Big Mac-edonia

April 2025

My journeying this blog ...

From Thessaloniki on the right, to Ohrid, top left.

It's sad to leave home. My home away from home.

After spending another chunk of time with my friends in Thessaloniki, we were all teary as I left. Maryanna gave me a beautiful leather bracelet to remember them by.

In fact, they made me promise that I'd be back, and, they said that in Greece promises are very important, so they'll be expecting me.

After a long morning of hanging out over coffees I eventually loaded up, and headed out.

It wasn't too crazy getting out of Thessaloniki, and I was soon out of the city limits.

Below Left: Car graveyard

It's been raining here, and the land is looking so lush. It was warm as I headed off, but rain threatened.

Below Left: It was a skinny road west, with hardly anywhere to rest in the shade, so I went down a side road and sat right on the bitumen, under a tree, to eat my lunch snack. The tree is obviously favoured by the local bird population, given the amount of avian poop and feather bits everywhere.

Notice my new clean shoes. I bought them in Gattinara. And how long do you think they'll look like this? Actually it's so nice to ride a bike with light shoes for a change, instead of with my leather clunkers, which are much more suited to the moda district of Milano than on a touring bike in the hilly Balkans.

I headed west across the flat lands, through small towns and farmland, and it wasn't too long before the hills appeared.

Edessa

I'm still alive however, albeit a little legjelly-ish.

There was nowhere much to camp. The road was full of fruit plantations, there were dogs around, it rained, and so I got a super cheap room in town.

Below Centre: The town of Edessa, perched on a cliff in the distance. It doesn't look like too much of a climb, but after about a 90km cycle, my first long ride for a few weeks, it was a killer.

My own room out here is almost the same price as a hostel in Thessaloniki.

I scrubbed the day's ride off my body, then explored the beautiful old town.

Edessa, like most places around here, has a huge history. It was the first capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedon, and later, under the Byzantine Empire, became an important centre of medieval Greek culture, and was also famed for its innovative fortifications and walls.

It's beautiful to wander around it, as the old town has a huge number of buildings still standing, some of them renovated, others not.

Above, Top Right: I stayed in Alexander Street, οδός Αλεξάνδρου, and this is Alexander the Great himself, doing his usual thing of rising a horse. Apparently he once rode down this very street, so it was only fitting that I should follow my namesake on my bike.

Gorgeous views from the edge of the cliffs

And a gorgeous church

Above Right: My balcony view

Florina

The next day was full of ups and downs, but only of the altitudinal variety.

Mentally, emotionally and physically, I couldn't be happier and more content right now. I'm revelling in my current lifestyle, in the connections I've been making, the incredible places I've been visiting, the foods, the landscapes, the quirky and unexpected things I'm seeing or experiencing.

Life is so stimulating right now, it's hard to wipe the smile from my dial.

The scenery is lush. Orchards, fields and forests, of all shades of green.

This is bear country. Yikes. It's sorta weird to know that they're around, as I'm not used to them yet.

Below Centre: Wild boars are pretty big. This sign gave me a good indication of the size of some of the bears.

Below Right: This is the pose they make just before they kill you.

Below: I sat on the grass under a tree to eat my bread. Well, share it with these two volatile little darlings. They couldn't seem to work out whether to love me or hate me.

The beautiful Lake Vegoritida, which I skirted.

Above Left: Beautiful winery made of stone.

Above Centre: He headed off in the wrong direction, poor bugger.

Above Right: I hope this wasn't bear-related.

I eventually headed into the outskirts of Florina, as the rain came and went, and threatened again.

Above Left: I hope she didn't show her centre.

Florina's a pretty rundown town, but has a couple of streets with cafés and renovated old shops, and has a super nice laidback vibe about it. It also has a pile of delicious old buildings.

Above: Looks like she had too many hash cookies

Above Left: The Greek national football team, on the occasion of their shock victory in the 2004 European Championship. For the size of the country, and its football history, winning that title is regarded as its greatest footballing achievement by far.

