04 September 2007
Quote:
"It's
been a bad day. Please don't take a picture. Please."
(Bad Day, R.E.M.)
Skopje
I caught the bus from Sofia to Skopje, and it was a very relaxed ride with only a few passengers. The border controls take forever, and I wonder why? Borders are clearly a great tool to provide lots of work for bureaucrats. But what are they good for? Especially a border between Bulgaria and Macedonia. What is there to smuggle? There must be something, because they even made us all get off the bus and open our luggage. They always have 2 checkpoints (one for the country you're leaving, and one for the country you're entering) and they always take the passports off you, process them somewhere else, and then hand them back once you're through all the checks. I hate that! I don't want to give my passport away, it could get lost or sold on or all sorts of things could happen. It's obviously the done thing here, but there are some countries where I would definitely not let go of my passport because I would not be safe.
It had rained in Sofia, but whilst driving the 500 kilometres through the "biblical" landscapes of Macedonia, the climate changed and it got very hot again. There wasn't much to see on the way, just landscape, orchards, fields, wide open space, and mountains. Macedonia was the only ex-Yugoslav republic that managed to become independent without a war. It's disputed however what makes a Macedonian a Macedonian, and the new state has problems with the relations between Macedonians and the Albanian minority. Bulgarians think that Macedonians are really Bulgarians, some Serbs think they're actually Serbs. Greeks think they're anything but Macedonian -- a name they consider they own the rights to, even though it's well documented that the ancient Greeks despised the ancient Macedonians. (source: Lonely Planet)
I now finally understand why
the country uses that ridiculous long name, and why that Greek guy on the
forum refused to believe that Macedonia was a state, or even existed!
Greece withheld diplomatic recognition of Macedonia and demanded that
the country find another name, worried that it implied territorial claims
over Aegean Macedonia, which they had obtained in the 1913 carve-up. At
Greek insistence, Macedonia was forced to use the "provisional" title
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in order to be admitted to
the UN in April 1993. (source: Lonely Planet)
And Macedonian IS a proper separate language. It is of Slavic origin,
so most things are roughly the same as in the other languages of the area,
but they even have a different script -- they use more letters than other
Cyrillic alphabets, for example a J, or the Ð.
Skopje was different from what I imagined, I was surprised to find that they have and old town. The Ottoman quarter is quite cute with winding streets, mosques, and lost of restaurants. The town is not very exciting however. A girl in my hostel said that 2 days were definitely too long and that she had to go to the cinema on her second day because she'd run out of things to do. I didn't have that problem. I walked around a lot, as usual, and went for an early dinner in a nice restaurant. This time I calculated correctly and managed to spend almost all my local currency before leaving the country. Food is stunningly cheap.
They have a rubbish problem in Macedonia which they should really get under control. It's a pity because plastic bags and all sorts of rubbish is littering the landscape and the town and spoiling the view. The difference to Bulgaria is noticeable. In Bulgaria they have a sophisticated, very "European" recycling system in place, which already impressed me last year when I was there. In that respect Bulgaria is clearly ahead of Britain.
A
plastic tree in a rubbish-cluttered public "green" patch
The Stone Bridge
On
Macedonia Square
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Views from the Kale |
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Details of the futuristic postal building |
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Mother
Theresa statue -- she was born in Skopje
George has been in court again today, in Manchester of all places! He's being sued by a club promoter for cancelling his gig after his arrest in 2005. They claim he's ruined their fledgling business by cancelling and that they lost 100,000 pounds because their club never became a success. It's a very strange claim, and I can't see how they would be successful with it. It wouldn't be a credible business practice to rely on one single gig, and on a DJ that's just hired for the night and not even a business partner. Surely there are contracts and rules on what happens if a DJ pulls out, gets ill, or dies etc. I also think they are vastly overestimating George's pulling power!
