Day 45.

We'd ummed and ahhed about this journey, given our mixed experiences of bus travel in these parts. To get to Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, said the timetable, it would take eight hours... And if it says eight hours, you can usually bank on 10... Daunting.

But a private transfer would have been really expensive over such a distance (and in any case our hurdle for those has been legs that involve either more than one bus or more than one border -- neither of which conditions applied here).

We did wonder about adding a stop at Ohrid, on the big lake of the same name. But that would have meant rearranging the Skopje accommodation, and we were also a bit deterred by forecasts of snow in Ohrid.

Back in Bar, unable to agree (carry on with the eight-hour Plan A, or switch to the Ohrid Plan B?), we tossed a coin... Best of three. The coin toss said Plan A...

OK, the coin's the boss... But we set out to the bus station in today's cold dawn with some degree of trepidation. (An excellent breakfast was a bit of a comfort, mind you. A little burek place near the bus station offered basic chairs and tables at which you can consume steaming hot, delectably crispy burek, which cost the equivalent of GBP 1.20 for two...)



Long story short: The journey turned out to be way, way better than we had feared. Yes, it was a smallish bus, with not a massive amount of legroom:


But it also wasn't full, so we could spread our stuff over an extra seat, which made all the difference. It wasn't a sunny day, so overheating wasn't a problem. The driver was lovely (and you don't have to pay extra for luggage in Albania, it seems). We didn't spend long at the border (and as the driver collects the passports, and transacts all the business, you don't even have to get off the bus). And -- best of all -- instead of eight hours, the journey took slightly less than seven.


Of course, all this could have been different. Full bus; full sun; long queues; grumpy driver. This is the trouble. Bus travel in this part of the world is just unpredictable.

But for us this journey went well, so credit where credit is due: Drita Travel, you did good!

What's not subject to unpredictability is the spectacular scenery. Mountains, mountains, mountains, pretty much all the way. First, you head south, through Elbasan, and do the border crossing near Lake Ohrid. Then you skirt the lake, head north, via more mountains (snowy ones today), until you get to Tetovo. And then you barrel east to Skopje.

Scenes from along the way:










We're having a bit of a change of dynamic here in Skopje. We're not self-catering, but rather staying in an Ibis hotel. It doesn't take long to walk there from the bus station, but on the way you instantly notice two things:

1. It's pretty cold (temperatures hovering around freezing, maybe a little less).

2. This place is FULL of statues... They're everywhere. And they're enormous. True, this gives the capital a bit of a Las Vegas vibe. And the massive statue of Alexander the Great probably annoys the Greeks. But there's also something endearing about it.

The backstory (or least a critical version of it) is here. Basically, the earthquake of 1963 caused massive damage (wiping out about 70 per cent of the city). The 1965 Skopje City Centre Plan, the brainchild of Japanese architect Kenzo Tange, was set in motion, but was later displaced by an ambitious reconstruction project called Skopje 2014. The resulting controversy has an aesthetic thread (with the various projects derided as "nationalist kitsch") and a financial one (there have been numerous budget overruns).

You can't deny its uniqueness, though... There'll be more statue photos tomorrow, for sure, but here are a few to be going on with:




After checking in, we rounded up some cash, bought ourselves the seventh SIM of the journey (yes, SEVENTH), and shopped for a spot of tea (which included an excellent bottle of Macedonian red).

Happy to be here, with the vast crowd of stone companions.