Day 79 - On the way to Skopje, Macedonia

We had a huge storm this morning at Kotor leaving us without power.  The accommodation is several hundred years old so is quite dinghy. I am typing this in the dark despite it being 10am. The rain continues to fall so there is not much to do - even packing is difficult so we are just lying here killing time. It is the first day of Summer but we are in jumpers.

The bus leaves Kotor at 6pm and takes 12 1/2 hours to reach Skopje in Macedonia arriving at 6.30am. We then have to change for the Bitola bus that comes at 9am. This is a further 3 hour trip so we arrive in Bitola at midday. From here friends Sneza and Vele will pick us up to take us to Sopotnica.

We are meant to have checked out by 11am but our hosts have extended this until we are ready. Given the pouring down of rain, we waited until after four. So armed with an umbrella or two we did a final exploration of the old town. 

We waited within a tunnel for more than half an hour due to the rain before we could head to the bus station or as they call it here the autobuska stanica dragging our luggage. After an hours wait we were on the bus being driven by a cranky, chain smoking driver - talk about passive smoking. We had our shoes off and when the driver did a passport check, he insisted we pit them back on indicating through sign language that there was a smell - what a hide!!! A bit of yelling here, a bit of yelling there but none in English. What the real worry was the two crucifixes dangling from the windscreen which we thought might be used to pray that we made it! 

We crossed the Kosovo border at 1.45am - no sleep happening here - just more passport checks. No freeways happening here either - just bends and mountains. K worked with the Kosovo refugees at Singleton Army Base in 1999 so she has a connection here. As it gets light at 4.30am, I could see some of the lovely countryside Kosovo has to offer. Every second business appears to be a petrol station - not sure what's going on there. We reached the Macedonian border at 5.25am but had to be processed at the Kosovo border again 100 meters beforehand. We're all buggered and feel we have smoked a packet of cigarettes!