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.
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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.
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Did you know that the import and sale of chewing gum is forbidden in Singapore? I'm dead serious.
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Photo by conarcist (via Flickr)
My expression must have been extremely confused when Nellie was telling me about it last night. Not that I didn't believe her, but I just had to look it up. And yes, there's an actual ban of chewing gum in Singapore, the reason being that people used to stick it on things like chairs and tables and in places like elevators and mailboxes. Having experienced the absolute thrill of having someone's disposed gum stick on to my jeans at school (and other places) I got to say the ban does make (some remote) sense. It is still completely weird to me though. As is traveling from Singapore to Malaysia to get some gum.

With approximately 707km2 in area (and a highest point of barely 164 meters!!!), Singapore, independent since 1965, is one of the smallest countries in the world, and is actually an island city-state. It consists of one main island and many tiny (largely) uninhabited ones. Nellie, Chinese by origin but second generation Singaporean, tells me that because of its history of being a British colony, British English is the official language and the British edu system is being used. Oh, and obviously, they drive on the left.
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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. 
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...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...
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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?
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One unusually warm and sunny day in February, we were anxiously awaiting Dominique. And I should tell you, Dominique was not just any couchsurfing guest. He is, to our great delight, a very talented illustrator from Montpellier, France.

Dom came to Skopje via Sofia after a long trip that went all the way to Armenia....and was going to continue traveling around the Balkans only to end up in Romania, sometime in March, to live and work on a Wwoof farm.

Its so amazing when a) guests arrive on Friday afternoons b) they are extremely talented and c) the weather is great all weekend. Having guests during the work week is always accompanied by a somewhat bitter taste when they leave - there's often simply not enough time to do stuff together...but on weekends...and when global warming gives us a spectacularly gorgeous day in February, just perfect for long walks and outdoor coffees...life is plain awesome. .
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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...)
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(left to right) Elena, Hanna and Mirjam and their beers...
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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).
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Kalev's Šokolaadinööbid
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So we’ve been maintaining a google map of the locations of all our couchsurfing friends…we typically like to do some research about the countries/cities our guests come from before they show up at the Skopje bus/train station. So as I was looking up Tallinn and Estonia in general, and placing a flag (yellow one, below) on our CS map, I realized that, look at that, Tallinn is in fact the northernmost city we’ll have had visitors from (once our guests arrive).
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Another interesting fact we’ve found out prior to our guests’ visit is that Estonia declared its independence the same year Macedonia did (1991).  So there it is, our first thing in common with our future friends Mirjam and Hanna.
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