An Eggplant and 3 Mangoes 06/07/2010
You know, Tal was not our first Israeli CS guest. As a matter of fact, when we first discovered CS (almost 2 years ago), we were originally thinking of traveling to Tel Aviv - I think it was around the time that Israel abolished visas for us Macedonians...We even sent out a couple of CS requests...And even though that trip never materialized, about a year later, our first CS guests turned out to in fact be Miriam and Tamar from Jerusalem.
On her second day of staying with us, Tal went downtown to meet a girl from Israel who is married to a Macedonian man and lives in Skopje. Our day was hectic with work and errands, but thankfully Tal easily found her way downtown and back in the evening. I was a bit tired (and coming down a sinus infection that's been my constant companion for the past 5 days) so Ivica cooked for us. 4 Comments Unfortunately, no update on the Mallorca flag story. Alberto and Nuria hadn't realized that their flag features that angel-like figure until I pointed it out to them:) They've promised to research into the matter once they're back in Palma and I'll hopefully update you on it when I get the information. Of course, that is if you are still interested.
But our Mallorca story and the time spent with our lovely guests goes on. On their second day in Skopje, Nuria and Alberto explore the city's downtown area on their own while we're at work. Understandably, they like the old part of the city more than the new side and they are particularly fond of the price of strawberries here (in Palma they cost about 3 times more). However, Mallorcans can't complain as the two most typical local products are olives and almonds, which are an important part of their diet. There are nowadays over 4 million almond and olive trees on this Spanish island. The almond trees must make for a incredibly pretty scenery...especially when they bloom between January and March. Canadian Poutine and Butter Tarts 05/15/2010
...That same afternoon, after a short walk around Skopje's center, we go to (surprise surprise) Kaj Marsalot as Andrea has read about it in Lonely Planet's guidebook, which is funny. It is there that we find out the third thing that Andrea doesn't like - the liver that Ivica ordered and that many locals go crazy for. This makes us dive into even more food related discussions. Over plates of baked beans, stuffed grapevine leaves and both Macedonian and Greek salads:), we talk about the relative disconnect between ingredients and ready food in today's world.
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... 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. Our guests from Estonia had to change their plans to fly out of Thessaloniki via Prague to Tallinn because of the air traffic chaos due to the Icelandic volcanic ash. Both of them work at a public university in Tallinn and have to be back at work in the middle of this week but this may be unlikely to happen as they decided to travel with buses and trains to reach Estonia. Even though the Estonians are hardworking folks, they do have a saying which goes something along the lines of "work is not a rabbit to run away from you"...as in, relax, it will always be there. Sounds more Balkan than Baltic:) So once their tickets to Belgrade (first on the list of many cities they'll travel through to reach Tallinn by ground) were bought on Sunday morning, Hanna and Mirjam did some Skopje exploring on their own, visiting the Mother Theresa Memorial House and the Old Train Station (the most dramatic witness to the Skopje 1963 earthquake). We then met them for beers at a terrace in the old part of Skopje, next to the Kale fortress. During their week-long stay in Macedonia the girls sampled all of our local beers, trying to select their favorite (for us, Skopsko wins every time...)  (left to right) Elena, Hanna and Mirjam and their beers... Estonian Chocolate Buttons 04/19/2010
How do you say cheers in Estonian? Terviseks!!!!... Yeah, I know, it sounds like something else! :) So, Mirjam and Hanna arrived on Saturday afternoon bringing us some very cute and tasty gifts…. Like this box of Estonian Chocolate Buttons (or Šokolaadinööbid).  Kalev's Šokolaadinööbid |  Custom Search  Subscribe in a Feed Reader The CouchLog by Month:
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