Juul's Place

Getting married - papers arrived ... and not yet all are in MK

2007-06-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Oh YESSS!!! Yesterday the papers from Brazil arrived. This went a lot faster than expected - we received it 5 days after it was posted. This is a lot faster than my new birth certificate, which was sent to me 12 days ago from the Netherlands.

Sigh... the waiting continues.

Getting married - the legalized docs for NL have arrived

2007-06-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

Parallel to our certificate of residence surprise yesterday, San's birth certificate and statement of civil status were picked up at the Dutch Consulate in São Paulo. Completely in line with the whole process, picking up the docs was not something that went along an smooth path. What happened yesterday in São Paulo, I don't know, but it was busy down there. The metro was out of order. Busses were running, but taking a lot more time to cover their routes than usually. And on top of that, it also appeared that all Paulistos were on the road at the exact moment that San's Sis had to leave her house to go to the consulate. 180 km of traffic jams in the city alone. It was impossible to use the roads, even by taxi. Waiting till the next opening day of the Consulate was maybe an option, but then we had to wait until Monday. And we waited enough already. So we called upon Sis' creativity. And, she managed. By calling around and making use of other people's lunch break, she found opportunities to pick up the documents.

Ha! I'm really glad that networking works.

The legalized documents are now on their way to Macedonia by express, registered and insured mail.

Getting married - Oops, this document is new

2007-06-15T04:40:00.000-07:00

In order to get married in both NL or Macedonia, a document stating your residence is necessary. This document is not hard to get for me: the NL Embassy brings the solution. However, there's no embassy or consular service of Brazil in Macedonia. And for San it is here in Macedonia where we need to get her residence document. Calling around learned that this document is something that we can start making ourselves. Here's the way:

When we moved into our new house in Skopje last October, we got ourselves registered at the police (necessary for that: [1] a work registration form, [2] a notary approved/stamped rental contract, [3] statement from Ministry of Interior approving our stay, [4] visa in our passports). All this results in one card: the certificate of residence.
This certificate of residence shows where we live and that it is approved by the police - unlike Brazil and Netherlands, it is the police who keeps these registrations and not any other community service. A copy of this certificate needs to be legalized by the public notary, together with, again, copies of the the passport pages with photos, signatures and visa.
These notary documents need to be legalized by the Ministry of Justice: at the primary court of Skopje (Skopje eden) by putting the Apostille stamp on it.
With this legalized document, we can officially state that San's living in the given address in Skopje. Nema problem.

Piece of cake? So, that's what we thought. And we started looking for these certificates of residence of ours. In the 8 months that we're living here in Skopje, these certificates got burried a little deep in our administration. After one hour of archaeologically disciplined excavation in our archives, we found them. Ha! Suprise! Our certificates were somewhat new forms. These forms did not reserve space for our living address. And as to expect, the address of residence was not written on it.

Sigh!

We had to get new ones! Luckily, the police was quite nice and cooperative in helping us out in this. However, it took yet another afternoon to get it done!

Next stop: registration of marriage plans. But where?

Getting married - translation of documents

2007-06-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

After San's Sis received the certificates of her birth and civil status from Brasilia, we had them ready for the next step: translation. It's not just anybody who can translate these docs for use in the Netherlands. Nooo, it needs to be done by a translator sworn in in the Netherlands. Luckily the Consulate in São Paulo has a list of these translators on their website. We picked one from Holambra (small city 200 km north from São Paulo city, full of dutch combining living in Holland, America and Brasil - hence the name of the city). Figuring that contacting the translator prior to sending her the documents would be wise, I called Therezinha through Skype. The whole translation work appeared to be an easy move for her - she's doing this on a daily basis. We just had to get the documents (originals) send to her, she'd do the translation, calculate the costs (based on translation per character) and send us the document back. We would be able to have documents back in 2 or 3 days time. Great. All we had to do is pay and wait for the envelop to return.
So, San's Sis send Therezinha the certificates while I had sent a mail to Therezinha, giving her the return address and my prefered way of payment (through banktransfer in NL). Therezinha received the documents on a Friday and immediately got to work. It's a relatively easy job, so she said. And indeed, as later appeared she finished her translation and stamping that same evening. Wonderful! If only the communication channels were left noise-free. Sigh. Somewhere along the line my mails were not replied. Information about payment was not sent, phonecalls that should have been made, were not made and those calls that were not necessary were carried out with too much enthousiasm. To keep a long story short, it took 8 days before the documents were returned to São Paulo. Next move: getting them legalized at the NL consulate.

Another angle to the translation story is this one: Last year we also tried to get married in Brazil. It was a mere hypothetical situation, but we thought it was worth a shot. For getting married in Brazil it would be my documents that need legalization. One part of this legalization process is the translation of the documents: again it's the birth certificate and the document stating my civil status that I'm talking about. These documents can be obtained in NL in an international format: all the information is there on the document in about 12 languages - all languages of the EU. Ha! Interesting, as Portugal is part of the EU, the translation of the document would be a piece of cake. Indeed, it would be a piece of cake, but not for us. After consultation of the Brazilian consulate in Rotterdam we found out that the certificates of birth and civil status need translation first. In other words: they need to be translated from portuguese to portuguese! This feels like it's very similar to having a dutch document translated from NL dutch to Belgian dutch. Dunno if I'm far off the truth, but I found the bureaucratic way of translation for Brazil a little odd at the least, hahaha.

Getting married - documents for Brasilia

2007-06-13T01:18:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a speedy legalization of documents between Brazil and the Netherlands. This could for example be possible if Brazil had signed this treaty about Apostille. In short, this would mean that if a document needs to be legalized, one stamp with 'apostille' somewhere on it would be enough for the document to be accepted abroad. Like I said, unfortunately there is no such commitment from the Brazilian side. This means that for our documents to be able to use in the Netherlands, we have to follow the whole path of visiting places, getting translations, legalizing stamps, registration of documents, etc.

One of the stops along this long path is Brasilia: the main city of bureaucratic Brazil. It is here that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to look at the documents and put a stamp on it. The quickest way of obtaining this stamp is simply by going to the capital yourself, knock on the right door with the documents in your hand, get the stamp, pay, and leave back home. Nema problem! Should take you maximally one day. This option, however, was not available for us. We were in Macedonia and San's Sis had to stay in SP with her family.

Time for Plan B! Plan B also looks simple. At least on paper. Send the docs to Brasilia, say a prayer and hope they will arrive at the right desk, pay, and wait until the stamped documents return. And here's exactly the downside of option two: you never know how long you have to wait. It can take up to 2 months and honestly, this is the time we did not have available in our case.

So, we had to go for option 3, which is basically a combination of the first two options with the addition of 'good ole networking'. We learned about a friend of a friend of San, who works in Brasilia. If we could send our docs to her, she would be taking an afternoon off to collect the stamps and get the docs back to São Paulo. All this worked. Though still, it took us the better part of a month before we saw the documents back in San's house in São Paulo again.

Next stop: translation!

Getting married: obtaining San's birth certificate

2007-06-12T03:45:00.000-07:00

We had already just arrived back in Macedonia when San's sister was knocking the doors of the public notary (cartorio) where San's birth certificate could be retrieved. Armed with the authorization (the procuração - again a document so colourful with all the stamps, seals, signatures, official Brazilian green ink and silvery shiny anti-counterfeiting strips that only the looks of it could leave the impression that you'd better not do any harm to this little paper) stating that she legally would be able represent San in her absence, San's sister got in front of the lady behind the counter. After asking the question "Can I have a birth certificate for my sister?", the procuração was studied briefly. It was given back with the simple answer: "Não!" And there you are. :( Now what? Asking for the one in charge? So it was done. The man in charge of this section of the cartorio was on holiday, or so I remember. Whatever it was, it was not possible to speak to him. If we wanted to speak to him we had to wait. "But", so the cartorio's girl continued, "it will not be possible to get the birth certificatate with the authorization you are having. For the birth certificate San has to come herself in person to obtain it!" And that was it.

Some weeks and many stressing phone calls later it appeared that, indeed, the girl at the cartorio was wrong. That with the authorization it is possible to get the birth certificate. That we just got ourselves another 4 weeks delay in a precious timeframe of 6 months validity of the necessary documents (the in February 2007 obtained statement of civil status being the starting point of these 6 months).

In the end, San's sister got the birth certificate and we could move on to the next step in the process: legalization of the documents by the ministry of foreign affairs in the far away capital Brasilia.

Getting married: leaving carnaval

2007-06-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

Going back to Brazil with was something we looked very much forward to. It would be great to see everybody go happy and crazy again with the 2007 version of carnaval. However, before we were able to through ourselves into that party, we had some work to do. Paperwork! Getting all these papers in order, and with that going to all the official governmental and/or legal bodies to get the paperwork done, took quite a bit of time. In fact, it was consuming so much of all our energy that we figured in the end that carnaval would be celebrated best this year from in front of the television. So we did. And it was good :)

Like mentioned in the previous message, we weren't able to get through all the paperwork in Brazil last February. So, we focussed on one thing only: making it possible that somebody else would take care of the paperwork. Better said: making it possible that San's sister would be able to show up on San's behalf, putting signatures on San's behalf, informing about state of affairs on San's behalf, asking for documents on San's behalf. To make this legally possible, we had to go through one more officila and bureaucratic procedure: back to another cartorio (public notary). Luckily, for these kinds of 'procuracoes' we had to go to a cartorio which was only a few blocks away. It took one morning and before the temperatures were hitting the 30 degrees meter, we were already back out in the streets. With a feeling of relief we arrived back home. From now on, even though we personally were not able to retrieve all the necessary documents, we could still continue the process.

If only all authorities would accept this legal authorization...

Getting married - the legal ways for documents

2007-06-10T04:45:00.000-07:00

It's about time to drop a few lines about the documents which are necessary to get married in NL. The list is quite short:

birth certificates of us both, and;
official documents stating our civil status.

Next, the prerequisite for both documents is quite simple: they need to be originals.

Now, this seems to be easy to do. But it appeared that there's a lot more work involved than just collecting them and get it over with. Here's another list of ways the documents have to go through:

For use of the documents in the Netherlands, they need to be legalized by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The documents are written in Portuguese only. This is not an official accepted language in the Netherlands (those are German, English and French, besides our own Dutch, of course). So, the documents need to be translated by an official sworn in translator (fyi: this is the step that we just finished).
The documents will have to be legalized by the Dutch consulate for use in the Netherlands (this is a step that we're about to enter - we hope to offer the documents in Sao Paulo soon).
All of the above road is paved because Brazil did not sign the "Apostille Treaty". This, in short, means that official Brazilian documents cannot be legalized by one stamp, which for example is possible for documents made up in Macedonia and us in Holland.

The above mentioned roads can lead to many things of which I can say that 'patience' appeared to be the most important.

Getting married, part one - annex

2007-06-09T00:29:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mentioned the interesting part of getting a certificate in Brazil stating that San is single/not married and that she's Brazilian. Once we got it, I saw that's a wonderful looking document. Full of stamps, signatures, shiny silver strips, lot's of official looking Brazilian Green inkings, watermarks... In short: the works! However, before we were able to get it, we had to do some phone calls. For the document can be issued by the cartorio (public notary), it is necessary to have two witnesses who are willing to state for your case that you're single and are willing to sign for it. In Sao Paulo family members cannot be such witness, thus leaving an easy group of people out of our business. Moving onwards to friends is a second source to be milked. Remember, it was mid carnaval, so some were not in Sao Paulo. There appeared to be two more hurdles we had to take in the selection of friends as witnesses. The first is work. This one's quite simple to explain: the opening hours of the notary resemble a lot those of the working hours of friends. This meant that a few weren't able to make it to sign for our case. The second hurdle is validity of registration. In short it came to this: we found one friend who had not renewed his registration at the cartorio in time. Therefore his signature would not be accepted on San's certificate. Sigh! We had to come back later and see if we could get someone else. At that time, our stay is Brazil was already coming to an end: we had only 3 more days left.

