Thursday 7 August 2008

Live from Florina, Greece

As I type we are in a bar on the main drag of Florina, a town right
near the Macedonian border (which we cross tomorrow). For some reason
all the inhabitants of this small town appear to be crowded onto this
one street, partying for no discernible reason other than it being a
Thursday or, as Jesse might have it, that we're in town. Either way,
we stand out as the bearded foreigners, doubly so given that we lack
faux-hawks or euro-mullets; evidently we are simply not cool enough to
hang here.

We did however have a very scenic day of riding, clocking in at a mere
135km after yesterday's epic. Early in the day we passed Pella,
ancient capital of the Macedonian kingdom and home to Alexander, then
moved on through lush farmland overloaded with peaches and nectarines.
Jesse was tremendously excited by what evidence he saw of the various
workings of the agricultural system; I was more inspired when we hit
the rivers and mountains later in the day. Unfortunately the mountain
scenery came with the added bonus of some climbing, during which we
both had cause to curse the greek road builders for omitting the
switchbacks.

We arrived in Florina before dark - a novelty so far since jesse
turned up - and found an amazing taverna for dinner and two bottles of
the house red (which, appropriately enough, was also home made). Now
back up the hill to the king alexander hotel, and on tomorrow to
Macedonia proper.

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