Train from Greece to Macedonia

We were originally supposed to stay in Greece for nearly a month, but we decided to extend our time in Asia instead and reduced our time in the country to a mere three days.  From there, we were to go to Croatia to meet Magge's mother and stepfather.  On a map, that looks easy.  I figured at worst we could take a ferry.  You can take a ferry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to Croatia, so the shorter Greece to Croatia distance must have a ferry route?  No.  The easiest way to get from Athens to Dubrovnik is to take a six hour train ride to Thessaloniki, then a three hour train ride that's actually a five hour train ride to Skopje, Macedonia, and then a twelve hour overnight bus to Dubrovnik.  I confess that I hadn't heard of Skopje two weeks ago, and my geography is usually pretty good.  Magge confesses that two weeks ago she didn't know Macedonia was still a country, but I told her to stop admitting that.

The train segment from Thessaloniki to Skopje actually was really nice, despite the lingering smell of smoke (the Balkan peninsula is Europe's ashtray) and no airconditioning.  Here are a handful of pictures from the ride.

We had a good time in Athens, but I don't know if we'll get around to posting anything on our stay there.  At most, we'll post some pictures, but there won't be much that everyone hasn't already seen many times elsewhere.