At the end of our stay, we managed to find Virginia and Marcus who both were willing to take an extra long break from their work to sign for our case. This paper we got. "One more to go", we thought. And we left home! How naive we were, haha.

Getting married, part one

2007-06-08T00:05:00.000-07:00

A mere 18 months after I went for San on my knees, asking her the "little question" in Mercadão, downtown São Paulo, lots of things have happened. None of these have so far led to the answering of the big question with a "Yes!" Not that we wanted to. To the contrary! We started a round of getting papers in order for a wedding in either NL or Brazil almost immediately after the "little question" was out in the open. However, due to one tiny little uncertainty we couldn't get that round completed. The little uncertainty was the start of the work in Macedonia: "When does it start?" The process of answering that is a complete different story, but it interfered our wedding plans in all possible ways.

Now, we're in the middle of round two, which more or less started February this year. In the middle of carnaval-crazy Brazil. The document obtained at that time was the required certificate of civil status. More about that one in later blog-entries.

Slideshow blog entry

2007-04-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days I've been digging into my photo archives and processed a few images into slideshows. Here they are:
Tetovo, March 2007 (11 photos)

Stobi, March 2007 (13 new photos, all of them close ups)

Krushevo, March 2007 (9 new photos with mixed subjects)

On a more sad level, the national Macedonian garbage collection gets bigger than I wish it would (9 photos, and - alas - counting)

Chicken working overtime

2007-04-02T23:52:00.000-07:00

Imagine if you were a chicken. Imagine it's the week before Easter. And imagine it's Macedonia. You'd know that this is the week of work. You'd be asked to be as productive as possible. Because..., well, it's the week before Easter and it's Macedonia.

Last Saturday, in Prilep, I already saw the results of the first shifts of over time working chicken. The green market was filled with eggs. Loads of them. Piled up everywhere. For everybody to buy to fulfill their Easter needs. And... everybody did seem to buy the eggs. Not just 10 or 20 of them. Oh, no! Not even one box of 30 looks like it's sufficient. Nope. As it appears in Prilep it needs at least 3 trays of 30 eggs to get into the mood for easter. That's 90 eggs for one family for a couple of days. Consider this on a nation wide scale. Now, let the consequences sink in for a moment.

...

It's a lot, isn't it?

As it appeared, the eggs fixation was not just a custom in Prilep. I also saw the eggs to be ready in Idrizovo last night. Idrizovo is a small village about 15 km east outside Skopje. I was there to help someone learning to speak my native tongue - dutch - but that's besides the point. And on my way out of the house, I noticed the trays of eggs. Four of them. Apparently waiting on the table to be "easterized". Even for a bigger family I'd consider this a lot of eggs. And then knowing where they have to come from. The chicken have been working hard. And as we speak, I guess that they are still working hard to meet the high demand of their products in Macedonia.

I guess this is not the last you've heard of eggs here.

Happy birthday Ana

2007-04-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hope you enjoyed your lunch as much as we did. Here are some photos that I took today. The ones with the famous 'Brazuca Tria' you'll get later through another channel.
Click on the photo to see the slideshow of 6 photos taken at Matka today.

Coming down from Vodno to the city center

2007-03-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

There's Vodnjanska - the main road coming down from the Vodno mountain. We were in a taxi and shot a few light-action photos last night. Seven of them made it to this slideshow blog entry.

Protest in the park

2007-03-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

Economically Macedonia is in a turmoil. Some parts do very well, others are close to disastrous. Unemployment rate is high: 30+% And what do you do when you hear that you lost your job after 25 years service? I don't know in my case, but there are a few people gathered in front of the Parliament, protesting against their fate.

Mavrovo and Sv. Joakim Bigorski slideshow blog entries

2007-03-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

It seems like yesterday when I mentioned the 'under constructioness' of some slideshow blog entries. But no, it's not. In fact, it's already two days ago and this is what I meant. People announce things coming up on their sites many times and it usually takes longer than to get it updated than everybody (including the author) anticipated for. Well, I guess I had in mind to release these blog entries yesterday. Maybe the Sepultura cancellation got us off track, but what am I talking about? It's not this nagging that you're here for. I'd like to add one more thought though: "One picture can tell a thousand words". This would meant that I'm leaving you today with a couple of thousand words to behold.

Mavrovo just after New Year's Eve (11,000 words)

Monastery Sv. Joakim Bigorski (5,000 words)

Anticipation for a NO-GO

2007-03-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Tonight could have been THE night. Skopje would have been witnessing something beautiful and unique. A real Brazilian top act could have been playing in the MKC. I guess it would have been their first time. I don't keep track of where they've been before, but I doubt if they ever played here in Macedonia before. Sigh... To keep it short: it didn't happen. What DID happen was this. We anticipated a long time this gig. On the very day it was known they would come here, we got our tickets. Hey, we even got a ticket for the son of our landlord. He's into the same music (more or less) and a musician himself. Also brought the concert under the attention of the Brazilian top-sporters who're working very hard in Macedonia. Some of them even made it to the Olympics and obviously play and played in national teams of their sports discipline. We were all getting ready for the tunes to be heard. But... again... it didn't happen.

At about 18:00 hrs, we got a phone call from the man who sold us the tickets telling us that the concert was cancelled. The lot didn't arrive in Skopje after their Greece appearance last night. Grrrrr.... Or... sigh... DISAPPOINTMENT. The concert was sold out. And no reason was given. Not even on their site. Not even on fan forums. Not even on the venue's site. All what's left is an image of their concert tickets. The ones that will stay untouched.
Gee! The photo of these tickets leaves quite a bad impression. Click on it to get a better view.
[Update 30 March] I just found out on Sepultura's fan forum that the promotor here in Skopje appeared not to have done things according to plan. A bus was not organized e.g. Well, talking about having things organized: their site could be a little more informative about their 'news' as well.

I got to dislike announcing activities on blogs like this...

2007-03-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

... but I'm going to make myself guilty of it anyway. When I woke up this morning, very early at 4, I couldn't sleep anymore. So I got to do a few blog entries. Yes, I'm talking about the two you see below. While preparing all the photos for these slideshow blogs, I realized that there are quite a few photos of sceneries missing in both this blog as on the Flickr pages where I started to locate all photos (I also started experimenting with Picasa but this new star on the firmament is too 'green' for me at the moment. Even though I've got to admit that the 1 Gb free memory is very tempting). It also appeared that all the photos I put on Photobucket are linked to this webblog here (my previous webbased photo sharing/storing device but of which I decided to stop working with for very subjective reasons). Looking at the lots of photos that are still waiting on my computer to be processed and also the plans we're making that includes many new photo shooting opportunities, it seemed to me that I should share with you at least a few of the moments/slideshow blogs that will be up here in the hopefully not too near future (sentence is too long bothering rephrasing). Here's a quick list of what I had in mind:

The Millennium Cross;
Mavrovo and Movrovi Anovi;
Sv. J. Bigorski near Debar;
Ohrid (yes, again);
... and some more.

Hope you don't mind me contributing this 'under construction' kind of blog entry.

Spring time in Skopje

2007-03-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

It is like the winter never really came. Result: Spring in Skopje came early. At least to my reckoning. We were able to see the Spring coming from our balcony. Sounds chique? Yes it is. There's a cherry tree that started to blossom the last couple of weeks. I've been collecting a few photos in this period and here's the little slideshow of this including a few busy bees.

Click photo to start the slideshow (7 photos)

Been in Prilep

2007-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Prilep: the city of marble and tobacco. Coming down from the mountainous road from Veles, you'll see some chuncks been taken out of hills when you get close to Prilep. It's the site where the marble and famous white stone (this probably has a name, sorry I don't know it) is taken. In the city center at almost every corner of the street you'll be able to see a statue of some sort. Different styles from different artists. I can't really go into all these details here. First, because I'm not that much of an expert, and second as I think the photos would be more interesting to look at. The third reason right now would be that I'm in a little hurry, so time limits me also.

About the tobacco: if you walk or drive through the city you will see the drying racks all around Prilep. Didn't take a photo of these (yet), so don't expect them to see when you're clicking on the photo below to start the slideshow. What is it that you can expect? A few shots from Monastery Sv. Archangel Mihail, some dogs, hill views and... sigh, again... a disturbing little garbage dump. It's what it is. Enjoy watching the slideshow anyway.

Start the slideshow of Prilep (15 photos)

A few new slideshows

2007-03-27T00:55:00.000-07:00

As usual, it's hard for some people like me to keep the blog up-to-date. This is a little bit of a photographic catching-up. Click on the photos below to open the Flickr slideshow that goes with that particular photo. Beware that not all photos are the typical touristic shots one might expect to find out.

Kavadarci: the centre of wine making Macedonia (8 photos).

Tatev Kamen ancient observatorium (3 photos).

Sveti Gjorgi in Staro Nagoricane (2 photos).

Kumanovo (3 photos).

A Stip church and their great pastrmalija (5 photos).

Struggle for Bargala

2007-03-25T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today, after finishing a rather heavy lunch in Stip (yes, it was another Pastrmalija afternoon) we decided to go down to the remains of the ancient Roman city of Bargala. Recently it's been under quite some maintenance. And this shows. It's a pretty afternoon or early evening stroll. Today, Mr. Z, the guide of the site, approached us while I was taking photos. A few "Nema fotos!" made me understand that I was not supposed to make any here. When we arrived on the spot, I didn't see a sign explaining us that photography was not allowed. I mentioned this and to my surprise the reasoning for not taking any photos was completely different. Here's the nutshell story.

Last year, a professor from a Bulgarian university came to visit Bargala. He took plenty of photos and returned home. Once back at work, he showed a collection of his photos in a presentation or any other kind of publication. The reference to Bargala was clearly made. Only, there was a slight itch of misunderstanding created when this professor mentioned that Bargala was on Bulgarian grounds. So, what happened next: Obviously Mr. Z's organization got a hold of the Bulgarian claim on Bargala. I don't know if it was Zvonko himself or any other policy maker, but since the presentation, Bulgarians are not welcome to make photos of the site anymore. It gets a little more interesting, as at one stage we were explained that Bulgarians were refused entrance to Bargala.

When we explained that we were not Bulgarian, our allowance to make photos was returned to us. So, here's it. For you to behold. The one and only MACEDONIAN Bargala:

These are the good times!

2007-03-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

Was the end of last year interesting concert-wise with Iggy paying a visit to Skopje. It's getting quite a lot more interesting this Spring. Tomorrow it's the mighty Toy Dolls who're playing the МКЦ. The end of the month is highlighted by the greatest rock act from Brazil visiting the МКЦ as well. These are the good times.

Vardar beating FK Makedonija G.P.

2007-03-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Today's a big day for Vardar - the Skopje football club that through history has seen most of the world compared to all other Macedonian football clubs. Is this historically correct? Oh no. It's just what I am repeating hearing others say. Today we went to see them playing the Skopje derby against FK Makedonia G.P. Big reports about this game with photos, videos, comments, critics and praises can obviously be found elsewhere on the web. What this blog entry adds to all these better written and more informatical has not much to do with football as it is a description about the context in which the match took place. Beautifully under the sunlit sky, it was one of the first spring days out. Young kids sporting their shorts were not exceptionally rare in this West Skopje small stadium.

