Skopje lasting impressions and interactions

The day before yesterday was a day full of interesting interactions here in Skopje.  Perhaps I was channelling Steve.  The day prior I had gone to the Turkish bizarre which is a maze of small indoor and outdoor shops, cafes and restaurants.  Really love the feel of this type of environment.  There are all different sections to the Bizarre such as for food, cloths, tools, etc.  I walked past a Turkish doner stand (like a gyro only Turkish) and took some photos. A man nearby told me this man serving doner’s was the first in Macedonia and the best.  OK, so I went back the next day to taste this original doner sandwich.  While standing there this older man in a suit starts talking to me in German, so we have a conversation in German since he didn’t know English.  He spends part of the year in Switzerland and the other in Skopje, and brought his grandson for a doner sandwich.  As I order my chicken doner, I try to pay and the man said it was already paid for by the older gentlemen in the suit.  Wow, that was super nice.  I continue to eat my excellent doner with his grandson Misa who was very comfortable practicing  his English with me.  The world is full of nice people.

After that I went to have baklava and Turkish tea at a little outdoor café. It was so perfect and the best way to savor the tasks of the Bizarre and people watch.  There was a table of men next to me who were occasionally speaking English and it seemed one of them was trying to teach English to the others.  When getting up to leave I asked if they were learning English, they said they were but only certain words needed for work.  Once they found out I was American the Italian that worked for an NGO started telling me how he helped with the Syrian refugees that came through N. Macedonia on the way to Germany.  He even pulled out his phone and showed photos of him carrying refugee children, some in wheelchairs, to camps or to the next border.  It must have been quite the tragic scene.

I leave Skopje today for Ohrid Lake, but will miss this city of monuments, great food and friendly people.

Photos are from the fountains at Macedonia Square, the old bridge, city sites, doner sandwich, tea and baklava and sayings from Mother Teresa that you can find on all the main buildings downtown.  BTW, the monuments are absolutely huge!