Sunday 14th September

We managed to get a succession of small lifts, but also had to do an awful lot of walking – as the road was under repair all the way to Negotino –and, unknown to us, closed to civilian traffic – all our lifts being in workers lorries etc.  We stopped on the way, to see thee ruins of the ancient town of Stobi.

Stobi

At Negotino we managed to get a lift in a chauffeur driven car belonging to Greek lady married to an Englishman, and bearing a British passport.  She advised us to say that we were Swiss whilst in Greece, as the English were extremely unpopular.  She said that if she said she was British – “they would kill her”!!  She also told us that she had been a prisoner of the Communists in the Greek civil war.  Many of the Communists responsible for many murders now live in southern Yugoslavia.

The road to the frontier continued to be quite awful, with two bridges down (one for over a year), so that the car had to ford both rivers.  We had the customary hold up at the frontier before reaching Thessolonika.  The clocks went forward one hour!  We managed to get into the University Club hostel – there were no beds, however, so we had to sleep on the floor.  The place was terribly filthy!