During our walk to the market (Bunjakovec at Bulevar Partizanski Odredi) we also spotted the first trees in blossom. Spring has already arrived in Macedonia. Big news? Well, with the mild winter we had, one could get away with the statement that spring never left the country for the cold.

By the way, Vardar won the match with 0-2 with the Brazilians Wandair, Braga and Franca being the men of the match. No doubt!

Full moon fading over Skopje, Macedonia

2007-03-03T16:00:00.001-08:00

Here's a first photo of what I was previously talking about.

Disappearing moon

2007-03-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight's the night. Actually, as I write these words, it is still happening. The moon's gone. Not only is it obscured by the earth covering the path of the sun. Nooo! What many people here have been looking forward to - it's been all over the newspapers in Skopje today - turns out to have become a wee bit of a downer. The moon is not just invisible because we collectively have our big 'beep' in front of the sun. The Skopje sky of this minute is also covered with clouds. And not just a bit here and there. It's all over town.

Anyway, I managed to make a few photos of the moon's changing face. Hope to get them up tomorrow or so. That is, of course, if I keep finding the discipline to keep up with the writing.

See y'all later!

Strange winter

2007-02-12T02:35:00.000-08:00

No, the title of this posting is not about a gothic metal band. Neither is it about the new Meryl Streep (even though I think there might be a movie out there bearing this name and featuring her). Nope, it's all about what it is: a strange winter. Usually in Macedonia, winters are a little different from what I'm used to from the Netherlands. There's a guarantee for snow and temperatures at night can drop till an uncomfortable -20 C. I more or less got prepared for this and was actually looking forward to it as well. But, what happened until now: it is by far the hottest winter in the country with a mild and sunny 21 degrees in mid January as a highlight. No snow. No wind. Not even too much rain. Let alone icy winds, snow, blizzards and the likes of which you expect a band with the name 'Strange Winter' would sing about.

Memory of a sad moment

2007-02-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

Just got back from the toilet. It always wonders what kind of funny thoughts you can get at these times of the day when this place is visited. This time it was about a drive home from work one day.

When arriving at Skopje from the M3 from Belgrade/Greece, the first traffic lights we meet daily is on the big intersection. This intersection is usually occupied and 'run' by a group of gypsy men and women. It's better maybe to call them boys and girls, as to my estimation these youngsters never exceed the age of 17. The girls sometimes even have little babies in their hands when they go pay the car drivers a visit asking for some change (usually the EURO is quite popular among these). The others, both boys and girls, are occupied cleaning windows and lamps of cars. I developed a theory about these kind of occupations, but it's too premature to present it here... yet. What I thought of just a few minutes ago, was the moment when we drove straight on, passing the lane destined for those who want to turn left. We had green lights, so we moved on. Then, in a flash, I saw a girl heading for the back of the bus. She knelt down behind it. I was wondering what she would be doing there. She put her working gear down (a wet sponge soaked with usually dirty water, and a screen wiper). Then, she put out her hands. Making the movements with the hands that resembled like she was warming them. When I took a closer look, I saw that she had placed her hands just below the exhaust of the bus; indeed she was warming her hands. Honestly, I again was quite shocked.

November 06 update: at the Svetie Joakim Josogovski monastery Kriva Palanka

2007-02-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

It was a sunny 26 November in the previous year. We were in North East Macedonia. There's a good deal of nice things to do in this little city close to the Bulgarian border and I figure that visiting the St. Joakim Josogovski monastery is one of them. Uphill and just outside the city, this is truely one of the most beautiful places in Macedonia. Here's a look at a few moments. Click on the photo to see more of that day's photos in a Flickr Slide Show

A fresco on the rocks, just outside the chapel at the monastery of Sv. Joakim Josogovski.

The entrance of the bigger church at the monastery is covered with vivid coloured frescos. This is what you see when you look up at the right corner.

I have no idea if these conserved veggies were for sale or not (the empty Skopsko bottle just right of the jar got me to doubt if they really were), but the sunlight beautifully entered this little shed stuffed with conservatives.

Crikey! Has it been over 2 months already?

2007-02-11T05:35:00.000-08:00

Somehow time appears to fly. And it does so with high velocity. It really doesn't seem like it's been more that two months since I've last came here to drop a few lines. However, as I'm back in NL and going over some photos of the first four months of my latest Macedonian tour of duty, I figure it's about time to catch up on a few happenings. Brace yourself! It still might take some time before the next contribution is ready for y'all. Just got the news that this blogger lot has been merged with Google in one way or the other. New features should be available. Have no idea yet what these look like, but I'll try to find out if any of these are 'hot' enough for Juuls Place to use.

Take care. It won't take 2 more months before the next entry has been posted.

Gypsies playing their music at the Zeleni Pazar (Green Market) in Skopje

2006-11-20T05:43:00.000-08:00


In the middle of the crammed and busy Green Market (Zeleni Pazar) in Skopje, Macedonia, all of a sudden a gypsy band started playing their hyperactive but great music. We rushed towards them and shot the last minute of their one song performance. Unscheduled, even for the band, was the woman starting to dance.

Food, doctors and porcelain: Plan B

2006-11-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

Friday was the big day. Right after posting the entry about food, doctors and porcelain, some friends arranged a meeting with Doctor E. in the Military Hospital of Skopje. In some way or the other, I was put on transport with a belly full of a lot, but convenience. The night before had been horrible. And still, the runs to the toilet had only 10 minutes breaks. In other words: I was feeling GREATly disastrous.

Doctor E. was kind of too busy to be waiting for me when I stumbled into the emergency. It was a busy morning with quite a few traffic accidents, work muck-ups and other results of mishaps. Many people were treated for all of these and I took a number and got in line. Once it was my time, I could get it all out. The story at least. What happened, how it maybe got there and... well, I guess all of us have had the experience so I don't need to go into any further details.

After a few tests (x-ray, blood and urine), the diagnose was very well explained to my by Docter E. while I was having my lunch through an infusion tube. All appeared to be well. No infections. No bacterias (apart from the probiotics) and no illnesses were found. Had some real bad luck with the food.

To top of the service that I got, Doctor E. was kind enough to share quite a few intestine friendly diet specialties and some other gastronomic recommendations. This was possible as somehow the flow of people needing emergency help came to a halt.

Doctor E. thanks for being wonderful.

[Postscript: It's Sunday evening. The main part of the inconvenience is what I left behind. The food is starting to become tasty again.]

Move with a Ficho

2006-11-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

Not much to add to what we bumped into today. Enjoy a traditional sight of Macedonia.
Click the photo to find out about some more Macedonian Traffic Situations

The relation between food, a doctor and porcelain

2006-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Been having some troubles with my intestines for some time now. Had no idea what it was, so the medical cavalry was called in this Wednesday evening. The three of us, San, our wonderful landlady and me, entered the hospital and after some asking around, I was put on an examination table. It appeared that the big question to be answered was the colour of my processed food. In order to find that out, 'the glove' was deployed. In all the doctor's generousity the result of this little examination was presented a few centimeters from my face, accompanied by the comforting words "Look! Right colour!" Next, the glove was disposed of, and the doctor left the room. I waited, and waited a little more. Was actually kind of interested to know what all this meant and what I needed to do to get rid of my constant feeling of inconvenience in the abdominal area. The more I waited, the more I realized that the lady doctor would not return. So, I left the room to find out that she was finishing her diagnose to our landlady. In Macedonian. San and I had no idea what all this was about. We asked but all we got was the infamous "Nema problem" as well as some smiling comments about the food/water that I've got the get used to. Then we were kindly informed to pay the bill at a certain counter two buildings further.

From an 'apteka' we picked up some Lineks or Linex and headed back for home.

I have no idea about this Linex/Lineks, but I'm getting the feeling that these pills that I'm supposed to take 3 times a day for 6 days, is making my life (and especially nights) a lot more miserable.

Looking forward to having Plan B activated in this case as I'm fed up of being closely attached to the porcelain for such a long time now.

Keep an eye out for the Бурек-eaters

2006-11-16T03:35:00.000-08:00

Francesco of the Бурек-eaters dropped me a kind note informing me about a joined group of people's interests in the Balkans. If you're up for some Italian views on the area that Macedonia takes a part of, please do visit their blog at www.myboite.it/burekeaters.

Animals around house

2006-11-16T01:05:00.000-08:00

Did some eating the last couple of weeks that was apparently moving too fast for my stomach. In other words: I'm stuck at home in the proximity of 10 meters from the toilet. Maximum. Visited the porcelain already quite a few times today. Brrrr.

In between the porcelain moments, I found some time to capture a few of our neighbors in the back garden.

There are quite a few more neighbors around our house, but so far they've been too shy to show themselves for the camera.

Overtaking a convoy of fuel trucks to Kosovo

2006-11-15T01:18:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, before driving into Skopje, you can bump into a long convoy of fuel trucks. Rumour has it that the convoy heads for Kosovo and that it comes from Thessaloníki. There is an odd regularity in which these trucks appear in the streets of Skopje. What this regularity is... nobody I know seems to know. Anyway, in the evening of 14 November the queue of trucks heading west through the Macedonian capital was there again. This time I managed to see the front of it at well - a police car guiding the convoy.

Beautiful sky in a smelly city

2006-11-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, when driving back to Skopje, the view on the Vodno mountain and the sunset behind it was magnificent. The sky was very deep blue, the few clouds looked like they were burning. There was a lot of mist hanging really low, giving the mountain and the big cross it bears a little blueish grey colour. The contours of the houses, churches and mosques stand out a little darker in the mist. It was beautiful. And to my terror... I didn't bring my camera to capture all this.

A few moments later, while driving in Skopje's outskirts one source of all this beautiful mist reared its head: it was getting cold and the houses need proper heating, so loads of chunks of everything was burning and smoking their way up in the air. Smelling the night time city up.

Anyway, the most important lesson learned today: Keep having the camera close by from now.

Next big thing: Taksirat

2006-11-09T03:35:00.000-08:00

Iggy comes to town. And there's a whole lot more who'll play Skopje in December on the Taksirat. It looks promising if the line up of the festival is as weird as the one from two years ago (first band was German extreme metallers Kreator, then some Serbians who played their pop-rock half naked on stage, followed by the Turkish Eurovision entry of that year and topping of with Bob Marley's supportband the Wailers - completely in line with the Jamaican customs, starting their act about 2 hours later than planned).

Have a look at what's up exactly at the homepage of Taksirat 2006. As far as I can see, there's no real metal on this year (Elvis Jackson comes close). Too bad? Dunno, as...

Iggy comes to town.

Organizing our lives in Skopje

2006-11-09T03:23:00.000-08:00

It's been a little while but we were a little busy getting our visa in order. After a week of writing applications, paying different little and bigger bills here and there and showing up for generally extremely nice people, we are now officially settled in Macedonia. As we also have found a roof for ourselves to live under, we can start adjusting it to our needs. As the roof tops a house which architecture was inspired by traditional rural Macedonian houses, the whole thing has a little story to tell. It is all about a smaller base of the house and widening floors on top of this. In fact there's a lot more to it, but that's for another moment to share with you. That's all for now.
Priatno

Ajvar - The great Macedonian winter food (Ajvar chronicles, part X)

2006-10-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

And, with this contribution, we have arrived to the final episode of the Ajvar Chronicles. Exactly two weeks after the big Ajvar Day itself. All of the stages in the recipe are described and pictured in the blog entries of the last two weeks. The only thing that might be missing is a better view of the paprikas needed to make up 60 kilo of them. And, of course, to get a better picture of what ajvar is about, a handy description of the recipe won't hurt as well.

