Mesmerizing Macedonia

So happy that we are going back to Macedonia, but it's even better knowing that watermelon will be in season.  In my old life, I wasn't a huge fan of watermelon, but after being given big plates of cut up watermelon at the end of a meal in restaurants this time of year, I discovered how good it is there.  One of my first food purchases will be watermelon when I get "home". 

I feel a little bit like I am not on very solid ground here when it comes to Kebapi and the various spellings that different Balkan nationalities use for what is essentially the same food.  However you happen to see if spelled on a menu...order it.  It is something you will never forget and you will pine for it for a very long time in the future if you leave the Balkans.  I promise you. Ask you waiter how many he thinks everyone at the table might eat and go with that number.  He will know best.  You probably don't need to ask for onions and Bukovska peppers on the side, but just ask so you are sure to get them, because they are perfect as a side.  And also make sure they bring you fresh baked lepenje.  This bread is crucial to the meal.  You will also see a small dish on the table that contains what looks like coarse ground paprika.  This goes excellent along with the meat, but can provide some heat.  So you will definitely want to ord...

Breakfast in Macedonia.  My first breakfast when I get back to Skopje could look like this if we choose to go out to a restaurant, but I plan to grocery shop the day we get back and make an omelette for my husband, as that is his favorite.  But this is a photo of a breakfast I had three years ago at Bushi Resort & Spa in Skopje.  The breakfast there was wonderful and it is a full buffet and you could honestly eat so much you would not want to eat the rest of the day.  This is only a very small sampling of what they had to offer.  This is a tomato salad with the same kind of cheese on it that is typically used in Skopska salat, and as you can see, there is a variety of olives.  And a nice big pepper, ajvar, more white cheese and zelnik.  The juice there is fresh squeezed and let me say one thing about the coffee:  the best coffee I have ever had in any hotel in the Balkans.  It is all good, even the Turkish coffee I have been served, but ...

For me, it is a tradition to order a Shopska salad for my first meal in the Balkans.  You can get them in any restaurant.  In the summertime, they are particularly good as the tomatoes in the salad are vine ripened and you cannot imagine the taste.  This is similar to Greek salad but the cheese that is used is slightly different.  In Greece they put a big slab of feta cheese on the top and kalamata olives, but Shopska has a shredded white salty cheese on top.  It is somewhat similar to feta, but not exactly the same.  Skopska salad does not always have olives on top as in this photo.  I can hardly wait to get back!

One of the things I miss when I am out of the Balkans is Schweppes' Bitter Lemon.  I think it might have been originally developed as a mixer, but I like it plain.  This will be the first thing I order when I get to Skopje and go out for a drink or for lunch.  

A week from today I should be here.  If everything goes as planned, I will be.  Bracing ourselves for last minute changes to our travel plans.  Hoping for the best.  This airport will be a sight for sore eyes once we finally arrive. 

I'm not going to try to post entries that in any way reflect on the chronology of what I have seen and experienced since I first came to Macedonia and the Balkans.  It's all random. This is one of the places that I found especially interesting.  The old town of Stobi was established pre-Roman times in the area that was referred to as Paeonia.  It was later conquered by Macedon and later was a city in the Roman province of Macedonia Salutaris.  This photo is of a baptistry in the Northern Basilica.  The old city of Stobi has an ongoing excavation.  When you buy admission to the site you might be offered the services of a guide.  In our case, it was an archaelogy student and he was very knowledgeable, spoke really good English and it was a great experience.  The student guides there are volunteers so a tip is appreciated. 

My love affair with Macedonia and the Balkans began in 2002, the first time I visited.  Over the next 15 years I visited again and again, and I kept falling harder in love.  Finally, in 2018 we made the plunge and moved to Skopje.  I started a business there, which to date, I haven't done much with, but I plan to change that this year.  The thrust of my little business venture is to promote and encourage travelers to come to Macedonia and other Balkan countries. Because I am an American I will probably focus on other American travelers.  Many tourists from other countries have already been here and been fascinated by the beauty of this vast area.  When I tell Americans that I live in Skopje, most of them ask, "Where is that, exactly?"  Usually I answer, "It is one of the countries just to the north of Greece", and they then have an idea.  If I tell them it is part of old Yugoslavia, most frequently people really don't have an idea where that was...