Day 2 - Bankok, Dubai and eventually Sopotnitca, Macedonia.

What a long flight! Twenty six hours in total including a couple of short stopovers in Bankok and Dubai. I'm on very little sleep as I never do this well in a plane. Dubai Airport is absolutely massive and getting around it not that easy. Fortunately, most people speak English and after accosting a number of them, we found our way. We stopped at a Maccas for a coffee and was followed by an elderly Serbian man who did not speak any English. He grabbed a chair and sat with us despite there being plenty of space elsewhere. I shouted him a coffee so we all sat at the table for an hour and a half trying to communicate. With no wifi I couldn't use the translator app. He spoke to me and I either shrugged, laughed or said yes and when I asked him questions the roles were reversed. Very occasionally and by using our four heads, we could talk using the very little Yugoslavian we collectively knew. He followed us to our terminal gate and took some convincing that he had to go to another gate. We watched him to ensure he went through without dramas. It is very hot and humid here about 34 degrees.

We arrived at Alexander the Great Airport in Skopje at 12.45 where our good friends Vele and Vlatko were waiting for us. After another 2/1/2 hours we were at Vladko and Ana's place. Vlatko is Sneza's cousin and we met them last year. Ana had made us a late lunch of traditional Macedonian foods. After another couple of hours we headed to Spotnitca. 

On the way, we stopped at a police station to obtain the documents I failed to get last year that notifies the authorities of our presence in their country. The station is quite dilapidated and as I mentioned last year, they drive 35 year old Ladas. The station has little furniture with no personal additions. We were asked to sit in a room and wait that smelt of cigarettes, had torn chairs with backs missing and badly peeling paint and structural damage. There's just so little money for infrastructure.

Arriving into the village, the kids in the street ran to the car as some have kept in touch with our kids. The neighbour's came out to greet us and stayed for some home made whiskey on the porch under a warm summer night sky. Vele and Sneza were kept on their toes as constant interpreters. 

Tilly crashed by about 9 and by 10.30 and almost two days without sleep or a shower, I had one of each - the latter being the first. As water comes from the mountains to a well and being so hot, there was so little pressure but without exaggeration, it was one of the best showers of my life - I can't tell you how much better I felt afterwards. I slept for almost the next twelve hours.