Imagine if teams of social workers, teachers, and people who devote their lives to others would be celebrated like this.

Everyone would wanna do it.

Across The Border

The next day I accidentally found myself on a freeway, by taking a wrong turn and then being too lazy to go all the way back to the road I should've been on.

Luckily there were no cops this time, as opposed to the last time I did it in Greece, near Alexandroupoli, when the cops made me pay for a taxi to the next freeway exit.

As soon as I could I got back on the tiny roads. There was no trafffic whatsoever, which wasn't a surprise, as there was no traffic on the freeway either. It was late Sunday morning, and everyone was having a long brunch.

It was also drizzly and misty, and I got wet, but not super wet, thankfully.

Below Centre: Ha! An ancient sign to Yugoslavia! That country hasn't existed for over 30 years. I love seeing things like this.

The border crossing into North Macedonia was straightforward and pretty quick, as it was basically dead.

North Macedonia

It's not the first time I've been in this country, but the first time I've ever really explored it. I visited the capital city of Skopje a little while back, but only during a stopover on a long bus journey.

It's so great to be here on my bike.

The main highway is pretty much the only road heading in my direction, and it's skinny, with no shoulder.

But there was little traffic, and the drivers were quite polite actually, generally slowing down to wait for me if there was a blind corner or rise ahead, or if traffic was coming in the other direction.

What a relief that was, as it's definitely not always like that.

And I've heard that some other Balkan countries, (Albania comes to mind), have very poor reputations when it comes to safe driving, unfortunately.

That's one of the risks you take on a bicycle, and is always a good incentive to make cyclists like me take the smaller roads, if possible.

Pretty soon I was rolling through the medium sized town of Bitola, as the drizzle came down.

I was surprised. The place was actually full of Sunday arvo people, sitting around in cafés, along two beautiful pedestrian malls. I'm not sure who everyone is, but I assume it's mainly locals.

But actually school and uni is back for Greeks from tomorrow, after a couple of weeks off, so maybe some Thessaloknickers are amongst the cafegoers here.

There's some beautiful mosques here. The country of North Macedonia is about one third Muslim, compared to only around 2% in Greece, despite the Muslim Ottomans ruling the whole region for around five centuries.

My lunch. Spinach and cheese pastries. I didn't eat the baby, as I'm vegetarian.

My homemade blueberry juice was so tasty, and not sweetened. Well, maybe just a little.

Everything's super cheap here. My lunch and drink was about 2€, and my modest but totally ok hotel room less than 20. It did smell of bathroom though, and the bed was built for very skinny cats. Luckily I'm in that cat-egory.

I laid my head down, and my snooze became a kip became a siesta became a long sleep.

It was late afternoon before I returned to the land of the loving.

I strolled to find a place to sit. And drink coffee.

It wasn't hard.

It's what people do here. The cafés are full of locals, meeting up for coffee and chats. Many do it at least three times a day, which is actually totally affordable, as a coffee here's less than €1.

Maybe Bad Luck, Definitely Good Luck

I had some bad luck today.

But it turned out to be the hugest portion of good luck I could've imagined.

It happened towards the end of my ride to Ohrid, a beautiful town situated on a huge lake that a local Macedonian told me was the most beautiful spot in North Macedonia. Well, he said Macedonia, they hate calling their country North Macedonia, as they say it's an artificial name, and not its real one.

Anyway, I'd been climbing some long tough hills, pretty much all day, and I was on the very last one. There's double lanes on the road as you head up the hills, because there's loads of slow traffic around, and then as you go over the rise, the double lanes merge into a single skinny lane going down.

And the hill I was just about over had a hugely long descent, steep and fast.

I'd already done a number of downhills today, and they were also long, so I'd been riding super fast.

So there I was, crawling up the very last bit of the hill, and I saw a sign saying that the lanes would merge in 100m, meaning I was just about to go over and do some serious speed cycling.

