Elbasan, Albania > Ohrid, Macedonia, > Bitola, Macedonia, > Edessa, Greece 91km, 69km, 89km

[Originally posted Oct 2, 2014]

Uh oh.  Somewhat of a delay in writing.  And what I feel the worst about, is that we spent three nights in Macedonia and never got a blog post in.  I guess we didn't really do that country justice.

So why the delay?  Each night when I sit down and say, okay, I need to write something, I end up on YouTube continuing my venture into trying to understand Islam, the prophet Muhammad, the Ottoman's and the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL or "the bad guys" - whatever you want to call them).  I decided to start from the very beginning, so first I watched 3 hours on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him - and then I got wrapped  up in a couple hours on the Ottoman Empire ( a rather fascinating group, which I will shoot out more gems of information as we get closer to Istanbul - we are ONLY ONE WEEK AWAY - but the first little tidbit is this - the Ottoman's Topkapi Palace is generally cited as being the source of the invention of Filo Dough - which brought the world 3 of my greatest treats, the Samosa of India, the Börek of the Balkans and . . . . . . wait for it . . . . . the heavenly Baklava) and then a couple documentaries on the Islamic State.

The Islamic State - creating a good deal of havoc in Syria and Iraq currently.  Their leader,  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has declared himself the Caliph (or leader, or more precisely the successor of Muhammad) to rule a Caliphate (an Islamic State composed of the faithful Muslims who follow Islamic Law (sharia).  Obviously there are many Muslims who deny this and would not like to be part of this group.  But there are also many Muslims around the world who are traveling to Syria to take up arms.  One of the last great Caliphates was the Ottoman Empire.  The most interesting difference between these groups, I've found, is how they treated or treat Christians or infidels.  Our present day Islamic State beheads or crucifies them.  But the Ottomans were much more clever.  The Ottomans would grant religious freedom to all conquered people, but then would take young Christian boys (aged 6 or so) from their homes and bring them back to Istanbul.  Here they were taught/converted to Islam and given the finest education in the world at the time.  The majority of them became members of the Janissary army - the Ottoman's elite most feared army and possibly the best army in the world at the time - while others who weren't cut out for battle were trained to be governors, engineers and scientists.  Scholars today said the Janissaries were superior to other armies because of extreme loyalty to the Sultan (being taken from their homes at 6 years of age, the Sultan and their fellow soldiers were the only family they ever had).  It seems as though this group is often looked at as being a wonderful thing that allowed the growth of the Ottoman Empire.  Were the same tactics to be employed today by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi I assume it would get a different response.

So that's that.  What have we been doing lately?

We went to Church in Elbasan, Albania.  Which officially keeps our "go to church once a month" streak alive.  While at church we met the best humanitarian couple, Robert and Rhonda Homer from South Jordan Utah.  Their work started out as a humanitarian mission but for the last 6 months Elder Homer has been the branch president.  He sat on the stand with a headphone on as a sister missionary in the audience translated the entire meeting for him.  It's amazing to see the good faith of those who are committed to spreading the gospel.  They also had lunch the other week with the First Lady of Albania to discuss humanitarian work, surely a couple who is getting lots done.  It must also be much more interesting for the "Ann Arbor Puzzle Mission."

Eastern Albania into Macedonia, it all felt a lot like Utah.  When we get onto a empty stretch of road without cars or houses I can just pretend I'm riding up Millcreek or  Big Cottonwood Canyons.

Macedonia was great, Lake Ohrid was beautiful, friendly people everywhere, food prices continue to hover around 1€ for a hamburger, met a 10 year old kid at a restaurant who spoke phenomenal English - his accent was perfect and he casually stated - yeah, I think that TV was probably my first English teacher, I watch a lot of cartoons.

Then the border crossing into Greece.  Northern Greece is arid, remote, nothing that we expected.  When we pulled into Arnissa for lunch, we were shocked.  Riding down the main street it was a complete ghost town.  Shops closed, no people, so quiet you could whisper to each other.  It felt like Main Street in Lake Village, except instead of all the shops being boarded up they were just all empty.  Rather creepy.  I knew the Greece had an economic disaster a couple years ago but I didn't think that meant all the people disappeared.  After a closer inspection of some shops we found out that shops would open up around 5:30pm, but were currently closed because everyone in town was out in their fields for the harvest.  The only thing to accompany the arid desert feeling of the area was bajillion rows of apples.

And then last night, since it marks our 3 month mark, we thought we'd try a return to Wild Camping.  At first we started down a windy road that paralleled the main road, looking for that perfect spot.  Lots of apple orchards and the occasional herd of sheep with dogs and old man in tow.  Katy asked the old guy if we could camp anywhere, but this guy spoke no English (duh) and so assuming we were two lost souls he handed us a couple of walnuts (still in their shell) and with a big smile on his face waved at us as we continued down the road.  Not wanting to camp in someone else's field (in retrospect we should have just done it) we continued along.  Next stop was the small town of Argas, where we ended up crossing the main intersection a handful of times, enough to be waved over by a friendly couple of ladies sitting on the side of the street.  One of them was Australian, informed us that no camping existed in the area, but we could try a park in the next town.  Just before we left her friend ran into her shop and grabbed two apples for us.  Hmm, I thought.  These Greeks sure are taking pity on us.  We reached the park in the next town and were immediately confronted by a nice guy walking his dog.  We chatted for awhile (all the while I was hoping we could get an invite to stay at his place) but in the end he informed us that the best place for camping would be up the road where we had just come from.  We continued (now it's dark) off to the bottom of this waterfall where it looks like some woods will keep us company for the night.  We head out of town, passing a hotel that costs 40€ a night (welcome back to EU prices) but we decide we'd rather have 20 Greek Souvlaki's than a nice place to sleep so we push on.  After a long steep descent we wind off into the dark, just about to reach our spot when a pack of dogs come barking out of nowhere and send us back out to the main road.   Getting cold, and in the dark, we return back into town to the hotel - actually a different one, we couldn't find the original one, but the new one is only 30€ (and when you get in the elevator there is no door that closes, as the elevator goes up you can just touch the wall as you speed pass it - well worth the 30€ in my opinion). We decide to at least have our dinner in a dark park on the way back up that steep hill, so it can at least feel like we attempted camping.  Oh well, better luck next time.

Also Macedonia has the best green apples I've ever sunk my teeth into.  Mmm.

And Katy is feeling healthy again.

At our 3 month mark we've covered 5,401 kilometers (or southern California to northern Maine).

Today we ride to Thessaloniki: Unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and Peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The mountains of eastern Albania

Elbasan, Albania

Mormon Establishment, Elbasan, Albania. What do you think of wild camping on the lawn?

The sun is getting lower in the sky. We are looking pretty svelte. 

Lake Ohrid and Macedonia, as viewed from Albania

Lake Ohrid

Church of St. John at Kaneo

Makedonija

Lake Ohrid, Macedonia

It really feels like you are traveling back in time when your food is measured with kilogram blocks - and people have a hard time writing the number 0.

What will you have Katy? I prefer to order by picture.

Great weather lately, sunny and blue skies. Summer storms are over and a beautiful autumn. Katy wears the pink jersey to ensure people see us. 

Northern Greece - or maybe Northern Utah - I'm not sure which.

Herklea - an ancient city.

Katy and her watch repair. Thanks to Charlotte for the supplies.

Greek - a new alphabet - although I feel I've learned most of these letters in my high school chemistry and physics classes - lambda, theta, sigma, nu, epsilon.