The Wild East

"Mark threw a stray basketball into a kid's face"

The plan had been to aim for the 9.30 bus to Ohrid and we’d get the 11.30 as a backup. In true Wild East fashion we ended up missing both. We stocked up on a big breakfast and headed for the bus station. We got a pretty hard time from the taxi drivers who kept offering ‘special deals’. The bus tickets were obtained for a 3pm service so we had a few hours to kill.

We had to lug the packs round with us – announcing to everyone we were tourists. We sat down by the river. It wasn’t long before 3 young men spotted us and came over to talk, though I didn’t have a good feeling about them. MT christened the leader of the Group Ricky Gervais, there was a chimpanzee-like character in a vest and the 3rd guy was nonedescript but Taylor had a brief conversation in French.
Gervais had worked in Romford, Essex (probably illegally) as well as having military experience in various parts of the old Yugoslav Republic. It wasn’t long before they were asking for money, then money for beers, then beers. It was mainly a case of sitting it out and making excuses before eventually Gervais got fed up and walked off.

Barely had the chimp scurried off before the next lot of professional vultures were circling. A group of gypies (15-20 in total) had been eyeing us up from the corner of the square. I remember hearing Taylor's voice shout “Incoming! Incoming!!” as a wave of gypsy kids ran towards us. I made such money belt etc was securely in place and bracing myself for a dozen probing hands. Putting my hands deep in my pockets and putting on an extra burst of speed I was able to avoid the worst of it. I expected MT to do the same , but he seemed to dawdle and then I heard a scream behind me “Piss Off!!” shouted Taylor.

For one horrible moment I thought MT had been separated from his passport, but he’d narrowly escaped. During the quiet of the day Skopje did feel like enemy territory. It was like being in Lord of The Rings, we’d just survived attacks from The Black Riders and then some Orcs...but we were still in possesstion of the Ring (our wallets and passports). For now.
Skopje’s reputation was slowly being tarnished and we took ‘shelter’ in the guarded shopping complex ‘Ramstore’ with a big green Kangaroo outside.

A couple of hours later and we were on the bus heading west. The road was good quality dual carriageway with toll booths every so often. We headed through the infamous Albanian town of Tetovo where there were prolonged disturbances in 2001 whiich nearly threw the entire country into civil war. As the last of the minarets slid past the scenery became wilder and mountainous with thick pine forests all around. Yugoslavia has always been a very physically beautiful country and the last 15 years haven’t changed that.
Arrived at the resort town of Ohrid around 7pm. There were 10 old people gathered around me and Taylor when we got of the bus – certainly a buyers market. We decided to go with a man called Lazlo who charged us 5Euros each per night. He was a decent man who went out of his way to draw us maps and point out the sights and his house represents some of the best value accommodation in 5 years of the Wild East.

We strolled into town looking for a café and Ohrid was proving everything I’d hoped it would be – lots of tourists but hardly any westerners, decent cheap food and beer, attractive architecture and women. Me and Taylor enjoyed a slap-up meal and some gypsy kids sat down to order a meal of their own on an adjacent table. The waitress refused to serve them until they proved how much money they had and it was counted out at least 3 times.
Me and Mark, being English (and therefore trustworthy?) didn’t have to pay until the end. I presume that once Macedonia is discovered by groups of British men (hopefully not for a while) then we’ll all get the gypsy treatment.
We had a walk round the old town (where Mark threw a stray basketball into a kid's face) and along the lakefront. Several miles away across the lake we could some very faint lights of Pogradec which indicated that there must be electricity in Albania – a good sign, we’d been half expecting total darkness.
I think MT’s favourite attraction of Ohrid was the clown who only came to life every 30seconds and then froze. Is Taylor in the right profession?!

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