It's been 10 months now since I left the US of A and I just took my first official "vacation", a week down in Greece. Tantalizingly close, the Greek border turns out to be only 15 minutes from Bitola but I'd never gone because anytime I leave the country (except for my business trips to Albania), I have to use vacation days. Luckily fellow volunteer Ellen decided to come with me and we began our journey by taking a taxi to a place 3 hours from Bitola called Meteora. This first stop was my favorite and I'm surprised it's not better known because it's incredible. Meteora is essentially a collection of monasteries perched on top of tall rock pillars. Ellen and I managed to visit 4 of the 6 monasteries in one afternoon, not bad considering we did it entirely on foot. The pictures on up on Picasa for anybody who needs a new desktop photo.
Afterwards we began the hallmark of our trip, consuming beverages that are difficult to find in Macedonia, no matter the ridiculous Euro price. I do think that Greece is single-handedly trying to revive its economy through astronomical charges for tourist services but at least I gained a new-found appreciation for what a bargain Macedonia is. In fact, it made me wonder if people in Macedonia could truly weather joining the European Union if prices went up similarly here but most Macedonians that I've subsequently asked are still want to see Macedonia join the EU because they anticipate it will reduce corruption and bring more job and educational opportunities.
The proprietress of our Meteora hotel did not speak English but did know German, so I dug deep (DEEP!) into the recesses of my brain for simple German phrases. The language part of my brain is a scrambled mess right now, to the point where when I want to speak German I actually mentally go English to Macedonian and then Macedonian to German. Still, it was nice to know that there's some German left in my head, sort-of. Getting out of Meteora involved an interesting taxi race to the train station by a driver who did his utmost to get us several miles in about 30 seconds. The driver was indicative of most of the people we encountered in Greece, quite nice and helpful. We ultimately missed the train but got on a pleasantly air conditioned bus to Athens.
This was my second time in Athens and it was just as hot as I remembered. The number of tourists at the Acropolis bordered on insanity, so Ellen and I retreated to more beverages, gelato, and Korean food. While in Athens, we met up with a grad school classmate of mine, Kosmas. He's originally from Athens and was nice enough to take us out to a very sleek waterfront bar. I enjoyed getting caught up on what he'd done since I left North Carolina(I'm glad somebody got their PhD!) and hearing a Greek's perspective on the Balkan region.
From Athens, Ellen and I took yet another bus to Pylos, a town on the very southwest part of the mainland. The Katie college reunion tour continued there because we met up with Jen, my college roommate from University of Nebraska. Jen goes to Greece every summer to excavate and she let us join in for a day at her site. Similar to my last excavation experience, there was a lot of hacking at dirt, resulting in sore muscles in my hand. However, it was cool to check out another, older site and see first-hand what Jen has been doing all summer. The following day, we went to the beach with Jen's friends Eric and Julie. Actually, Jen and Julie worked on photographing mud brick houses falling apart (that's actually what they want them to do) and Eric, Ellen, and I chilled under umbrellas on the beach (with copious sunscreen, of course).
Getting back up to Bitola involved a grueling 12 hours of buses, an overnight stop in Thessaloniki for one last Starbuck's iced chai latte, and then a 3 hour train ride back to the border. It felt good to step out of everything for awhile and yet it was also good to be back to the familiar where I know how to say more than hello. And thanks to a shipment from my mom (she's the best!), I'm restocked in chai latte and can pretend that I'm still on vacation.
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