This sign announces that you have arrived in Novaci which is the town where my daughter-in-law lives. It was raining and dark the evening we arrived.
The beige house is where Tina's family lives. Along the front there is a stone wall with a black wrought iron fence on top of it. The residents all have some kind of fence at least around the front of their property - they close the gates at night.
This is just inside the driveway gate - there is another smaller black iron gate in the middle of the above picture.
Tina and her father told me that originally her father built this house in the 1970s - her grandparents lived downstairs and her parents had an apartment upstairs with their own kitchen and sitting room. When the grandparents died, Tina's father remodeled it into a single family home. His brothers live in this same neighborhood.
There is a solar panel on the roof to provide hot water.
There is a split in the kitchen/sitting room to provide heat until it gets really cold - then they use a range like we had in Ireland - they only use timber in it - no coal. It heats the kitchen/sitting room. They do have electric heaters in the bedrooms I think - at least they put one in my room. There is no central heating. They do have large soft heavy blankets on the beds which are both comfortable and very warm.
Almost every house that I have seen has a grape vine with a seating area under it to provide a cool place to sit in the hot weather.
You can see the grapes hanging from the grape vines - purple and white grapes - at this time of year the grapes are very sweet and are attracting bees. Tina's father on the left will make Rakjia - a national alcoholic drink - on Tuesday from the grapes. Violeta, JB and Tina having morning coffee.
I was having tea and grapes - the parents were having Turkish coffee - JB and Tina were having espresso or some such - I am not a coffee drinker and don't know the different kinds of coffee drinks.
Tina's father picked me 3 varieties of grapes - nothing fresher - straight off the vine - except the tomatoes, peppers, cabbage both white and purple from Violeta's garden. The grapes were delicious.
Ilce's 3 month old puppy - Tina's brother works at the local power plant and the solar panel farm.
Some of Violeta's flowers - she was disappointed when she arrived home from Florida after almost 6 months that her flowers were almost all dead - her garden wasn't thriving.
Rose of Sharon - when Violeta was visiting Cape Cod, she had picked some clippings from a Rose of Sharon plant in my friend Beth's yard to give to my sister-in-law Vickie to transplant into her garden for some color.
Part of Violet's garden and her greenhouse.
There are tomatoes growing along the perimeter of the garden and some were inside the greenhouse.
Red peppers growing - some leeks on the right - and tomatoes along the wire fence surrounding the garden.
Inside the green house onions are hanging in mesh bags.
Almost ripe tomatoes - there were onions, leeks, white and purple cabbage, loads of peppers, eggplant, zucchini - I can't remember what else but they are all delicious!
The garden extends way back. Tina's father said that since they do not have large farm machines, they have to hire someone to plow the fields. The building on the left will eventually be a small house for the parents when Ilce marries - he will take over the main house. They are slowly building it. Now Ilce parks his car in one section, the next section holds timber for the winter and drying peppers, the next section is a kitchen with a sink and stove - it is handy to cook out there when it is hot - doing that keeps the main house cooler.
Violeta's drying peppers - she will make avjar - a vegetable spread - out of roasted red peppers - I don't know if she adds eggplant or anything else. You can spread it on bread or use it in a sauce for pasta or serve it with meat. Violeta's is quite delicious as are all her fresh veg.
I was surprised to learn that tobacco is grown in North Macedonia - many of the homes we passed have tobacco hanging like above - covered over in plastic to keep it from getting wet and to dry it out.
This morning I started the day with Barry's Irish tea and a piece of toast with homemade plum and honeydew jelly which was delicious. We sat outside under the grape vine for a while - it was cool but not too cold. Later Tina made the 3 of us scrambled eggs served with 2 different blocks of cheese - too salty for me, deli cheese and fabulous tasting deli smoked ham (I only had one slice of ham), bread with avjar although I had more homemade jelly on my slice of bread. The food is so natural and delicious - even the deli ham was scrumptious - I'm sure it had salt in it but I couldn't taste it.
JB and I decided to visit Heraklea - ancient Macedonian ruins - while Tina spent time with her family. As we drove into Bitola, we passed the old French Memorial Cemetery. Apparently it holds 6,230 graves of French soldiers as well as a monument to 7000 unknown French soldiers from WWI. There is a memorial house with a list of the soldiers buried here but JB was stopped illegally on the main road so maybe we can get to the other entrance so we can park another day.
"1914-918
Cimetiere Military Francais"
(French Military Cemetery)
This must be the memorial to the unknown soldiers.
The crosses looked like sticks - unlike the gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery or at the cemeteries in Normandy.
The crosses hold a blue, white and red plaque - the French national colors.
The plaques have a number, the soldiers' name, and the words "Mort Pour La France" which is "Died for France."
