Once we got going again, our bus traveled some distance through steep, twisty, mountainous terrain-- quite different from the region of Corfu, Greece, where some of us had traveled two days before. There were many tunnels through the mountains, and I was lucky enough to have gotten a short nap on the bus during this part of the trip. We stopped in a beautiful, quaint mountain town to find a washroom (Metsovo, I believe)-- and ended up having a delicious Greek lunch in a log cabin restaurant. (Apparently this town is a ski resort in the winter). I tried some Greek yogurt with honey-- delicious!! We had a few minutes to walk around the town square, and chatted with a couple of older ladies, who let us take their picture.
The latter part of the afternoon is where things got really interesting... our Albanian tour bus broke down about 100km from the Macedonian border. We waited outside, and after a while the Greek police arrived to help us out. We were able to get another tour bus to drive us the last hour and a half or so to the Greek/Macedonian border, where our Macedonian tour bus awaited.
It was a huge relief to climb onto our Greek 'rescue' bus-- but the last part of the drive to the Macedonian border was really quite spectacular. We drove through some rolling hills, with a sunset like a Renaissance painting. There were some small shrines with lit candles along the roadside on the way to the border. Thankfully, our second border crossing was much smoother than the first, and we were on our way again, toward our hotel in Skopje. After a quick stop at a convenience store for 'dinner', we took off again, and arrived at our hotel here shortly after midnight.
Today so far, we had a marathon rehearsal with the Macedonian musicians that we'll be performing with tonight. It was hot and humid in the basement of the music school where we rehearsed, but the orchestra is sounding great. Looking forward very much to our concert tonight!
-Elizabeth