Click on the pictures

If you click on any of the pictures you can see them much better.

The view from Bigorski

Here are some more pictures of the view. Notice the small Albanian village. The pictures will probably not do it justice. It was breath taking in person.

Bigorski Monastary

Next stop was the most beautiful Monastery. It was far up in the mountains. There were a few Albanian villages around but for the most part it is pretty isolated. It was first built in 1020 AD and it is still a working Monastery. You can stay the night there for a just a couple of dollars. If you don't have any money you and do some chores to pay for your stay. This place was so beautiful it is hard to put into words, both inside and out. As we walked through the gates and into the courtyard there was a small domed structure. As I got closer I noticed that there were Nuns in black robes inside of the small dome on a platform. They were actually painting the fresco on the ceiling which would depict a story from the bible. I thought it was pretty cool to see that in action. The Monastery was built on the side of a step slope in the mountains. The view from the courtyard looked down into valley and you could see the next mountain on the other side. There was a small Albanian village off in the distance. The view was awesome. It really was breath taking and like the most beautiful painting that you would ever see. You couldN see why they chose to build it in that location. We enjoyed the view for a bit and then went into the sanctuary. The inside was stunning as well. The walls and ceilings were covered with frescoes. One of the things that makes this Monastery special is the wall behind the altar. It is covered with these intricate wood carvings of people and animals from the bible. The carvings are amazing. They had so much details it must have taken forever to finish. They were done by 2 brothers and there are over 500 human and 200 animal carvings. All of the chandeliers and decorations hanging from the ceiling were solid gold. The other special thing about this particular Monastery is that there is a chest of relics that allegedly contains a bone fragment from John the Baptist. Near the entrance is an original picture in glass. People believe that the picture has healing powers and that if you kiss it you will be healed. In front of the picture is a pile of necklaces, rings, watches, and all kinds of jewelry. These are left by the people who have been healed by kissing the picture. I wish I could have taken pictures of the inside but photography is forbidden in almost all of the Monastaries.

This was my favorite stop of the entire weekend. It was a special place.

Mavrovo

We left Skopje and started towards the mountains. Our first stop was Mavrovo. Mavrovo is town on a small, man made lake. They built a dam which created the lake. You can still see the top of an old church peeking out of the water. When the damn was created the church ended up below the water. They have a small snow skiing resort at Mavrovo. I was told there is lots of snow there in the winter. It was so quiet and peaceful. I guess since it wasn't ski season, people don't visit as much, at least they didn't on the Saturday morning that we visited. It almost felt like we had the place to ourselves. We sat and had some coffee and just enjoyed the view for a bit.

Catching up

I haven't posted much but I am going to try and catch up a little. During the week it has been mostly business as usual. Going to their offices during the day and usually just dinner and time at the hotel at night. We did go and have a traditional Macedonian breakfast during the week. It was basically beef stew with Macedonian moonshine. Not exactly what I would have for breakfast at home but the stew was so delicious.
We
On the weekend we travelled out of town for an overnight trip to a popular vacation spot for the locals. It is called Lake Ohrid and it is very similar to Lake Tahoe. It is lake in the mountains which it about at 2 and a half hour drive from the city. I traveled there with a guy named Sasha and his girlfriend. We also met up with Marco and Tosha in Ohrid. We left at about 9am on Saturday morning and they took me by the scenic route. We took our time stopping at a few places along the way and we didn't get into Ohrid until about 6pm. We rested at the hotel for a bit and then went out to check out the city. We went to the downtown area and walked around for a bit. Next it was big dinner full of local food. After dinner we went to a bar with some live music and proceeded to have a few drinks. We wrapped things up about 2am and went back to the hotel for some much needed rest. We met at 10am on Sunday for breakfast. The plan was lots of sightseeing for the day. We wrapped that up around 7:30 and came back to Skopje. The mountains in Macedonia is a beautful place. I had an awesome weekend and there is so much to say about the places we visited I think I will create a seperate post and some pictures that I took along the way. It is getting late now so I don't know if I will finish them all but keep an eye out for the next day or so and I will try to cover everything. I am having a great time here.

