Wiped out in Macedonia

Macedonia Square.

Don't know what this lot are up to.

You put your left hand in ---

Liz has found at least one female worthy!

The Old Stone Bridge 

Monday 14^th May.

It was a quick trip to Kruje today the birth place of Scanderbeg the Albianian folk hero who manged to withhold the ottoman invaders at least for a few years. This is on the lower slope of the Albanian Alps and the is a 15-century castle and a more modern 18^th/19^th century affair. The old castle has a museum of Albanian work tools and other artefacts, while the modern castle is devoted to Skanderbeg with socialist style murals depicting the peoples hero possibly it was originally intended for visitors to extrapolate this to the mid-20^th century. Lefter then drove us up to the top of the mountain where we lunched at a genuine rural restaurant along with a group of men one who told us he came from Sarajevo. We eventually returned to our camper van where Lindita met us to wish us good bye and set off for Pogradec on Lake Ohrid. We found a camp site right on the lake edge.

Tuesday 15^th May.

We had breakfast in the camp restaurant overlooking the lake. Decided to put on our washing as there was a machine available, however our command of Albanian somehow ended up with a 3-hour washing program but this gave us a chance to walk along the lake. There were a couple of fisherman with lines but no evidence of any fish. We finally got moving and headed over the border into Macedonia and continued all along the eastern shore of the lake to Ohrid town. We actually missed gong into the centre of the town and didn’t see all it had to offer. To keep to our schedule, we wanted to make Skopje by the evening. After many miles of winding mountain roads, we hit the Macedonian autostrada and a monumental thunderstorm. 20 miles short of Skopje the driver’s side windscreen wiper lost its drive connection and flopped over to the wing mirror. With conditions as they were and just happened to be by a hotel so we opted for the soft option and stayed our first night in a bedroom.

Wednesday 15^th May.

A bright sunny morning meant we could get into Skopje with out windscreen wipers. I had assumed that the spines on the drive shaft for the wiper had stripped so looked for a garage to replace the drive. The nice Macedonian Mechanic we found fixed it in less then a couple minutes by just tightening up the retaining bolt, pretty stupid off me to assume a Mercedes would be built like a 1960’s BMC Mini and pretty stupid of me not to bring a set of spanners. As the wiper blade had bent due to its random activity last night we bought a new one and at last we were ready to explore Skopje. This is an interesting city with the old and the ultra-modern buildings. The city has grown up around The Old Stone Bridge a middle ages river crossing, there are old fortified walls and a mature bazaar. However, Skopje is in your face with larger than life statuary at every available corner, huge mounted horseman, bridges adorned with the Macedonian good and the great and fountains spraying everywhere. Buildings with Italianate facades in fact a historic city centre as created for Hollywood or from an instant ancient city Lego Kit. However, cynicism aside it sort of works and is a pleasant place to walk around and I can think of worse places to spend some time in. While drinking our first coffee of the day in Macedonian Square with a prime view of a rearing horsemen genitals on display that is the horses rather than the rider we chatted with our waiter and when asked about how the city had developed even in his comparatively short time his take on the matter was “It is all a bit kitsch and the money could have been better spent on improving some of the provincial cities.”

So it was onwards and upwards into the mountains and over the border into Kosovo. Macedonia certainly presents as one of the more up together of the Balkan countries and they probably can do without a lot of hassle from Greece over their name. We made it to Pristina and were now experiencing a dearth of camp sites, so pitched up at the Buffalo Backpackers Hostel which our guide book said offered camping. On arrival the camping consisted of parking in the street outside and having use of the hostel facilities. For €10 it was re-assuring to know we were sort of legal but declined joining in with the Ozzie host’s Princess Party that night. ( are such things P.C. with the LGBT lot these days?) We ambled into the city and found a lot of booze free bars, I don’t know if this is a permanent state of affairs or just for Ramadan – generally speaking the Albanians are fairly laid back in their approach to Islam.