasan fekszik, őket csak egy kis földsáv választja el egymástól, őket pedig hegyek övezik, aterület 1977 óta nemzeti park A Kis Prespa Tó majdnem teljes egészében Görögországban fekszik, csak a délnyugati csücske lóg Albániába, a Nagy Prespa Tó a legnagyobb a Balkánon. Görögország utolsó falujkában töltöttük az éjszakét, Psaradesban. Jó későn, már 8 körül értünk oda, már sötét volt, de szállást azért találtunk a Rooms Arhondiko nevű helyen, a szobánk erkéllyel, a tóra kilátással, tiszta, ... read more