Macedonia

Skopje

June 4-8th 2008

This is the main square with a view from the stone bridge; which seperates the city from its outskirts.

Day 1 cont
The day continued from Thessaloniki, Greece to Macedonia. I arrived in Skopje relatively on time considering how long border control takes. On the train they come by and ask for your passport and tell you that you can pick it up in 10 minutes. So you go to the police office and they just call out the names, and only half glances at the pictures. That’s safe! Anyway, when I arrived in Skopje, this random kid was asking me where I was staying. I was a little taken aback at first but I warmed up and told him. He was just looking for a hostel to stay at. We met this other kid who was staying at the same place as me (Hostel-Hostel), so we all shared a cab. We arrived at our hostel checked in, then the three of us headed out to get some food. We ate at this great place, with traditional food. Everything in Macedonia is dirt cheap. We went to into the center of town to get drinks. We hung out for a while and then headed back to the hostel; I went to bed at midnight.


Day 2
I woke up at 10:45, ate two pieces of toast then went out to see the city. I walked, and walked without a map, or destination. I surveyed the people, buildings, poverty, and trades going on within the city. I was out for about 3 hours, and it was really hot. There weren’t that many places to seek shade unless you stepped into shops, but those shops weren’t even air-conditioned so that doesn’t help! I decided to leave Skopje early and make my way to Albania. I had seen enough. My new friend and I took a bus that left earlier than I had planned to; we made it to the border and had to come back (see Albania for details). So we went to a border city called Tetovo, which was practically Albania. We headed back to Skopje at around 5pm. The drive there and back is really pretty and it was kind of soothing. Anyway, since I had screwed my plans to go to Tirana, I decided to stay in Macedonia for the next two nights, and then head to Thessaloniki. On my way back from the train station I decided to walk a little then catch a taxi. While walking I met this girl who was look for a place to stay. She was from South Korea. I took her to our hostel, we talked, had pizza and then I went to bed early.


Day 3
Since I had an extra day that I wasn’t suppose to, I decided to go to Kosovo (see Kosovo for details). I came back at like 5pm, hung out and talked to the friends that I had made. Then I got food, made it and talked some more. I also went to bed fairly early that night too, because I had to wake up early the next morning and go back to Greece.


Day 4
Every day proves to be interesting when traveling in countries like these. You really have no idea what to expect, and it’s impossible to predict how long things will take. Our train to Greece was two hours late. My friend missed his flight and I missed crucial sun time for tanning! Oh well it all worked out nonetheless, and it’s not the end destination that is important is the journey in between; which is very true. Although you often weigh the end journey to the end destination and wonder if it was all worth it. In this case it was. I had a good time with the people I met, nothing bad happened and I didn’t spend that much money. It was a good journey and an interesting destination!


Macedonia is a 2. It is a very poor country, but they are working toward EU membership. The people are fragile, but interesting and make the best of what they have. It was an interesting trip to say the least!