Friday, September 18, 2015

Welcoming a Little Weirdness - Macedonia and Bulgaria

I know, back so soon right?

But really though after this post I'll be so close to caught up I can't resist.

So after leaving the hostel in Poradec, I got a ride to the "random spot on the side of the road where the vans gather" from one of the kind ladies that work there, and she also finagled a van, destination, and price for me.  All this with reassurances that, despite everything I had read, it was reasonable to expect to catch a bus once I crossed the border.

So off I went into the great unknown, perched awkwardly standing in the aisle of the van while we barreled down the highway towards Macedonia.

My chariot dropped me off at the Albanian border, where I checked myself out of one country then walked through no-man's land to the next just down the road.  

How many times do you get to walk from one country to another?  Admit it, I'm pretty cool.

In between countries.

Anyway, I reached Macedonia, got stamped in, and asked the border guard where I might catch the bus.  

His command of English was questionable so basically the response I got was something of a grunt and an abrupt hand motion towards the parking lot.  Boy was this a promising start.

Now I knew that if I wanted, I could walk 4km to the local monastery, where there is for sure a bus.  But 4km in the heat carrying a backpack along the highway did not strike me as a fun adventure.  So, when all else fails, sit on the side of the road hopefully and look a little lost.

Cue, random guy in car heading the right direction.

That's right kids, I hitchhiked for the first time in my life, kind of.  Mostly I just accepted a ride from a non english speaking fellow who offered it once we communicated my destination by repeating "Ohrid" back and forth for a couple minutes with a lot of nodding.  Then he motioned me to his car, I took a deep breath and whispered a prair to whatever God/goddess/lucky entity/etc might be listening, and took the leap of faith and hopped in.  

Then in a true example of human kindness he drove me 30km, helped me unload my bag, and accepted nothing but my thanks for the effort.  I knew when I said "you totally made my day," the sentiment translated, if not the actual words.

I then happily made my way to the hostel, checked in, grabbed lunch at the pizza place downstairs, and chatted with the portuguese posse in my room (a group of guys casually and shamelessly walking around our room in skimpy briefs) before eventually going out for a wander and dinner.  

Also, local beer, as always.

The next day I grabbed falafel for lunch (the highest rated restaurant on tripadvisor, I kid you not) before finding my way to the old amphitheater to take some photos for dad and basically just aimlessly making my way around town.

Lake Ohrid.

The main square.



The old amphitheater..

Which evidently they still use.  Now that is sticking with it guys.



Fortress walls.


Sweet metal door.

Windy little streets.

View from above.


I saw at least three or four brides.  Late summer is the time to tie the knot.

I then made friends with two Finnish guys sharing my room, who immediately won me over by sharing their beer and then inviting me out to the bar for a few more drinks before bed.  Nothing too rowdy, just great conversation with some great people.

The next morning I walked, stubbornly, to the bus station (1.5km, roughly), where I caught the bus to Skopje for my last night in Macedonia.  In retrospect I could have spent a full day there, but the few hours I had was enough to satisfy my curiosity.  Skopje is a weird, weird place.

Let me explain.

First thing you notice is that they don't have a style you could attribute as their own.  It's like they couldn't decide while building the place what to do with it so they just jacked ideas from everyone else and mashed them into a strange city that screams multiple personality disorder.  Roman columns?  We've got those.  Bridges that look like they hopped a plane from France?  Why not.  A giant statue of Alexander the Great that is pretty much personally designed to piss off the Greeks?  Go for it.








The only genuinely old bridge is here.

Alexander the Great, with a beer sign as background.  Yep.



That is a giant lion vomiting water out of its mouth.  Very majestic.



Also there's a shrine to mother Teresa.  Unsurprisingly my little liberal California heart scoffed at this lovely plaque (there's no way she said that!  Come on!) until I looked it up and found out this is what she actually said; "[I]f we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”... “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion."  
Personally I think misunderstanding and ignorance is a far greater problem than abortion, but we will agree to disagree.



I love this guy.  I can imagine his theme music, were he to have some.



Throw in the large modern buildings and weird touches like fountains in the river and you've got yourself one hell of an oddball city.

