North Macedonia to Greece: Beauty, Bucephalus, and The Missing Bus

I visited North Macedonia a few years ago and snapped this picture in Ohrid on the walls of the beautiful castle there, next to the peaceful Lake Ohrid, on the border with Albania. My most memorable moment from North Macedonia was when I spent a few days in Skopje and was shocked by how much I really enjoyed the city, with its million statues looming everywhere you look. Front and center is the massive, incredible statue of Alexander the Great on horseback (his horse's name is Bucephalus!). From Skopje, my travel partner was on a strict visa-related time limited to reach a study-abroad program in Greece. We caught a bus on the day we were supposed to arrive in Schengen-zone Greece. We reached the tiny border village in North Macedonia called Gevgelija around 10:30 pm and our connecting bus to cross the border into Greece never arrived. We scrambled to find another bus but there was nothing and the staff kicked us out of the bus station so they could close it and go home. We were a bit distraught. We finally found a taxi driver who offered to deliver us to Thessaloniki and we made it into Greece before midnight, thus avoiding any visa problems. We were both sweating it and when we arrived in Thessaloniki, my travel partner even gave the cab driver a big hug. Despite the chaos, North Macedonia has nothing but good memories in my heart.