Leaving Trikala we headed north west for the Albanian border at Trestenik. Jill was carrying the torch as we crossed and earned a prize of a ‘hat/buff thing’ courtesy of Sarah. From there we took a short detour to bag another country, North Macedonia and rest by Lake Ohrid. It is way better than it sounds and locally known as the Pearl of the Balkans! Thanks to Barb for suggesting we stop by the lake, you win a prize of one of the books.
Lake Ohrid courtesy of tourtirana.com
From Ohrid, we headed back across into Albania and some km’s later at Hani i Hotit were back on track with Kim holding the torch as we crossed into Montenegro for which Kim wins a prize of one of the books. Next we crossed into Bosnia & Herzegovina at Bobotovo Groblje! Danny was our torch bearer there and picked up a prize of a light, courtesy again of Sarah.
Mel was concerned about the lack of Olympic sites we had visited and suggested we veer direct north and head to Sarjevo, the host of the 1984 Winter Olympics. For this Mel wins a prize of a book. Here the Canadians had their best Olympic results since 1960 and won 4 medals with speed skater Gaetan Boucher picking up 3 of them; two golds and a bronze. Sarajevo was also GB’s Torvill and Dean Golden Olympics with the pair receiving the first ever perfect set of scores for their figure skating free programme to the music of Ravel’s Bolero.
Gaetan Boucher on the Podium in Sarajevo
It is difficult to believe that just six years after the Olympics Sarajevo was held at siege during the Balkan conflict. Lasting just short of four years the siege is amongst the longest endured in modern history. Little of the Olympic infrastructure survived but we did climb the hills to visit the derelict bobsleigh track and athletes village and take a moment to reflect on the Balkan tragedy. See photos below from laughingsquid.com and Feel Bosnia.
10 days in Sid, our chauffer in the support car advised us the odometer read an impressive 816 km for the week and 1,166 km overall. Well done team, already we have visited 4 Olympic sites and 5 countries!
