Ohrid, Sveti Naum, and some little village, Macedonia

I arrived in Ohrid, on Lake Ohrid in Southern Macedonia at about 4 in the morning and first I thouht it was an awful time to arrive somewhere but after walkin for a while I was delighted to be there that early. Knew where I was gonna stay but didn't want to wake the guy yet so I just hung around by this church nearby perched on a hill overlooking the lake - it really was fantastic and I stayed there as the sun rose behind the mountains and watched how the light changed everything... it was a great way to get a first impression of the place... and to get very tired! Slept very peacefully when I finally got to bed!

Ended up staying there in Ohrid for 4 whole days, and it was only then, when I slowed down a bit and 4 days seemed like such a long time to stay put, that I really realised how fast I'd been moving! It was twice as long as I'd stayed in any one place since Moscow! It's all good!

I spent my days relaxing a lot - first day met these great Swiss girls and we just sat for the day by the lake, having some food, chatting, I sewed quite a bit, and of course swimming. It was a great place to swim.. One day I was out walking and found a really beautiful secluded beach - didn't have togs or a towel but I wanted to swim so much that I just went in naked and waited in the sun to dry afterwards - all good but felt a little uncomfortable when I noticed two old men standing on the hill above, seemingly watching me for ages!

Weather was fantastic so that really helped the relaxation and I was very grateful - had been hoping for the weather to impove before the end of the trip.

One evening when I went to a perfect spot to watch the sunset I met Bernd, a professional photographer from Germany, and Vanco, music producer, amateur photgrpaher, cd shop type guy from Ohrid - two really interesting guys and I spent some good time with them over the next couple of days.

Bernd was in Macedonia for a month taking photographs for a final exam at university. He was full of all these insights into Macedonia, it's people, history, economy, political situation etc.. which at first I was quite intimidated by - i'm not very good at that kind of thing - but I listened to what he had to say about the place and he took me in his car to a little village nearby so I could see the life there and I'm very happy to have met him - he helped me get a more rounded view of Macedonia and hopefully to understand the country a little bit more.

Also headed for a day trip to Sveti Naum, a monastery complex nearby with a great little church in the centre.. lots of great churches round the place.. the town of Ohrid itself has some great sights like this also but I liked it more for its overall relaxing atmosphere, the spectacular lakeside scenery, and for the people I met there. Others who I haven't mentioned yet include Stefan, the guy whose place I was stayng at and Marco, from Slovenia, living in Macedonia for last 2 years but returning to Slovenia now to play with the Philharmonie. It was a very interesting and relaxing few days.

Ruse, Veliko Tarnovo, Koprivshtitsa & Sofia, Bulgaria.

Bulgarians nod their head's up and down to say "no" and shake from side to side to say "yes"! Crazy! Confusing sometimes but usually just kinda fun!

Ruse is right at the Romanian border and was alright for a one night stay and a couple hours walking round - always nice to see another town on the Danube - but really wasn't up there too much for me. But just as I was starting to feel a bit weary and down, a little tired of the road and bored by Bucharest and Ruse I landed in Veliko Tarnovo. Weather was still sucky but it didn't matter a bit to me in this town! In the hills the houses of the town are built on and into the sides of the hills and cliffs around the place.. another hill has a huge fortress perched on top of it and great stone walls running round the outside - these elements, various other hills, the views, the mist, even the drizzle all combined to make a place that for me was dramatically beautiful .

Added to this I found a great little shop that had loads of little things I'd been looking for for ages and spent a small fortune. The groovy owner showed me all the best bars in town and I headed to them with the Australian and New Zealish ex-boyfriend and girlfriend that I met in the house where I was staying. Met more locals in one of the bars and had a great night out with them - beer was delicious and cheap but Bulgarian Tequila (who ever knew it even existed?) was the most shockingly cheap thing ever! Dom, New Zealish guy, went to the bar for a round of 6 and had change from a euro!! After a couple of those however memories of Slane '99 came flooding back and I had to call it quits on the tequila!

