YOU GO SLAVIA! - Part 4: In The Land That Was Not Named After A Nut...

So I had a college professor once who taught a humanities class. He was also a psychologist. He occasionally referred to Alexander the Great and the land from which Alexander came. But he always referred to it as "Macadamia." I thought it was a bit strange but I never said anything mainly because I was just a lowly freshman and I didn't want to correct my professor. Now I wonder WHY he referred to this region as Macadamia. Was it some kind of psychological experiment that he was doing with the students? Was he really confused? What was it? I wish I would have said something. Because the real name of this land is not the Hawaiian nut, but none other than....

МАКЕДОНИЈА
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MACEDONIA

August 16th (don't forget to check out at least part 3 if not part 1 and part 2 of this series)

The sun was waning over the hills of Kosovo as we approached the Macedonian border...

We got through without a hitch and then about 30 minutes later we caught sight of the great Macedonian capital of Skopje.

We drove into the city and it was nice to come to a place that felt a bit more civilized and less chaotic than Kosovo. I noticed that the stoplights all had a counter counting down the seconds until the light would change. They have this for pedestrian lights in Utah, but I had never seen it for the actual traffic lights before. I'm a fan...

We parked the car near the city center and then marched out onto Skopje as the sun was setting. It was a beautiful, peaceful city.

Here is Macedonia Square. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born just down that street in the middle there...

We got there just as the sun was throwing beautiful light on the sky and the clouds, it was ideal picture taking light and I wanted to run along the banks of the Vardar river and snap a few shots of the castle before the sun went totally down. I suggested to the others that I meet them up on the castle in a few minutes after I finished my mission. They agreed and I immediately put on the "Spy Music" playlist on my ipod and listened to the Bourne Supremacy as I ran down through the streets and sidewalks of Skopje along the river. Packing my secret spy equipment (my camera with tripod attached) and running to the music, I knew exactly, EXACTLY, how Jason Bourne felt...

The old bridge on the Vardar...

And the old fortress...

After completing my mission I climbed to the top of the castle and met the others. I was a able to get a few good shots from there as well...

Here is Skopje at night. The cross atop the mountain yonder was built in 2002 and is the largest standing cross in the world...

Macedonian Ghosts...

Me, Janez, Peter, and Rok in Skopje...

The brothers got a kick out of this small car...

We got back in the car and started driving south. It was dark now and clear skies, with the windows down I was able to gaze up at the stars and watch a few of the falling August meteors.

After about two hours we arrived in the town of Ohrid located on the lake of the same name. In Ohrid we met another Slovenian from the Ljubljana LDS branch who is half Macedonian. Saša was nice to arrange for some accommodations at his neighbors' and entertain us while there.

After putting our stuff in our room and freshening up a bit we walked into the main part of town. It was nearly midnight but the town was hopping. There were shops, restaurants, music, outdoor cafes, and discos all still swinging with crowds thronging the main walking streets. This was a party town, the Lake Havasu or Cancun of the former Yugoslavia.

We found a pizza place and enjoyed some midnight pizza. Here is Saša, Peter, Rok, and I at dinner...

We walked a bit around the town and then back to our house. I was tired. I slept.

Here was our room. The brothers shared the bed and I was on the top bunk. Rok thought he was tough...

I slept great and then the next morning I woke up a little bit cooler than when I went to bed...

We grabbed our swimming stuff and walked back into the city. Saša's two sons also joined us.

Here is Peter, me, Kristijan, and David in the Old Bazaar of Ohrid...

Even in the morning the streets were still crowded with tourists (and I heard hardly any English by the way)...

The atmosphere was very relaxed and festive...

We went to lunch at a burger joint...

Walked through the town...

Passing a million small Orthodox churches. Ohrid has 365 churches...

This couple was going nowhere fast...

Soon we came in sight of the lake...

Old car...

Macedonian Garfield...

Some of the old houses near the lake were in interesting shape, this one being held up by boards propped against the cliff...

At last we came to our swimming hole at the base of the cliffs to the left...

The water was PERFECT! It felt sooo nice. I immediately noticed a ton of little minnows swimming around the shore almost totally unafraid of people (except for that little guy at the bottom, you can tell he's worried about something)...

We had some fun with my underwater camera, though the abundance of fish made it difficult to focus on the people...

There we go...

Always be careful when taking pictures of yourself after swimming, sometimes the picture is good and sometimes it's snot...

After our swim we went up to one of the churches overlooking the lake for a photo op. I set up my tripod and put my camera on a timer to get this shot. As if on que, this lady came running right through the middle of the picture...

So we did it again...

Nate puts on the war paint (mainly just to not look so gosh damn white)...

We walked up the hill a bit to the most sacred Macedonian Orthodox church of them all. There were also ancient Christian ruins being excavated all around...

Orthodox, yo...

A well full of money, bills too! I don't know what they do when it rains...

The castle was visible behind us. The Macedonians have a cool flag, don't you think?

The church...

Kristijan kept asking me to take his picture, so here he is as a ninja who just got done swimming in Lake Ohrid...

And then he wanted to take some pictures himself. Here's his photo of me. I was too white for the camera...

We walked back down into the old city...

And found an old Greek/Roman amphitheater...

Kristijan wanted to take more pictures...

We passed a metalworker selling Macedonian armor...

And a Macedonian folk-art shop...

The Macedonians aren't really the same people as those who were led by Alexander the Great, at least not totally. The modern people of Macedonia are descendants of ancient Slavs who came to the region around 500AD, nearly a millenia after Alexander the Great. Thus the Macedonian language is related closely to Bulgarian and they use the cyrillic alphabet.

We went to the main marketplace and bartered for some fresh peaches...

There were many interesting faces at the marketplace.

The Egg Lady...

The Wee-quay (Nate, that is so rude)...

The Pepper Man...

The Grape Guy...

We ate our peaches as we walked back to the house...

On the way we passed the Macedonian Man...

We rested a bit at Saša's place and then decided that we would meet in town at the Old Bazaar at 9pm. That gave me a few hours to into town and do a bit of shopping and picture taking.

So Peter and I took Kristijan and David to the market to do some shopping. Kristijan helped me barter for a new beach towel that looks like a 100€ bill.

I then left them to the shopping and I went back to the lakeside for some photos...

I picked up my rock from Macedonia right out of the lake itself. Ohrid Lake is one of Europe's oldest and deepest with a unique endemic ecosystem...

I caught the Sveti Pantelajmon just as the lights were coming on...

I then met up with the others. Peter and I bought some coddun candy...

The streets were coming to life again including a folk parade with people dressed in full Macedonian clothing...

We found the statue of the brothers Cyrill who invented the cyrillic alphabet and came from Macedonia.

This is cyrillic...

Тхатс њхере тхесе леттерс цоме фром.

Ohrid on Ohrid...

Janez and Rok had eaten ice cream about five times that day each time with an increasing amount of scoops. Here they have five scoops...

The cool thing about Macedonia was that everything was dirt cheap. We paid pennies for all the good food we ate.

Peter found the best place for bad food...

We ate pizza again for dinner and walked the city a bit more.

We ended up at an outdoor cafe near the waterfront where ethnic pop music was playing, people were dancing, and the evening was peaceful and relaxing.

We were all quite tired...

...well almost all of us.

We returned home tired having enjoyed a full and interesting day in Macadamia.


Here you can see Skopje and Ohrid to get your bearings...

View Yugobalkantrip in a larger map

Coming up next: A glimpse of a land where no foreigners could visit for nearly 50 years, and bunkers bunkers bunkers.

Oh... de...de...de...de...de...dear!

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