Kratovo, Macedonia - man with donkey!

Kratovo, Macedonia - man with donkey!, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

After lunch, there was tiume to visit I's grandmother in the nearby village, another beautiful place with nice large houses with surrounding gardens, many of them with the Macedonian grapevine over the front door, or providing shade over the porch/terrace.

Perfect for agro-tourism... there is a lot which could be done here to create the new Umbria ro Croatia, with the rolling hills, rustic life, traditional arts and crafts, historic and natural sites. Great potential.

It was dark back in Kratovo, and we were dropped off at L's place where we met his father and sister and talked about religion (again!) before going up to I's house. The mystery of ourt night's accommodation had been solved and we would be staying at I's house at the top of the hill as his sister had left unexpectedly early for Skopje.

Tiem enough to watch a program about Kemal Ataturk, one of the more famous recently born Macedonians - he had been born in Salonika, on the coast in a part of Macedonia which is now owned by Greece. Therefter a walk back down inbto tonw to meet up with L and some of his friends down at the cafes where we had first met in the morning. Lots of loud Balkan music, many young people, and plenty of Skopska beer. I chatted to G, who had studied in Sofia and again we talked about the Greece questiona ndn the EU question - more aboput this in another blog.

Finally it was time to go back up the hill and so came to an end a truly wonderful day Thanks very much to everyone involved... it was a great experience and we hope to wlecome you one day to Amsterdam or wherever else.