Returned to my my favourite shop the next day and spent even more money - at least by paying more I knew I was getting quality stuff - that sounds like I was buying drugs!! No, it wasn't drugs - no drugs this trip except alcohol and a growing amount of caffeine!

And after this I couldn't have found myself in a better place, or a place with a better name, than Koprivshtitsa. Small little village in the hills again, centred round a river/stream running through the valley, the town rises on the hills on both sides. I'm sick of describing places as "beautiful little towns, with cobbled streets and winding alleys" but these words do come to my mind again for Koprivshtitsa - they are inadequate however because it is a place so different from any other I have been - the architecture for a start was new to me and walking the streets, the hills, along the streams, over the bridges and through the forests I was often amazed at the beauty of my surroundings - the style and atmosphere was very new to me and I'd never even imagined a place quite like it.. and from my description I know you can't imagine it either but maybe it's better that way! Just go there! And maybe I will return - very romantic place to walk if one had one's Missy to hold one's hand!

Sofia was also nice enough but it didn't strike me and I didn't give it all that much time to grow on me either - left in the evening after arriving in the morning - was eager to get to Macedonia and I don't regret leaving so quick, I had a nice day there and felt that it was enough. Wanted to go to Rila Monastery out in the mountains but a tour was too expensive and I had missed the only public bus out there for the day - would have needed another couple of days to get there so I decided to give it a miss - sometimes it's nice to miss some things, as an excuse to return some time.

Sofia is the highest capital in Europe.. I remember that came up in a table quiz with Miss, Marie & Eimh once and I had no idea of the answer.. now I do!

Later people.

Miniature Update Live from Ohrid, Macedonia

OK so since Romania I've had a great trip through Bulgaria to some great little towns in the countryside and I've come to Macedonia and relaxed for four days here by Lake Ohrid. Tomorrow morning I will walk across the border to Albania and figure out my way across the country to Tirana - for once lonely planet is severely lacking in information but I am glad because I look forward to figuring it out for myself.

And I'll leave it at that for now... "If only he was always so concise" I hear you mutter! Yes that would be nice.. but my obsessive compulsion for some of the littler details means that I will write more about these countries some time in the coming days.

If I'm not in touch before the 27th then Happy Birthday Speederson (he likes to pretend it's the 23rd but don't believe him).

Heading home is becoming an increasingly close and increasingly exciting reality but before then I have my Albanian adventure, a 24 hour cruise in the Adriatic, my Slovenian reunion, and officially some time in Italy and Austria to boot, whatever that phrase really means.

Later, you beautiful people, O the B.

Brasov, Poiano Brasov, Rasnov, Sinaia, Bucegi Mountains, Bran, Sighisoara & Bucharest, Romania

It took really ages to cross the Ukraine-Romania border. Checker guy wasn't convinced by my passport photo so wanted to see other forms of ID - of course all my other IDs look probably even less like me now so that was kinda funny! He got over it in the end though... but still had to wait ages for everyone to be cleared, bus to be emptied, baggage checked, and so on and so on.. anyway that's one of the things that makes travelling in Eastern Europe a bit more of a novelty I think.

Now saw quite a few places in Romania but I'm gonna try and keep this short. First thing I noticed bout Romania was that I really was returning to "Europe" - people were eating foil wrapped snacks, rather than sausages and tomatoes, on the train and no one really seemed to speak to strangers. I heard English and German all around as I walked the street and could order food in English instead of making a fumbled attempts at Russian and pointing a lot. Must admit I was at first a little disapointed to be back "on the trail". Where piles of backpackers gather just kind of pisses me off - much of Europe seems to me like a playground for grown up kids to come and party in and I don't enjoy this attitude to "travel".. this was my most negative of thoughts towards the place but I soon got over it and realised there's other reasons people come here - Romania, and Europe in general, is seriously beautiful, interesting and diverse!

One great thing that immediately struck me was the general appearance of the countryside. There was something about the shapes of the hills, the texture of the grass, the colour of the fields & the patterns of trees that made it unlike anywhere I'd seen before - and all the horses and carts around the place were pretty groovy also!

