Day 86 - On the overnight bus to Istanbul, Turkey

1. Us on the 209BC Samuil's Wall.
2. A farmer ploughing a neighbour's field
3. In the old town of Orhid (note the building above) 4. A typical male get together

 5. Farewell dinner at Vladko (right)and Ana's (left)
6. One of the pigs Boris offered to slaughter for us.
7. On the verandah with Darko Ivanovski and Bobby

 

We went for a walk yesterday evening and passed this amazing third world pub stuck out in the farming area - I've never seen anything like it. Vele decided to shout the ten drinkers - the total $AU6.00.

After we packed the car it was an emotional farewell to our new friends. There were a few tears from all sides. Finn has Facebooked Darko and Tilly has Monika's email address. Sunka gave us some cheese made from sheep's milk - not a slither but three chunks. She relies on selling this to make some money so it was very generous. She also gave Tilly a bracelet. K bought the adults a packet of cigarettes each and gave the kids some money and I took a photo of the kids which I promised to give her a print.

We have really enjoyed our stay in Macedonia. Sneza and Vele really looked after us and showed us some amazing sights. They also constantly acted as interpreters which must have been so tiring. So thank you Sneza and Vele so much again for opening your house to us and for your warmth and generosity. The people that surround you there are wonderful and proud and we enjoyed every moment with them. It is one of the best places we have visited.

Sneza and Vele drove us to Bitola at 11am where we caught the bus at 1pm to Skopje. We had lunch including three softdrinks, two cappuccinos and four meals including a basket of bread for $AU16.50. This is a three hour trip and arrived at 4.20pm. The overnight Istanbul bus arrived at 6pm. It is a much better one than our trip from Montenegro except the driver and his two offsiders smoked for the duration.

We hit the Macedonian border at 8.45pm and hit problems. I was called off the bus as I did not have a particular document when staying in their country. If we stayed with a hotel, they complete the form. As we stayed with friends we should have gone to the police station and completed one which we then produce at the border. No one obviously knew this including us. After some questions I was told that this was a problem as I had spent six days in their country without any notification. They told me never to do it again. Whew!!!!

We hit the Greek border at 10.05pm which is 100 meters down the road. At 2.45am we took almost an hour to be processed at the Turkish border. Again we're all on very little sleep for our final leg of our three month journey.