Nelly The Smellyfant

[lupestripe]

Macedonian Deal Or No Deal is very much like the British version except it's even more drawn out and boring, with the banker phoning after the opening of each and every box. There are also 26 boxes, four more than in our version, and it's presented by a charming lady with big boobs rather than Noel Edmunds. So two tits instead of one. Interestingly, top prize is 1,000,000 denar which is the equivalent of £13,000. This will tell you all you need to know about wages and cost of living here.

The Macedonian furs are fun, but a little frustrated about the lack of a gay, furry or kink scene here. All three are legal but the culture is conservative and these things are underground, where things are more incestuous (not literally but you know what I mean). There is a huge party atmosphere though, despite shops being unable to sell any alcohol after 7pm, and there were loads of people watching the basketball match lady night when the national team was playing. Basketball and football are the two main sports here with a similar devotion to certain sports back home. Bars shut at midnight/1am - a good time to get back to the hotel as quiescence prevails - while there is a fun spirit amongst the Macedonians which is great to witness. The buses here are double decker red types, fully modern. Wonder where they got that idea from.

Last night we tried some local delicacies in Skopje's old town (Carisja), which is Turkish in style (from the Ottoman days) and dominated by a huge mosque with a beautiful pastel pattern on its exterior. I went up there today in the middle of the call to prayers which echoed through the narrow streets in a very evocative fashion. I also did some shopping in the bazaar (Bit Pazar) but refused to buy two Macedonian flags - the old one the Greeks objected to in the mid-Nineties and the current one - for 1300 DEN, the equivalent of £16. The conversation was done in fluent German but I got the impression his brain screamed tourist so he could up the price. This was a Market after all. I tried to haggle but to no avail. Across from this I also caught the red-domed Sultan Murat mosque, testament to this part of the city being the Albanian and Turkish area.

Elsewhere I was continually pestered by bric-a-brac salesmen who were all nice enough but just annoying (one even engaged me in conversation like those chuggers do - I still didn't buy anything) while I did buy a card whose purchase will contribute 100 DEN to a local orphanage.

Back to last night and I tried a couple of Macedonian delicacies - Селско месо and Турлитава. The former is a meat stew cooked with mushrooms while the latter is a mix of potatoes, rice and pepper which had a squidginess about it. Both were very nice but they did make me trump a great deal. Afterwards we headed to a new age restaurant for beers where the chairs and tables were on stilts above an artificially created lake. Some less than cool kids were trying to dance to some reggae-rap they were playing, all a bit embarrassing really.

The outside temperately at night is 25C - it tells me on my new favourite channel which just has a relay of a security camera looking over the main squares of the main seven Macedonian cities. It's a bit voyeuristic but fascinating to watch. The news also had Teletubbies on a TV in the background, reducing the gravitas of the broadcast for some reason. They also have some poor porn here on TV1000 where you only get to see odd shots of people fucking or bouncing boobies as assumedly it's illegal to show penetration.

The daytime temperature is 38C right now making it difficult to sightsee or indeed do anything. I did a lot of walking yesterday, forcing my feet to swell and get sticky in the process. Cue blisters in all important places so walking is painful. Consequently, today I hired a bike and rode around the major sights - the statue of Philip, a smart orthodox cathedral next to the statue (Sveti Dimitrija), the old Turkish baths (Daud Pasa), the main square, the archaeology building, the bazar, the mosque and a delightful small church - although I did get sunburnt in the process. My nose is all pinkificated even though I'm using factor 50 suncream. I should avoid the middle of the day I think.

Before all this though I met up with Adrijan - and later his girlfriend - for breakfast and beer at 10am. He is a nice guy whose politics is different to that of the furs. The same tensions with the Greeks, Bulgarians and the Albanians were exposed though - this region is terribly complicated and so often troubled. He also prefers capitalism to socialism, unlike the furs who hark back to the days of Yugoslavia, and told me a great deal about how to set up business here.

So I hired a bike and rode around for a bit. Sadly the main fort overlooking Skopje (Tvrdina Kale fortress) was closed, I think because there is a Duran Duran concert going on in the grounds tonight. I had a quick walk around the main area where the concert was though, with permission from the roadies, so I saw a good view of the main ramparts (snigger) as well as the stunning vistas of the city from it. Dragging a bike around with me was frustrating when I wasn't riding it but some of the hills were way too steep in this temperature to ride up. Navigating the bike through the bazar was interesting too. I also stumbled across an old storage type place with loads of displaced and smashed up relics inside it. It's closed at weekends but the security chappie was kind and let we walk around for a few minutes so I got to see this fascinating brick structure. The main mosque - Mustafa Pasa - was beautiful but swarming with Chinese tourists. One dropped his pen so I called after him and he retrieved it, only to drop his sunglasses. He was grateful but a derp.

After a few hours, it was enough, despite me drinking from the ubiquitous and stylish marble-and-metal water fountains, so I returned my bike and came back to my room to relax, which is where I am now. The cleaner was tidying when I got back and she was very friendly, despite having to take away my shitty tissues from the bin. She, like a lot of the Macedonians I have met, commented on the unique nature of my accent which is surprising. I guess it's difficult to discern your own accent though so perhaps it is weird. It seems to be judging by the number of friendly hood-natured comments.

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Comments

[rainbow-lioness.livejournal.com]

Wow! I know I would be absolutely miserable with heat like that. I am suffering with the humidity as it is now here at home.

I would love to experience bazaars like that. I know you have to be careful of being ripped off with people knowing your a tourist.

[lupestripe.livejournal.com]

I tend to travel around with local people I know, so the chances of being ripped off are significantly reduced. I was on my own on that Saturday though. The heat is quite unbearable in the middle of the day but I am becoming more and more used to it which is beneificial.