Blogs from Macedonia, Europe - page 15

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Europe » Macedonia October 13th 2010

You know youve been on the road a long time when the stray dogs start following you around, looking at you with pity in their eyes.We're a bit frayed round our material edges now,Tati's sandles are more glue than fabric, my shorts are more patchwork than Elizabeth Taylor's face and the less said about our underwear the better, but its all good round the world character.Some of the cyclists we see now are a fresh faced, clean panniered lot straight out of the autumn 2010 bike catalogue, where as weve taken on the more sylish cardboard box, hobo look,which by the way takes a lot of fine tuning.I just wish the local dogs would stop offering blankets and a kennel for the night.Our own kennel was renamed some time ago the ''favela'' for its run ... read more
Tour boat on Lake Ohrid
The wrong way
Rain break

Europe » Macedonia » Skopje September 22nd 2010

After about a week of fun in with Cvetko in Sofia I headed westwards to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The reason for the convoluted name is that Greece - good old fashioned nationalists that they are insist on it because they believe it implies territorial claims over Greek Macedonia - which they obtained in 1912 in a carve-up of Macedonia post defeat of the Ottoman Turks. I was headed to the capital of Skopje, about 220 kilometres away and after six uneventful hours on a bus and 1 easy border crossing later - I was there at the bus station. The ‘Tourist Information’ sign frustratingly only led to led to an empty room so I ignored all the cab drivers stood outside trying to rip me off and in the wilting heat (this blog ... read more
1 Skopke couchsurfing - 29 Aug '10
2 Skopje - 24 August 2010
3 Lake Matka - 31 August 2010

Europe » Macedonia » Ohrid » Ohrid September 12th 2010

After three days of teaching, I escaped the confines of Prishtina and headed to Orhid, Macedonia with three other teachers, our curriculum coordinator and my principal. Orhid is a beautiful location on a lake, Lake Orhid of course, and half-way across the lake you enter into Albania. We arrived around noon on Thursday and set about discovering some wonderful food - fried zucchini and breaded cheese. I think I could have lived on the cheese alone. The interesting part was paying - the Macedonian money is not worth very much, so items on the menu can be 200 denar, and gelato for five is 180 denar. The money looked really cool though, even if it wasn’t worth very much. After lunch we wandered among the shops, as Orhid is quite a tourist town. Aside from the ... read more
Orhid in the evening
Harbor in the Morning
Photo 5

Europe » Macedonia September 10th 2010

Location: Bitola, Ohrid, Skopje Length of Stay: 4 Days Cost per Day: $58 I was kind of expecting the Macedonians to be similiar in persona to the Greeks, however no... they are quite different... I suppose they would not be happy to be thought of as being the same... there is a little bit of conflict between these two nations... it surrounds the name Macedonia... They've been arguing for oh... only around 19 years... and one wonders if they will ever reach an amicable agreement... It appears to be very complicated and goes much deeper... but here is some surface info... I'm quoting... Macedonia seceded from Yugoslavia and became a sovereign state by a popular referendum held in September 1991 when the majority of voters chose independence. Greece immediately demanded from the international community not to ... read more
MACEDONIA
MACEDONIA
MACEDONIA

