Ajvar and everything else: August 2005

Trip to Greece!

Last week, on kind of a whim, Shaun and I took a trip to Greece. I know that sounds very flaky, but you have to remember that Macedonia shares a border with Greece, and it would be equivalent to taking a trip from Vermont to New Hampshire. Anyway, it was a really lovely trip. We rented a car, which gave us freedom and flexibility that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. We left Monday afternoon, drove to a small roadside hotel in northern Greece run by the nicest family. Then Tuesday we went to Meteora. This is an area full of rock spires that hermits used to live on, then later had monasteries built on them. There were 23 monasteries total but only 6 are accessible by tourist. After Meteora we drove east to the coast, found a nice beach and spent the rest of the day there. Wednesday we wandered back towards Macedonia, stopping in towns, and at waterfalls, and then wandered through parts of Macedonia that we had not been able to see. It was really lovely to have the car and not be restricted to bus schedules.

The most discomfort we had was due to tension between Greece and Macedonia. The Greeks don’t like Macedonians because northern Greece is called Macedonia and the Greeks think that the Macedonians should have picked a different name. (In fact they made them say there name was the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM, rather then just Macedonia, and made them change the flag.) The Macedonians think Greece is being silly. I have no strong feelings on the issue, except that it is such a big issue here, and is more of an ego things then anything else as far as I can tell.

We were asked a couple of times if we were from Skopje, the car got keyed, and the boarder guards were very ominous, until they found out we were Americans. After people found out we were Americans they hated us much less. Although, I have a newspaper clipping of Greeks burning the Macedonian and American flags together when America recognized the constitutional name Macedonia and not FYROM. (This happened early in my service)

Enjoy the pictures!

The car...

A Macedonian village on the way to Greece

Shaun making the plan for the day after finishing breakfast

Cat at the hotel the first night

Woman working in the fields

Road through northern Greece - looks a lot like Ohio!

Meteora

Shaun at Meteora

a monistary at meteora

Meteora

Me at Meteora

A hermits home in the rock

The beach we spent the afternoon at

a roadside monistary

some boys fishing in the agean sea

the coastal road in Greece

From behind a waterfall in northern Greece

The Greeks have a big problem with the name of Macedonia. I guess not changing the sign is as good a way as any to express it. It has only been 15 years...

Herakela, a old Greek settlement in sourthern Macedonia

The grave of Saint Naum, in the church Saint Naum near Ohrid

Adventures in the Wild, Wild East!

I am one of the first people to admit that I have a pretty cushy PC assignment. I live in a resort town, on the ‘rich’ and ‘well educated’ side of a fairly well developed country. However - this is still the PC and this is still a developing country. Anyhow, I have recently been hassled a great deal by volunteers living in the eastern part of the country who tell me that I have never been there, I have no idea what it is like, and it is a totally different place. So I made a trip.

Shaun and I decided to take advantage of a long holiday weekend to travel to visit my and his host families and some of the volunteers in the east. We arrived in Veles (the medium sized city right in the middle of the country where I had my training) on Friday night, and stayed at the apartment of the older married couple volunteers who live there. Saturday we visited with my host family, Sunday we traveled east to Vinitza to stay with another married couple volunteers. We had quite a time getting to Vinitza - non-existent busses, broken taxis, difficult drivers, etc., but finally made it. Monday we visited Shaun’s family, and returned back to Gositvar. Tuesday I was supposed to head back home, but the bus didn’t come, then Wednesday there was a bus strike, so I finally made it home Thursday. It turned into a really long holiday weekend for me…

But it was a nice trip. My host family didn’t seem overly impressed with Shaun, but I credit it to ethnic issues. They hate Albanians and Shaun lives, works, and is friends with Albanians. We got a 45 minute lecture on why Albanians are bad, after Shaun told my family where he lives…

On the other hand, his family was really impressed with me. I credit to the fact that I knit, was interested in there sheep, and I agreed that dark honey is better then light. I guess when I got up to go to the bathroom, they told Shaun how marvelous I am, and that he should do everything he can to keep me around.

As for the east… it is more rural, but villages are villages everywhere. There is more open anti-Albanian sentiment, which is interesting seeing that there are hardly any Albanians in that part of the country, the buses where difficult, but I didn’t get caught in a strike till I got back to the west. I think what I can conclude in that what people from the East see is mostly the capital and Ohrid in the west, and these places are definitely different, other wise it is all Macedonia to me. However, it is possible that I need to spend more time in the east to really know, or perhaps it is possible that the easterners need to spend more time in the west to really know…

Anyhow - enjoy the pictures from the trip, including never before seen photos of the village I lived in during training!!