Ich fahre nach Istanbul.

I am counting down the minutes until I have to leave for the bus station where I will be counting down the hours (18 to be exact) until I arrive in Istanbul. I took a little holiday from traveling and holed up for three days here in Lake Ohrid, Macedonia, or FYROM to those who would prefer to be politically correct. Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes in the world, a claim that doesn't impress me much because to be honest, everywhere in Europe claims to have the 'oldest lake, castle, fortress, bridge, wedge of cheese, shoe, hat, hay bale, minibus, etc.' Even so, it is a pretty little holiday spot with loads of Slavs on vacation from work. It has a nice vibe and it is striking how much more Macedonia has been developed than Albania.

A curious thing happened yesterday. After a year of living in Switzerland (in 2003-2004) and trying to learn German, I don't remember a single instance where it was actually necessary to speak German to communicate; everybody spoke English. However, after I missed my Istanbul bus yesterday I needed to ask for directions concerning minibuses from Struga back to Ohrid, a kindly old man who had been on the Ohrid-Struga bus with me prior smiled at me in recognition. I said hello and then started to ask him about destinations in English to which he responded, "alskmhyrvjeoimv" and I didn't understand. Then he tried, "hyrjpvneolpplpkjajauvu" and I still didn't understand. Then he said, "Deutsch?" to which I responded (in German), "yes, a little." And thus commenced a grammatically imperfect German conversation in which he told me that he had lived and worked in Switzerland for 20 years and he goes back once a year for 2 weeks to visit and yes this was the bus to Ohrid and it costs 40 denars. Once of out his eyeline I did a little heel-click and then patted myself on the back for remembering enough words to sound like a 4-year old German with a speech impediment.

Here is my updated itinerary for those curious- I will spend a few days in Istanbul, hop down to Gallipoli, [perhaps] head out to mountainous Cappadocia then and make my way down the coast to my 3-week job at a yoga/art/trekking camp on the South Aegean coast in a town called Kas (note that the 's' is supposed to have a little tail on it but I don't know how to do that with this keyboard- apparently it makes big difference because when I was talking to a Turkish man at the hostel in Ohrid he had no idea what I was talking about until I mentioned the tail). And sorry, I still haven't figured out how to upload pictures.

ONE MONTH UNTIL I AM HOME!!!!!