All those towns in the title - except for Bucharest - are in Transylvania. Brasov and especially Sighisoara were great places to just wander round and explore - cobbled streets, great architecture, lovely squares, churches etc etc and both, again especially Sighisoara, situated in hilly countryside.

Sighisoara is where Vlad Tepes (aka Dracula) was born and I had dinner one night in the house he was born in! Ordered breaded brains - thought it a suitable location to enjoy this speciality again!

Rasnov is another little town - main focus is the great castle on the steep hill overlooking the centre. Walked the 10kms over there one day after visiting Poiano Brasov, where I took a cable car to the top of some big mountain just to find myself in the middle of a big cloud. Walk was nice though.

Then Sinaia is the premier ski resort town of Romania - no skiing going on when I was there though. Had a welcome day of rest during which I explored the incredible Peles Castle in the hills just outside the town - really fantastic place, I'm talking tingles down the back of my neck kind of beauty as I walked through its splendid rooms.

Then the highlight of my time in Romania was hiking for a couple of days across the Bucegi Mountains. After the first day I stayed in a real cosy Cabana on the highest peak, Mt. Omul. Met cool hiker dude Reinhard from Austria there and we hiked together down the other side the next day.

First day it had been freezing, quite cloudy and even snowing, but this made for some very dramatic atmospheric scenery and snow is always good for photographs! Second day was clearer and yes this also made for more dramatic scenery! The mountains are seriously beautiful there and Reinhard was good fun to walk with - even if walking with him made me even more aware of my clumsiness and the amount of times I nearly trip over!

Our hike ended in Bran, home of Bran castle, where Bram Stoker decided to base Dracula - this was never Tepes' home nor did he probably even visit here but needless to say local souvenir pundits have made a killing from the association and you can buy all sorts of dracula memorabelia from the dozens of stands around the entrance.

Then I was on to Sighisoara for more wandering through the streets and the hills and a couple of days later to Bucharest... not the ugliest place in the world... think I'll leave it at that though!

Romania is a land of contrasts, a few of which I got to see: from the concrete complexes that were Ceaucescu's civic centre in Bucharest, to the narrow winding streets around Sighisoara's old centre, to the spectacular scenery in the Bucegi mountains - and the list could go on - Romania is a country that deserves serious exploration - Reinhard was spending a month there and still wouldn't see all the diverse regions of the country - I got at least an overview though and I was happy with that on my way to Bulgaria.

Don't know if I've "kept this short" but I tried!! Later buddos.

Damn Ryanair

Was planning on writing up about Romania now but cos of a mess with Ryanair I don't have time any more. In Bulgaria now but only for a few more hours because tonight I'm getting the overnight bus to Macedonia in a little bit. So I'm kinda far behind here but I'll get it sorted soon. I blame Ryanair.. a great deal is always a great deal until it changes and then it's not such a great deal any more. Ciao.

Kyiv, Lviv & Chernivtsi, Ukraine

I rushed to the train station in Moscow to catch my train to Kyiv. I queued outside to get some food and water for the overnight trip and then ran through the station in search of my platform. I had only just climbed in the door and the train pulled out of the station - good luck, and I felt good for it and was very happy as I took my seat beside a middle aged Russian woman and a young hippy couple, also Russian. Few words were spoken but smiles all round and a typical Russian/Ukranian friendly atmosphere with biscuits, chocolate and drinks offered for sharing.

Later as we prepared for bed the Russian woman, Claudia, took my sheets and blankets and insisted on making my bed for me! Very nice feeling to have someone do something like that for me - felt very comforted and warm.

And for an hour or more I drew pictures with the hippies, Galina and Sergei - we each started a picture, then passed it to the next and so on and so on - lots of fun and some interesting pictures by the end. Galina spoke excellent English and we chatted a little before going asleep.