However you may like to look and description of the ajvar, it is by far best experienced if you come and eat it yourself. The ajvar appears to be available in the country all year round. Though, the main season for eating ajvar seems to be October - March.

The lot.

The recipe.

Enjoy the food!

P.S. Found out that the name 'ajvar' has become a registered trademark. It is like having 'chicken curry' or 'sushi' registered. The latter being virtually impossible, the 'ajvar' case was simply granted. The best part is that it's not in Macedonian hands. No, it's Slovenian. As a result, when you see the jars of ajvar in shops, you'll see it being labelled as 'ajver'. In Macedonian it looks like this: 'ајвер' instead of 'ајвар'.

Clean 'em up (Ajvar Chronicles, part IX)

2006-10-29T14:17:00.000-08:00

This part is explained quite easily as the title of this blog entry pretty much says it all: get all the paprikas and eggplants clean! Apart from sand you'd rather not want to have in your ajvar, it's also important to cut out the bad parts of the paprikas before you get them roasted. That's it! Now, let's have a look at some photos from this stage.

Cleaning of paprika before they're getting roasted.

Extra cleaning and drying of paprikas before they're off to the grill.

Quality control of the paprikas. Making ajvar appears to be a delicate process. If bad paprikas are put on the grill, allegedly the ajvar will be of poor quality. Hence the importance of maintenance of quality control.

Wish I was there (bypassing the ajvar II)

2006-10-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

There are a few moments that I wish I wasn't in Skopje. With a visit to Stobi and Shtip coming up for some historical sightseeing and pastrmalija eating, a 26 degrees hot sun shining on our face and a really beautiful house to call our own for the upcoming 17 months from tomorrow, life's not bad at all in Macedonia. But tonight... the place to be is EIBERGEN!

Here's why! The setlist of one of the big new bands from 2006:

KRAKATU
Rock over Eibergen.
Rock on Skopje.
Give 'em all you've got!*
*= freely after Wesley Willes

Get 'em hot!!! (Ajvar Chronicles, part VIII)

2006-10-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

After the careful selection, cleaning and quality control of the paprikas (the same gos for the eggplant of course), it's time to get the heat up! Put some fire in the stove and roast the paprikas. What happens when paprikas are roasted, is somewhat a secret to me. There's truely a change in taste and also the skin is losening up on its attachment to the rest of the vegetable. Sometimes it also sounds like little explosions occur inside the paprika. But what is going on exactly...? I really can't tell.

The paprikas are constantly turned until you find all the skin coming loose. It doesn't matter if the skin gets a little black. It'll be only the skin that will be disposed of in the next phase: the peel session.

While tossing and turning those hot paprikas I found out that something gets sticky to your fingers. Is there a sugar-creation going on during the roasting?

Poking up the fire after adding some fuel to the grill

Closer look at the roasting of paprikas

Continuous turning of the paprika - the hotter the fire, the quicker the roasting goes.

Somehow, we got to add the eggplant on the grill after all the 60 kilos of paprika had been roasted.
The grill gets pretty hot. After some time of turning and grilling the paprikas, the shins can get extremely hot. In order to protect them, some modern technology is deployed.

Peel session (Ajvar chronicles, part VII)

2006-10-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

It's time to get really messy. Never mind that manicure you did yesterday. In fact, it's time to destroy all of that beautiful work done to your hands and nails. In other words: Let's get dirty. It's time to peel, peel and peel some more.
Before we get to work, let's have a look at the set up of the peel session. What do you need in a professional ajvar peeling environment?

The roasted paprikas and eggplant;
A comfortable working place and...
TIME!

Time can be available in limited quatities, it is wise to have a few buddies around to help you out in this process of peeling and cleaning of the vegetables. It is definately recommended to get mor hands on deck as the level of perceived comfort increases dramatically with every person added to the work-force. The working place is preferably set up outside your house. 60 kilos of paprikas peeled and cleaned from seeds, definately leaves a lot of mess behind if it's not mastered right. In our case, we sat just outside the house in the sun and chatted away the peel session while getting our hands dirty.

All the paprikas are picked from steamy hot bags, releived from their shin, opened up, cleaned from seeds and collected. That's very much the main idea. And still, it takes quite some hours. In any case, our hours spent on this were funny.
The hot roasted paprikas are put in closed bags. There they are letting off steam... and peel. The skin of the paprika gets of the paprika a lot easier if the paprikas stay in closed hot steamy bags for a while.

Close up of the 'letting off steam' part in ajvar making.

The peel session - try to keep the hands, fingers and nails clean. You won't.

What's left behind after the peel sessions are over.

Cleaned roasted paprika - a delicacy in its own.

Some of the main ingredients during the peeling sessions: the pan with the collected peeled and cleaned paprikas, the box with peeled skins and seeds, a bag with still warm roasted paprikas to be peeled and some bowls of water to keep hands and paprika clean.

Grinding (Ajvar Chronicles, part VI)

2006-10-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

Once the roasted paprikas and eggplants are relieved of their skins (and in case of the paprikas also their seeds), it's time to meet their master. They're ground into pulp that will turn into the great ajvar only a few hours later. In general, the grinding is done by hand. This means that some people (or in the worst case scenario 'one' person) turn the grinding mill - processing 60 kilo of roasted, peeled and cleaned paprika/eggplant. Our friends found something innovative to this mind and hand numbing activity - drill technology. With this machine attached to the grinding mill the job was done in less than half an hour. A piece of cake.

The whole lot, or better yet, part of the whole lot that needs grinding.

The 14 kilos of eggplant gets the same treatment as the paprika. Again, the same tools are used to speed up this process considerably if compared with the good old hand work.

Add to the stirring (Ajvar Chronicles, part V)

2006-10-24T03:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Ajvar Chronicles. In this is part I explain about the experiences gained during the making of ajvar on last 15 October and will focus on what is put in the mash while it is cooking and being stirred constantly.

When the grilled and ground paprika/eggplant mash is cooking for some hours, a few good hands full of salt is added to the lot. Of course, the stirring doesn't stop.

More or less halfway the process of stirred cooking more or less two liters of hot oil is added to the mash.

At times the ajvar is tasted to see if there's enough salt or oil in it. The tricky part is if a dutchman is asked his opinion during this essential judging of the product in process. It's especially tricky as the dutchman in the picture [1] is labeling all the tasted food as 'brilliant' and [2] has never made ajvar before in his entire life.

Funny signs and notices in Skopje (part 1)

2006-10-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

As everywhere you are outside your own country, you'll likely bump into a few signs, notices or just an occasion where you have to think at least twice to understand what's meant there. For San and me, it's no difference in Macedonia. Here are a few examples that we made photos of today.

Macedonians write in cyrillic - which is phonetic. As most languages, Macedonian imported some words which are originally alien to the mother tongue. This shop's black/white sign is one of them. This sign is probably very common and normal for those who are brought up with the language and its writing. For foreigners like me, who are learning it, this is kind of an A-Ha Erlebnis to figure out. This is how it usually goes:
1. spell what's written;
2. say it out loud;
3. let it make sense to you.

Here you see ДРАГСТОР, where Д=D, Р=R, А=A, Г=G, С=S, Т=T, and О=O.

Translations to the english language can be challenging at times. Here's what's on offer in one of Skopje's fine restaurants (this was also mentioned in the Friday the 13th blog entry from last week).

Getting into one of Skopje's hotel by elevator, you will encounter this interesting feature in the left top corner the "elevator's dashboard": the PANIC sign. I'd like to know where this came from.

Thank you Paulão for the idea - I hope you get your large collection of funny signs up one day.

A little side step from the Ajvar Chronicles - Look around on Macedonia Square

2006-10-22T14:37:00.000-07:00


It's been one week since the ajvar session finished. There's still enough material for the Ajvar Chronicles. But not for today. We've got something else for you. A first glance of Skopje on Juul's Place in motion picture. Here's a small look around on Macedonia Square from yesterday.

The big stir

2006-10-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

As with all of the steps in the making of ajvar, time is a considerable and necessary feature in the process. In almost all of these steps time can be shortened considerably when more hands are on deck. However, there is one phase in which time can't be beaten. This phase is known as 'the big stir'. And this is what it looks like.

15:33 hrs - Stir the whole lot of ground paprika and eggplant and it's time to move on to the next step - the one where the most patience is required - the cooked stirring or stirred cooking.

16:10 hrs... the ajvar starts to cook. The stirring continues.
The ajvaris about to get ready. It's cooking and... takes a few more hours of cherisment. A necessary ingredient during the hours of stirring is fire wood. Plenty of it!
And the stirring goes on and on and on and on (freely after S. Harris, 1984)
19:17 hrs - after four hours of cooking and constant stirring, the mass of ground paprika and eggplant is reduced to half. It's almost ready to be called ajvar. Just a few more moments of patience is involved.

Fill 'em up

2006-10-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to part three of the Ajvar Chronicles. For those of you who missed the previous episodes of this backwards telling of the ajvar series, I'll start with a brief explanation what's going on here at the moment.

Last Sunday San and I were invited to have a look at what a typically Macedonian day of ajvar making is all about. We figured that the 'look at' part in the invitation should be replaced by 'work on a typically Macedonian day of ajvar making'. And so it went. Between all the washing, grilling, peeling, grinding and cooking I found some time to get a few of the essential moments on photo. These are supposed to liven up the bits and pieces of text.

Today you can read about the 2nd but last stage of the process - filling the jars with hot ajvar. As the days follow, I will finish all untill step 1 of the ajvar recipe.

At 19:17 hrs, after almost five hours of stirring, it was time to get the big pan off the fire and get the pre-heated jars out. 60 kilos of processed paprika and 14 kilos of eggplant have officially been transferred into ajvar.
Before you pour in the hot ajvar in the jars, it's wise to have the jars heated up. If not, you shouldn't be surprised to see the jar break down of the heat difference.
Filling the jars with delicious ajvar. At 19:17 hrs it was time to get the big pan off the fire and get the pre-heated jars out. 60 kilos of processed paprika and 14 kilos of eggplant have officially been transferred into ajvar.
Jar of ajvar ready to be covered, boxed and stored away.

The greatest of all cleaning

2006-10-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

All the jars are filled. Only a few traces of the still very warm ajvar are found in the pan. It's time to clean it. And honestly, this is the best part of the whole day. Together with bread and the white cheese (sirenje), the pan is ready to be stored for the next time when its duties of ajvar-making are due.

Making ajvar

2006-10-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we were invited to hop in on a sesh of ajvar making. I won't go into too much details right now, but the essential things to know about ajvar are:

it's one of Macedonians typical food
it's one of the 1001 ways to process paprika
it's extremely tasty when made correctly
it's a hell of a job to make if you're 'only with 2 persons'

We were with 8 people and still were busy for 9 (nine!) hours before we could call it quits. The idea for the upcoming days is to inform you by putting a little piece of the whole process online. Complete with photos. Today, the first photo: the boxed ajvar.
Look forward to see how this proceeds the following days.

Friday the 13th

2006-10-13T01:57:00.000-07:00

It’s Friday the 13^th. No idea if Skopje is ready for this. If they are, the next question is if we are ready for this. We’ll see.

