Ever since watching the movie Before the Rain when I was a sophomore at university, I've wanted to go to Macedonia. I can't even remember what the movie was about but it stirred something in me. Tomorrow I finally get to realize this desire: I'm hopping on a bus and going to Skopje.
It's not far, just over 100 km (62 miles). The ride is scheduled for 3 hours, but that's only if customs is a hassle. Generally the bus takes about 2 hours. I'm not going just for fun. I'm presenting at a conference in Thessaloniki, Greece on Saturday. Originally, I had planned to travel to Skopje on Friday, but Friday is 'bayram', or, the end of Ramadan and is a holiday (actually, the word bayram is Turkish for festival, but everyone here refers to the day at the end of Ramadan as bayram and not, say, Eid ul Fitr or something along those lines). The busses aren't running from Prizren on Friday (and I am soooo glad I went to the bus company to ask and didn't just show up at the bus station on Friday expecting to go to Skopje...I would have had to take a taxi).
I'm rather glad to have to go to Skopje a day early. I could just travel on to Thessaloniki, but I refuse to pass up the chance to spend a little bit of time in Macedonia's capital. Plus, hotel rates in Skopje are much, much lower. For example: My hotel in Skopje? 35 Euros ($49.50). My hotel in Thessaloniki? 97 Euros ($137.20...and that's the lower rate for conference attendees). Plus, I would have had to pay for an extra day's car rental if I went through to Greece.
As an aside, I found my hotel in Skopje, Hotel 903-ta, through the Lonely Planet Haystack website. It's not the first time I've referenced their accommodations site (I looked at it for hotels in Spain), but it's the first time I've chosen a hotel from it. However, I booked my room through the hotel directly and not through Lonely Planet.
I'll give my impressions on my return.
I am very much looking forward to my presentation at the Macedonia-Thrace TESOL conference (Macedonia referring to an area in Greece and not the country). I'll be presenting on the Class Photo Blog project I did with my freshmen students last November.
Right as I typed that last word November the power went out. This is the third time in three days. Power has been steady throughout Ramadan, but I hear that as soon as Ramadan is over, the power cuts are coming back. Indeed, it seems as if they already are. Time to light the candles. Luckily for me, my landlady gave me a small gas burner that I can use to make tea on when the power fails. At least I can still maintain some civility. Heh.
PS: The power was out for one hour, from 7-8pm. At least the outages are fairly short. I’m lucky because I live in an “A” area which means that because people in my neighborhood pay their power bills, we have the fewest and shortest outages.
And then, right as I was about to post this blog again (I can’t post when there isn’t any power because my connection doesn’t work), the power cut out for a second time. Yeesh. At least I managed to get the dishes washed while we had lights. And now, nearly 2.5 hours after I was going to post originally, the power is back on. Better do this before it goes off again.
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