Those things in the water is a fountain in progress.  Really.

Old style bridge and t-mobile palace.

Or this gem.  What is the significance of this?

Or, uh, the giant ship shaped buildings in the river?

Just, what?

The whole time walking around I just kept shaking my head and muttering to myself, "what the fuck, Macedonia?"

Pretty sunset, though.

I topped off the unreal experience with a beer in an Irish pub and then a traditional restaurant for dinner, where I consumed a bottle of local red wine, a stuffed pepper, and a glorified burger patty with a fried egg on top.  Then it was time for bed, but not before I wrote mom an email meant for dad, once again illustrating the whole "my iPad should have a breathalyzer" theory.  Lucky for me it was pretty much what I would have said to her anyway, only without the whole bit where I asked after my cat and then signed off with dad's ridiculous nickname for me instead of hers.  I think I've mentioned his before, but I'm really nailing his whole responsible adult thing.

And this breaded fried stuffed pepper.  Healthy choices.


The culprit.

I woke up bright and early the next morning to catch a morning bus to Sofia, Bulgaria, which took the better part of my afternoon and dumped me off on a nice sweaty day in a place where I definitely had no idea where I was going.  Once again, I decided to walk from the bus station, also 1.5km (is it just me or is this some sort of pattern?).  Along the way I met some equally lost British tourists heading to the same hostel and between the three of us we did find it, eventually.

In Sofia I managed to find a free food tour, which was obviously my first order of business the next day after settling in.  Basically we had a young lady walk us around for two hours while feeding us traditional foods and letting us try traditional drinks like ayran (yogurt, water, and salt - you either love it or you hate it) and bouza (fermented wheat drink - definitely not my favorite).  In the end you could choose to tip our guide if you thought she did a good job.  And it gave me ideas of where I'd like to return to for meals later.

I also hopped on a free walking tour during my time in the city, where I learned some history in between being distracted by how hot it was.


Old wine keg.

This church was bombed out by terrorists at one point, I saw some pretty amazing photos.

Statue of Saint Sofia.  The city is NOT named after her.  Also, some of the more conservative locals doesn't really like the whole low cut top thing she's got going on.

Natural mineral water.  It's apparently great for the eyes and kidneys, but it smells like sulfur and comes out screamin' hot, which is more than a bit unappealing.

The bath house.

Ancient gem surrounded by blah communist style apartments.

Love this statue.


The church the city is named after doesn't have a bell tower so they out a bell in the tree way back when as a substitute.


This statue signifies the way this guy died - aka an ax to the face.  Can't say they aren't blunt around here.

The majority of my time in Sofia, unsurprisingly if you know me, was spent either hanging out at the outdoor cafes with cold beverages, or napping.  Also, eating delicious local food.

Like this sunflower seed crusted pork.  Such a good idea.

And I dyed my hair again.  Pretty much the same color, dark reddish brown.

After Sofia I was headed south to Plovdiv, and once again stubbornly walked to the bus station from my hostel, but at least this time it was cool out and therefore not quite as painful.  There I managed to figure out what Plovdiv looks like in a different alphabet (seriously guys, I can do a different language, but a different alphabet?  Fuck!) and buy a ticket.  By the time the bus dropped me off in God-knows-where, Plovdiv, my bravado had dissipated and I sheepishly hailed a taxi for the ride to the hostel.  Considering the taxi cost about $2 it really wouldn't have been worth it to suffer being hot, tired, and, most likely, lost.

I only had two nights in Plovdiv before my bus to Istanbul, so I spent my day and a half eating, drinking, and wandering aimlessly.  

Lovely parks.



Old theater.

Main drag.




Not to mention buying the ugliest pair of shoes in the world.  Just check out these bad boys.


As you would expect they are very comfortable and also waterproof, and therefore good for avoiding sea urchins.

I've worn them approximately three times.  I still have some pride, you know.

So having spent less than a week in Bulgaria I was already on my way out, but I was antsy to get "home" to Istanbul and then explore some more of the country that I had missed last time.  So goodbye, Eastern Europe, see you again someday!

~Swan

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