[Update] At the end of the day, all appears to have passed well on our behalf. It's a little different for:

The animal who lost her only coat on Bit Bazar (it's very fresh and wet hide was processed into a leather strip on the very spot it was probably... go figure);
The person who ate CRAP SALAD under the fish food section in the menu of the very popular Tito like place in the center of town;
All of us in need of the only emergency exit in the TCC Plaza Spa & Fitness center (before you get to the one and only emergency exit door, you have to Tarzan your way through a big bush of plastic plants, after which you face the 80 cm high threshold and door which opens...........*).

Hope to have some pictures of all these lesser fortunes available asap. Take care and till the next time.
* Fill in the blank

Parabens

2006-10-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today’s the day of “nossa senhora Aparecida”. The candle’s for her commemoration.

Grilling in the wild! Grill the wild! (pun intended)

2006-10-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

On this date somewhere in the 40’s of last century, the Macedonians stood up against fascism. This moment is marked in Macedonian society with… a day off. When on such days the weathers permit it, bags are packed with food, drinks, utensils and even more food. All goes in a car and “they are GO!”. We were invited for such a treat. Had to be ready and after first getting some work done - the day off obviously doesn’t count for all in Macedonia ;) - we were picked up for the picnic.

Going around the Vodno mountain, we arrived at a little river just below the “women’s only” monastery of Sveti Marko. A popular spot. We were not the only ones there and obviously all of us were not the first to celebrate a grilling event in this beautiful place. Numerous traces were left behind – garbage! It’s sad to know that this is not the only beautiful scene in Macedonia which is spoiled by an abundance of people’s trash. How can this be changed?

In the end, we cleared up some ground around a tree next to the river and had our go at grilling our commemoration. With two uninvited guests.

Stop over for beautiful sunsets

2006-10-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

Belgrade. The White City. Beautiful sunsets. It’s still a great break before entering Macedonian soil. Hvala Paulão and Ivaninha!

Here's a little update (14 Oct). I found two more photos which are IMHO worth having a look at.

Getting ready to move

2006-09-25T04:49:00.000-07:00

It's happening! After a little wait, all lights are set to green for us to go to Macedonia again. San and I expect to arrive in Skopje in around a week time. From then onwards, we'll get notices, stories, news, etc. on this blog again. We look forward to see your comments, anticipations, and who knows, visits.

A little longer delay

2006-03-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

Hmmm. Just found out today that the big 'employer' that will get me back to work in wonderful Macedonia is a little strict on some bureaucracy. Therefore, and I am very sorry to say so, it takes a wee bit longer before this blog is rehabilitated again in the fullest. Until then, there's always some time to re-read last year's observations.

J.

This is in the waiting room - but there's more interesting to start reading

2005-12-02T05:18:00.000-08:00

This blog is on holiday. It will revive in Springtime 2006 [approximately April]. In the meantime there is something else to read that might trigger your interest. If you master the Portuguese language, I can recommend Sandra's postings about her experiences outside Brazil. Let's go to San's Plaza -->

It can only come down

2005-05-30T00:59:00.000-07:00

Today's the fifth or sixth consecutive day in which Skopje is generously awarded with yet another thunderstorm. These storms never last long and always take place between 6 and 8 pm. They are far from the Amazonian stuff and never really seem to upset daily routine. However, on one occasion it managed to attack with some succes. A couple of blocks, in one of which I reside, light was dealt with by means of candles - no electricity. Adds to the Merry Christmas feeling. The storms are also fierce enough to obscure the whole Vodno mountain by clouds. Seems that all these storms start at the mountain and then come rolling down. It's an interesting spectacle.

[Edit] Yesterday's storm that rushed down from Vodno took a bit of dirt, stones and little rocks with it. Some streets in eastern Skopje were lesser accessible afterwards.[/edit]

How to add colours to a picture?

2005-05-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

There's a part in Skopje that needs further explanation. It's in the north. It houses a prison for those who dealt with the law not too seriously - the national hotel for those serving time having comitted minor offences. There are construction works in progress for a mosque the size that would rival the current order of the real biggies in the Guinnes Book of Records. It has the most colourfull market in the country. And, as a gypsy, you're not a minority for a change. Name: Шутка or Šutka.

Dressed in shorts, t-shirt and havaianas (have a look and see what I mean) I took off with a friend. Urban transport got us there. The further north the bus got, the more the weather changed. Arriving at the scene we realized that we were both not really appropriately dressed. If we would have stayed in the streets, we would have been soaking wet in no time. Instead of the initiated walk around town, we "Plan-B-ed" by hiding out in shops. Shoe shops. There is at least a square kilometer filled with them around the bus stop. Insteresting side step - there are bus stops and everybody local seems to know where they are. However, when in need of one they all seem to have vanished. No matter how carefull you look around for one, there are no sign posts visible for eyes that are used to order, rest and regularity. A gathering of people next to the street also proofs helpful in these situations. Except, not on a Saturday market day in Шутка. There are people clustered everywhere. Upon inquiry at these clusters, people looked bewildered and sent us up and down the street constantly. Flagging down a bus like it were a taxi was the only option left. It worked.

So far for the side step. We had just arrived and were hopping from one shoe shop to another. Weather also changed for the better and it was time to go out in the streets. Here's where the fun really started as people stopped and watched us as we passed them by. I came to understand that the appearance of somebody with a head full of dreads is, indeed, a bit of a rarity in downtown Шuтка. Most of the people watched and prodded their neighbours. Some didn't bother and a few came and asked wether it was okay to touch. That's when it got really intersting. This is a euphemism, really, but I won't go deeper into detail than that.

About being caught up by interesting sights. As much of an attraction as we both seemed to be, Шутка offered also quite a few for us. Gypsy weddings. I believe there were two of them going on today. Heard a great deal about them, but never witnessed the elaborate dressed women. All of them could be the bride and all were a feast for the eyes. Next: the music. It's loud and once your ears are accustomed to this, it's really great. I started to wonder what a gyspy heavy metal band would sound like and imagined they'd blow away 80% of the long-established likes of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and perhaps even Slayer.

Dropping a more serious note: For some, life at Шутка has been generous in granting them prosperity, big cars of German make and huge fenced houses. The indifference of these who fare well is rather unpleasant. One example: At one stage a big car passed us with the speed of light, not bothering to slow down because of the water and mud filled pot-holes. And, of course, like in a scene of a slapstick movie, the spurting mud landed right all over us. To the majority however, getting through the day appears like a pretty tough fight. Every day again. The smiles on these people's faces, their sense of humour and their interest after they find out you speak a few words Macedonian makes them the people you feel more comfortable being around with. At least I did.

So far for Шутка. It's a great place and probably the most colourfull in the country. I look forward to come back to one day.

Meet Џими

2005-05-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

Have been getting some respons about Џими, one of the 4 million (?!) stray dogs in Macedonia. Bumped into him again today and his condition seemed to have changed a little. Partly for good (his jaws seemed to have gotten a little more mobility) and some for worse (his left eye socket). Anyway, he insisted on introducing himself as he appreciated the attention he got.

Џими's photo

Jimmy or Џими as he becomes known in Macedonia. Don't let his facial expression scare you away. Џими is a friendly dog and as far as I can see completely harmless to people.

The sad metamorphosis of Џими

2005-05-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

A dog's life in Macedonia is not about roses, moonlight, romance and being cuddled to death. It's a real dog's life. Let's pick the story of one dog as an example. It's about Jimmy. Nobody really knows what the dog's name is. In fact, nobody really seems to know whether the dog has a name at all, but giving him a name like Jimmy, or "Џими" in Macedonian, raises the likelyhood that Disney will pick the story up some day. You'd better get napkins at hand.

Џими has his own territory where he is known by people for being friendly and where he usually is left alone. At a restaurant in his area, people accept him and every now and then he's able to pick up a few crumbs of food. He's provided by water in bowls, rather than drinking it from the gutter in the street. So far, it may look like Џими lives a better than average dog life. However, as it goes in a dog's life, Џими has to stand up and fight for rights or territory every now and then. Unfortunately for Џими, he's a little of the small kind. His legs are only 20 centimeters and the nose to tail-tip count doesn't get much further than 75 cm. And... Џими has a long tail. On one of Џими's last fights, his position as an underdog didn't grant him victory. Nor did the fight result in a draw. Џими lost. And he lost bad. The last time I saw him, Џими looked onto the world with only his right eye. The left one had disappeared. Џими nowadays also walks around with something on his face that resembles a genuine faul smirk that would fit perfectly on any of the Corleone's in the Godfather movies. Џими grins. And it appears that Џими grins painfully. When today he tried to pick up a piece of bread, the grin was explained. He wasn't able to pick up the bread with his jaws like he used to do. He wasn't able to open his mouth. His mouth wasn't able to move at all. Џими had to force the bread through the teeth and then suck on it untill he was able to swallow it. At a closer look, it looks like Џими didn't put up a fight with another dog or a cat. No, it looks like Џими lost his fight from a truck.

Pastrmalija killed the fresh air

2005-05-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

Krushevo! The city with the cleanest of fresh air. Its freshness comes over you like a shock after having been in Skopje for a longer time. Walking around in this beautiful little town, that seems to have fallen straight from heaven on the top of a mountain, one gets the impression that living in such a place allows you to live at least 10 years longer. However, there seem to be two downsides to this:

Hay fever does not seem to work well in smoggy, foggy and dirty places like Skopje. There's not a lot of sneezing involved in the capitol. At least not from pollen and other stuff produced by greens. Once you sneeze in Skopje, you immediately know it's from the exhausts, the blowing dust and just... well, Skopje. Walking around in the fresh mountain air, where pollen have green light to fly around and get reproduced, is a disaster for the eyes and nose if you have hay fever. It feels like the allergy is playing 'catching up' after having been put on hold for so long. Giving in to the allergy's victory seemed like a wise thing to do after 3 hours of resistance. Having to do that (giving in rather than resist) is a not-done thing in Krushevo where the uprise against the Ottoman Empire in 1903 was done with reasonable amount of success. As a result of that uprise the Republic of Krushevo enjoyed a full 10 days excistence. The motto "Freedom or Death" became something to live by after the re-occupation of the Ottomans. But at the end of the day, all there was to worry about was just a hay fever attack on eyes and nose. Atchoo!
When coming from Skopje, whatever you do in Krusheve, one moment or the other you have to leave the place and get back to Skopje. The fresh air makes you hungry. Half way back home you come across a town called Veles, famed for its 'pastrmalija' (the Macedonian pizza). You order one thinking that you can deal with it. The smallest seem appropriate. You get about a half square meter of pizza on your plate. And pastrmalija Veles style is lardy. Super tasty, but lardy. Finishing half of that makes you worry about your health. Food that tasty and that heavy cannot make you very old. The worrying part grows when you realize that because of the heavy industry based in Veles, the town is also known as the most polluted place in Macedonia.

All the benefits you so gloriously built one when you're in Krushevo become obsolete. At least they did for me.

Today's photos

	A bit further up the road, near the Krushevo Lake, some serious lumbering result in horses carrying heavy burdens.
	The heroes of the national uprise on the day of St. Illija (Illija Den -> Illinden -> Ilija's Day) in 1903 received a monument high on the mountain in Krushevo. All name tags have the shape of old fashioned cherry wood canons.
	Arguably THE most well known monument in Macedonia - Monument of the Illinden Uprising. More about the uprise: in 1903 the freedom fighters in Krushevo succeeded in over-powering the Ottomans, resulting in the declaration of the Republic of Krushevo. Ten days after this declaration the Ottomans crushed the dreams of this young republic and took over again.
	Inside the monument. Detail: the door has the shape of an 'M', standing for, indeed, Macedonia.
	Enjoying the great views over the mountains and the lake.
	Collecting herbs (thyme) on 1.300 metres high. The thyme is used for making tea. Using it as a seasoning for meats is not yet wide spread.

