Hello good people, I am back after some long time with a story of my vacation in capital city of Republic of Macedonia, Skopje. I went to Skopje because my really good friend lives there and I have never been there before. I stayed for (only) 4 days, which I almost regret because there is still so much to be seen in Macedonia and I will definitely go at least once again to see more of the city and also places like Ohrid with it's beautiful lake etc.
Okay, but now let's leave regrets, because that trip was just amazing anyway. :D
My friend Marko really gave his best try to make me feel like some V.I.P. guest and I can say that he was more than successful.
He arranged everything and even more for me, so I really saved a lot of money and also experienced a lot more of things than I could imagine on my way there.
So let's start with a story...
I flew from Treviso Airport, which is of course in Treviso, Italy. I went to there from Slovenia with our carrier GoOpti.
Flight was really short, it took only about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I am really not kind of a person who can sleep on travels (not even in the car nor on plane), so I shorten my time with reading a book about poker game, which I love btw and trying to improve my game. ;)
After we landed, I called Marko and he picked me up on the airport and we went to hostel Backpackers, which was located in the centre of the city, not far from main bus station. The owner, who was really relaxed and chilled out guy, is Marko's friend, so I didn't have to pay anything to stay there, he also gave me whole room for myself, so I can say I was really pleased with it. Everyone staying there or just hanging in the chill zone on the yard, were really cool guys, so I absolutely recommend this hostel to anyone who may be looking for some accomodation in Skopje. They have two chill zones, ony is in the yard and other on highest floor, like some big balcony with the roof. I also liked some funny and also some inspirational signboards they have there.
Weed in Macedonia is not so good than our weed in my country, but reason behind it is mostly because people over there have much less money (average wage is around 250 €) and they just rather spend little less money for some outdoor weed than for indoor which would of course cost more money. This doesn't mean they don't smoke indoor at all, but is hard do find it if you don't have good connections, which with my luck I had, so I smoked one joint of nice skunk with some guy, but most of the time we smoke something like this bud on the picture, which wasn't actually bad outdoor at all, it had good taste and surprisingly long lasting effect.
Most known beer they have is Skopsko, which is not bad, but nothing special neither. Other beer I tried was Zlaten Dab, Marko said to me those two brand were the best in Macedonia. But I liked Skopsko a little more than Dab.
First thing Marko told me when I came to Skopje was that on friday we are going to "svadba" or wedding. And I was like: "why the fuck didn't you told me this before, I don't have any properly piece of outfit or shoes with me.", but Marko only said his famous words:"Ne sekiraj se stari, uživaj. " ("Dont worry dude, just enjoy.") and I just said: "Okay, i'm gonna buy some nice shirt at least, before we go to wedding.". And only few minutes after this conversation he received a call from some other friend and told me while he was talking on the phone: "We are going to another wedding on saturday.". And I was just like wtf, I don't even know if I would like to come to some people's wedding and I dont even know anyone there. And he again said his famous words, and I just thought okay fuck it, let's go get drunk on "Makedonska svadba" for whole weekend. :D
So I came to wedding with some jeans, nice white shirt and my Superman's shoes on. :D It must have looked funny, but I'm a person who most of the time just dont give a fuck, so as I say:"Tak pač je". ("It's just like that.") could be translation. :D
And I must say, I didn't regret it at the end, because it was really great time, eating, drinking, dancing and looking at whole process of traditional "Makedonska svadba". I didn't wanted to take pictures or record anything, I just feel it would be inappropriate from me as a guest from Slovenia, who no one knows. It was some unique kind of wedding, which I haven't seen before. But I made one picture of me and Marko of course.
Now here are few pictures from Skopje, statue of "their hero" Alexander the Great (one of many in the city) and pictures of canyon Matka, which is located at the fringe of the city.
Beside Skopje, I also spent 2 days in Albania and Kosovo, we slept in some hotel in nice city Durrës, we stopped by in capital city of Albania, Tirana for a lunch and also some other places which names I don't remember exactly. We drove also through Kosovo's capital city Pristina.
Albania and Kosovo are (except main and other bigger cities) just really poor and manless, at some parts only living creatures we could see were cows, just walking around on the highway or some street like they were humans. :D
Drivers in those two countries are really ignorant, selfish and a lot of times they just don't take in account driving rules.
You can see only two types of cars there, one are really old and dirty cars and vans and the others are big black field cars or Mercedes cars...and I think we all know to what kind of people those last belong to. :D
For the end I can say I like Skopje as the city and also people there are nice, but Balkan will always be Balkan, you could see really poor people, some people whose car broke down at the middle of the street and they just pushed it down through big traffic, some random old guy standing in the middle of the street, looking like he had some flashback from the war or he just freezed in some nostalgic thoughts about good old times in Yugoslavia and he forget he was standing in the middle of the fucking street where is a lot of traffic, also some gypsies with their horses walking in the centre etc.
But also really cheap rakija, other drinks and traditional balkanian food! :D
For the end I bought one liter of Rakija at the airport in Skopje, in last moments before I board on plane back home, because we get too drunk at the wedding and party after on saturday that we were unable to arrange some homemade rakija on my last day, before taxi pick me up and drove me to the airport. :D
Na zdravje!