Hotel 7 Skopje

... of waiting for you to ask. Even if they didn't speak English they would take the time to make sure you understood. There was a guy at the bus station who started translating for me just because he wanted to help. <br><br>The bus was hot but it kept stopping at the side of the road to pick up or drop off (at places I'm fairly sure weren't stops) and so it never got too hot. I ended up getting off at a stop that wasn't mine but I think it turned out better. <br>

While not as festive as the brightly painted former schoolbuses in Central America, the buses here are an experience in their own way. For the most part they are old Mercedes buses that I am guessing outlived their usefulness in Western Europe but have found a second wind down here. So far I have logged three rides totalling 16 hours and each leg has been memorable.<br><br>My intro to busing Balkan style was the five hour ride from Osijek, Croatia ...

... Albania, broken bruised and beaten, not yet having received the coat of paint that the capital has, a splash here, a stripe there, and a mosaic in between, anything to try to forget the lost decades of Commonist rule and the psychological misgivings that can ensue. Somehow Nature always survives regardless of men's mistakes. Still Albania seems a bit more broken than most, with neither plan nor order. By the time we approach the border ...

... of Macedonia (you have to call it that because Macedonia is the region in Greece where Thessolaniki is, a Greece people have a freak out over copyrights or something). I spent the day wasting away walking everywhere, until my feet hurt like heck, looking for an internet connection where I could quickly find a hostel and its location. Nothing. After a few frustrating hours, i decided to go back to the train/bus station ...

... to be that they had to be 7 before starting. Here when a child starts school, they give gifts to them. Marija and Sashe bought her a dress from France, some school supplies and her mom got her a Barbie. Actually all the gifts was from all of them. All three of us went to the Stara Charshija ( Stara-old ), Marija wanted to show me the old city and how it looks different from what Skopje is now. In order to get there we had to cross over Vardar River. We ...

... checked out a political rally, wandered around, and in general had a good time. We even spent some time driving down the wrong side of the highway (terrifying) as to avoid the kosovo border, and got pulled over by the cops for going double the speed limit (about 200 km/hr, but im not sure how fast that is). Lucky Ana's father is super important, and shes invincible. It was nice hanging out with people my age.

It may not be the best-known European city in the world, but Skopje has earned itself a bit of a reputation of late. Pick up any guidebook at a bookstore and you're liable to get a pretty consistent description. "Once an attractive Turkish city, destroyed by an earthquake in 1963, rebuilt in Communist fervor" or something similar. They usually go on to say it's a little thin on sights and not especially beautiful. Well, I figured it might be exaggerated, given how reputation can get twisted ...

... induced sleep, we were woken by customs officers at the Macedonian border demanding passports and visas. For Macedonia, EU residents and New Zealanders (why kiwis?!) can pass freely without a visa. Australians could buy one cheaply at the border, but canadians, americans, anyone else, were to buy them at the consulate before departure, even if you were only in transit in Macedonia. I had luckily been forewarned, and was travelling on ...

... a pizza dough crust and filled with stewed meats, cheeses, vegetables, and beans. It was served to me Flambee style with the waiter dumping vodka on top of the crust and then lighting it on fire before serving the casserole to me bread bowl style. It not only tasted great but it only cost me 7 bucks. I figure something like this in the US would go for at least 3 times that much. It is amazing how much better things taste when they are ...

... some S**b forces w**e allowed back into this buff** zone and quelled the situation,but as this was still going on,Albanian dominated bord** regions of Macedonia began an uprising in protest at their unfair treatment since independence from Yugoslavia.They wanted equal rights,a fair education system and their own language to be enshrined in a new constitution.From small beginnings in the bord** village of Tanusevci,just across from Kosovo,in January 2001 ...