Racked and stacked! Piles of 'em.

2005-05-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Another touristis day out. The usual way of living up to such a day begins three days in advance with the 'planning'. As many of the original plans are still awaiting realization, so went the plan for today. Wednesday I figured it was about time to set eyes on neighboring countries. Bulgaria it would have been, with Sofia as base camp. By mid-Thursday it was Bosnian Sarajevo that kept crawling through my mind as Plan B. Sofia as this weekend's occupation was already a departed idea. Getting to Sarajevo involves some major tracking through Kosovo: some inquiry about the latests over there seemed quite appropriate. And, as it appeared that I would be on my own, I didn't bother to go through all the hassle of approximate 9 hours driving and ... well... to arrive there and find out that in 3 hours time I need to get back already. So, Sarajevo is postponed to another date. Krushevo was mentioned by colleagues. Macodonians keep raving on about this little village high up in the mountains of Central Macedonia. Seems worthy enough to pay a visit. Plan C was born. Sashka, my partner in crime for this ride, had to cancel for today which got Krushevo postponed by one day. And with that, I was not yet having any clue where to head for. Time for Plan D. It wasn't up until 9:55 am that I had a reasonable idea of where to go. At 10:00 am I got in the car and drove in the direction: East of Kumanov - the same route as last Sunday. So far for the touristic re-planning surprises. As the day progressed the plans were moulded and re-shaped. I couldn't find the right turns. Roads weren't on the map or roads on the map appeared to have disappeared in the real world. And three hours of driving on mountainous dirt-tracks in a non 4WD is a lot when you are able to find a village called Konjuh, where there is supposed to be a rock formation where in ancient times people would have lived. It is a context is which you become quite competent in what I call a "Plan-B situation". After Staro Nagorichane and Taticev Kamen it was Zebrnjak that I visited last today. It was a strange climax. High on a hill a monument is raised to memorate some battle I forgot. This monument is more or less a miniature 5 store high version of Minas Tirith - you circle around upwards. With in the centre a pink and white santuary of some sort. On the roof, the views are spectacular and peaceful, though standing up appeared a tricky business because of the firm winds that knocks you off your feet if you're not carefull (and it's a long fall down from 5 stores). Inside the atmosphere is strange at the least. The two pink rooms, one with a fresco of Sveti Wossname, were not the interiors that I imagined to see in there from looking at the monument from the outside. The three or four white rooms looked more in place. Then I found a stair down. Unlit. The camera's flashlight helped me to get down the stairs. The wind outside kept slamming the iron door shut repeatedly. As the hinges were ruined, the door re-opened again always. The constant loud noise added a delicate sound effect to the whole scene. Walking down the stairs I started to realize what the whole monument was there for. It held something. It kept items in store. In a small circular room with a diameter not more than 3 meter. Nicely packed in racks, 4 or 5 shelves high. It was impossible to make out at first. I had to take photos with the flashlight to make sure what it was that was held there. The iron door upstairs was still slamming fiercely. The first photos showed something blurred. I adjusted the camera and made some more photos. To find out that... Well, look for yourself.

Today's photos

	A close up of Zebrnjak, what looks from at a further distance like a ruined castle. The closest place that most people would see this from is the E871, which curls around the hill about 3 km north of it.
	The pink entry hall.
	Sveti Wossname as seen from one of the 4 white inner rooms.
	Someone forgot something.
	Racked bones.

It's much later now. got the 'hyldeblomstsyrop' in the brewing process. A fine smell of fermenting flowers comes from the kitchen. I'm glad there are no bones involved in the making.

Soaring hot day, but I'm registered

2005-05-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Oomph! It's hot today. People appear to get ready for summer (as 30 degrees+ is 'nothing but an omen for what has yet to come'). Half is enjoying it. The other half is complaining. The ignorant few percent like me who doesn't know what to think, happily stays in the middle and more or less just sit it out.

And... yes, the odd registration procedure is finished. What seemed like a defcon 4 situation yesterday is nothing short of a false alarm. You don't carry your own name in your passport, but that of your landlord. You think it's odd? Well, I also thought so, but the officials double checked and... well... The basic thought is that I'm in. But what will happen next week? I don't know if I have to go through all this again. There's a quick flip-flopping of border crossing involved in my schedule. If that happens, will I loose my registration card? Will I have to get a new one (I know the one to this question - YES). It ought to be somewhat more of a routine then. We'll see.

Coming up tomorrow: "How to make a lawn, Skopje Style!"

Registration day!!!

2005-05-16T07:49:00.000-07:00

Thinking of getting registered at the police, I'd say that last Friday was a mess because many things happened, a lot of effort was put in getting things organized and in the end nothing was realized. In that respect, I'd say now that today is more interesting: just nothing seems to have happened and therefore, again, nothing is still realized.

To be continued, I guess...

19:30 hrs: Time to edit! I was a little rash with today's entry to my place. When I got home, my landlord was waiting for me. He gave me the registration card. I gave him his rent.

20:45 hrs: Again, time to edit! The registration card is probably not filled out right. It's all in cyrillic. And that, I didn't read well. It has its reason: "Hand written cyrillic makes me nervous!" So now... what? Back to Plan B? I guess so.

The perfect place for alternative tourism

2005-05-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

Kratovo. Ever heard of this little city? It's not too far off the Bulgarian border and it could be a real beauty. With that I mean that it could be a REAL beauty. But now, it's just interesting. Some hard Macedonian habits are nowhere so obvious as in Kratovo. Garbage! Disorder! Friendliness! Mucked up sheer beauty! It's all there. And nobody seems to enhance the good parts and put some effort in trying to get rid of the sad side. But that, I know, is hard for someone used to over-organized Dutch society with a multi-layered set of regulations. When I left Kratovo today, the thought of what to do with a winning lotery ticket came back to mind. If there is 35 Million Euro or more to spend / invest, than for my part, Kratovo is a place to do it. To start to get the real beauty more to the surface. As, if you look at the city very close, it simply beats Ohrid.
About investments: there is already a highway being made (European Agency of Reconstruction perhaps?) in the direction of Kratovo. The city has only to connect to that and then, I hope, it can finally do rid of the label it stuck to its own town: the perfect place for alternative tourism.

Photos from the East

	The only photo here featuring Kratovo. This is one of the three old bridges that I counted. All in the same style with big arches and cobbled stones. Also to be seen are the storage anex defence towers, a river anex garbage dump and the most beautiful nature surrounding it.
	Just a little further west from the Valley of the Stone Dolls this one cross (old?) is intriging. A little further away there is also a heap of other interestingly order stones, making up for some old... Well, for some old something stoney. It's completely covered by bushes, flowers and some trees.
	One of the stones kept up in the air.
	Shed next to the Valley of the Stone Dolls.
	My favorite of today. Bugs, lizards and snakes do have a great view when they look up.

Friday the 13th

2005-05-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

Whatever you plan, don't plan it on a date like today. I had my fair share of 'abandonned luck' this morning while I was supposed to get registered at the police station. This registration is obligatory and needs to be carried out asap after arrival in the country. It is only up untill very recent that I found out about this but, as many issues in Macedonia are solved, I found out that this would be "Nema problem". That was untill Friday the 13th came around.
The registration procedure is fairly simple and could be over with in 10 minutes. That is, if all goes well. In short it's like this: I hand over my passport. The owner of the appartment that I rent, needs to hand over his ID. We fill out a form. Hand it in at a police station. Wait a little, and all's well from there. That's the theory. Here comes the practice.
Of course, as my landlord is way too important to do the registration himself, it is his driver with his boss' ID who is accompanying me to the police station Skopje Centar today. There, I handed over my passport. We both need to fill out a form. All was collected by the police officer behind the office window. The sliding window closed and we saw our documents and paperwork disappear into the black box of bureaucracy of Skopje Centar Police Station. There's nothing else to do but wait. Wait a little in the smoke filled waiting room.
After a good 10 minutes it was a shaken head from the police officer and the driver's seemingly rough way of negotiation that was starting to get me reaching for my 'Plan B' section for such situations. Only to find out that for this, I didn't really know what to do next. What was the matter? I was explained that the date in my passport of the last entry of the country does not match the date I wrote down on the form. I checked in my passport and yes, it's not the 6th of MAY that is visible on the stamp that I got when I returned from Greece last week. Instead it showed "6 IV 2005". In my mind I thanked the officials at the border to have overlooked the change of month on their stamps. After that, I went into the first phase of despair. My landlord's driver on the other hand was still a lot more hopefull, even though his "Ne e dobro!" as a reaction to my "What's up?" question, didn't add much good to the whole situation. He grabbed for the power of connections - Nokia! Did a little calling. Then, we waited. Two minutes later, he was called back after which we returned to the office window. The window slid away and the driver spoke. The word "Kommandante", the name of my landlord and my name were uttered in one sentenced. It sounded like "Open sesame!" as our papers were brought back into the black-box's circulation. The officer disappeared again. And we waited some more. I figured that as my name doesn't mean anything in this country, it must be that the chief of the station and my landlord are acquinted at the least. A little 'hand-and-feet' Macedonian with the driver revealed that, indeed, they were good friends. There had obviously been some chat going on between them and I was pleased to know that this chat took not too long. I was running late and needed to get to work. This was supposed to take only 10 minutes and I was already clocking close to one hour with this registration.
The waiting took a little longer than the first session. When the police officer returned with our papers, he still wasn't able to bring sunshine to our faces. The ID's were collected and the officer went back into his office window. The driver walked back to his car. He signalled me to follow, though I still had no idea what was up now. He revealed it in the car. My stamp was not the problem anymore. Now it's my landlord who has to show that the appartment on Bulevard Partizanski Odredi that I live in is really his. Too be continued!

...sigh...

It was time to get to work and tell my colleagues that coming Monday I might have to need a few hours off again for finishing this registration procedure.

Taxi drivers: Going to the movies?

