May 6 - June 13, 2010
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Stage 6: Macedonia, Bulgaria and Kosovo
The next morning we took a bus to Skopje, the capitol of Macedonia.
We were glad we took the bus we did and not this bus which we passed along the way. The back end had caught fire! Fortunately, all the passengers had exited out the front and were standing about 100 yards ahead of the bus, watching their luggage go up in smoke!
We arrived in Skopje about 11 p.m. with a reservation at a hostel, but no map, nor local money! Fortunately we met Despina who speaks perfect English. Within a few minutes, she had taken us to an ATM, and then to a place to change our large bills into smaller ones, called a taxi, explained to him where we needed to go, and negotiated the fare for us! Without her, we might still be wandering around in the Skopje bus station today!
The next morning the lady running the hostel helped us hire a taxi for the day.
Our first stop was in the mountains at the Bulgarian border where we walked through all the formalities, looked around for 10 minutes and then walked back while our driver waited in Macedonia.
Here is a border sign we encountered which one could only obey at one's own risk ...
From Bulgaria, we proceeded to Kosovo where we again walked through the border and back while our driver waited.
Next, we went back to Skopje where the driver showed us around some of the sights in the Old Town area, including an old castle ... and
... a great open air restaurant where his cousin works where we all had a late lunch.
Here are (l-r) our driver, his cousin, Hannelore and our waiter.
Taking a walk that evening, we stopped and looked at how many buildings in this part of the world are constructed ... simple bricks covered by nice facades.
Stage 7: Skopje to Thessalonika, Greece
The next morning had a nice train ride from Skopje to Thessalonika, Greece. It took several hours, including lengthy formalities on both the Macedonian and Greek sides of the border.
Thessalonika is a large metropolis with a long history. We took a long walk in the evening to see some of the sights.
The next morning we took another walk and stumbled across two ancient churches, one of which is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
After our walk, we took a bus to the airport, had lunch, and then flew to the Greek/Ionian island of Corfu.
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