Country Sunshine
The Weekend that Was
Bright and early Saturday morning, I packed up and went to the Skopje bus station to get a ticket to Bitola, a southern town in the Macedonian countryside. I have friends from church and students who live there, and since it was a holiday weekend (Patron Saint Day for St. Clement of Ohrid) it was the perfect time to go. It was a 3-and-a half-hour ride, complete with all the things that make Macedonian transportation unique: a mix of Serbian and American pop music on the radio; a break at a roadside hotel for people to have a cigarette or two; and random highway stops to drop passengers off in the middle of nowhere (seriously). I also got to see some breathtaking views of the various mountain ranges running through central/south Macedonia… fun fact, there are 5,089 named mountains in the country.
Once I arrived, my student/friend Emilija picked me up, and we walked around town and did some sightseeing of the city park, main street, old bazaar, clock tower from the Ottoman period (the bricks are held together with an egg mixture!) and old synagogues-turned-churches-turned-mosques turned back to churches.
We visited her uncle at his travel agency, and he gave me some Macedonian swag, including a small flag. Afterward, I tried salep at a cafe, which is a Turkish rice milk drink with cinnamon - an Eastern horchata. Lunch was ready at her house at 4:30, so we walked across town to her family’s lovely apartment. We had salads with beets, lettuce, cucumber, and carrot; boiled potatoes; and a beef stew with peas, plus bread for dipping in the sauce. To drink? Rakija, of course. After dinner, we had coffee and baklava while watching some TV.
We ventured out again to go to dinner (!) at 7 with Emilija’s sister and both of their boyfriends. I wasn’t hungry but enjoyed my favorite, Schweppes Bitter Lemon. While at the restaurant, I ran into another Fulbrighter, Jacob, who teaches in Bitola! Small world.
A Greek rock band was playing at Porta Jazz Club later in the evening, so we got tickets and hung out upstairs at the venue to wait for the music to start. Unfortunately, the combination of a heavy meal and a long day hampered my attempt to stay out later than 12:30… the music (which was great, the band had an awesome electric guitar player and drummer) started at 11:00, and by 12:00 we were on our way home.
I slept soundly and woke up to the smell of breakfast, which was a savory Macedonian french toast, made my Emilija’s mom. We got ready and then sat down to eat. Her mom served it with kiselo mleko (kind of like yogurt), roasted red peppers, cured meat, and pickled vegetables.
I bid farewell to Emilija’s mom and we went to meet up with a few more of my students for coffee. After a scenic walk to the old rail station (which used to have trains that came at 3:00am, 12:47pm, and 6:15pm, and now only has a train sometimes at 3:00am), my family friends from church picked me up and drove me back to Skopje.
At church, we’ve been lighting candles for advent and going through a series on ‘Christ as the Lamb’. Two groups of travelers in their 20’s – 6 people from the Netherlands and 2 from Scotland – joined our congregation and me and a couple friends went out to dinner with them afterward. I took a minute to admire how unique the moment was… somehow, all of us found our way to Macedonia and got to worship and have a meal together.
I’m having lunch with the Scots this afternoon in the Old Bazaar, and a Peace Corps friend and I + two of my local friends are taking them to my favorite kafana (Kafana Frosina) tonight before they leave tomorrow, to give them an authentic MK experience!
(Song Credit: Dottie West)