2005-05-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

This evening I was, again, a little late for an appointment in the centre of the city. Luckily the taxi fares in Skopje are very reasonable - for 50 MKD (a little less than 1 Euro) you'll be brought to virtually any place in the city which is within reasonable distance. My second luck was that not too far from my home at Universalna Sala (Universal Theatre), there is a taxi stand. I decided to buy some time and take a taxi. I picked the odd looking Lada among the big Audi's, BMW's and some Japanese make which is quite popular in town. I could have picked a taxi with a lot less memories. It was not the car, but the driver that, to put it mildly, is not the ideal chauffeur for the faint hearted. He was apparently in his moods and gave me a few stories that made me curious at least.
After the usual 'where are you from?' and 'what do you do in Macedonia?', he decided it was time to reveal his real self - that in fact I was not being brought to the city centre by a professional taxi driver but by what he called one from the 'cleaning service'. His introduction went more or less like this:
"You know, these people from up there?" He pointed to the north, in the direction of the Vardar river, "the Russian [somethings - I didn't understand him well]?"
"Eeerrr, no I don't know them. But please, tell me"
"Well, these people sometimes need the city to be more cleaner. You know what I mean!"
I didn't want to disappoint him by telling the truth and saying that I had not yet a clue what he was talking about, so I just hummed some nodded agreement and hoped that he would elaborate on his matters. He did.
"When the first cleaning service don't do their job well, I will be the one who will be consulted. I'll just have to finish the job off."
"So, how can you do the job better than your colleagues?" I was getting a faint hint at what he was getting at.
"I work with chemicals. Works much better!"
"Ahaaaa, but isn't that the usual idea of cleaning?"
"No, some people use more old fashioned methods."
"I guess they stick to tradition, don't they?", I said, not yet knowing what his cleaning would look like. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know. It was, however, too late to draw back. The taxi driver was coming to the essential part of his story.
"Yes. But, do you know that you can kill someone with just one blow?" During asking me that question, he pointed to a spot on his throat. He added "I can."
"..."
"There is also another spot", now he pointed at his nose, "but you have to use much more force for that."
"Is that so?"
"You didn't know?" he asked me.
"Well, no. I never had to try."
"Trust me" he said, "but chemicals are more usefull. Much more usefull!" He then offerede me a sigaret, which in a way, was quite funny.
To my following question if it paid well and why he would still drive a taxi, I got some incomprehensible answer about "only once a month", "not trusting the people" and "better times during the war". I was glad the ride was about to come to an end. After he stopped the car and I got out of the car, he trusted me that Macedonia is not a safe place and that Skopje is not an ideal city. It would be better for me to get back home soon. I lied by saying that I would and wondered what car I would take the next time I am running late.

There are no photos today, but the ones from yesterday (wild domesticized geese at the city park) will be up soon. The Heraklea photos are published - look at the 8 May entry.

Skopje's Wild Geese

2005-05-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just south of the Vardar river, in the City Park next to the football stadium live the most spoilt creatures of Skopje: the Wild Tamed Geese. These lot terrorize the whole neighborhood and people seem to be scared of them. The nasty buggers approach you with their frightful teeth, flapping of wings, head up high and their loud synthesis of a snorting blow. To please these creatures, people are sacrificing food to the already huge animals. And these are not just the left-overs of breakfast or lunch. Nooooo! And they get a lot too. The variety of their daily intake of calories consist of anything from bread ('gjevrek' or just normal 'leb') to crisps. I wouldn't be surprised to know that even bottles of coke are sacrificed to these birds.
Most interesting to this all would probably be this - The restaurant in the centre of the Geese Territories serves a speciality: Geese!

Photos of today - The No-Geese-Show

	One of the many emergency stores in town. Whatever time it is, there always seems to be one open in case you run out of 'pivo' (beer), 'vino' (wine), 'rakija' (white or yellow) or 'semki' (pumpkin seeds).
	Trifun (spelling?!@#$) is the new kid on the block in Skopje. He won the last mayor elections. The new man is enormously popular. Graffity's all over town proclaiming his premiership. This one at Franklin Roosevel Street (it's really there on the green road sign - in cyrillic) is one of the most catchy ones.
	A walk from the football stadium to the city centre along the Vardar is quite popular.
	One of the busiest bridges over the Varder is the one of Bulevar Goce Delchiev. More about Goce: He lead the uprise against the Turks a little more than 100 years ago. Not long after that, he lost his head. 10 years later, the Turks left and an end came to 500 years of Ottoman occupation. Rumour has it that till this day Goce's head has not yet been found.

2005-05-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Near Bitola lies this wonderfull excavation project that one can visit. Today we (Sashka and me) went to see the mosaics that got Mobimak - one of the two main mobile operators in Macedonia and also a sponsor of archeological sites - such wonderfull advertising material from. On the Makedonija Square in Skopje, you can find one of these big posters. That one is actually taken from mosaics from Stobi, a place I've visited in December last year.
A good thing about this Heraklea site is that excavation work is still in progress. So, I guess if you would come here again in 2 years, it might look completely different.

Here are some of the photos that I was allowed to take.

	The most attractive mosiacs to be seen today. You have to walk on the wall to see them. Most of the others were still covered with the protective winter layers of gravel. Hope to see them soon.
	Hand up!
	Fish.
	Little bird.
	Amphi theatre.

Spoilt expectations

2005-05-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you're feeling like preparing *that* one exotic meal you had in mind for the coming night's diner? Exactly, as a dutchman you'll go to the National Grocerer and simply buy the vegetables and other ingredients you need. No worries about whether it's the season or not - all the stuff is available all year round, whether it's red paprikas or strawberries.
Saying the least, it is a little odd to see that this availability is something of a different matter at Bunjakovec Pazar - the market not too far from where I live here on Bulevar Partizanski Odredi. By now, all the red paprikas have left the stage to make space for, indeed, the strawberries. Most interesting, and this is what makes roaming the markets really worth it: the greens you get on the Pazars is fresh and has 100% more taste than the testosteron boosters from the green houses of Westland. But hey, now I've got to learn again what's available when. The where-question is already answered: Pazar. I've also figured out that tomatoes are the coming stars.

So far for food - again. Here's what I shot today. Lazy as I was, all's been photographed from my appartment.

	My back-garden with view over the Vodno mountain and the Milennium Cross on top of it.
	View over Bulevar Partizanksi Odredi.
	Back-garden view again with subtle hints of a building site.
	Same back-garden, only from a slightly different angle.
	Another building site, this time again at the front site of the house. In case you want to know: all the new appartments will be carried out in pastel colours: yellow, pink, orange and green have so far seen the light of day.

More to see here - Victim of changes

2005-05-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

Oh ooh! A lot on these pages seem to have changed overnight. I know, and I'm sorry for that. I realize that a more sophisticated introduction would have been more appropriate. Anyhow, I decided to just throw it all on your plate at once. On the other hand, this little stir spices up things for a lot better. But, let's stop nagging on about this and have a closer look to what exactly looks different:

clickable thumbs to bigger photos – if your screen will not show the big image completely, I'd suggest you press F11 (works with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox). Voila;
3 or 4 new entries – so much for the idea of a weblog with regular updates;
updates of some older entries - so if you're really interested, you've got to re-read this all over again;
one link to the old Juulsplace at MSN was added (see right) and one to the new photobook is in the make.

That's all. Not too much I suppose as it's not the end of the world.

Now, as that end is raised as a topic, I could might say that the last few days have been a bugger. My Internet connection at home vapourized before my eyes due to an array of self inflickted mistakes . Yes, I really did all this myself. There was no one else present to blame. Like the process of re-learning how to read, it took a while before I was able to re-materialized it. It was during these days of re-construction that I've worked on this newer set up of these pages. So far, so good. Enjoy it and, as a reminder of an older invitation,

Try to use the 'comments' link.

Hvala. Fala. Dank je. Obrigado. Tak. Dienguye. Merci. Kosunum. Thanks.

Toughies at the Greek border

2005-05-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

During a trip to Thessaloniki where my sister had to catch a plane home, the border guys at the Greek border appeared to be rather strange to deal with. Here's why.

What does a custom's officer exactly want when he asks for an ID? Being at a border, I bet that 9 out of 10 times you would say "passport". I figure that it's not such a bad reaction. It was exactly mine this morning. The situation gets more interesting, as one variable in this story has not yet been revealed to you. This same custom's officer already had my passport in his hand. So, what did he really mean? Now, I bet that 9 out of 10 times you're as flabbergasted as I was. I first gave him the green card of my car (you're asked for this at all Serbian and Macedonian borders, no matter if you're going in or out of the country). This card was not what Mister Toughy had in mind, so I put it back with the rest of my car's papers. But what should I do now? Starting to explain that the only ID I have is already in his hand? I tried, but he was not convinced. So, I urged that the passport he was holding was really all I have. Mr. T., already not liking me at all, started to become completely unamuzed. So I gave him my driver's license and hoped that this little pink paper would calm him down. It did. He filled out some forms on his computer, growled a few times during the process and returned all the documents with a look on his face that showed that he'd been working out a lot his Freddy-Krueger-meets-Jason look. He shot me his attempt. I took the paperwork and left.
So far for today's adventures. Now it's time to work. But, I hope to be able to see some new places in Macedonia this weekend. Heraklea near Bitola would be nice. Hope the weather changes though, as it's horrible.

Photos of a Greek little church on a lone Macedonian hill.

	Somewhere on the Old National Road, between Thessaloniki and Gevgelija, this little church comes into view.
	The whole road between Thessaloniki and Gevgelija (and beyond) you'll find many wild flowers. It's a pretty sight, even when it's cloudy and rainy like today.
	Little path upwards to the church.
	And down again.
	Looking back.

Just a few photos this time

2005-05-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Work on 5th of May - a national holiday in the Netherlands (Bevrijdingsdag) as well as a day off for everybody anyway (Hemelvaart). Been out hiking after work at Matka. Visited Sveti Nikola. It was actually a little too dark to be out in the mountains (some photos are not that lively), but the views from up at the monestary were worth it. That's all for today. Here are some photos.

	What starts off with a steep climb, becomes a fairly easy hike steadily upwards. After a little less than an hour, this 'road sign' tells you that you're almost there.
	The monestary is really visible on this one.
	That's him. Sveti Nikola (St. Nikola). One of the million very small chapels to be found on monestary compounds in Macedonia.
	Walk this way and you'll see...
	...THIS! This view is actually being sold as a postcard. Please notice the little other Sveti next to the restaurant annex mountaineering centre.

Police jokes - another national sport

2005-05-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

Found out a while ago that the police are in Macedonia what the Scots are for the English or the Belgians are for the Dutch: not the brightest amongst us living creatures. None of those jokes comes to mind right now (my brain cells seem to forget to register the jokes, so I only laugh at them when I hear them, unable to remember them). I'll post one or two on these pages soon.

And now, on to the photos from yesterday.

	View over the southern part of Skopje, from Kale. Yesterday, many families got up on the castle hill to sit under trees and... share a meal or some snacks. There were many kids in the park. That explains this en the next two photos.
	No description needed.
	Finding out about sitting down the hard way.
	Overlooking the South East part of Skopje.

What do Macedonians do on second Easter Day?

2005-05-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Back home. Glad to be home. Glad that I made it. Those who are usually known as friendly and helpful people, transform into descendants from hell once they're behind a steering wheel. When in a car, Macedonians are able to show the more obscured parts of their nature. Today was special. They'd gone mad beyond recognition. In a way this is good fun to observe.
It was National Picknick Day today. The day after 1st May or 2nd Easter Day? I don't know what exactly triggers everybody to go out, but all in Skopje appeared to have left their homes for a good sesh of food and drinks in the nature. Matka is a popular spot, but also Vodno and... Ohrid. Our destination for today. The enormous chaos on the road heading for the first two pay toll gateways is nothing compared to what was about to come on the road to Gostivar and onwards in the mountains to Kicevo and Ohrid. A short list of memorable moments:

Ficos are fully packed with one whole family, food for a day, a grill and a complete set of garden furniture (the latter conveniently stacked high on top of the car). As it comes with Ficos, the furniture is as big as the car itself. Pretty sight.
National Picknick Day means FOOD! A lot of food. Food keeps one alive. A lot of food keeps Macedonians on their feet. Please notice that it's about a lot of great food. The foot is distributed in anything that moves. Today's most noticable one was the Volkswagen Golf. It was crammed full with lettuce. Not just in the boot. Not also on the back seats. No, also the passenger seat in the front, the place where this passenger usually puts it's feet and... the right hand side dashboard is window and roof high packed with the healthy greens.
Overtaking cars on two lane mountain roads = national sport and/or russian roulette. I'm not sure which label is most suitable. I'll go for the russion roulette, but as the activity appeared so popular today, I'd rather put my money on the first option - national sport.
Go out picknicking means serious food preparation and not just for 2 hours. We've seen families on picknick places in the morning with grills functionaing on full throttle who wes saw on our way back at night as well. Still grilling.
Product of a moment of "Logistical Euphoria": chairs in the car boot. table on top of the open boot lid. Ropes have to do their best to keep all together.
This lost table in the middle of an extremely busy Tetovo – Gostivar 4 lanes road, waiting to be picked up. The combination with the car driving madness described above makes this quite a tricky rescue operation. Avoiding the slaloming cars around the table is a especially nasty business. Please keep in mind that there is ample space to position one single bike left and right of the two narrow lanes. The ditch (right) and the concrete wall (left) sufficiently limit the space of freedom.
Queueing up for usually quiet pay-toll portals – second one from Skopje, 15 km before Tetovo. Overtaking the queue is allowed.
Getting back from Ohrid to Skopje on the mountain roads for half the trip is record racing. My personal best is 1 hour 53 minutes (or so). All time best is probably around a little more than 1 hour and 10 minutes. I don't think I'll ever take that as a challenge.