And then, wham! My back wheel totally jammed up by surprise, and I was nearly thrown off my bike, but because I was only just starting to speed up after the climb I managed not to fall.

And then, kapow! A huge bang! emanated from my back wheel, as my inner tube totally exploded. The noise echoed down the valley, and I thought, WTF?

I got off my bike to discover that a large piece of my back wheel rim had basically totally snapped off, and the sudden extra pressure on the tube had burst it like an overblown balloon.

Shit! I was in the middle of nowhere. My back wheel was dead, my bike couldn't even roll. So I removed the back brakes to get the wheel moving, and then tried to hitch a ride on a truck down to Ohrid, the town, where I just hoped there'd be a bike shop, although I didn't like my chances, given the complicated nature of my bike's injuries.

And then it occurred to me how lucky I'd just been.

My rim snapped less than 100m from the top of the biggest and longest hill of the day. If it'd happened only a minute or two later I would've been careering down the hill at a roaring speed, and when the back wheel jammed I would've been thrown onto the road at a huge speed, quite possibly into the traffic, which was coming from both directions, including massive speeding lorries.

It's possible that I would've been killed. It's very likely that I would've been seriously messed up, even if no cars or trucks hit me.

What a sobering thought. And how totally unexpected.

And the thing is that it could easily have happened on any of my other super fast downhills earlier in the day, when I needed to use my brakes regularly, putting further pressure on that flimsy rim.

Without going on about it too much I've just gotta say it's another hugely powerful reminder to me of how fickle life is. It can seriously end at any moment, and at some point in our lives that moment will be here.

We just don't know when.

And I'm really not trying to be dramatic, because I actually generally do like facts to get in the way of a good story.

But I was just so bloody lucky.

Another thing I learnt today is to check my fucking rims! I hadn't noticed how thin the back one had become. When I think about it, I last replaced it in Vientiane in Laos, thousands and thousands of km ago. So dangerously dumb!

So anyway, there I was at the top of the hill, and I couldn't get anyone to stop, because drivers were already starting to accelerate, in both directions, and there was hardly anywhere safe to stop anyway.

Eventually a guy in a wood van stopped a bit of a way down the road. When I got to him he was asleep in his van, so I waited there until he woke up, and then asked him if he could call me a cab, as I don't have a SIM card here.

Alexandar was so helpful and kind. He made some calls. But none of the taxi companies from Ohrid wanted to come back up the hill to get me, about a 15km trip one way, so he suggested taking me back to a town called Resen, which was about 20km back the way I'd come, and said I could get a cab from there.

I didn't have any options, so I unloaded and threw my dead bike and luggage in the back of his van.

Alexandar's a beautiful man, and could speak ok English, because he works with clients from Europe and the US. He has his own business, making fine furniture and staircases.

As we were driving he suggested that maybe it would be better if he took me all the way back to Bitola, because he knows a proper bike shop there, and the guys might be able to sort me out.

So even though I'd just spent most of the day riding all the way from Bitola, it made total sense to go back there to fix my problem, because I didn't think there'd be that many good options further down the road in my original direction of travel, either at Ohrid, or beyond.

Not on the back route I'm planning on taking anyway.

We got to the bike shop, and by a huge stroke of luck they had exactly the right rim for my bike, and not only that, but a new cassette and chain, which I needed as well, but couldn't get in Thessaloniki.

So here I am now, having déjà vu - in the same town, in the same café, and only a little more than 24 hours after the last time I was here.

But the thing that's changed is that I'm hugely appreciative to be here, in one piece, in a much more powerful way than I was yesterday.

Today's experience was big, and now I finally know why all those dogs keep chasing me.

Because I'm a cat, and I've been using up my lives.

Nonetheless, it was a beautiful ride today.

Above Top Left: This ancient fire truck is still being used.

Above Bottom Centre: Poor dead badger. RIPPDB.

Above Top Right: One of many dead dogs.

Above Centre: One of many big climbs today.

Above: The interesting town of Resen.

