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...

...(and here is where it gets frustrating): I cannot imagine how user-unfriendly Skopje's public transportation system must seem to foreign travelers visiting the city. The city's public bus company (with the general good idea in mind I'm sure) has 'revamped' its website and now, go figure which stops a bus makes and when. Seriously, Skopje-locals, I dare you. Go to jsp.com.mk and find where the hell on Partizanska does bus 60 to Matka make a stop. Or at what times. And that is a challenge for locals. Add to that the fact that, as a foreigner, you don't speak the language which multiplies the difficulty by a factor of 10. Ok, rant over.

Thankfully, Andrea has traveled to a lot of remote places in her traveling career and was adventurous enough to somehow make it to Matka and back with a combination of transportation modes including bus, taxi and a free ride back. Luckilly for her (and us by proxy) she has a way of getting a lot of free stuff wherever she goes, including a lunch and 3 rakijas at Matka, as well as coffees later on downtown. After her half-day adventure in Matka, we met at the main square downtown and went to the Old Turkish Bazaar (Carsija) for an afternoon coffee (salep for me). It is over the sound of the mosques' afternoon calls to prayer that we discuss the multicultural character of Skopje and the implications on daily life. Ivica and I always try to make parallels between life in Skopje and life in our guests' cities and seeing that Toronto is such a multicultural city as well, we are really curious about the effect the demographic makeup has on people's life. However, Canada is different from the Balkans, because here our life is ruled by stereotypes. Canada is a big melting pot where everone is an immigrant from somewhere and Andrea tells us there are really no rivalries between different ethnic groups.

What got our attention was the fact that Toronto is a city of neighborhoods. Ok, it probably has some sights that tourists flock to in their frenzy to see the city, but the main thing to experience in Toronto seems to be the varying atmosphere among neighborhoods. And, lest we forget, the setup has enriched the food scene as well, with a wide range of ethnic restaurants (from Ethiopian to Vietnamese) all over the city. Yum. By the way, Chinese is the second most widely spoken language in Toronto although French is the official second language...

(To be continued...)

Oh and if you've been to Toronto, what's your favorite neighborhood?