Just before Manioki we hit the main road again and rode on a motorway for about 2 miles 🙂 Before arriving to Antartico we took a left as we wanted to have lunch in Psarades – as it was recommended by a friend – to check out the Hungarian speaking village. The road leading to this small settlement is also great with magnificent views and plenty of hairpins with almost no traffic. One can see the Prespa lakes and the abundant wildlife.
It was a bit after 1.00 pm that we arrived to Psarades. We sat at the first taverna for lunch but unfortunately no one spoke our language. After a short meal we geared up and decided to take a ride to the end of the village just to check it out. As we walked towards our machines a ow was just getting a taste of Csabi’s saddle bags… We rode to the farthest point of the village and just wanted to turn back when a person started to speak Hungarian to us. We got off the bikes and greeted him with great joy. We sat for a coffee at one of the tables and chatted with him. As it turned out about 200 kids and a couple of partisans fled to Hungary during the civil war to seek refuge. Our man – Germanos Papadopoulos – spent 15 years there and still spoke excellent Hungarian. He was also happy to practise. It’s a pity we had to move on otherwise we could have stayed at his place for a night as the small village is very cosy and nice.
We saddled up and headed for Florina and then north to the Macedonian border. We stopped briefly at the top of the mountain as I put on my icebreaker as the air was getting very cool at 1500m.
We crossed the border without any hassle although the customs officer warned us that roads are ‘catastrophic’ for the first 15 km. He was right. There are holes that would easily swallow a car so we had to be careful. Once in Bitola we thought we were okay but then the Garmin played a trick. I was already suspicious when we just kept on going in really small streets but at one point we found ourselves above the city completely off road. When making a u-turn I slipped and fell off the bike. Once we pulled it back upright we laughed so hard we almost cried. So we tracked back our steps and followed the roadsigns until we arrived on the national road.
After a shower and change of clothes we headed into the centre to look around and take some pics. The city is pretty nice but it is obvious that while western culture has set foot here everything is adopted to the post communist style of living so there are huge discrepancies and a long way to go for them. People are a bit pushy in search of business and money but are otherwise not too open to communicate.
