Timezone: Europe/Skopje (21st Aug 22:23)
Currently is on an adventure (for 38 minutes, and 59 seconds)
You may know me from..
Last ate 13 hours, 53 minutes, and 23 seconds ago (Bread with not-cheese, not-sausage, nayo, soya pate; coffee)
Last exercised 5 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes, and 4 seconds ago
Monthly budget 119% used (last spent 500mkd on Bus from Ohrid to Skopje)
Words written this month (843 of posts and fiction)
As my very last week in Skopje commences, I discovered (from the nice people at Vegan 365 Kitchen) that Violife is sold at Ramstore supermarkets in the 3 big malls (Skopje City Mall, Ramstore Mall, and another I forgot). Just in time for it to be too late for me to buy cheese, especially as I picked some up in Croatia last week.
Two days in Belgrade on the way back to Skopje from Split. Wandering, recovering. Belgrade welcomed me with familiar gloominess, and I walked along a deserted beach at Ada Ciganlija. The next day was sunny, so I went to the fort. Food at Zuwar, Seventh Heaven (maybe the best ice cream I've ever had? Pistachio), the new Vegessence, and finally great seitan cevapi at Mayka!
Went to Split, Croatia, to see Dave and Juri. Bankrupted myself by paying for all of their food. Swam in the sea a lot. It was too hot to do much so we sat around in cafes. Did do an accidental 'hike' through Marjan Park.
All roads lead to Sarajevo. This time I cafe worked, saw friends, picked up my new (secondhand) laptop. I ate good thinks like grah, falafel, krompirusa, at Karuzo, and spent a whole day in Zdravo. I was sad to see Dia cafe is closed, but found a Biona vegan food stand at a street food festival! Also got too hot and almost passed out on a tram and some nice passers by called an ambulance for me.
A day and a night in Pristina, which is a 2 hour and ~€5 bus ride from Skopje. There's pro-American sentiment like I've never seen anywhere, and pro-EU sentiment is visible too. Kosovo uses the euro and is populated by 90% Albanian Muslims; Albanian is the most commonly spoken language, but despite the 5% Serb makeup Serbian is technically an official language as well. Pristina is a vibrant city with lots of new buildings and modern amenities, despite the tiny population, tiny budget, and enormous unemployment rate.
I wandered up and down the pedestrianised and cafe-lined Mother Teresa Boulevard in the daytime and evening, and always it was buzzing with young people and families.
Of course I checked out the various famous statues and monuments: Bill Clinton's statue; the Yugoslav Memorial to Brotherhood and Unity; Skanderberg on a horse in the main square; the New Born installation; the Heroinat monument to the 20,000 women raped during the Kosovo war.
And distinctive buildings: the University and City library (a blocky brutalist alien piece of architecture that is supposed to simultaneously invoke Byzantine forms, the domes of Turkish hammams, all draped in a giant fishing net); the Youth Palace sports center; the unfinished Serbian Orthodox church on the university campus; the Mother Teresa Catholic cathedral; the old bazaar clock tower which never works; the Stone Mosque.
There are lots of interesting museums in Pristina, most of which are free, but all are closed on Mondays.
I spent 2.5 hours on a very informative walking tour.
And ate at Dit e Nat vegetarian cafe, Green & Protein health food place, and Babaganoush vegetarian falafel joint. Failed to find baklava, but did get Turkish coffee and some probably-maybe-lost-in-translation vegan treats from a coffeehouse near the Grand Hotel.
Library and cafe working around Skopje. Discovered that freddo espresso exists here. Found an airconditioned room in the big library near the old bazaar, but it's otherwise weirdly abandoned. Visited the art gallery in the old hammam, which is really cool - great art of all kinds, plus fascinating meta commentary about the nature of art.
