Incredible Weekend

Well, I said I hoped to come back with stories and I wasn't disappointed. The stories actually began before I even left.
We had agreed to meet after class and go straight to the bus station. I came to class ready to go and noticed that Sheylah didn't have any bags with her. She informed me that she couldn't go because she had a big test that she had to study for. Oksana couldn't go either because of some work. I was a little upset because it was 4:15pm and someone could have told me something before I was all ready to go. Because of the sudden change in their plans, I decided to keep to mine and went on my own. I made it to Sofia by 8pm and a friend of mine helped me find the buses to Macedonia. Low and behold, the only bus leaving to Ohrid was 2 hours late and would be leaving at 9 instead of 7, my lucky day. When the bus finally arrived to a hoard of freezing travelers (because this part of the station was outside), we looked for our seats. I sat in my seat and eventually a lady was looking very lost searching for her own. In listening to her ask others about the seat numbers, I instantly recognized that she was SOUTH AFRICAN! And she just happened to be sitting next to me with intent of also going to Ohrid. The first thing I said to her was not "hello," but "are you south african?" She was shocked because I sounded american to her and she didn't expect that at all. It turns out that she is just as culturally confused as me. She left South Africa 17 years ago and had been living in London ever since. She also carries a Dutch passport on account of her parents, I'm not sure if she spoke any dutch.
We made it to Ohrid at 5am an ended up taking an offer from a guy who approached us at the station. He had good rooms at a cheap rate. He also was very knowledgeable about the buses and when and where to take them.
We walked around town for awhile trying to warm up and keep busy until the sun came out. Eventually it did and we took a bus to a nearby monastery near the Albanian border. For some odd reason there were peacocks at this monastery, so I enjoyed taking quite a few pictures. Afterwards we looked for something to do when found out that the next bus wasn't coming for another 2 hours. We decided to take a boat tour of a tributary formed by springs. I don't think I have ever seen water that crystal clear in my life. Other people who have been on the tour include Richard Gere and Naomi Campbell. Afterwards we sat around and eventually a taxi decided to arrive right around the time when the bus was supposed to come. Generally they just want the same as the bus fare, so it wasn't that big a deal. That night we had to go to bed early, because we had to get up at 5am to catch the bus to the remote monastery on top of a mountain. Mia (the lady I was with) went to bed right after we got back, but I decided to catch the sunset and eat some of the Ohrid Trout. I spent forever looking for a specific restaurant only to find that they didn't have any. I went to a different restaurant and found what I was looking for. I asked him for 250g of fish because it was about $19 a pound. He brought out a filleted fish and told me how much it was going to be. Then he went into the kitchen and the chef cooked it for me. I got a lot of other things with the fish, plenty of bread, an amazing garlic sauce, a spicy macedonian sauce, cooked onions, vegetables, and potatoes. I put the garlic sauce on almost everything. I had fun eating the fish because it still had the bones and skin. I did rather well and it was absolutely delicious. It was cooked perfectly and the flavor was incredible. After the fish I went back to the room and slept like a baby.
We woke up at 5ish and made our way to the station. There were a lot of people who were willing to drive us for the same price as the bus again, so we did that. We got to the foot of the mountain around 8am. After a very long hike uphill, we got to the top around 10:30. We were rather tired. The monastery was really nice, and it still offers accommodation for people. We walked around and rested for awhile, and then decided to go back down. We asked someone for the fastest way down, and we ended up walking down with 3 macedonians who told us all about macedonia and other things. It was great. The one guy spoke great english which he learned from watching tv. They invited us into their house and we had juice and coffee. Then he drove us to the bus station and found someone to drive us back to Ohrid. We made it to about halfway and caught a bus for the second half.
I was going to either go back to sofia that night, or try and go to albania that night. I was strongly encouraged not to go to albania at night, so i stayed the night and went in the morning. I took the 6am bus to the border and made it into albania, but i didn't have the 10 euro for the entry visa, so i turned around and went back to macedonia. Needless to say, that's about as much of albania as a wanted to be in. I was going to try and go to Tehran, the capital of albania, but there were no direct buses to sofia for there, and it would've been really complicated. I pretty much spent the rest of the day enjoying the weather and taking tons of pictures.
If you like landscapes and similar scenery, bring lots of memory for your camera if you go to macedonia, because you WILL run out of space.
Around 1:30 I made it up to the top of the hill in the city where there was a church and a castle. I figured this was the best place to see the sunset and I had nothing to do until my bus left for sofia at 7pm, so i just sat up there and waited for the sunset. It was around 4pm (2.5 hours later) that the sunset began. Needless to say it was worth the wait. There were some gorgeous clouds that the sun passed through and everything was perfect. I took at least 70 pictures of that particular sunset and I love every single one. Hopefully you can access facebook and see them.
My ride back to sofia was terrible, and by the end I was in that kind of mood when you just want to kill everyone on the bus and just hope someone pisses you off so that you have an excuse to go berserk. I made it to sofia around 5am and waited for my bus to blagoevgrad at 6:40. I was exhausted and hungry and I had a thumping headache. The bus to blagoevgrad was really nice and i felt much better by the time i got back. I went straight to the main building and talked to my marketing professor because i missed class on friday. I explained what happened and he told me what I missed. Then I came back to Skapto and slowly normalized myself.
I'm really glad i went and have convinced sheylah and oksana that they missed out big time. Traveling alone sometimes is better because you can do what you want when you want to. You also get to meet people and might end up spending a few days with them. I'm glad I decided to go and also that my country count is up to 24!
One month until I come home!