This week has been packed with 3 countries and a lot of travels between them so it is hard to decide on one theme for the whole week but looking back I think that the theme should be ‘Getting Bigger’…
Very Small Republika Vevčanska
We finished our tour of Macedonia in Lake Ohrid and based ourselves in Ohrid the historic town apparently from where the Slavic alphabet and education in general originated. It is a charming town and the lake itself is very pretty. Needless to say though it probably is prettier when you come when it is still sunny and warm, like in the summerJ and not in the last week of October… While we enjoyed Ohrid (and the best value meal with the wine on the son of the restaurant owner) we were already slightly tired of being cold and a bit overdosed with sightseeing.
For our second day there we had a choice of going to Svety Naum monastery or to the nearby village of Vevčany that is famous for declaring its independent republic (I guess from Macedonia) with its own flag and apparently own money. While this claim seems to be slightly overstated as we did not see any signs of such independence it was a very nice day trip from Ohrid, starting with a travel on the mini-bus with the locals where seats did not seem to be fully attached and with the wife of the bus driver tring to converse with me in Macedonian, probably to distract my attention from the broken seats. She certainly got the message through that they owned 2 houses in Vevcany! Good on her, being the proud owner of this prime real estate! Vevčany itself turned out to be just a really small village with a big bus stop under a beautiful hill with mountain springs that we wondered around with maybe two or three other tourists. We finished the day in the family run restaurant with very local fare where we were at first the only guests... Whether or not the independent the tiny Republika Vevčanska was worth the trip on the broken seat in mini-bus… and as you’ll see later our last secluded tourist-free oasis. Big Sofia
We used Sofia as a transit stop on the way from Macedonia to Istanbul; we could have travelled through Greece but you never know who and when is going on strike there so we decided to avoid any unexpected extended stay in Thessaloniki. We arrived on Wednesday evening after 9 hours in the bus and left on Thursday with the evening train to Istanbul. This left us with one full day in the capital of Bulgaria… Immediately after arrival, it seemed like we were in the bigger city compared to any of the Western Balkans towns and not only because we were scammed by the taxi driver from the bus station but the general feel or a bigger urban space. We spent the day on the free walking tour of the city centre organised by the volunteers that turned out to be really good. I never knew much about Bulgaria and Sofia and our tour guide made me a bit more aware in about 2.5 hours walking through the historical and contemporary sites of Sofia. The day started really cold so we thought we would be the only people on the tour, instead some 25 people from all over the word turned up and some of them stayed for lunch in the really good local eatery suggested by the guide. So we had lunch with a few fellow tourists including the solo traveller from Australia born in 1993; 20 years youngerJ
We all know that the train stations in the big cities are not necessarily the most pleasant venues and believe me Sofia’s main train station is not different, another sign of being in the big city! At first we did not really mind it until some helpful guy demanded money for showing us the way to WC and until we had to find our way to platform or track 6 to get the train to Istanbul. The people who designed the Sofia train station had an idea of marking a few platforms and tracks with 6 or VI. On each of the tracks you needed to know which end (really far end) you had to be to get the right train. Somehow we managed to find our train, probably because with some 90 minutes delay we had enough time and by annoying the lady in the information centre who maybe did not realise that her job was to provide information until she met me…
Grand Istanbul
The night train to Istanbul was quite all right but surely it was not an orient express. To my great disappointment it had only 2 carriages that look trains in Poland in the deep eighties and there was not even a man with trolley selling water or nibbles, not to mention the dining car. However the company of an American professor from the American University in Bulgaria, and the young Slovenian traveller commencing his overland journey through Asia, in our couchette compartment made it a really a really good journey. It would be even better if we arrived on time… Instead we arrived some 2 hours later of which 1 hour was just cruising through the suburbs of Istanbul before we got to the central station! That’s how big it is. 
I have been to Istanbul for a few days for New Years in 2009 and I am glad this was my already second visit. Unlike back than in deep winter, this time every sight we went to was packed with tourists. Almost one hour wait to get any of the great sights! The main shopping street in the modern part of town was difficult to navigate through the masses of local crowd shopping and dining and of course the fellow tourist! So my memories from this visit to Istanbul would all be through the crowds of people. Though, Hagia Sofia itself would always remain one my favourite historic sites in the world, even when it is very crowded. This time I also managed to leave Istanbul, the world capital of shopping, without any piece of trinket purchased; good for budget and the weight of the backpack but a bit disappointing. The reason was that the Grand Bazaar was closed for the public holiday weekend! What a shame… Even Gavin, who hates any form of tat, regrets not being able to see it. All in all, save the crowds, the public holiday and the mediocre but not cheap accommodation, three days of in this big and bustling city were good fun and probably a very good preparation for our next stop… Mumbai with its some 16 million people!
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