Below Left: I thought I might have my lunch here, but a gang of badass dogs found me, so I headed further up the road, as I needed some space.

Below Right: I sat here instead.

My dead rim

Above Left: Bike shop in Bitola

Enci menci spider

Take Two

I stayed in the same place I stayed I'd stayed in last night, and then, after waiting for my bike to finish being repaired, I headed off again.

It was a beautiful ride today. The weather had cleared, the sun was out, the sky blue, and the views stunning.

But the thing is, the dudes at the bike shop hadn't checked my bike properly, and as I rode off I realised that the chain was slipping on one of the three front gears, which made riding annoying. I'll have to sort that out somewhere soon, if I can.

Below Right: Hate to keep badgering you with more wilddeath, but there's so much of it out here.

Below Left: So weird to see French here.

Above Centre: The top of the last hill, at about 1200m. A little further up was where Bewdy gave up the ghost.

Above Right: A steaming smelling burning rubbish mountain.

Above Left: There were a few small tunnels en route.

Eventually I rolled in to the lakeside town of Ohrid, which sits on the banks of a lake with the same name. Lake Ohrid is a hugely special place, as it's one of the oldest lakes in the world, and is a rift valley lake, like Lake Titicaca, Lake Baikal, Lake Tanganyika and the Dead Sea.

The area has UNESCO World Heritage status, and the hugely deep lake, with a maximum depth of 288m, has over 200 endemic species within it, which is amazing.

And besides its specialness, it's also sublimely beautiful.

As soon as I arrived at the hostel I met Eero, a super nice Finnish guy who's also riding his bike around, but in the other direction. He had a large cold bottle of beer with him, so we sat on the rooftop and drank it, and he told me about his few months of cycling in northwest Africa, which sounded super interesting, and pretty crazy.

Eero and I connected immediately in a really easy way, and ended up spending a couple of beautiful days together.

Wandering the gorgeous streets of the old town.

We shopped and had a cook up, and then met Joanna, a super nice Polish woman who lives in Krakow.

The three of us chatted for hours, and got on like a hostel on fire. Joanna's only on a week's break, but she's a super interesting traveller, quite a sensitive soul, and her and I connected beautifully, and ended up hanging out a few days later too.

The next day Eero and I went on an amazing hike into the hills, climbing up to a peak called Tri Mazhi, at an altitude of 1625m. The lake sits at around 700m.

The track was steep, and wound through the forest for awhile, and then climbed up higher, through low heath. The views were divine up there.

We eventually walked down, and hitched along the lake for a bit, then took a public van (bus) back to the town.

Later Joanna, Eero and I strolled to some beautiful churches across the other side of the old town, sitting on an old wall for ages and talking about life.

Watching the sunset together, the three of us, and chatting about life, was another one of those very special moments.

Then we shopped again and had yet another huge cook up, and went to bed super late, as usual.

It's been really amazing hanging out with those guys, another absolute blessing in my life.

More Goodbyes

For me, farewells are the hardest part of travelling.

I somehow connect so closely with people so quickly on the road, it's like our relationships are turbocharged, because you know they're gonna be short.

And so many have been beautifully sweet.

I loved my time with Eero and Joanna. I honestly could hang out with them for ages, we all fit so well together. But, as usual, we're all going in different directions.

Eero is heading towards Turkey, Joanna to a small town not so far from Ohrid to see some special architecture, and I'm heading north, on my way towrds the Republic of Kosovo.

Yeah, you may have heard of Kosovo, for all the wrong reasons, because of the years of conflict it was involved in, only a couple of decades ago.

But there's a lots of hills and forest between Ohrid and Kosovo. And there's been so many since I left Thessaloniki.

The forests are jam packed with animals and birds, and every now and then they show me their faces.

Yeah, if there's one common element between these often politically divided countries in the Balkans, it's that they're all graced with magnificent forested hills.

And there's way more heading my way.

Lucky me❤️

http://buymeacoffee.com/krolesh9