We packed our car, went to a baby shop and I bought what seems like our thousandth (and hopefully final) car seat in the past 14 years of parenting so little R could see out the window easier, then we cruised out of Greece. 

We are embarking on a 3000km road trip. 2/3rds of the way through we’ll need to drop our car off and bus the rest of the way through the final countries before flying home!

We’ve been churning through countries for the past 7 weeks, in and out of the EU but never have we been interrogated like the Greek border control! They were particularly interested in where we lived in NZ – ?? if the children went to school  – ?? and if they were on vacation – ?? Why they wanted to know this on the way out of their country I have no idea!! We said yes our kids were on vacation – kinda true, ish. 😁 Please don’t call Mr Jarrett, he might have other ideas!

We drove up to the entry gate of Macedonia and as we waited our turn Brendan spots a doppelganger of someone at home “Found Shelley Barnard!” he announces. All 4 of us sat there gazing at this lady. ♥️ The hair style and even colour, the body shape – it was uncanny actually!  If I wasn’t in such a high security area I would have taken a photo.

The border control man was NZ’s biggest fan. He was so happy to see our beautiful black passports from “kiwi land” – it made us smile. Everyone loves kiwis! Everyone will yack your ear off about how beautiful NZ is. If they’ve been there or if they want to go there! Then they’ll start on “so what exactly happened to your prime minister – she’s tired?”
Mmmhmm, yep she got tired, who knows what she’s doing now! Yep Doctor Ashley Bloomfield got tired and quit too, Covid aye.  I have lost count on how many times I’ve had that conversation in the past 7 weeks!! 

After successfully entering the country, we cruised the lovely big and new-ish highways with Lauren Daigle tunes playing. We found our Airbnb, unpacked and then went to find local SIM cards as our EU ones weren’t roaming, again! 20 gigs for $8.50 NZD – yes please x 2 phones! Then it was the ever pesky trip to top up on food.

After such a busy schedule for the past month this week had been pegged to slow us down and I’d purposely booked a big Airbnb for the kids to have their own rooms and space away from each other, and me!! BK hoped to catch up on work. I needed to do a bit of life and business admin. The kids need to rest and do any school related tasks they can pick up. So with BK disappearing to a co working space, the kids and I spent a few days resting before our friends flew out from London to see us. 

Once they arrived it was off to see the sights. We saw the square and as we walked towards their old town/market I saw a lovely fountain of 4 mothers. It was large and in such a prominent place. It was beautiful. I did research, it’s meant to be ‘Alexander the greats’ Mum! But it looks more like a celebration of motherhood to me. BK took little R on a horse trek in the mountains, she loved it and was totally in her element. The Camino had pushed her to her limit and that was her reward for pushing through.

Our last full day we ventured out to see Matka Canyon – it’s worth a Google image search, so pretty. We went on a boat ride to a cave. Was lovely to be out on the water. I put DJI up for a fly, then BK had a turn. I was on catching it as BK landed it but I put my finger a centimetre too high and it chopped off my nail and took a tiny bit of my skin off before I could grab it and tip it upside down to turn it off. Ouch! Always a drama with that thing!!!! Of course I took a photo and sent it home to the mothership who replied with the obvious: be more careful and don’t get an infection! 😁

Then it was back to the apartment to pack, and after a week in one place, we’d unpacked quite a lot!! It had been a wonderful pause. Both kids commented they’d enjoyed the ‘home days’.

But it was off to our next destination,

Till next time,

Claire