I walked from Macedonia to Greece.

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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 yummy raspberry cheesecake...all for less than $15. Nate also bought a new wallet that was handcrafter leather from a Serbian gift store. He doesn’t have anything to put in the wallet...but it’s still nice ☺

I was in bed really early last night. I’d say I fell asleep before 9 and didn’t wake up until 8:30 this morning. I’m not sure what time Nate got to bed but he was up at 9:30. We knew we had a 10:40 bus to catch to get to Skopje, the capitol of Macedonia. The bus station was a 10 minute walk from the hostel so when Nate got into the shower at 10:10 I was a bit worried we wouldn’t make it. Thankfully he showered fast, threw everything into his bag and we literally just made the bus. We arrived in Skopje at 3:30- just in time to miss our 3:30 train to Thessaloniki, Greece. The lady at the train station was rude and only could tell us the next train left at 10am. We found a tour agent at the bus station that told us busses ran to Thessaloniki Monday, Thursday and Friday leaving at 6am. Given that it was a Tuesday, that was not an option. The best thing we could find was a bus leaving at 5:30pm for Gevgelija which is a town just on the Macedonia side of the Greece border. We both really wanted to get to Greece and this seemed like our best option, so we bought our tickets and set out to find some food.

The exchange rate in Macedonia is great. 500 (dirhams maybe? I can’t remember the name of the currency...I have so many different kinds floating through my wallet right now it’s all a blur) is about $25 and was enough to get us 2 bus tickets and a meal. We both ordered these huge hamburgers with french fries and a coke to share. I went to a shop nearby to grab us a bottle of water. The water was 75 and I paid with 100. I got back 115 in change....apparently the guy thought he handed me a 10 and instead handed me a 100. I would typically be honest and give back the money, but I figured with Nate losing 150 Euros yesterday we could at least get $3 back and not feel guilty about it, right? Anyway, that extra 100 bought us some yummy pastries that made us both happy. I had to use the bathroom and was not excited at the prospect of paying to use some crappy bus toilet. However, I was pleasantly surprised to enter a clean bathroom with toilet paper, paper towels soap and real toilets!! And the lady didn’t even make me pay! I offered but she just gestured for me to go. Amazing! So far, Macedonia was wonderful.

The bus ride was pretty decent, minus Nate and I getting yelled at for having our feet on the bar in front of us (we were at the first seats behind the door and we were using the bar as a foot rest). The bus got pulled over by the police too and they came on and only asked for Nate’s passport out of everyone on the bus. I was thinking to myself that our stroke of luck was about to end, but the police man just looked at it, handed it back and left. When we arrived in Gevgelija (which by the way we have no idea how to pronounce...we’ve called it Geugenhime or Georgia or Gonnorhea all day), the town was dead. The bus station was closed and we had to ask a woman how to get to the train station. She didn’t understand ‘train’ but ‘choo choo’ was enough to get us pointed in the right direction. We asked another person on the street and she said it was 2 km down the road. We arrived at the train station just to see that it was also deserted. There were two men in a little room and we went in asking when the next train was to Greece. He said ‘My friend speak English. Come.’ So we followed this man to a restaurant where his friend reluctantly told us that the next train was scheduled for 10am but they were very unreliable. We asked if there was a place to stay and he said our best bet was to get to Greece and see if we could find a place there. He spoke to the bar man and told us a taxi would be arriving for us in 3 minutes and he would take us to the border. Three minutes later taxi man shows up and remarkably he spoke some English. We chatted about how his sister lived in London working as an au pair and how he wants Macedonia to be a part of the EU so he can go to London to live too. He dropped us off a couple hundred meters from the border, wished us good luck and was on his way.

So there we are. Me, Nate, two backpacks, two daypacks and two passports. We tried to explain to the Macedonian police what we were doing and they kept asking ‘walk?’ with puzzled looks on their faces. Apparently it isn’t every day two Americans go walking through the border! We got through easily enough and had to walk about ½ mile to the Greek border, where we also got through with no problem. It was at this point we realized we had absolutely no clue what we were doing. There was a little shop just on the other side of the border so we got a coke and sat down with our map and guide book to figure out what the heck we were going to do. Mom, you’re not going to like this, but we made a sign that said THESSALONIKI and sat by the side of the road looking to catch a ride. A casino bus pulled up and the driver just opened the door. We asked if he wanted money and he just patted Nate on the back and pointed to 2 empty seats. We got a free ride 60km to Thessaolniki on by far the nicest bus we’ve been on. When we got to Thessaolniki, the bus man just pulled up along side a road and pointed for us to get off. We followed orders and waved them off as they continued to wherever they were going. We wandered down the street and found this hotel, where I am sitting now, typing this blog. We found an empty, cheap, clean room...we still have no idea where in the city we are but we’re planning on getting some sleep and figuring that out tomorrow.

All in all, it’s been a crazy and lucky day. We’ve gotten free rides, free money & we can officially say we walked from Macedonia to Greece! We’re headed to Athens tomorrow and from there back to Italy. I’m glad to be out of sketchy Eastern Europe...it’s always an adventure, but I’m looking forward to things being a bit easier for the next week or so!

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Comments

[Nate's Mom]

Relieved
I am feeling a lot better now after reading your BLOG. I can't wait to hear of the walk up the Acropolis. It was 115 degrees when I did it at age 59! I thought I would die!. I wish I could do what you are doing....maybe I will....STAY SAFE. Nate's MOM