Next morning Galina asked, "Won't you join us?", and of course I did. Sergei knew Kyiv very well and also, I discovered that day, spoke very good English. We walked for the day around the city to many remarkable places and I was so surprised by its beauty. I had imagined Kyiv would be a very plain concrete communist city but really it is remarkably beautiful (this will turn out to be my phrase for the entire country!). Beatiful streets, squares, fountains, buildings, parks, churches, atmosphere, and most strikingly such beautiful views, over the Dniper River, high above which is the centre, and over the city with a wonderful blend of trees, buildings of various styles, churches and monasteries and the huge Iron Mama statue that dominated the view of the green hilly city from the train as we were arriving.

That night I stayed with them at their friend Tola's place - a small cluttered little flat in a suburb of high rise apartment blocks. We walked through the suburbs to Sergei's sisters place and spent time there, and at Tolo's, chatting about Ukraine, Ireland, travel, hippy festivals, folk music and much more besides. In Tola's we looked through boxes of different bead necklaces & bracelets she made (some very impressive stuff - she does this professionally). We slept, the three of us and another guy who happened to be staying there too, on a large piece of wood, covered in a blanket and propped up on stools and cabinets in a spare room. I was at the edge and slept on another single plank of wood propped beside, but slightly above, the main piece of wood. Not the most comfortable of nights but it sure was a novelty and I was delighted to sleep there, drifted off smiling after chatting with Galina for a while.

Next day Galina and Sergei were on there way elsewhere and I headed to Kyiv Perchery monastery where I walked through their underground caves - with a candle for light I walked through the corridors passing on each side the glass tombs of mummiefied monks! Locals stood and prayed at the tombs - I just stared in quiet wonderment! Their bodies were covered with woven blankets but each one's brown decaying right hand peaked from the cover and lay across his chest.

Leter I went and met Sergei's sister in a little room near the centre where she was meeting with other members of the Traditional Irish Folk Music group she is part of!! It's a big thing, I was very surprised to learn, in Ukraine!! I sat listening as Natasha piped away on her tin whistle, Kolya plucked on his borrowed violin, and Jim kept the beat on his Bodhra¡n! There was a map of Ireland drawn on the wall and the music wouldn't be out of place in Dolan's on a Saturday night - such a funny little place to find in Kyiv!

Later I met a guy there who introduced himself as the Viking! I had heard stories about him the night before. Until about 3 years ago he had spent 3-4 years hitchhiking, North and South, East and West, across all of the former USSR! Quite a brave achievement and I was fascinated to have the chance to talk to him about it.

And Kolya took me to Volodymyrsky Cathedral, the biggest and most famous one in the city. He works here, as the bell ringer, and took me up to the roof, where he sat in a little wooden cabin - inside strings hung from all directions, each connected to one of the many bells scattered around the tower, two foot pedals were connected to the biggest bells. At 3:45 he began pulling the strings, and he made such great music with the bells! I was quite amazed as I stood there watching him, so concentrated on what he was doing, he put so much energy and vigour into pushing and pulling all the strings in front of him - and he kept going for over twenty minutes, sweat dripped from his chin as he put all his body into creating all these different simultanious rhythms - below little crowds stood and listened, some pointed up and then everyone would stare at the guy on the roof ringing the bells. Yep, yep, yep, that was fantastic!

Lviv, in western Ukraine, is another, even more, remarkably beautiful city. Described by lonely planet as being as elegant and beautiful as Prague or St. Petersburg, few people who have spent some time there, even in the almost constant drizzling rain, could disagree. Nothing too exciting happened, or really seems to happen, there, but as I was strolling through the beautfiul streets or sitting in the diverse cafe's I really believed that it was exciting enough just to be there - nothing else was required! On the cobbled streets, lined with beautiful but aging and crumbling buildings, I often felt as if I had been transported in time to a place long ago and long forgotten - good days, good days!

And finally on my whirlwind tour was Chernivtsi, down South near the Romanian border, this picturesque town has such a fantastic relaxed atmosphere. On the overnight train there I got chatting with a Ukranian guy named Victor, 40 something years old, very friendly and speaking struggled but understandable English we chatted for hours. I sat with him in his compartment and he fed me bread and cheese, eggs, tomatos and bacon. And he took out a bottle of vodka which we steadily consumed.

