Skopje, Pristina and Still No Sleep
Well, the title of this post is overstating things a bit. I got a couple hours of sleep on the Bucharest - Sofia train, then, last night, the bus from Sofia to Skopje, I managed to sleep about an hour, so I'm averaging about 4 hours of sleep per 48 hour period.
This morning, I arrived in Skopje around 4am. Now, bus stations are fairly shady in broad daylight, so you can imagine my joy to find myself hanging out at the bus depot in the middle of the night with a bunch of drunk Macedonians. Totally exhausted, I managed to buy tickets to Pristina for later in the day and curl up to nap on top of my luggage, so no one walks away with it.
A nice Macedonian employee at the bus station helped me with my ticket and, after my nap in the main hall, came by and offered me a ride into the city. Clearly, he had somehwat of a school-boy crush on me, but he was very polite, spoke great English and ended up being a fantastic guide of the city. We walked into the Albanian/muslim neighborhood, stopped in at one of the world's largest Orthodox churches and he showed me the biggest open air market in Skopje, where his family runs a flower-selling business.
We parted ways after a couple hours and I continued wandering on my own, managing to find the old train station that was destroyed by the 1963 earthquake and the monument erected in it's honor bearing a quotation from Tito.
I returned to the bus station around noon for my bus to Pristina, which is only a couple hours north of Skopje and the capital of Kosovo. The border crossing was relatively uneventufl, although the UN have their own special stamp, which was exciting. Upon arriving in Pristina, I was very surprised that it is very modern and Western. Presumably, this is due to the thousands of Western UN/NATO workers that have lived here over the last decade, but it remains shocking that Pristina, with its population of 150k, is more Western than Sofia - pop. 1.1 million - and Bucharest - pop. 2 million.
Pristina doesn't have much in the way of sites, but there are few mosques weren't harmed. Although this is supposed to be a muslim region, you can hardly tell given the popularity of mini shirts and low rider jeans, with the exception of the occasional headscarf. Mostly, the city consists of alternatively dilapidated and pretty streets littered with hundreds of outdoor cafes. If not for the civil unrest, this could be a great place to retire.
Anyway, I am about to head to the bus station for my trip to Albania tonight. Luckily, the ride to Tirana is about 10 hours, so I should be able to get some real sleep.
More tomorrow.
This morning, I arrived in Skopje around 4am. Now, bus stations are fairly shady in broad daylight, so you can imagine my joy to find myself hanging out at the bus depot in the middle of the night with a bunch of drunk Macedonians. Totally exhausted, I managed to buy tickets to Pristina for later in the day and curl up to nap on top of my luggage, so no one walks away with it.
A nice Macedonian employee at the bus station helped me with my ticket and, after my nap in the main hall, came by and offered me a ride into the city. Clearly, he had somehwat of a school-boy crush on me, but he was very polite, spoke great English and ended up being a fantastic guide of the city. We walked into the Albanian/muslim neighborhood, stopped in at one of the world's largest Orthodox churches and he showed me the biggest open air market in Skopje, where his family runs a flower-selling business.
We parted ways after a couple hours and I continued wandering on my own, managing to find the old train station that was destroyed by the 1963 earthquake and the monument erected in it's honor bearing a quotation from Tito.
I returned to the bus station around noon for my bus to Pristina, which is only a couple hours north of Skopje and the capital of Kosovo. The border crossing was relatively uneventufl, although the UN have their own special stamp, which was exciting. Upon arriving in Pristina, I was very surprised that it is very modern and Western. Presumably, this is due to the thousands of Western UN/NATO workers that have lived here over the last decade, but it remains shocking that Pristina, with its population of 150k, is more Western than Sofia - pop. 1.1 million - and Bucharest - pop. 2 million.
Pristina doesn't have much in the way of sites, but there are few mosques weren't harmed. Although this is supposed to be a muslim region, you can hardly tell given the popularity of mini shirts and low rider jeans, with the exception of the occasional headscarf. Mostly, the city consists of alternatively dilapidated and pretty streets littered with hundreds of outdoor cafes. If not for the civil unrest, this could be a great place to retire.
Anyway, I am about to head to the bus station for my trip to Albania tonight. Luckily, the ride to Tirana is about 10 hours, so I should be able to get some real sleep.
More tomorrow.
posted by RedSonja at
5:36 PM
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