This morning I was doing my first land crossing from Greece north into Macedonia. I had planned this trip months ago but in the weeks leading upto my trip the Syrian refugee crisis hit.

Media reports had them overwhelming the border, it being shut temporarily, and me wondering how this affected regular traffic and whether I would make it thru.

I had emailed the bus company to ask, they said their buses were running ok everyday, no problems. For extra reassurance I asked if I could buy the ticket online but they said they only take cash payments in person.

I had gone to the bus station yesterday to pay in person and give myself the peace of mind that I had ticket in hand, although that still did not guarantee anything as on my last trip to the Balkans I wasnt able to board a bus in Novi Pazar even though I had a seat reservation.

I arrived at the bus station more than one hour early to ensure I could board. I had planned on withdrawing some more Euros but forgot in all the panic, which would cause me money problems later on.

When the bus arrived there were only six passengers in total, hardly being overwhelmed by refugees!. Although the route was supposed to go north we kept following signs on the highway to Athens. I was panicking, am I on the wrong bus.

After a while he went on a branch exit to the northbound highway. It was a short one hour ride to the border. With land borders there are two border checkpoints at either side and a no mans land for duty free inbetween.

They collected up the passports and we went thru the Greece exit checkpoint no problems. Then they left us in duty free for 15 mins. Not a refugee in sight. Then we boarded back onto the bus, collected our passports again, to go thru the Macedonia border control.

Almost hilariously a keystone cop border guard stumbled onto the bus, almost tripping over his giant sized boots with two left feet, asking "Oh Ahmad, Where is Ahmad!?", climbing over the seats to get to me. I'd forgotten my middle name is Ahmad, I never use it, but this seemed to stand out even though I was travelling on a perfectly valid UK European Union Passport.

I identified myself, there were only six of us on the bus, he wanted to know where I was going, why, had I been in Macedonia before?. Still referring to me as 'Ahmad' I answered all the questions somewhat bemused. "This is my second time in Macedonia and I'm going to Skopje, Bitola, and Lake Ohrid", not a typical refugee response! He then handed back my passport and we left Macedonia border control. I have never been called 'Ahmad' in my life!!

It was another hour long bus ride as we drove into Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, still not a refugee in sight. One thing I didnt anticipate was that Macedonia is one hour behind Greece, back on Central European time. This threw my timing off as I told my apartment I would arrive by 1pm but it was only 11.15am.

To kill time I went into a shopping mall near the bus station and to check out prices. The quality of goods was better than Greece but prices were actually somewhat higher than in Canada.

I made my way to the apartment building. I'd been to Skopje before in 2013 so knew my way around. The address was No.5 but what was confusing was the building was divided into blocks I, II, III etc upto VIII as best I could make out. The address on the booking wasnt clear.

I tried asking people who kept sending me to other doors. Eventually a local who lived in the building let me in, but we still didnt know which apartment as the buzzers werent labelled either. Luckily she guessed the right door and we were greeting by two locals hastily cleaning the apartment for my arrival.

Wow, I was shocked at the size. It was a massive two bedroom apartment, fully furnished, with kitchen, and amazing downtown view. You can never gauge these things properly on booking sites as they just show you a picture of the bed.

I had all this for only 29 Euros. Unfortunately with these private apartments they take cash only and are not setup for credit card. This was going to eat into my cash but it was an amazing place, and too bad only for one night. I might go back to Skopje just to stay here longer, it was a great place to relax, can easily house 4-6 people, and I had it all to myself.