At half twelve I told him I wanted to go to sleep and he got quite angry, telling me that if I went to bed now I would never understand Ukranian culture!! And so I was persuaded to stay up a little longer. A friend of his got on the train in Strea and VIctor gave out to him for not bringing any drink with him! Within a few minutes he had managed to buy another bottle of vodka off a policeman who passed by and we got through most of this also before Victor finally, to my relief, announced that he thought it was time for bed - quite drunk, but apparently more knowledgeable of Ukranian culture I headed to my compartment and slept soundly until the morning!

Chernivtsi was another place where I was content to stroll its beautiful streets, parks and squares. In my hotel room I again felt like a time traveller! The room was taller than it was long or wide and was decorated with various clashing floral patterns - the aqua blue telephone and huge black and white tv were the finishing touches to a wonderfully funny room!

I went to the theatre office to try and find out if there was a show on in the opera hall that I could get tickets for. Widescale confusion eventually resulted in me being given a personal tour of the theatre by a really stange Ukranian woman. She showed me round the different areas, took me up on stage etc., all the time trying her best to give me information bout the place, but without speaking English. Then she took me to meet the director of the theatre - "what on earth do I want to meet the director of the theatre for?", I was thinking, but I was eager for the strange tour to continue so I went with here. She sat me down in a little waiting room outiside his office and told me to wait there until he came out, then she walked out the door, but as she was closing it, peeped her head back in, stared straigh at me, and proclaimed in a hushed, almost haunting voice, "I love you"!! She closed the door and I sat there in disbelief - I pondered the situation and I laughed so much that tears rolled down my face!

A few minutes later she returned, not smiling any more, and promptly escorted me out of the building just saying "goodbye, goodbye, goodbye" all the time! Unrequited love, I guess it does strange things to people!

And so those are some of my most memorable moments in Ukraine, a country with few visitors, which I initially was going to just because it was on the way but which I quickly realised is one of the most friendly, interesting, and dare I say again, remarkably beautiful countries in Europe.

Moscow, Russia

This is my second time writing this because the first one got deleted.. oh the effort I go to! Anyhow it went something like this:

Moscow is really fantastic - I had a great few days there and probably loved it even more than St. Petersburg.

I'll always remember on my first evening there when I walked down to Red Square. It was getting dark and raining a little. I walked onto the square from the east, The Kremlin walls stood in front of me, GUM department store to my back, some great buildings I don't know the name of to my right, far down the square to my left stood St. Basils with it's huge colourful domes (everyone knows the one - even if not the name), and the cobbled stones of the square spread out in front of me, glistening in the rain with the lights from the street lamps.

It was such a perfect moment and I giggled to myself, just completely delighted to be there. I walked along the square and past the guard at the Kremlin, who was wearing one of those big long coats that Russian guards always wear in movies! It was all so Russian and I was so delighted to be there. It was one of those moments when everything feels right, everything!!

Also in Red Square is Lenin's Mausoleum, where for a couple of yos you can see the man himself in the flesh. After seeing his likeness in brass a dozen times around the country I was curious to see the real deal so I Qd there one morning in the rain to have a peak. After Qing for an hour I was told I couldn't go in because my bag was too big (not even my backpack just my litle daybag) - anyway that was a moment when everything certainly did not feel right and the reason I mention it is because I think it is inevitable when travelling, as it is in all walks of life, that there be ups and downs - like a wave perhaps. No matter how many wonderful fantastic things you are doing, I think it is human natre that there will be times you're less than happy. The important thing for me has been realising that whether I'm on a crest or in a trough, I'm always riding the right wave. (!)

Don't worry, I do realise the corniness of this sentiment and chuckle at myself here as I type it but the thought came to me and I had to write it like this!

I stayed in the apartment of a smiling Russian lady named Galina. She has turned her largest bedroom into a 5 bed dorm and I met some great people here. Anna from Germany has been living in Russia for the past year and was preparing now to return home. She's very sweet and friendly and we got on very well. Scott from Minneapolis is a character I will never forget. He was en route home after a year in Japan and was running the Moscow marathon, two weeks later the Warsaw, two again and it was Berlin, and finally Dublin in Ocober. I met a few other people who I chatted a bit with but Anna and Scott stand out above the rest.

