louiseinlimbo

Having seen North Macedonia in two relaxed weeks, I felt that I have more time left than I really need in the Balkans, so after a relaxed week in Tirana, when the hostel owner asked if I’d like to volunteer for a few weeks/months in return for a free bed plus €5 per day subsistence money, I agreed.   The hostel is quite chaotic (on my first full day here, when unfortunately I had gone out exploring so missed the drama, the police came and asked to check everyone’s ID; one guest said he had to go up to his room to get his – and he didn’t come back down.   When the police went up to investigate, they realised he must have jumped off the roof terrace onto an adjoining property and escaped … we found out later the guy was wanted by Interpol!!), sometimes noisy at night, dirty, etc, but owned and managed by a very nice Egyptian guy who I felt comfortable with.   At first it wasn’t that much work – stripping beds when people checked out, putting dirty laundry through the washin...

After a week in and around Skopje, I took the bus down to Ohrid, apparently one of the oldest settlements in Europe.  It’s beside Lake Ohrid, which is one of the oldest lakes in the world, almost certainly the oldest in Europe, and also among the deepest.  It was a lovely area to explore at leisure – with some beautiful views across the lake (still with snow-capped mountains around), and a lot of historical stuff from different periods. To give an idea of that history, this picture above, of the Church of Saints Kliment and Pantelejmon - the world's oldest Slav monastery, with 5th century Roman ruins in the foreground - was taken from Tsar Samoil's fortress, dating from the turn of the 11th century (when this was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire), but built on the site of an earlier fortification dated to the 4th century BC.  I can't pretend that I even began to get my head around the history in the town - too much for my ageing brain! - but it was all very nice ...

I have to admit that this country was not on my ‘must visit’ list, but having decided to visit Albania before a return visit to the UK in July, it seemed to make sense to also visit the neighbouring countries. I’d heard that North Macedonia – or at least its capital, Skopje – was a strange, rather ‘fake’ place, and could quickly see why it provokes that response.  Situated in an earthquake zone, large parts of it (apparently some 80% of the buildings) were destroyed in a huge earthquake in 1963.  Some of the subsequent re-building was in the modernist, or ‘brutalist’ style, together with plenty of pre-fabricated apartment buildings erected hastily to house those made homeless by the earthquake.  The picture above shows the brutalist Central Post Office and Telecommunications building. But then in 2010, the government launched ‘Skopje 2014’ – a big, expensive, and pretty controversial, project to add some grandeur to the city.  Apparently, more than 120 buildings...

The reason I was in Egypt was actually to take a flight from Cairo to Seiyun, in Yemen, with a tour group. It’s not a country you can visit as an individual, but visas are granted to tour groups meeting specified criteria, so I’d signed up for a tour – a week in mainland south Yemen, followed by a week on the island of Socotra.  Then earlier this year, trouble broke out in Yemen, between the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council (based in the more northerly part of the country…) and the Saudi-backed and internationally-recognised Presidential Leadership Council (the government), with the former rapidly taking over significant parts of the country but then being pushed back, with the main results being their expulsion from the Leadership Council and the withdrawal of their UAE support.  Thankfully this was all over before my trip was due to take place, so I could still go to ‘southern’ Yemen, but the withdrawal of the UAE included the cancellation of their weekly ...

Siwa was not actually a place I had heard of until a room-mate in Thailand heard that I was travelling next to Egypt, and told me, “You have to go to Siwa Oasis!”, and having looked the place up online I decided that I would do so.  Only 50km from the Libya border, it is a town of the Berbers, where the local language (Siwi) is still dominant.  It reminded me in some ways of northern Mali, with the ancient mosque (dating from 1203) constructed in a very similar style to those in Timbuktu.  In an oasis some 25 metres below sea level, it apparently has more than 300,000 palm trees and 70,000 olive trees – but these are nourished by spring-water (via streams), not by rainfall, which is rare.  However in 1926 there were three days of rain, and most of the town existing at that point was badly damaged, as the buildings were made from large chunks of salt mixed with rock and plastered with local clay. The ruins are still there in the centre of town (with newer buildings ar...

My time with the cats finally came to an end and I took a long overnight bus trip to the city of Alexandria, having decided to see those corners of the country I’d previously missed (as well as the new Grand Egyptian Museum).  Alexandria was really interesting, with so much of the country’s ancient history (founded by Alexander the Great, succeeded by the Pharaohs, Romans, Mamluks, Ottomans, French – even the Brits, for a short period) having left its mark here – in the case of the Romans, allowing me to combine my interest in viewing historical remnants with that of birdwatching, when I saw this swamphen amongst the Roman mosaics remaining in the city! It was fun travelling around too.  I did a lot of walking as the city is stretched out along the Mediterranean coast, but also enjoyed travelling in the 12-seater white minivans which you can flag down and take to most places for just ten Egyptian pounds (the equivalent of 14p in British terms).  Oh yes! …talking of which ...