Wild World
Orthodox Easter and Camping in Struga
The busier life gets, the less often I post, oops! The semester is over and I’m back. To tell you the story of my first Orthodox Easter, let’s rewind to the first weekend of May. My friend Emilija invited me to spend the weekend with her family in Bitola, and we had almost the whole week off from school, so I went to Bitola Friday morning. My pro tip re: Fulbright is to apply to an Orthodox-majority country because they have SO many holidays, which means a lot of days off of work! 😌
I took the bus down to Bitola, and Emilija and her lovely parents picked me up. We headed to church to light candles, and leave the traditional red egg and money at the altar. The final touch was crawling under a really ornate table to signify death and rebirth, before getting a holy oil cross on the forehead, doled out by the local priest.
Emilija and I met up with two of my students/friends, Oresti and Anja, for coffee before going home for a posno meal (meaning vegetarian) for fasting purposes! Her mom fasted this year, so in solidarity, we eat vegetarian until Sunday at 12:00 am.
Saturday was our day trip to Prilep! Emilija, Oresti, and I hopped on the train (my first time!) and rode for 45 minutes north to Prilep, which is a little bigger than Bitola. Once there, we had coffee with another student/friend Ivana, and some other acquaintances - 3 guys - native to the city. The guys found a local fisherman outside who was carrying a catch around, and after a two-minute conversation, he gave it to them for free in a trash bag. They stored it in the back of their Mercedes and we went to a kafana for lunch.
We made it back to Bitola in time to get ready and go back to church for midnight Mass. The homily did become political at one point (the elections were imminent) but otherwise went on without incident. It was really a beautiful sight, to see so many candles lit in the church courtyard. At the stroke of midnight, fireworks went off, and we all cracked the eggs we dyed, one on top of another – you know, to see whose egg was the strongest. My egg lost, but I didn’t really coach it, so I guess I had it coming…
Emilija’s aunt hosted the midnight feast at her house, so we walked for a cold 15 minutes (with a brief dance interlude) across town to the festivities. Of course we were only speaking Macedonian, which at 1am after a full day of activities was a bit challenging. It’s almost like a party trick— her family loves to ask me questions and see if I can answer in Macedonian. Still, the food was great, and family time was better. The house is always full of laughter…
After getting a few precious hours of sleep, we went around town to visit friends and wish them Happy Easter. The final feast was Sunday afternoon at the grandparents’ house. They have a bountiful garden and greenhouse, plus turkeys, pheasants, chickens, and quails. I ate so much (the refrain is always јади, уживај! eat, enjoy!) but it was all so phenomenal, very lovingly-made, traditional food, like shopska, chorba, and svinsko so kompiri. After many goodbyes and plastic containers of leftovers, I took the 6:30pm train back to Skopje, and made it home by 10:30pm.
The following weekend was camping time! My friend Alin was turning the big 3-0 so he invited 10 of us down to Struga for Saturday and Sunday. We took two cars and caravanned (is that a verb?) down there. The campsite is right on the lake, fully outfitted with treehouses and a fire pit. We ate at a kafana and spent the afternoon walking around town and hanging out outside, before taking naps and gearing up for the night.
Ivana and her husband Fico got the bonfire going, and me and Tamara got some snacks and drinks going. With the music and vibes high, we rang in Alin’s 30th at midnight! I’m not a night owl though, so by 1:45am I was ready to call it. I went to bed, only to wake up at 5am to see half the group was just then going to bed! We had a late start Sunday morning (obviously) and after coffee and chatting, drove back to Skopje around 2:00pm.
The group pulled a classic stop at Стража, which is an iconic rest stop in the mountains offering the best мекица around (basically just friend dough). That and a lil chashka of yogurt and you’re good! I made it home around 5:00pm, and settled in to my now-normal, post-trip unpacking and cleaning routine. These two trips rounded out my month-and-a-half of traveling every weekend, so I was ready for some normal day-to-day routine in Skopje. Stay tuned for tales of the last week of school!
(Song Credit: Yusuf/Cat Stevens)