This graveyard reminded me of some of the words in the song "The Green Fields of France" by Scotsman Eric Bogle and sung by Davey Arthur and the Furey Brothers in 1979:
"The sun now it shines on the green fields of FranceThere's a warm summer breeze that makes the red poppies danceAnd look how the sun shines from under the cloudsThere's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing nowBut here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land The countless white crosses stand mute in the sandTo man's blind indifference to his fellow manTo a whole generation that were butchered and damned
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly? Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down? Did the band play The Last Post in chorus? Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
Ah young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder whyDo those that lie here know why did they die?And did they believe when they answered the causeDid they really believe that this war would end wars? Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the painThe killing and dying, were all done in vainFor young Willie McBride, it all happened againAnd again, and again, and again, and again
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly? Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down? Did the band play The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?"
We drove through Bitola to Heraclea - it is down a partially dirt road - not particularly well signposted but not as bad as the Aqueduct.
The sign to turn for Heraclea - I think this was the only sign we saw.
I was excited to see "Via Egnatia" on the sign above - the Via Egnatia connected with the Via Appia in Italy to provide a road from Rome to Constantinople. It was about 695 miles and 19.5 feet wide. A triumphal arch called the "Golden Gate" was built where the Via Egnatia entered Constantinople. I'll have to look for that if we have time in Istanbul.
This sign in the parking lot states that the European Union funded this project (ongoing excavation of Heraclea) - there is the EU flag on the left and the Macedonian and another flag on the right.
In all the vlogs we've watched, there has been practically no one at this site so today we were surprised to see a couple of cars and 4 tour buses! Plus the stray dogs.
There was no one to collect the admission fee so we just walked in. There are QR codes at the important sites explaining what everything is - I couldn't concentrate on not falling, looking around and listening so I took a picture to try and listen later.
Despite there being 4 busloads of tourists, the place still felt pretty empty.
Heraclea Lyncestis was built in the 4th century BC by Philip II of Macedon who founded a settlement here. He called it Heraclea in honor of Hercules who was an ancient ancestor of Philip and Lyncestis after a race of people who had lived in the area. The city became an important trading center. Heraclea survived being conquered by the Romans in 148 BC and continued to thrive.
Look at these floor mosaics! How could they have survived for so long!
Above and below, the town fountain - I guess that explains the fish on two of the 3 panels.
More mosaics but not in as good shape as the others.
Copies of mosaics found
Model of Heraclea
Touching history! I can't get over how bright the colors still are!!
My cane to give it scale.
The amphitheater is up behind those arches.
Stairway to the top of the amphitheater - I decided not to try them.
JB making a video.
Not sure if these letters designate a person's seat or something else. These and others were carved into the seats in the picture above.
Getting ready for my soliloquy!
This could be an ad for Bradt travel guides!
We climbed up, down, over, around a lot of Heraclea but there was more that we didn't see. We had to get home for lunch by 2pm and to go to church.
The sky was getting dark and it was too cold to sit outside after lunch so everyone was just chilling. I sat down on my bed to blog and to elevate my legs. The rain started at some point and lulled me to sleep I guess because the next thing I knew it was almost 7 o'clock and JB was waking me up to go to church. It must have been the dark dreary day that put me to sleep - I could hardly wake up! But I did and we were off to the local monastery. The churches and families here celebrate the Saints days - today we had no meat - only fish and vegetables for lunch. We were going to the Monastery of Holy Mary for a feast day service - Ilce was driving us and Violeta was coming as well. It was raining when we left the house but started pouring the closer we got to the monastery which is only about a mile back down the road toward Bitola. Despite the rain the place was packed - but Ilce found a parking space right up front. We walked thru mud to get into the monastery - Tina bought more candles for us to light and pray for someone - we did that in the rain - it seems all candles are outside. The church was jam packed - very slowly Violeta and I made our way inside from the hallway - I was amazed by all the paintings of saints, the stations of the cross, and other scenes. Rain was dripping off my raincoat whenever I moved to look up or around at the vibrant colors - it was like nothing I expected. I didn't take any pictures as I thought it would be disrespectful. I couldn't really see too much - but I could make out a couple of priests and altar boys on the left side - they were swinging the container of incense periodically. On the right side there was a large fancy chair where another priest in high black headgear sat. There was singing and praying in Macedonian I think. What I could see were people coming into the church and kissing an icon near the entrance - I imagine it was an icon of Mary but I never got close enough to see it. Adults and children came in, kissed the icon, blessed themselves 3 times, left a monetary offering, and some women brought bottles of oil - I think maybe to light Vigil Lamps but I'm not sure about that. Toward the end of the service everyone moved forward - I had been standing for quite a while so I headed out to the hallway where JB and Tina were - poor Violeta thought that something had happened to me - she came out in a panic looking for me. Before we left she paid some money for the priest to pray for us all - there was an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on the table where they were collecting money. I remember my grandmother had a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help up on Green Street. And she was married at Mission Church which is really Our Lady of Perpetual Help. So that seemed very homey.
There was supposed to be a gathering of the members of the Monastery with music, food, stalls selling mostly kids toys. Tables and chairs had been set up outside - there was a platform for a band and a platform for dancing. But it was still pouring rain so everyone headed through the puddles and mud for their cars and went home. There is more going on at the monastery tomorrow so we'll be back there again.
JB had taken a picture of me in my blue raincoat and Violeta on my left. Every inch of the monastery was covered with those brightly colored paintings.
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