Skopje - I'm in love

---

I arrived in Macedonia yesterday, after looking forward to it for a long time. The reason is a very good friend from Skopje who has tought me a lot about Macedonia and told me what to see. Unfortunately I'm still pretty sick and haven't even had the energy to try and find out if he's home or visit all the destinations he has pointed out. But I do believe, after only a little more than a day, that Macedonia is certainly a destination for later vacations.

I'm in Skopje at the moment staying at a wonderful room with a real shower and cabel-tv. I haven't had a really nice shower in weeks, maybe a year considering the dorm I live in in Slovenia. And cabel-tv, - I can't even recall when I last watched real tv. This surely shouldn't be important when you are travelling, but because of my many breaks ad naps due to the cold I've actually really enjoyed it. Watched a lot of Discoevery and got tons of knowledge about Nefertiti and can at this moment actually point out on a world map The Garden of Eden.

But I've also had time to see the city or at least the very center. And have I ever told you how much I love Bulgarian people, well Macedonians are just as wonderful. I haven't been as relaxed as I am here for a very long time. I've gotten several smiles on my way through Skopje and I've had a nice talk about football and handball as well as Scandinavia with a local waitor. I also went to my first exhibition on this trip, maybe because I felt so lighthearted and happy. It was great! Beautiful pictures of Macedonian life and people through the century as well as more modern and artistic sculptures. But it was mainly the pictures that cought my attention. This is precisely the kind of pictures I try to take. Funny details on buildings, nice streetfounds and old cars parked madly. Great!

Even though I wont get to see more of Macedonia this time around, I'm really pleased with what I've seen so far. So much life and then it's cheap. After Greece it's great to be back in a country, where a coffee doesn't cost 4euro. It makes me feel that my budget wont explode and that I might still have some money when I return home. I would wish that I could stay a little longer, but I believe that I will be returning before leaving for Sarajevo, because as far as I know I can't enter SICG from Kosovo (which I have to, to go on to Sarajevo, BiH) if I enter Kosovo from Macedonia. This means I have to get back to Skopje and get one of the rare busses to Sarajevo or go by train to Belgrade and on to Sarajevo. Complicated? Well it's also bloody expensive. But anyhow it means a few more days in Macedonia, maybe even the possibility to see Ohrid, which I really want!

Well at this time of reading, my mother would very much like to be able to call me and tell me that I by no mean will enter Kosovo, but to her big regret I turned 18 long ago and can pretty much do what I want. Knowing this she will start offering me money in a last and desperate hope to make me not cross the border to a UN-protectorate! Sweet darling mum, no matter how much I love you and admire you, I am in this sense absolutely my fathers daughter. So you just praise yourself happy that I haven't gone on one of his charters to Somalia...yet.

I'm looking forward to Kosovo . I've heard great things about it and it's beauties, but I admit that I'm also starting to see the end of my travel. And I'm looking forward to my beautiful Slovenia and to my wonderful Copenhagen.

And talking about Copenhagen I had a strange evening yesterday. Turning on the fantastic cabel-tv, the first thing I find is a Danish movie with to great actresses (Trine Dyrholm and Sofie Graaboel) -someone help me here, I can't remember the title. And after watching that, including a very sad ending I switch to find a documentary about H.C.Andersen and his footsteps in Denmark. At last I turn to Discovery, where some professor on Copenhagen Uni is talking about the undiscovered grave of Nefertiti. Well it doesn't help on my homesickness. Give me a Carlsberg in my hand and a Danish flag in the other and you'll make me cry. Kidding, but it felt strange to get all this in the face, realizing that there are only two weeks untill I'll be welcomed home by a crying mother in Copenhagen Airport. Okay now I start crying! A little embarrasing. I guess I'll be leaving this internetcafe now. Home to the cabel and Discovery!

Anna

---

Photos

shoe-shop in Skopje
Skopje

streetscene in Skopje
Skopje