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.
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The home city of our guest Tal, Tel Aviv, is 101 years old and its name literally means "hill of spring" (Aviv or Abib = spring, in Hebrew). Tel Aviv is the first all-Jewish city in modern history, first founded by some 60 families as a Jewish neighborhood near Jaffa.

A part of Tel Aviv is known as The White City, a reference to the many Bauhaus/International style buildings built in the city in the 1930s by German Jewish architects. As a result, there are more Bauhaus buildings in Tel Aviv than any other city in the world (Germany included). Whole neighborhoods were built in this style - a total of around 4,000 buildings, of which only about a quarter have been renovated. Tal tells us that many of them are dilapidated and you wouldn't think they're a part of some architectural site of interest. But not this one, I guess...
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Yes, it's been a while, but we were CS-less for 2 weeks! During this time, we traveled a bit ourselves (not too far, just to our house in the mountains and for a weekend visiting old friends and colleagues in Thessaloniki). While in Thessaloniki, I managed to catch up with Linn and Daan, a Dutch couchsurfing couple spending a student exchange year in Thessaloniki. When they stayed with us in Skopje during the winter, they came on the absolutely most disgusting day of all winter - there was muddy slush all over the city and they were wearing very summery shoes. The sight still gives me shivers dispite them saying that they're used to that kind of weather.
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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.
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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:)
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...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.
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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...
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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 made her change her mind. In Ukraine, her name would be АНДРИКА (Andrika) and her favorite Cyrillic letter is Д (because, she says, it looks like a castle:))

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...
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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).
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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?...

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