Our First Eastern Europe Experience

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Sept 27th--After a long trainride to Thessaloniki in northern Greece, one night in a cheap and kind of dirty hostel, and another early morning train, we arrived in Macedonia. Our main reason for visiting this country was to visit two of Heidi's friends, Kelley and Laura**, who are in the Peace Corps here. Kelley had just arrived so we only had a few hours to see her during her training, but we spent the rest of the week with Laura, staying at her apartment in Prilep a few days, then down to Ohrid, a beautiful little town on a lake.

Macedonia was really our first experience of feeling completely out of our comfort zone. There were no other tourists around, no one spoke or understood English (well, a few could speak very broken words), and we had no maps or info on where we were going. Luckily we had a local man on our train who spoke English well enough to let us know our train stop or we would have completely missed it!

We had people point us in the direction of town, and we set off on what ended up being nearly an hour's walk to find the only hotel in the town of Veles. We had one night here on our own before meeting my friends. All eyes were on us with our big packs, suntans, and my blond hair. The town sits in a river valley so it was beautiful, but somewhat hilly. We kept trying to ask where the hotel was, and people would try to sign us directions. Eventually we came across an old man who could only understand "hotel" and walked with us the entire way, speaking Macedonian and laughing at us when we could only nod our heads and say "English" back to him. Quite entertaining, and just one example of the freindliness of Macedonians once you get past the stares and sober looks. Then a young kid followed us into the hotel reception and tried to convince the owner that he was staying with us as we kept saying no. Finally, the owner figured out that the kid was lying and shooed him out 😉

We met up with Laura the next day, saw Kelley in the evening, then headed to Prilep to stay a few days. Having spent one year there, Laura gave us a lot of insight into the culture and customs of the country, besides the fact that she could speak and understand the language which helped tremendously. Local foods, walking around, and just getting the feel of a country that still feels very communist was quite interesting.

We also spent a few days in Ohrid, a great little lakeside town on the western border with Laura and another PC volunteer, Josh, who was full of historical facts about the country. We also got to visit a nearby town, Vevchani, that has its own natural springs. Overall, beautiful place and a fun time!

**Laura, thanks again for a FABULOUS time, and Kel, hope you're enjoying yourself!!!

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Photos

On the train
The train from Thessaloniki (Northern Greece,) to Macedonia.

Veles, Macedonia
Our first real "easter europe" town, Veles was very quaint and pretty, but NO ONE spoke English!

Hotel Zorra
We had to walk (carrying 25kg/60lbs on our backs) almost an hour to find the one hotel in the town. Thank goodness "hotel" is the same in English and Macedonian. (just replace the 'h' with a 'x.'

Heidi, Kelley, Laura and Sara
Kel and Laura are friends from Nebraska and Sara is another of the Peace Corps volunteers.

Prilep, Macedonia
We stayed here with Laura for a few nights. Climbed up a big hill, an old fortress to get this view from above.

A Macedonian Home
Alot of the homes were half finished, with tobacco leaves drying out the front.

A traditional Macedonian meal
Laura and PC friend, Stacia took us out to a traditional restaurant--we had all sorts of meat on a big platter(aka, meat salad as they like to refer to it) a delicious Greek-style salad, bread, and lots of red wine.

Lunch with locals
Laura's landlord and her daughter hosted us for a traditional lunch, "tafhe grafche", a bean and sausage dish.

Ohrid Lakeshore
Ohrid is a beautiful little town one the western border of Macedonia, more touristy with some great restaurants and cafes.

It doesn't get better than this
Dan, Josh, and Laura, coffee by the lake--we stayed with Josh, another Peace Corps volunteer for a couple of nights.

The Coffee Menu...
That's right...even Laura and Josh had no idea how this coffee's name translated to this!?!

Macedonian BBQ
Most of these have some sort of cheese in them--delicious but dirty! Four of us polished off most of this...the most meat Dan and I had eaten for months!

Comments

[goran]

veles the most beautiful city
hi my name is goran iam from veles but I live in USA already 11 years.I wish that everybody think like you guys good things about my city and country.keep up the good work

[Fran Reinfjell]

Veles
I loved those pix....I lived in Titov Veles for a year waiting on my ex-husband's visit. We were a 5 minute walk from that hotel in old town near the old railroad bridge. the one picture you have of the Vardar....we used to sit directly across from those houses! her landlady looks like my husband's cousins' wife! And I know that bean dish...my mother in law used to make it in out woodstove. We lived on Kukuska 26...I think it's been torn down now. I have been to Ohrid many times and we camped there on the lake for close to a week; it's lovely. I was married in the town centre in front of a giant picture of Tito....when he was still in favor. It's a lovely town and I even have pictures of us swimming in the Vardar before it got too polluted(my ex said never go in the water after 4pm as that's when they dump the effluent from the American factory. Great pictures and yes; great people!