A visit to Lake Matka

It is really nice to get here with a day off before I have to start working. The jet lag sucks but I am making the best of it. I was sooooo tired by the end of the night it wasn't hard getting to sleep. My hosts here offered to take me out sightseeing on Sunday so I gladly accepted their offer. I took it nice and easy in the morning and they picked me up around 11:30. There was 5 of us, Sasha, his girlfriend Janna, Misho, Marko and myself. We all piled into the van started heading for the hills. For me it is just interesting travelling through the streets here looking at the people and the normal things. I am sure that is lost on the people who live here everyday but it was interesting just to look out the window as we travelled through town. We were headed to a place called Lake Matka which is a popular place for people in Skopje to visit on the weekends. It is about a 30 minute drive out of town. Once we left the edge of town they mentioned that we were going to be travelling through some Albanian neighborhoods. I got the impression that the Albanians must be conidered to be 'simpler' people. Honestly, it didn't seem to be radically different to me. I did see a few tractors and such so I suspect the Albanians might keep to themselves and be a bit poorer than the average Macdonian.

We travelled up a narrow winding road for a while and came to a place that was packed with parked cars next to a river. This is where we parked and the rest of the trip was on foot. We passed a few street vendors with large sacks of what looked like nuts or beans or something that you could buy to eat while you walked. We started to trip up the hill to the lake and you could tell it was a popular spot because there were lots of other people. We passed a little family of bulls wandering freely on the trail. I was wearing a bright red shirt so everyone joked that I better be careful. I was more worried about stepping in a pile of cow poop. I seem to be drawn to that stuff.

Part way up the trail we came upon a big dam. The dam created sort of a lake on the other side. It was a bit smaller than what I might usually consider a lake. I could probably throw a rock across Lake Matka with no problem but I guess it probably qualified. The trail and the lake were in a big canyon between to mountains. The mountains were very steep and a popular place for rock climbers. At the end of the trail was a big restaurant with lots of outdoor seating. The restaurant was built into cave so it went back into the mountain. There was also a Monastary from the 1400's. We took a look in the small church and it was like stepping back in time. The walls were covered with paintings that told stories from the bible. It was a quiet and solemn place. Sorry no pictures are allowed in church. We were a little hot and tired from the hike so we found a nice spot on the big patio and enjoyed the scenery with a coke. The patio was packed. These are the places where I really notice that I am in another country. My hosts are very polite and usually speak english around me but in a crowded place like this you hear the buzz of other people talking in a language that I can't understand. It is fun just checking out the people. People look and dress differently.

After we finished our drinks we decided to rent a boat with a guide that would take us up Lake Matka. Near the end of Lake Matka there is a cave that you can go into. So we did a little cave exploring and then returned to the boat. As luck would have it, started to rain on the trip back. The boat had a sun shade but it wasn't a proper roof so the trip back was a little wet.

We hiked back down the trail and returned to town to eat. We went to a part of town that was a really old Turkish bazaar. Unfortunately all of the shops were closed because it was Sunday. We had a nice lunch with traditional Macedonian food. After eating and a couple of glasses of wine it was time to head back to the hotel for a little nap. Jet lag sucks.

Time to head out into the world

The first day was mostly spent trying to get here. We said our goodbyes and I jumped on the Airporter for my trip to the airport. I had one small incident before I even got to the airport. While I was on the bus I happened to look down at my shoe and I realized that I stepped in dog sh*t. Normally not such a big deal, but I started thinking about how bad it would be to drop my shitty shoe into the security bin going through customs at the airport. Of course I didn't really pack any dog shit cleaning supplies but I made due with an entire package of wet wipes. I was hoping this wasn't going to be some sort of bad omen for the rest of the trip. Fortunately, it wasn't. The trip went about as smoothly as possible. There aren't exactly direct flights to Skopje Macedonia so you have to make several connections to get here which makes for a long day. I flew to Frankfurt Germany first, then Vienna Austria and then to Skopje. There weren't a ton of flight choices that didn't include a long layover so all of my connections were tight. Fortunately none of my planes were late so it was smooth going. ILM flies people business class when going out of the country to it is just about as good as it can be. I left around 2pm so that made it pretty hard to sleep on the flight but I was able to get a couple of hours in. From the time I walked out of my front door and the time I walked into my hotel it took about 22 hours.

One of the first things I notice when I get off of the plane is how hot it is. When I came before it was in January. On the last trip it was cold and snowy. This time it looks like it will be the other end of the weather spectrum. It was sunny, humid, and somewhere around 90 degrees. I got into my hotel and had the best shower ever. I had couple hours before dinner so I decided to unpack. Of course 22 hours in a suitcase leaves things just a little wrinkled. An hours worth of ironing and I was off to dinner. We didn't stay out late because I was wiped out.