Today started the last phase of our trip. For the next month we will be traveling in North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Romania.
We almost always have breakfast included in our hotel stays but we didn’t in Thessaloniki because in big cities it is fun to find a bakery locally. This morning we found a wonderful one. They make their own croissants!
At 11 we checked out of our hotel and stored our bags. Next we planned to visit the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle. On the way there I saw a shop selling silk shawls like one I have and love. I bought a new one for €10. The shop also had a lot of what looked like decorated sticks. I couldn’t figure out what they were. The shop owner explained that on Easter children carry decorated candles to church.
Finally we took a taxi to the train station and caught our bus. At the border the bus driver took all the passengers’ passports to be processed. We were the only ones who had to get off and be questioned. My theory was that that was because they couldn’t quite figure out where we had entered the E.U. (It was a few weeks ago in Africa where we entered the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco). Anyway we showed them our flight details to enter Greece and we were on our way.
We also bought Duke new sunglasses at H&M and then walked to the museum. It was an excellent Museum. All the exhibit explanations had English translations and it provided us with some much needed context for the Macedonian region of Greece that we have been traveling in.
Our bus was scheduled to leave at 3:30 so we found a place for coffee and then killed an hour or so in the lobby of the hotel.
Not far from the border we got off the bus and got a taxi to Winery Popova Kula in Demir Kapija where we are tonight.
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