On Wednesday, I arranged a private kombi service to drive my
brother and me from Thessaloniki to Prilep.
Many of my friends had taken this service before, and I arranged the
trip prior to departing to Istanbul.
However, when I was trying to call the service on September 3, I was
unable to get a hold of anybody at the company.
Already settling back into the “Balkan” mindset, I shrugged it off and
decided not to worry about it. I knew
that somehow, someway, my brother and I would return safely to Prilep.
As my brother and I waited patiently in the hotel lobby, I
finally was able to connect with the driver from the agency. He confirmed that he would pick us up in
front of the train station (and not the bus station, which I only discovered
upon arriving to Thessaloniki that it was different and farther from the city
center). However, he told us that he
would be leaving Thessaloniki at 2PM and not 4PM. I was utterly confused, but after numerous
phone calls and after walking from the city center, we were finally able to
meet with the driver and depart from Greece.
When we arrived in Prilep, my host mother had lunch prepared
for us. She made bean manja and prepared
some cabbage. My brother was very impressed
with my host family’s hospitality, and after some time he settled in by me as I
started to unpack. The weather had been
much cooler and rainier than when I had left Macedonia for my vacation, but
luckily when we arrived the sunny skies were holding out. Therefore, I decided to take my brother up
Markovi Kuli so that he could experience Prilep’s greatest attraction and see
all of the town.
At night, I showed my brother Prilep’s center, and we
enjoyed some Macedonian beer as well as some traditional food at a local
kafana. Throughout the trip, I tried to
convince my brother that the tomatoes in Macedonia were glorious compared to
any tomatoes I had eaten in the USA, and I think by the end of the trip he began
to agree with me and actually enjoyed some of the tomatoes. On Thursday, I spent most of the day catching
up on the work I had missed. My host
brother was super kind and took my brother into the center to enjoy some coffee
and to show him some of the Macedonian lifestyle. By the time I returned home, we decided to
take a quick run, but upon our return we were drenched by a squall passing
through the area. Besides being soaked
in the rain, I am sure that my brother was partially shocked by some of the
peculiarities of the rural trail which I run, including the hazards of
encountering dogs, as well as my intrigue for the wild blackberries that grew
along the path.
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| On Markovi Kuli |
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| Digging the lax copyright laws in Macedonia |
Ruling out a night at VIP (the raging nightclub in Prilep),
my brother and I decided to enjoy a tame night by eating at Makedonska Kuka and
enjoying a quiet evening in the center.
After dinner, we joined Maud and Darko for billiards and
backgammon. On Friday, we woke a bit
early to prepare for our trip to Ohrid. We
decided to stop for an hour in Bitola so that my brother can see what (in my
opinion) is the most beautiful city in Macedonia. He definitely enjoyed how different the
architecture was compared to Prilep, but he was disappointed that we were
unable to visit the zoo, especially since he would miss the chance to be so close
to the fox.
After our quick stop in Bitola, my brother, Ted, and I
caught a bus to Ohrid. We passed through
a rain storm but fortunately the rain did not follow us to Ohrid. My brother enjoyed another authentic
Macedonian meal, and we met with Sarah and Dan near the center of town. We decided to take it easy that night by
enjoying some games in our flat. We woke
relatively early on Saturday in order to enjoy Ohrid. After slurping up some chorba, we walked
straight to the lake to see all of the sites.
Walking along the shore, we climbed to Kaneo, which is the iconic church
in Ohrid. Jutting on a cliff over the
lake, there was no better view of this classical Macedonian city. Next we visited the fort, which in reality
was a modern reconstruction of a fort that probably existed on the site centuries
ago.
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| Chorba! |
If I had not visited Ohrid several times before this trip, I
would have definitely considered the visit to Ohrid my favorite part of the
vacation with my brother. There was
something so serene and simple about the Lake Ohrid shore and the forests
around the fortress. However, we were
determined to visit Sveti Naum, the monastery just north of the Albanian
border, and at a very leisurely Macedonian pace, we were able to find a wild
taxi to take us to this site. It was
about a 30-minute drive from Ohrid, and as we arrived I was surprised how
developed the place was. Even though
Sveti Naum was a holy site, it was also significant to Macedonia because
located here was the source of Lake Ohrid.
The water that feeds into Lake Ohrid is provided by a spring
located at Sveti Naum. The spring
originates from Lake Prespa, a smaller lake to the east of Lake Ohrid, but
situated many more meters higher. Thus,
the water from Lake Prespa seeps through the rocks and emanates from a spring
that feeds into Lake Ohrid. This water
is clear and pure, and at some points it is safe to drink right from the
source. Ted, my brother, and I explored
the springs as soon as we arrived. We
were able to hire a boat to row us through the source. Since it had been raining recently, the
warmer rainwater began to rise like fog and float on the colder spring
water. We could also see the sand from
the bottom of the source bubbling as water emitted from the porous ground. The boat ride ended at a church where three
springs met at one point. This church
was famous for providing women the ability to become more fertile if they drink
from its water. As much as I attempted
in this paragraph, accurately depicting just how glamorous this spring was is
very difficult to do. Luckily this
source was protected as a UNESCO heritage site- otherwise, beer companies like
Heineken and Budweiser offered to pay tens of millions of dollars to purchase
the rights of the springs in order to build a brewery. Doing so would have destroyed the wonder of
these springs and Lake Ohrid itself.
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| Where the springs meet the lake |
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| Lake Ohrid |
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| Taking a ride on the spring |
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| The church with the springs granting fertility |
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| A floating restaurant boat |
On Sunday morning, my brother and I embarked on our last leg
of the trip. We took a bus to Skopje and
I checking our bags into our hostel as we set out to explore the city. After showing my brother the gaudy statues
and fountains in the city center, we made our way to the (supposedly) largest
Turkish marketplace outside of Istanbul.
My brother enjoyed touring the narrow roads of the charshija and seeing
the view of Skopje from the fort. Since
we had plenty of time to kill, I treaded across the charshija on a mission to
discover where the hookah place that I had first visited during Field Day (in
October 2013) was located. After finally
finding the place, my brother and I spent a couple of hours relaxing and
playing more backgammon. The rainy
weather finally caught up with us, and by nightfall, we were able to meet with
Dan at a bar and enjoy my brother’s last Macedonian meal. At 4AM on Monday, my brother flew from the
Skopje airport on his return to the States.
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| In Skopje |
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| Exploring Mother Theresa's Memorial House |
I definitely cherished these past ten days hanging out with
my brother. It was great sharing this
adventure with somebody back home. Peace
Corps suggests to all volunteers that they encourage a family or friend from
home to visit them during their service.
Because upon returning after those 27 or so months, all of the stories
about the food, dancing, music, creepy crawlies, frustrating or inspirational
moments are intangible unless that person has been there. For the most part, my brother’s expectations
of Eastern Europe were pretty well met (he especially enjoyed that people here
continue to sport the track jackets).
But I think my brother has discovered the “Balkan way”, and my mindset
or behavior upon returning to the States will at least be understood by
him.
