INTERNET SURPRISES AND MACEDONIA

19th DECEMBER 2009 INTERNET SURPRISES AND MACEDONIA
Within the past half-hour I had an enjoyable family 'catch-up' telephone call from Dublin. I then decided to test out once more our very erratic internet connection. To my surprise - a first for me, its fully alive just now so here goes I will write a few words!

Christmas has come a little closer within the past few days with the setting up of a skating rink close to where we live. There are lights and I believe the Greek Cathedral has now added a Crib which I look forward to seeing tomorrow. The skating was providing a lot of entertainment until the weather decided to turn the streets nearby into copycat 'skating areas'. The result has been quite a lot of difficulty for people moving about this evening.

Mirjam and I travelled to Macedonia today. It was imperative for us to go over a 'border'. Otherwise, the car would have illegal status tomorrow! The time allowed is two months and we are in Albania two months today. Our journey was very straightforward, with magnificent scenery, especially in the 40kms. from Pogradec to the next city Orhid. This part of our journey followed three frontier stops all of which were quite brief and very civil. We had a lovely drive round the right side of Lake Orhid. We then spent a few hours taking up an earlier invitation to visit the city. Our return journy was a little different. A fresh fall of snow gave us a Christmas card scene. All the fir tree covering the hillsides were sparkling! We then spent the afternoon with the young people at Pogradec which was on our way. The Bishop joined us quite late and his Fransiscan companion said a Christmas Mass for the group. The young people enjoyed a little snowballing beforehand! The lake keeps the temprature quite mild so the snow was a novelty for them. St Nicholas or Santa Claus is celebrated in some places today so we had little gifts for the children as they left.We were glad to have a reasonably good journey back in view of the unexpected change in the weather.

Now I go to enjoy the Christmas mail that the Bishop brought this evening from Vlore. Non 'Blog' readers were unaware of our move from Vlore to Korce. I will be in touch again, please God, before Christmas.