Walking up Trescavic.

After a late awakening, I pack and head out with Tonin for morning coffee and small breakfast. I call the French volunteer from Skopje to ask about this monastery, he was there this week end and explains me how to gt up. As we sip the coffee on a terrace in the center i realize i don't know anymore where i put my reserve 55 euros... I start searching trough my bag. Damn Raki, that was on the first night, we had a couple raki and i took that money out of my wallet so i don't loose or spend it. I remember sliding into something but what and where is it??? After saying goodbye to Tonin, I head back to the flat to look for it. Cant find it, it must be in my bag... and it is.
So i am ready to go finally, it is already past twelve, i have at least 2 or 3 hours to Prilep from where i must then walk up 2 hours. The sun is setting earlier and i should hurry a little if i don't want to be caught by darkness.

So off i go, say goodbye once more to Eric and stick y thumb out. First care stops, the judge for the area of Struga. He is driving a modest car and we start speaking (in English) about local crime :) He tells me that when he first started working, he was giving very high punishments but that his colleagues called him and asked him to be more gentle. He though about it and as he went through the past of Struga crime and found out that only 8% of criminals have been convicted twice or more. He concludes that he should be less firm on the first conviction since most people seem to realize they have been doing something wrong but harsher on the second sentence. He slowly drives me to Ohrid as we speak about France and the problems in big cities.
In Ohrid, i will have to wait a little bit before Zoran stops his van to pick me up. Zoran tells me about this Macedonian heavy weight lifter who started a sekt preaching peace and good nutrition. He has opened many healthy food stores and has a product line present in mot supermarkets (that same one i have bought from i will learn in the next days). We speak a ot about spirituality but mostly about life choices. A majority of people are scared and don't make the right choices in their lives, staying suck i what they do not really want: their job, which if you think is actually not their job since they work for someone else. Of course some people don't really have the choice. He choose to be a driver because once the small truck is loaded, he drives, nobody is here to tell him what to do, he just drives to his destination, listening to music and smoking cigarettes. It used to be better when there was no gps, now his company knows when he stops and who fast he drives. Less freedom... His younger brother seems to have made the right choice and found what he wants, he works as a waiter for some private yacht owner and is traveling the 7 seas around the world. He comes home once in a while for a couple month and then he just enjoys himself.
The next thing we speak about are drugs of course you could say. We are two sorta hippies, speak about politics, easy going life and of course at one point weed comes up in the discussion. He to used to smoke a lot and still does a bit but now it is much harder, it seems that in whole Europe it has become easier to find cocaine or heroin that grass. He tells me the local, Bitola version. Here there was a time where they was strictly no weed to be found and that many of his pot head friends who really needed something, well they switched to heroin. It is amazingly cheap and of course of really bad quality, it is mixed with plater or some other white or brown stuff. It has become a really common thing to take heroin and he has lost many friend from this affliction. Once again, and it is not the last time, i discover how affected Macedonian youth i by the drugs. There seems to be a real lack of prevention, understanding and help to the needing people.
We speak about nice subjects as well, the beautiful nature and low population of this area of Macedonia, half a man per square kilometer! He owns a small house (or two , cant remember) in a calm village and he is the proof that for those who want to work and get something, it is possible (even if you smoke Ganja :) He drops me as we pass Bitola, was really nice talking to him and i feel full of energy and ready to go!
Soon a truck comes up, it is the same truck that we met at our water stop in the mountains. We stopped to drink some pure spring water (amazing how in my childhood i naively though this was a unique Evian-Volvic thing but who springs are all over the place in this area) and there was a truck stopped there, we saluted him before heading back off. And now he is there and stops to pick me up. He does whoever not speak English and the communication is not so easy. He transports flour thats for sure :) He drops me in Prilep, the town of dolphins as Zoran told me. Not the animal but the ecstasy, everyone in this town is happy because they produce the best ecstasy of Macedonia... And being told this, next to all the tobacco leaves drying around here i do notice a lot of smiling faces but i believe it is rather because of the returning summer. I stop over for little food, i have to be going on budget, i have only about 10 euros left to gt out of Macedonia. Fortunately i will sleep at the monastery tonight and can leave whatever i feel like. So i buy a little bread, chocolate and apples and make my way up.
First i have to go through the whole town, see smiling kids and elders, smell the fresh Ajvar and ask for my way a couple times. I find the stoned road leading up to Trescavic and start my ascension in the evening light. Beautiful colors on the rocks and vegetation. This seems to me like a bouldering paradise, to bad i have no more shoes to tackle a couple blocks. There are in all shapes in every place around. Mostly rounded shapes with nice cracks for climbing. I will see more and more all along the way up. The place is magical, i get lost a little and am told the right way buy a peasant with his horses. He speak Macedonian but i understand everything he tells me about the way to go. I realize this later as i pass a spot with a rope to help you climb, i though i had understood something like that but didn't believe it until i saw it.
After passing a couple fountains and a beautiful picnic spot, i reach the top of the mountain just in time to catch the sunset. And what a beautiful sunset! These monks knew where to build the monastery! I walk in, are welcomed in the kitchen by Kaliste, the future monk, Goze and a couple others. After dropping my stuff in my room, I get some hot bread with cheese and assist to a very politicized discussion. There is the small, young, maniac Macedonian patriot who wanted me to touch his hard muscles, the wise, calm Serb and one other balancing Macedonian. I don't understand every word and i wish i would because i do understand they speak about Yugoslavia, fucking Greeks and Bulgarians and then the young one is full of contradiction i wish i could point out. Fortunately, Kalistes mother comes in and the discussion switches subject :)
Soon i am exhausted and to cold and go to sleep. This will be a very cold night, the coldest in a long time. I think it must have had a couple degrees under 0. On top of my sleeping bag i put 2 thick blankets and can still feel the cold. I cover my head which is freezing. But after 1 hour of heating the bed and blankets, i am comfortable and fall asleep.