Hello macedonia .. be kind to me I am British….

The journey went very smooth .. just .. right up until the moment I entered Greece .. just as I was feeling like a confident, independant travel savvy woman ..

I left Manchester at 4am this morning .. The guest house owner drove me to the airport . . He asked where I was going and when I told him he looked visibly shaken .. he was quite emotional about it and refused to take any money for the taxi journey .. such a sweet man.

I picked up my little car at thessaloniki airport only to be told they won’t authorise it to cross the border into Macedonia. . What with that and the fact I couldn’t get my sat nav or phone to work .. meant the journey to Macedonia was rather tricky .. It took hours and I got lost over and over again. If it wasn’t for the kindness of the Greek people I would still be driving in circles.

All of a sudden I came across some of the makeshift camps close to the border .. tents and children playing trying to Eek some joy out of their situation . Quite a contrast against the bright blue sky and mountains on the horizon.

Eventually I arrived at the border …. I parked up and walked over to border control .. i felt very nervous approaching the border guard .. thanking my lucky stars i had the right passport .. I can’t imagine what it’s like if you don’t . I really can’t .. the Greek Guard gave me a severe telling off after asking me were I was going, I replied Macedonia. He angrily said there was no such country and crossed it out on my map . It’s FYROM he said tersely.

Border control

Then i walked across the border along the road with my luggage .. to the next border control leaving my car in Greece. I flagged a taxi down and he took me to my guesthouse insistent on doing a deal to taxi me each day to the border . I was a little suspicious as he kept repeating that he wasn’t part of the mafia, so I told him I was too tired to make this decision and took his card.

At the guesthouse. Now shattered and hungry I found out that only big supermarkets take euros ..I kicked myself as this should have been so obvious. I hadn’t planned for this, in fact I hadn’t planned very well at all. The owner saw my face and offered to exchange 50 euros into the local currency.

The upshot of all this is that .. I no longer felt like a confident independent travel savvy woman .. However .. yet again I felt the balance tipped in my favour when it came to my passport and all that it entitles me to do and all the places it entitles me to go ..

My passport and Macedonian money