Fotos from Ohrid

	Sveti 'Cliff Side' (this will probably be corrected in the course of next week, when locals have had their eyes feasted on this one), the lake and some trees seen from the Samuel's Castle.
	Another Samuel's Castle view down.
	What is known as typical Ohridski architecture can be found throughout the whole of the old city.
	Ohrid Lake.
	Small Sveti at lake with own holy and healing well. Take a sip...

Raising a tricky issue

2005-05-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

On your way to the Macedonian border between Niš and Vranje, you have a chance to be flagged to the side of the road by a friendly looking Serbian police officer. So were we today. Strategically positioned at the bottom of a hill, in the shade of a tree, a police officer moved in sight when I was approaching him. With a move that resembles Michael Jacksons flexibility in his "I'm bad!" days, he made clear I was expected to discontinue my traffic participation for at least a short while. I pulled over, stopped the engine, looked in the rear view mirror to the police officer and waited for him and his colleague to approach the car. Nothing of the expected happened, so I got out of the car. Approached the police officer with a 'dobro vecher' and asked if he spoke english. His nodding explained that I had 'nema chance', but the 'kollege' in the car could be of assistance in this matter. He appeared to be the man in charge. Positioned between comfortably sitting and ultimately relaxed lying he was handling a laser speedo meter with kid like satisfaction. Aiming the apparatus on cars coming from the mountain, it beeped dangerously at almost every car that flashed down the parking place where we were having our little chat. We started to communicate:
"Dobro vecher!"
"Holiday to Greece?"
"No, work in Skopje!"
"Oh"
"Was I driving too fast?"
"Da!"
"How much too fast?" To that question of mine I got the following surprising answer:
"1,500 Denari!" After a little while I recovered from a shock. The laser man didn't look up from his major business - aiming the laser speedo meter at approaching cars and let it 'beep'. Then I started to smile and said that I was not (yet) interested in the value of my little misdemeanor, but that I wanted to know how fast I was driving. From the backwards positioned officer in charge came a smile. He waved his hand in a motion resembling 'class dismissed', and I was off.
There was nothing else for me to do there. I finished with a "Priatno!", to which more smiles came. This was not the right moment for cosy communication, so I decided. I left with mixed feelings of 'pheeew, I was lucky!' and 'what the hell was that about?' still coming up when I look back on that awkward moment.

Now, I'm back in Skopje. Being back in Macedonia feels great. Tomorrow, it's time to explore Ohrid again. I heard it's going to be crowded there as it's National Picknick Day.

Today's photos - still of Belgrade

	First Easter Day: not exactly a lively and buzzing city. In the far end of the street, a glimps can be caught from the massive Sveti Sava - the biggest orthodox church in the Balkans.
	Coming up with a rather bland description here: "Two families enjoying the sun".
	Nothing to add here.
	Painful?!
	The former police headquarters is still standing as the NATO bombings left it. Rumour has it that two bombs are still inside the buildings awaiting their big day to GO OFF!
	A closer look at the place of impact
	A year after the bombings, most of Belgrade was rebuild again...
	Back home

Back in Belgrade - what's the difference?

2005-04-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Looking back, it's easy to conclude that spring is a better time to walk around the Serbian capitol. Greens, flowers, open terraces and presence of people in Kalemegdan make this a bit of a livelier place to be. Being back in the Balkan feels good. Friendly people and good, sometimes 'interesting', food is one of the aspects that kicks in on the scale of melancholy. People's stories about being totally banned abroad also do the trick.

Talked to a salesman of old Yugoslav Commy icons (coins, military 'jewelry', notes). He used to work as a communication officer in the Yugo fleet. Been around the world a bit and remembers Vlissingen and Rotterdam quite well. Then the war came and everything changed. Serbs were (are?) persona non grate and simply not welcome anymore. Even working for other nation's fleets seemed to be impossible. At the end of the day, the impact of downsizing measures was total when technological developments clearly made the salesman-to-be downright redundant. His current business consist of a 40x60 cm cardboard display crammed with Yugo goodies of which each one of them are accompanied with a story. These stories can be heard at the gate to the Military Museum on Kalemegdan.

The photos

	Hippy girls at Kalemegdan, looking for ...
	There is a lot of glueing, sticking and pasting involved in Belgrade. The collums designed to carry the burdens of all city announcements are changing almost every day. As a result of prefered glueing on man's height, all the collums transfered into wide egg-shaped oval round announcement boards.
	Kalemegdan is the meeting place for lovers of all ages. The park is quite impressive in size, but you can see the hugging, kissing, smooching, etc. at virtually every corner of it. This spot is in front of the typical Serbian House, overlooking the Sava, Novi Grad and the best sun set in town.
	A lower level at Kalemegdan where the sun shines on your face most of the day.
	The Commy Goodies salesman mentioned in the entry above. A nice man with his little business outlet under the Clock Tower near the Military Museum on Kalemegdan.
	Terrace with great sunset, again on Kalemegdan. This place is simply wonderful, apart from the elevator music screaming for attention from the far away entrance. This muzak is really too bad a choice for one of the best spots in town. If Porcupine Tree is right with their song 'The Sound of Muzak', this spot only neutralises your brain (see lyrics). I hope not.
	Novi Grad seen from Kalemegdan.
	Sveti Marko glowing on Good Friday.

Getting out of the country

2005-04-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Trying to get out of the country for whatever reason is not always a garanteed succes for Macedonians. After a view conversations today, it appeared that this hassling with visa is the same issue for Serbians also. In every day situations, it doesn't really matter who it is you talk to or when this talk occurs, usually there will be a moment when the subject of traveling abroad is coming up. What follows are examples of what I heard today in Belgrade and during the past few months in Macedonia.

Beti and Boris are a peaceful couple with a fur boutique and a tiny atelier in Skopje (Bit Pazar, Butel) and Strumica. They have a daughter who lives in Australia. She is married to a local from down under and they have kids. Applications for visa on both the wedding event and that of becoming grandparents were turned down. No reasons were given. Excuses were found in the businesses that needed to be run, so B&B had to get back to Macedonia anyway. Till this day, they still haven't seen their wedded daughter and their grandchildren.
Applying for a visa for Greece in Macedonia works like this: [1] Pick up an appilication form at Stopanska Banka. You're also allowed to pay the 35 euro fee in advance at this bank. If your visa request, you don't get a refund. [2] Try to get an appointment with the liaisons office in Skopje. When in luck, you will get this appointment within 2 months time (current waiting last is 4 months). [3] Show up at the liaisons office, queue up and wait some more. Be sure you have all the information with you that the Greek may ask for (copy of passport, copy of medical card, copy of employment contract, filled out application form, one pass photo, a blue card for medical and social insurance, and 35 euro in case you didn't pay it in advance). [4] If all turns well, your visa is delivered to you on a seperate piece of paper carried with your passport.
Ceca is the both famous and infamous 'big' female singer from Belgrade (born in Zhitoradza, southern Serbia). Famous in Serbija, Macedonia, Bulgaria for her singing and for her, well, for being her. Not too welcome in many other countries for reasons I will go into a little later. Rumour has it that her singing carreer has seen bigger peeks - she runs out of money. Knowing her castle in the Belgrade hills, it's easy to imagine the truckloads of denari necessary for maintanance. So, she decided to tour. Not only in the Balkans, but also a little further abroud - Canada and Australia were on the tour manager's wish list. Application forms for visa were filled out, handed in and on return found rejected. Reason: Having once been married to the late war criminal Arkan was not something that 'amuzed' the Canadian and Autralian authorities. What also might have added to the rejection was the fact that she once had been a suspect for the assassination of Zoran Dzindzic (former prime minister of Serbian-Montenegro) and had been in jail for that for a week.

Oh my God! What's happening to the Bodem Society?

2005-04-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I got asked this question a few times. Sad to say, but I could have been reminded a lot more about the Bodem Society (or plain 'Bodem Sociëteit' in urbanized parts of The Netherlands) if it was up to me. But that's a story to tell another time. There is a good part to this all, and that is that www.bodemsocieteit.nl is finally launched. After many years of searching, discussing and, well... Nobody really took the decision that needed to be taken. But now, there it is. It currently only hosts the old site, but there are plans for a 're-making' of it. When all that happens, you will be informed about it.
Maybe you're wondering why I mention this society on these pages. It's a legitimate question to which the only suitable answer I can come up with is: "They distill rakija in Macedonia, and you'll just never know what it can do for the Bodem Society".

Real rakija

2005-04-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Yes! I'm getting in the right mood. Got a little sip of 'real' rakija last night. The goody that usually is very well hidden in cupboards, on attics or lockers. The family stuff. The one I was served yesterday was one with a clear view (no wood aging) and made from that special one pear tree near Tuzla, Bosnia. And, to be honest: I've got to reformulate my view on distilates. This one was a very good one (fala Nihad).

If you think that I'm already on the road in the Balkan, I've to correct you. I'm still in NL, getting all my gear packed. But there's one more day of work in Apeldoorn with cake, talks and celebrations (I wonder who will celebrate me absence at the office for the coming 2.5 months, but I'd rather not know). After that, it's road time.

And you're welcome to leave comments

2005-04-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Somewhere at the bottom of this entry, you'll see the option of leaving comments. Go ahead and make use of it (in either english, dutch, or whatever language you feel it needs to be).

For the future, I'm working something out with Photobucket. My intentions are that you'll be able to see photos on these pages too. Like mentioned in previous messages, I'm a little new to this, so for my part a little introduction here and there is still necessary.

Getting ready to move to Macedonia again

2005-04-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm getting ready to move back to Skopje again. The list of dutch goodies to bring is growing and growing ('stroopwafels', 'hagelslag', 'kaas', 'dropjes', more 'kaas', and even more 'kaas') and will undoubtedly challenge a few customs officers on the way to Macedonia.
Coming Thursday morning we will leave. 'We' as in Margitt, my sister and me. She'll be joining me on the long ride that takes us to Belgrade for Koninginnedag (30 April) and Easter (1 May). After that it is Macedonia that is awaiting us. Today I heard that it's a much greener Macedonia than 3.5 weeks ago. We look forward to that.

That's all for now. I realize that this is not the most exciting start as a life of a Blogger. Keep in mind that we all to get started somewhere ;)

Cheers.

First Post

2005-04-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I had to get started some day...