Europe » Macedonia August 1st 2010

Europe » Macedonia » Ohrid » Ohrid July 27th 2010

Poszukujac komfortu, w Gjirokaster spalismy w bed& breakfast prowadzonym przez urocza pare, ktora zaprosila nas na wieczorna herbatke i pogaduszki. Okazalo sie, ze dom, w ktorym mieszkamy ma 200 lat i byl ich prezentem slubnym - nie 200, ale jakies 30 lat temu, a angielskiego nauczyli sie podczas takich wlasnie pogaduszek z turystami. A napar ktory nam zaserwowali, to albanska gorska herbata - niezidentyfikowanym ziolem. Na sniadanie podali nam najprawdziwsze na swiecie jaja na twardo i caly dzban przepysznej gorskiej herbaty - wiedzieli, ze nam smakuje, a po drodze kupilam sobie cala jej wiazke. Zeby nie wracac ta sama droga na polnoc, chcielismy pojechac bardziej na wschod, nad jezioro Ohrid. W praktyce, oznaczalo to gory, gory, gory... Pierwszy przystanek zrobilismy przy goracym zrodle kolo wsi Benja, ktore tworzy maly basenik, a raczej duza wanne, gdzie z ... read more
B&B Gjirokaster2.
Turecki mostek.
Wszędobylski Mercedes.

Europe » Macedonia June 12th 2010

Saturday 12th June, 2010 Km so far: 1701 Left Thessaloniki and headed west towards Edessa and Florina. More green countryside and we chanced upon a lovely lakeside café where we stopped for a coffee break. Refuelled in Florina and we were expecting fuel to be more expensive in Macedonia. Found our way to the border without to much difficulty but the compass was proving essential to navigation as signs often peter out. Entering the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was not difficult, border police very friendly and helpful, but they would not accept that our pan-European insurance (bought from AIG in Cyprus) applied in their country. They wanted to see a green card which our broker had said we would not need. Whether it would have made any difference is debatable but my advice is to ... read more

Europe » Macedonia » Ohrid May 28th 2010

After the hellish journey we managed to catch a bus to Ohrid with only an hours wait. The bus driver was a very laid back kind of guy and took his time but J and I didn't mind as we managed to enjoy the scenery and have a few more vital minutes of sleep. Macedonian landscape is very similar to the last few countries very hilly/mountainous and lush and green. We went through some small pretty villages and even got to catch a glimpse of the national dogs (60cm sheepdog that will fight bears and wolves) they were actually fighting each other. Not sure I would be keen to meet them on a dark night they were quite scary looking. We arrived in Ohrid and had some very pushy woman fighting for our custom and to ... read more
Church of Sveti Jovan at Kaneo, Lake Ohrid
Sun set, Lake Ohrid
Church of Sveti Jovan at Kaneo, Lake Ohrid

Europe » Macedonia » Ohrid » Ohrid May 24th 2010

Quando decidimos incluir Macedônia e Albânia no roteiro, demos um tiro no escuro. Sem nunca ter ouvido falar de alguém que já tivesse ido para qualquer um desses países, e considerando que as noticias sobre ambos em jornais, revistas ou blogs de qualquer parte do mundo são mais do que escassas, não fazíamos idéia do que viria pela frente. Esperávamos cenário parecido em ambos, com alguma natureza bonita, dificuldade de locomoção e, certamente, desorganização, pobreza e sujeira. Mais uma vez, estávamos errados. Apesar da fronteira comum e do passado comunista, são dois universos paralelos. No primeiro, limpeza, beleza, povo simpático e nada de pobreza à vista; no segundo, o oposto: sujeira e mais sujeira, gente da máfia em todo canto, mais Mercedez por metro quadrado do que é possível imaginar, alguns mendigos (em geral ciganos) e ... read more
Lake Ohrid
em que decada estamos?
verde, verde

Europe » Macedonia » Skopje April 30th 2010

FYROM The country doesn’t really have a name. The official name of this nation of 2 million, by default, is The Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, which basically means, “we used to call it Macedonia,” with the implication that you can call it whatever the hell you want to call it now. So some people call it Macedonia, but honestly the whole Greek peninsula used to be called Macedonia as a geographic region. They really don’t know what to call it. They have a distinct flag that amounts to something like “Japan meets New Mexico” and I applaud their originality. I visited Macedonia with my friends from Kosovo because of proximity and because, it’s essentially the only place Kosovans can visit. Because, despite the fact that Kosovo is an established, modern democracy, it hasn’t secured solid ... read more
SkopjeCross
MotherTeresa
Swimmer1




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