Long Bus Trip to Thessaloniki

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Hi Everybody!
We boarded our bus to Thessaloniki Friday morning at 5:30 A.M. It took us eleven long hours to reach our destination from Tirana, Albania. The bus was a modern tour bus. All the other passengers were natives of the two countries. We were able to talk at length with a young man who had recently graduated from the University in Albania. Other natives who could not speak English, still tried to help us by showing us what to do at the border with passports, luggage checks, etc. We drove through a beautiful, green valley with lots of orchards (apple, pears, peaches, figs, olives) and corn fields. We saw one tractor and many people working with hand tools. Corn shocks were tied together in fields along with hundreds of big haystacks. We frequently saw men riding donkeys or standing and driving carts pulled by donkeys. We saw several flocks of wild turkeys, herds of recently shorn sheep and herds of goats. We rode through numerous hills and mountains. I have had a chance to read the history of this region. There has been much blood shed here in the last 15 - 20 years. Today, we are exploring Thessaloniki. We have sampled some delicious Greek food. This morning, we met an American lady who spends 3 months a year here with her Greek husband. She told us that next week on Aug. 15th, the Orthodox people will celebrate their most important holiday of the year - The Assumption of the Virgin Mary. We hope to be in a small village on that day to see the pigs roasting in the street and other traditional activities.
Tomorrow, we will take the train to Skopje, Macedonia. Several people have told us to not rent a car in any of these countries --too dangerous·!!!! Tentative plan: go to Skopje by train, then Sofia, Bulgaria & Bucharest, Romania by train or bus before flying to Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Take care,
E

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Comments

[isabela]

tirana-thessaloniki bus
please could you give me more information about this connection tirana-thessaloniki? where the bus start? what is departure time? bus route? price? thanks a lot. Isabel

[Everette]

Bus to Tirana
My husband, Walt, is going to send you the details on the bus between Tirana and Thessaloniki.