Sunday evening and once again, I'm at the train station. I swear, the people working at the Skopje train station must think that I am involved in some sort of human trafficking as they repeatedly see me collect strange foreign people and wizz them away and to our home.
Alberto and Nuria walk down the train station stairs with their huge backpacks and even bigger smiles. They've travelled for the last 8+ months, mostly through India and Nepal but have also visited other regional places including Singapore, Malaysia and the UAE. They are now making the trip back home to Mallorca, and actually have a plane to catch from Bratislava to Palma in about 10 days. During these 10 days they are planning to see Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary and Slovakia. That sounds like a very ambitious plan and one that does no justice to many countries in the region...but it is what it is...so, fingers crossed for Alberto and Nuria:) 2 Comments Andrea left yesterday morning but we are still working through our impressions of her and digesting (yes, I haven't deviated from the food theme) all our discussions. On her second day in Skopje (and wearing an awesome Couchsurfing Toronto shirt), she went solo to see Matka. Now, I'll talk about something that is really frustrating to us. Sometimes, we get couchsurfers during the week and due to work we can't shadow them the whole time (and god forbid if we did, that would be freaky) even to places we really like in our city. Matka Canyon is one of those as it is a gorgeous place. But...
Andrea, our first Torontonian visitor, turned out to actually be of Ukrainian origin (a Ukraintonian?) and originally wanted to tour Eastern Europe and visit Ukraine as well, but the much cheaper Balkan Flexipass To my great delight Andrea is an excellent walker. I typically walk about 8km at least 3-4 times a week (that's the distance between my office and our home) but sometimes when we have couchsurfers around and our schedules switch from routine to more hectic, I miss out on my walking. Well, I didn't have to with Andrea, because - what a sport - we walked (backpack and all) to the City Park as soon as she arrived to catch the drunken end of the Bob Marley tribute day. It was there, amidst all the popcorn stands and parked bicycles that we found out that Andrea does not like beer! Ah, to not be able to share the delicious
bitterness of Skopsko with a CS guest..this is a first, I think. Hungry as we were, we stopped by a pastry shop on our way home to get some cheese+spinach Burek. Now I don't know if she was just being nice, but Andrea later tells me that it was better than the Burek she had in Turkey...anyway... A Torontonian couchsurfer coming in tomorrow 05/10/2010
After a week of peace and quiet and a general slowdown in the otherwise couchsurfing spring Skopje madness, this week of couchsurfing experiences will be kicked off tomorrow with the arrival of Andrea, a Toronto based chef (how cool is that?). Andrea has a gazilion CS references (Toronto also seems to be one of the most active couchsurfing communities) and Skopje is the 5th stop on her tour around the Balkans. She'll be staying with us for a couple of days and hopefully she'll make it in time tomorrow evening to drop by the city park for the Bob Marley Tribute Day (a Skopje tradition).
Traveling without moving... 05/07/2010
I'm blogging elsewhere today...And not just anywhere but at the A Travel Around the World blog. Here's an excerpt from my post there... My friends look at me a mix of disbelief, skepticism and disgust on their faces. "Seriously? You'd let strangers sleep in your home, use your bathroom and leave all their germs around, and you'll get NOTHING in return? Why would you do that?" Seriously. Why would you?... Brazilian Spirits over Macedonian Wines... 05/02/2010
The day after we saw Nellie off, we welcomed Fine (pronounced "Feenai") in the middle of an unusual Skopje spring heat, and amidst the ever-present taxi drivers swarming the bus station. Fine, as I mentioned earlier, is German by origin but has been living outside of Germany for the last 8 years. She has moved quite a lot and actually she did try to briefly outline the countries she's stayed in, which made us a bit dizzy. Fine is married to a Brazilian guy and together they are (sort of) currently based in a place called Angra Dos Reis, near Rio de Janeiro (and very close to the Ilha Grande island - which we think looks gorgeous and a photo of which is shown below). They spend quite a bit of time on boats and did the Canto Mediterraneo project last year, sailing from Venice to Istanbul and documenting the music of the Mediterranean lands they visited on the way.
Gānbēi (or "Cheers" in Mandarin)! 05/01/2010
My friend Vesna and I met Nellie by the Stonebridge on Wednesday afternoon. Joining us at our meeting place was also Joanna - another (local) couchsurfer we've recently met. Joanna is actually Polish but is doing a student exchange program in Skopje. So there we were - 4 girls from 3 different countries, with a common current coordinate - Skopje. Our girlgang was supposed to be richer by one but Fine (our CS guest scheduled to arrive that day) - had a change in schedule and actually arrived on Thursday.
Our path (and thirst and hunger) took us back to the same place we went to with Mirjam and Hanna - Nadjak restaurant in Debar Maalo. It was soon after we sat down and decided on whether we'll kick off the night with beer or rakija (the latter) that another 4 friends joined us over drinks, salads and a pile of skara meat (Nellie was kicking herself for not bringing a camera - and I was equally forgetful so our feast remains undocumented). The night took another unexpected turn when, after we stuffed our faces, we went to Vesna's place to watch (or rather, talk over the background noise of) the Champions' League Barcelona-Inter match, where we were joined by another temporary Skopje-local: Cornelia from Austria, also doing an exchange program in Skopje. Pre-introducing this week's guests 04/26/2010
This past weekend was one of the very few recent ones spent without couchsurfers around. It was a nice quiet weekend but also a bit unusual because we prefer when people visit over weekends as it gives us more time to get to know them better.
But we're making an exception this week and will be having Fine (that's, in her own words, pronounced something like "feenai") arriving on Wednesday to stay with us until Friday. Fine, originally from Wunstorf near Hannover, has been living outside of Germany for the past 8 years and will be arriving from Antalya, Turkey where she's spent the last 6 months. What's interesting about Fine is that, while in Turkey, she's been working on an international music podcast interviewing people about their favorite music from their countries. She'll be continuing the project as she travels back towards Germany and, guess what, we'll probably participate in her podcast and talk a bit about our favorite Macedonian music (question to readers from Macedonia: which local artists do you think we should share with Fine for her podcast? Let us know in the comments.). So, we'll let you know how that goes. No one has actually slept on our couch... 04/25/2010
...because it is this Ikea loveseat which cannot even fit me (if you know me, you know I'm not the tallest person in the world). We've had guests tell us stories of the places they've slept in (and we've seen some photos too) and our couch may seem cozy in comparison but again, that is not where our surfers sleep.
About a week before our first guests Miriam and Tamar arrived, we went to a camping supplies store and bought an air mattress which has proven to be an excellent investment. And the extra small room in our apartment in Skopje (which, at the time we were first moving in, we were wondering what we'll use for) came in handy. We kind of approached this as if we were the ones who would be surfing our home and even though a lot of couchsurfers have had all kinds of experiences (some even with sleeping in garages) we know we'd appreciate some privacy and so we were set on offering the same to our guests as well... How we Lost our Virginity 04/24/2010
No, no THAT story...our CouchSurfing virginity! The reason I got to thinking about it is because today I was sort of interviewed for a couchsurfing related writing assignment by Ellie, a young journalism student. One of Ellie's questions was about how we started couchsurfing. If you look at our profile you'll notice we've been members since 2008. However, our first CS experience was in August 2009. You see, we lived in Greece for maaaany many years and joined couchsurfing just as we were making the decision to pack up and come back home. Initially, we thought that we can handle hosting people even with all the craziness going on in our lives during the endless ordeal of leaving a country you've spent a third of your life in. And we also thought, how bad can it get? We'll get, what, one surf request a month? |  Custom Search  Subscribe in a Feed Reader The CouchLog by Month:
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