The second day in Macedonia was a busy one. It was a little cold but it was sunny. The cold reminds me a little bit of Tahoe. I was really hoping for a little snow while we are here but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. It is supposed to warm up to the 40's for the next couple of days and rain. Maybe if it rains in the night time it will be cold enough to turn it into snow.
Getting up was a little easier today. I have found that I feel pretty good in the morning but for some reason around 3pm in the afternoon my body tells me it is time to go to sleep. We have been eating a lot here. They are great hosts and have been taking us out to all of our meals and make sure that we can go anywhere we need to go. There is a little pressure at the meals though. At lunch on the first day I ordered some grilled pork and the plate was big. I was full and didn't really want to eat everything. Near the meal I became acutely aware that our hosts were really paying attention to what we were doing. They thought I didn't like the food but I assured them that it was fine but I was just full. I am getting the impression that it is considered impolite if you don't accept their hospitality. When we went out for dinner they ordered a traditional Macedonian liquor. It was a little bit like whiskey and you were supposed to sip it and drink it straight. It wasn't really all that bad but I am not really big on sipping liquor like that. I didn't finish my glass and after the waitress took it away they commented on the fact that I must not have liked it. Again, I noticed how much they were paying attention to what I was doing. They also REALLY want to take us out to some bars or clubs and no doubt the plan includes lots of drinking. On the first day we told them we were tired but they were very insistent that we go out. I had to really exercise my assertiveness to let them know that I didn't want to go out. I was really hoping that they didn't think I was being rude.
For most of the day we just had work business to attend to so nothing really exciting happened. We went to lunch at a very nice place near the middle of the city. I ordered some pizza and they had a salad bar. The way they operate the salad bar is a little strange. When you go to the salad bar there is a girl who works there. Usually she takes your plate and you tell her what to put on your plate. They told me I could do it myself which I appreciated. After I made my salad the girl takes it from you and keeps it there until all of the first courses are ready for the table and then they bring it to you. It wasn't really a big deal but it was a little odd.
After work they took us out to a big dinner. It was at a place that serves traditional Macedonian food. They brought out a ton of appetizers. A couple of different kinds of salad and this really big tray filled with a variety of different things. I am finding it a little tough to explain exactly what Macedonian food is but it definitely has a Mediterranean feel to it. The salads have lots of tomato's, cucumbers, and onions. The other food was filled with fried cheeses, some wrapped in bacon, various little balls and rolls, some delicious thinly sliced fried zucchini, little breads, sauteed mushrooms, rice, eggplant all sorts of stuff. We got so much food in the appetizers that I was a little worried about what was going to come for the main course. Fortunately they felt the same way so we kept things small after that. The main course was this baked beans sort of dish that I like very much. It wasn't seasoned the same as baked beans at home but for the most part they were similar. There was also some sort of meat dish with the meat cut up into little pieces and cooked in a sauce. I think the meat was beef but I really have no idea what it was. Then they brought out another dish which was sort of like little pieces of bread cut up to about the size of a salad crouton and then covered with shredded cheese. They like cheese here and they have a particular type of white cheese which is pretty good. I don't really know what you call it but it has a similar consistency to mozzarella cheese but is shredded really finely. They also had a band, much like a mariachi band, that played in the restaurant and then went from table to table. They played traditional Macedonian fold music and I actually found them to be a very nice touch. At times they were a little loud and made the conversation a little difficult. The guys here all speak english but they have an accent so sometimes you have to really pay attention to hear what they are trying to say. With the band playing I found myself just nodding and smiling sometimes.
After dinner they wanted to take us out to some bars again. We needed to have a call with some people back at ILM so provided us with an excuse to pass again. They said they would be more than happy to pick us up after the call but we resisted. They jokingly said they were going to call back to ILM and ask them why they sent a couple of duds to visit, at least I think they were joking.;) They made it pretty clear that on Wednesday night there would be no getting out of it.
I think we are destined to a late night tonight.
I am also including some pictures of our trip to the grocery store here. I always find it interesting to visit the grocery store in foreign countries to see how the true locals live. It was really very much like the stores at home. Of course you couldn't read a thing on most of the labels but other than that it was very similar. I will include a picture of a jar of mystery stuff that I found on one of the shelves. I think it is some sort of vegetable, maybe mushrooms, but it could be a meat too. There we a number of american things in the store.
I noticed that across from our hotel was the Macedonian version of a fast food restaurant. From the looks of it the place is no Burger King. They had some pictures of the food they served so I snapped a picture. They had some burgers and fries but the big difference is the fries actually go on top of the burger. It looked like they had some type of piroshki but other than that I couldn't really identify any of the other things. Maybe one of these days I will get brave and try something there.
Well I need to wrap things up for today but tune in tomorrow to see how our night out on the town went.
2 comments:
Hi, Sweetie,
Since people aren't running all over themselves to comment, I wanted to let you know that you are being read with great interest. That was SOME interesting stuff in that jar. I'm glad the food hasn't been 'way too far out. One never knows what they'll get in that exotic a nation.
I also thought it most interesting that I had to find out that it snowed in Knoxville by way of Mesopotamia. The wonders of modern
technology!
It finally started raining here today. It seems to be a little more robust rain than we've had so far, and it's supposed to keep raining through Saturday, off and on, so maybe we'll at least make a dent in the drought.
I'm a little beat tonight. I'm leading a Bible Study at church on Wed. night for the next six weeks. Interestingly, we're studying Abraham right now, and discovered that he lived in Ta-Da, Mesopotamia. Just think. That was 5,000 years give or take, before Christ. You're walking on some very old sod there. I'm going to hit it now, because I had a 13 hour day today, including Bible Study, and I'm beginning to feel every minute of it. Love you, hon. Have fun and get home safely.
Mom
Hey Mom,
Yeah, it is interesting here. You can sort of get a feel for how old things are here. We are going to the Museum of Macedonian History today and I am really looking forward to it. There is a fort that overlooks the city and they have turned it into an archaelogical dig and have turned up stones and swords from several thousand years BC. Some of the guys have told us that there are lots of ancient artifacts around Macedonia. There are only a couple of big cities in the country so there is lots of rural area's that have been left alone for a long time. The way the laws work here is that everything under the ground belongs to the country so in theory if you find something you are required to turn it in to the government. However, there is also a black market for those types of things so people will sell things that end up in Greece as one of their national treasures. I guess in the last couple of years the government has been creating policies to protect the things people find but before that there wasn't really much of an organized effort. There is seems to be a lot of problems between Macedonia and Greece.
It seems like the 2 big claims to fame around here are that Mother Theresa was born her and so was Alexandar the Great.
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