A proper post for a change

Oh dear, the blog seems to have degenerated completely over the last few weeks. Looking back, its been downhill since my 'curry' post.

There's a couple of reasons for this. We've been doing more drinking than actually travelling, and we've arrived in proper touristy places. It seems horribly self-indulgent to write about places that many of you will have visited and probably explored rather more thoroughly than we've found ourselves capable of. Besides, is anyone really interested in what we're eating for dinner (expensive seafood), how tanned we're getting (very), where the nicest beaches have been for sunbathing (Krios on Paros, although the water was a bit chilly) and snorkelling (south coast of the Pelion peninsula, I saw an octopus) or our deliberations on whether to hire a white convertible Smart car or a quad bike to get around Santorini (we got the bus)?

Thought not.

Rest assured, we've been having a really nice time.

We're now on our way out of Greece and away from the coast for at least a few days. More specifically, we're travelling from Meteora in the western half of central Greece to Ohrid in Macedonia. It should be a fun day - we need to take 5 separate bus journeys between small provincial Greek towns to avoid a huge diversion via Thessaloniki. There is always a chance that one of the buses we're hoping to take won't exist and we'll get stuck somewhere. I really like not knowing where we'll end up, but it stresses Gem a bit.

I'm not planning to use Macedonia's interim official name 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia'. Greece has blocked the use of the name 'Macedonia', as part of Greece is also called Macedonia and they view it as a slavic attempt to appropriate part of greek heritage (essentially Alexander the Great and his transcontinental rampage). On the other hand, I'm not sure why the Macedonians (i.e. FYROMers) really care what name they have to put on the letterhead when they write to the UN, when everyone will continue to call the place Macedoina regardless. Of all international disputes, this has to be one of the most petty.

Meteora is a group of monasteries built on once inaccessible rocky pinnacles. The monks once had to climb ladders, get winched up and down in nets, cross rope bridges, swing on a trapeze and use all manner of Indiana Jones-esque contrivances to get to the shops. The views are spectacular, but I can't help feeling that some of the magic has gone now that they are accessible by road and Italian tour bus.

We said goodbye to Gem's parents this morning. They'd been with us for a week since we got to Athens. David's kindly been paying for most of our dinners and wine, which hasn't really helped blog quality. We successfully converted them to the card game that has been keeping us occupied, and our usual lights out at 9.30 after a cheap dinner and a beer have been replaced by staggering back up the hill at 11 after a marathon game and a few kilograms of house white. That is except last night, as the 'home made' wine didn't taste like it had followed any recognizable oenological process.

Our plan for the next week is to spend a day in Ohrid, then travel from there to Tirana. From Tirana we'll visit the world's newest country, Montenegro, for a couple more days at the seaside, most likely in Kotor.

T.