I met Anna by chance one day at the Kayakovsky museum. I didn't know who he was (Russian writer for those in the same position as me) and I didn't even know about the museum but I walked past one day and had to go explore this peculiar building I spotted down an alley. Inside was even more extraordinary with various random items linked to his life (books, newsaper cuttings, maps, train tickets, posters, playing cards, furniture , photographs etc etc) organised and displayed in the most wonderful original way - it's impossible to describe in words really - lots of tangled metal structres and the artefacts are incorporated into them in various ways - that's about as accurate as I can get! One of my favourite museums in the world anyway!

Of the many other things I did in Moscow - there is absolutely loads to do and I left still feeling that there was so much more to see on a return visit - two stand out in particular.

One night I went with Scott to see Lokomotiv Moscow play Shaktar Donetsk in the Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier. There is great rivalry between the teams (Russia - Ukraine) and Galina warned us to be careful as we headed off.

When we arrived the stadium was surrounded by police and soldiers who would not let us through because we didn't have tickets - we walked to the other side and got through easily enough but it was really strange and funny because we felt like as if we were trying to cross some kind of baricade in a war zone. The ticket office had no tickets but we noticed some touts selling them. The wanted too much money but luckily we met a sound Russian guy heading to the match who had two spare tickets andhe sold them to us cheap.

After multiple ticket checks, metal detectors and body frisks we got to our seats in the stadium. The atmosphere was intense and exciting - evn moreso once the match started! Some things of note to remember: 4 peculiar business men who put newspapers on their seats before they sat down, then opened a leather briefcase and took out bags and bags of McDonalds, and gave each other vigorous high fives whenever there was a goal; Champions league anthem blasted out the speakers before the match; Mexican wave a couple of times; joining in the huge chants of "Ru - ssi - ya, Ru - ssi - ya, Ru - ssi - ya" and "Lo - ko... Lo - ko..."; big guy a couple of rows in front who always stood up with the most animated gestures at every incident and kept trying unuccesfully to start different chants; and of course the craziness and exctement whenever Moscow scored and when they eventually won (3-2 on aggregate but last goal came v late and they woulda gone out on away goals without it so very tense and I got really into it!)

Afterwards the 500m path from the stadium to the metro was completely lined on each side with absolutely hundreds of soldiers, each held a baton in his right hand and gripped the end of the next baton in his left. It was very surreal and we imagined that we were prisoners on the way to our cell!

One last thing that stood out, at I promise to stop typing after this, was a trip to the banya. A banya is a tradiotional Russian bath house - segregated by sex so once again I was naked. A visit first involves a regular shower, then into the increibly hot steam room until you can't handle it any more, at which point you plunge into the freezing cold water and swim for a few seconds. Back in the steam room one beats oneself with branches of leaves of some sort, to exfoliate the skin or something like that. Once again plunge in the cold water then take a break for a few minutes in the normal temperature relaxation room before repeating the process again and again...

After two hours of this I felt so incredibly refreshed, rejuvinated, and well.. clean! Walking down the street my whole body felt fantastic. I headed out to the University (fabulous huge building, one of the Seven Sisters, huge skyscraper palaces that dot the city) from where there is a great view out over the city and I spent some time there as the sun was setting. And so ended my favourite day in Moscow - and so ends my rambling on the matter!

In Romania now, in the morning I start my two day hike to the peak of Mt. Omul and across the Bucegi mountains.. upon my return to civilisation I promise to ramble some more.. about my time in Ukraine. Until then my friends and foes (don't think I really have any foes but just wanted to use that phrase!), O.

Quick note from Lviv

In Ukraine now and travelling at the most hectic pace of my life! night train from moscow friday night, slept on a plank of wood in someone's apartment saturday night, train again sunday night, hotel room last night and tonight well once again I will be back on a train! Gotta love it - will run now to the station - talk chas later dudos!