I'm not dead!

---

so yea ive had quite the issue updating this blog, seeing as i've come across only power outages and shitty internet....

saturday afternoon i left veliko turnovo after a ridiculously crazy night and a tearful farewell. i can't wait to come back next summer. a bunch of us headed for sofia where i spent the first night at a hostel and the second night with a friend from switzerland who works in sofia. we spent saturday night at a nice restaurant followed by a cool bar behind the national art gallery and then a club called 'my mojito'. naturally, i had a mojito.

the next day i moved over to the apartment and spent the day roaming around the city mainly with ira (ukraine), stephanie (BC), and adrien (switzerland). it was RIDICULOUSLY hot so we pretty much wanted to die all day, but the mall cooled us off a bit. we said goodbye to casper and kathrine (denmark) after all meeting for breakfast, and later were joined by steve and thatcher whose train to istanbul had been cancelled. by the end of the night we were exhausted and basically collapsed back at the apartment.

this morning my bus to skopje left at 1:00. as luck would have it, i ran into Fifi (Filippo from Sicily) at the bus station, which was cool since i didnt' have a chance to say goodbye to him. the bus ride was a bit cramped, but not too bad since there was air-conditioning in the little like 14-seater.

getting into the city i was absolutely clueless, and my first taste of skopje was getting ripped off really bad by a duo of cab drivers. they like drove me around in circles trying to convince me that i should just go to ohrid tonight, since tomorrow there's some kind of albanian protest. one of the guys commented me on my "serbian". LOL. they wanted 800-some dinari for the cab ride, which is like 13USD. um, no, but seriously after arguing for 10 minutes outside the cab, i just gave them 600 and left. whatever, fuck them.

my next great taste of the city was finding out that there was no place for me in my hostel! my email had been delayed so only now am i seeing the email from them saying they were booked. i wanted to kill someone. i was directed to some other hotel for 27euro a night, though it was private with AC, TV, and a bathroom, so i said whatever. when i come back here in 3 days i should be able to stay at that hostel, though, for a little bit cheaper. skopje in general has really expensive accomodation compared to how much everything else costs in the country.

once out of the "hotel", i looked at the map and had no idea where i was, so after walking to some park, i used bulgarian to ask for directions from this macedonian lady. she was really nice and offered to walk me to plaza macedonia. after her kindness and seeing more of the city, my initial disdain for the country wore off a bit. ploshtad makedonija is really nice, lined with restaurants and stores. there's even a nice riverside prommenade. i crossed the bridge into the old town, which was really awesome and blatantly turkish-influenced. it was already sundown so i figure i'll check it out when im back here on thursday.

i went to this mall where i got a new phone number for macedonia, and where i found this internet cafe. i think i need to go buy a kebab or something, because all i've had all day is a banana and a sandwich.

tomorrow i leave for ohrid where i get to find private accomodation from people at the bus station. i'll make sure to look for the molestors, rapists, and serial killers waiting around.

---