Eastern European Adventure

One of my friends here was lucky enough to obtain a family friend's car during his semester. So we decided it would be the perfect excuse for a little eastern european excursion.
We started our adventure north destination; Skopje, Macedonia. Macedonia is directly north of Greece, however god help you if you refer to it as Macedonia while you are in Greece. As a former slavic republic the Greeks refuse to recognize it by Macedonia, the name it took after gaining it's independence, claiming that Macedonia stole their name from the Greeks. So if you are in Greece it is called F.Y.R.O.M. The Former Yougoslavic Republic Of Macedonia. We arrived later than we expected ending up in what seemed like a sketchy part of the city. Being in a former communist country late at night in a car with license plates of a country that they hate is not somewhere you want to be. We got into what looked like a safer part of the city and paid a cab driver to lead us to our hostel. The next morning we had the free hostel break fast and the owners showed us the way to the bazaar and a good authentic place to eat. we exchanged our money into macedonian denar, which was like .01/american dollar. We walked through the main city square and the bazaar. We got hit up for money every step of the way especially in the gypsy village close to the bazaar. It was very odd to see modern buildings like our hostel sharing a backyard with a gypsy family living in a "house" made up of coregated metal and abandoned cement buildings. We had our authentic Macedonian lunch, a sweet bread almost like pizza but with egg and sausage on it, baked bread with a soft almost melted goat cheese on it, and they didn't think anything of it when we ordered beer at 11am.

We left the capital, for Matka. A famous canyon and monestary about 20 minutes outside the city. The landscape of eastern europe is gorgeous. The foliage is just starting to turn, like a Bona's autumn, and it is just mountains upon mountains upon mountains... The trail leading to the monestary was along the cliff of the canyon with only a small rope railing attached to the inside rock wall. We didn't have the right hikeing shoes on and were told by some German passers by that it was all under construction and not really worth the walk so we turned around. We were satisfied with our trip to Matka and ready to head to our next destination, Sofia Bularia, when we got to the car and were boxed in.
As it turns out we had unknowingly parked in employee parking and my firends took pictures of the cars and showed it around until we got someone to move for us.

We arrived to our hostel in Bulgaria around 11pm. After getting lost a few times and the first thing we saw was a transvestite hooker, Bulgaria didn't look too promising. It turned out to be a blast. We met people in our hostel from Portugal,Spain,Mexico,Brazil,Japan, Detroit, and England. Everyone had a different story, most were just passing through, some had been their for a while, some just begining and for some it was the end of their travels. The city of Sofia is a beautiful capital, a very young city. Considering you can by a liter of beer for less than a euro, the hostel owners don't seem to mind that you can't seem to locate your key the next morning.

Eastern Europe is definatley a place worth visiting, often forgotten by the rest of the world. It has been through much strife over the past century and is finally getting itself back together to show the world the beautiful culture and landscape it has to offer.

The Mountain of the Gods

After two days of intense hiking it is a miracle I made it up the 4 flights of stairs to my appartment building. The trip to Mt. Olympus was one of my top priorities when I decided Greece as my destination for study abroad. We left Thessaloniki early Saturday morning taking a two hour bus ride to Thessaly. We stopped in the small mountain village of Litochoro aptly named "The City of Gods" for its location at the base of the mountain. From Litochoro we rode the bus just a stretch farther to the main national park entrance. We got off the bus to meet our guides and began our hike.

We were told it would take between 2 and 4 hours of hiking before reaching our resting point Lodge A, for the night. After the first 40 minutes everyone was panting and sweating and removing as many layers as possible. The walk wasn't overly difficult but was continuously uphill. That was our first and only stop before we arrived at the lodge about two and a half hours later. The park was the most green I have seen since I have been in Greece. Just before the lodge the mountain started to get steeper and the greenery more scarce. We had to stop to wait for three mules and a couple of horses to pass us on their way down. By the time we got to the lodge we were drenched in our cold dried sweat and gathered by the fire immediately. After thawing out thanks to fire, soup, and some tomato feta sandwiches, we had the rest of the day to realax and entertain ourselves. The view from the lodge was amazing, we could see the forest that we previously hiked as well as the daunting task that lied ahead.

Mt. Olympus, not only known for being the home of the gods, is the tallest mountain in Greece. Hikers from all over came to test their skills on the 2,917 meter (9,577 ft) mountain. We met poliece officers from Germany who hiked in their spare time, hikers from France, and all over Greece. There was even a family celebrating their son's ninth birthday, we saw them the next day even the 9 year old coming back down.

We had an early lights out, and an early wake up call. We got up at 6am Sunday morning and started hiking at around 7:30. Day two was alot more rigorous than day one. It wasn't a simple walk uphill on a mud path. It was hey watch your step there is a 400 meter drop six inches away from your foot! After about and hour and a half we stopped and split into two groups, one went a less demanding route to the plateau of muses, the other was sent to the peak of Skala. We walked a barren crumbling path for another two hours until we got to Skala 2,866 meters, to rest and determine who would go to Mytikas and who would go to Skolio. They only allowed 10 of our 30 person group to summit the mountain, Mytikas. I got to go to the second highest peak Skolio which is 2,911 meters only 6 meters short of the summit itself. The view was amazing. On a clear day you can see all the way to the Aegean and the three penisulas of Chalkahdiki. We could see the Aegean briefly but the fog moved rapidly constantly changing our view. We all signed our names in the book they kept at the top of the peak and made our way back down.

The decent was alot less demanding but alot more dangerous. We had to move slowly and cautiously in order not to fall off the rocky path down the steep mountainside. We arrived back at the lodge at about 1:30 taking a two hour break for lunch and rest and then finished our descent. It was much cooler on our way down so we kept all our layers on through despite the sweat. The last hour of the hike everyone was pretty much silent either in exhaustion or trying to take in what was left of the sights before we left. At the end we could barely walk and all stumbled onto the bus anxious for a hot shower and a decent meal. After 7 hours of hiking in one day the sense of accomplishment was overwhelming.

Back in Thessaloniki, there was no chance of you getting to bed at a decent hour. Elections were held on Sunday while we were away and results had just been announced. The New Democratic Party was now out of power replaced by the Socialist/Green party. People were chanting and singing in the streets. They set off fireworks at the playground no less than 50 meters from my apartment. The celebration continued into the night, and for those weary hikers Monday was a very long day...