Comfy night in Ohrid and a delightful sunny morning, albeit chilly, with still some tiny snow remnants on the ground met us at the hotel. Prior to getting on the bus, I couldn't resist but have a quick walk along the shores of the lake, seeing the snowy mountain caps across the lake, over to the old city and the crystal clear waters...scenes. Photos have NOT done it justice.

All aboard the bus, with worn shock absorbers and reluctant starter motor or battery (wondering if it will make it all the way), and into our seat for the day. As ever, the study of human behaviour is interesting with people's willingness (or not) to rotate through the better seating positions on the bus. After the first couple of days, one of the Swedes, former school principal Johann asked if we were to rotate. We were sitting behind the driver (ironically, a shite spot to sit as Boris is a bit stinky) and I think we were possibly the target. Of course, we're happy to move around. Unfortunately, not all were and so in the end that front seat ended up empty and the 6 friends from before the tour occupied the best seats in the bus for the duration and only some of us rotated through the remaining seats. Actually, only about 6 of us moved...classic study in human behaviour.

Up we went through yet another series of delightful mountains with plenty of snow around again. It has been an unseasonal cold snap with snow extremely unusual in April, particularly in the towns/cities. We feel quite lucky as it's very nice. The stop en route to Skopje was a dammed river in a lovely valley. Near the carpark where the bus stopped was a course for canoe slalom which looked to be being readied for a Balkan competition of some sort. Really interesting. We walked along and up the river valley for a while before coming to the dam. Above the dam were a series of boat operators and we boarded one for a 30 minute trip up and along the scenic canyon with green waters, steep sides and nice vegetation. We stopped short of the next dam and a cave as time was against us.

Back on the bus (without lunch much to the chagrin of some other members of the group who are not coping well with the need to be flexible) and off to Skopje for check in. Our hotel Ibis is nice and we headed out for a city tour. Our poor tour guide was on her first tour ever and it showed. Despite our best efforts to be that encouraging teacherly type (there were a few of us), like when a student is super nervous giving a talk, she couldn't quite get it together properly. Oh well. We did get to visit the old city bazaar, the outside of some orthodox churches, mosques and also some VERY large statues of Alexander the great, his mum (who poisoned his father, also a great warrior), plus a great tribute house/museum at the site where Saint Theresa was born here in the then Albania. Her story of leaving before getting stuck here, becoming a nun, leaving that order and starting her own Sisters of Hope (5000 strong now) with the blue scarf. The city is quite new as they experienced a devastating earthquake in 1963 so combined with only having 30 years or so post Yugoslavia breakdown, it's quite new. They even have an Arc de Triomphe...

A last proper Balkan dinner for us where we tried some baked beans in clay pot along with salad, cevapi and cheese fries...along with another of the local very approachable beers that I've enjoyed with my dinner many nights on this stretch. Skopje interestingly still identifies quite strongly with Albania as evidenced by the jeweller where Bronnie got some nice silver bracelets for her girls. Weird, we thought Albania was rubbish. Shows that the placement of borders can't please everyone. Even in the souvenir shops were magnets with the Albanian flag of the 2 eagles on a red background. Go figure.

Anyway, a last night ended our last proper full day in the Balkans as tomorrow we are basically just driving back to Sofia and to the hotel that we started in some 12 days ago.