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and climbed slowly ever upwards eventually crossing the border in darkness.
Katie’s fully comprehensive notes told me there was a hotel shortly after the
border, unfortunately that night there was a wedding in full swing and I didn’t
dare go in to the hotel looking as dirty and dishevelled as I did. So I decided
to ride on to Struga. It may have been downhill to Struga but in the pitch
black I found it a pretty hairy descent. I found a room as soon as I entered
town and checked in, $15. From there on it was easy, Struga appears to be
a German tourist resort and the evening was in full swing. I was able to
change money, buy kebab and chips to take back to my room, and all whilst
eating ice cream.

Travelling alone is easy I thought that is until my alarm didn’t go off in the
morning. So my first night alone and already I had broken Katie’s schedule.
I packed in a bit of a panic and headed off to Greece! Apparently Katie was
watching my tracker chiding in me for having slept in too!

Having successfully crossed the lesser known countries of Central
Europe I relaxed as I crossed into Greece, it felt familiar, we’ve all been on
holiday there after all. Unfortunately it was not to be so simple. It was hot
and incredibly windy and the unlimited supply of well stocked petrol stations
which I had become accustomed to abruptly disappeared. When I did happen
across a shop I realised that I didn’t have any Euros, I had inadvertently left
these with Katie, and being alone I was unable to buy enough for them to
accept a card in payment. I spent the day worrying about how I was going to
keep myself stocked with water. In the end I stopped at cafes and asked
them to fill my bottles, I knocked on a farmhouse door and filled up from their
garden hose I even resorted to sampling apples from the road side orchards.
It was a long day and I was happy to reach where I could eat but not before
I had been attacked by a pack of wild dogs in the middle of a thunderstorm.
It’s not unusual to come across these dogs at night however today I thought
they seemed more athletic and determined to chase me perhaps because I
am alone, one dog actually jumped on to the bag on the back of my bike I had
paw prints to prove it. Thessaloniki and a hotel for the night

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