18 Vacation Days, 6 Countries, 1 Mangy Beard, and A Partridge in a Pear Tree (Part 2)

Phase Two: Macedonia

Greece's northern neighbor is a delicate issue. Known as Macedonia, FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), or simply Skopje, the now-independent chunk of ex-Yugoslavia has had a long history of occupations and abuse. Greece and Macedonia quarrel about territory, culture, history, and every other imaginable issue. Greeks insist on calling their neighbor FYROM because the Northern region of Greece (where Thessaloniki is located) is known as Macedonia, and Greece doesn't want FYROM laying claim to any part of their history.

The Greek mindset toward Macedonia can be exemplified through a simply analogy: If Greece is a house, Greeks see Macedonia as the grimy subletters of the attic apartment. The elitist house residents will gossip and spread rumors about the subletters, but, as long as they don't try to spend time downstairs and stay out of the way of the daily activities in the house, things are not so bad. The Greeks basically want to live their lives without any recognition of FYROM. As a matter of fact, Greece has poor relations with most of the other countries in the Balkan neighborhood. Albania represents the weird next-door neighbor that lets his dog relieve itself on the Greek lawn, and Turkey symbolizes the detested neighbor for whom hatred has been passed down from generation to generation.

That being said, I arrived in Skopje with no idea what to expect. Any time I had disclosed my travel plans at AFS, the Greeks would ask me why I wanted to see FYROM and/or give me an awkward smile and change the subject. I landed at Alexander the Great Airport (the birthplace of Alexander is a massive point of contention between Greeks and Macedonians) and headed downtown. Skopje has a population around 700,000, and is situated along the Vardar River. Downtown Skopje lacks the skyscrapers and imposing presence of many other capitol cities, but there are several ancient monuments, such as an old fort built under Con...stan...tine in the 4th Century and the 'Stone Bridge' that leads into the old Turkish Quarter. Skopje was under the Byzantine Empire, then the Ottoman Empire (hence the Turkish Quarter), then Axis occupation, and finally Titoist Communism before independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thanks to the Communist era, the architecture was very plain, not aesthetically-pleasing but very practical; Tito-built public housing apartments are still omnipresent throughout the Balkans.

One remnant of Communism that I absolutely love is the Yugo - the Yugoslavian version of the VW Beetle. The standard issue car during Titoism and the punchline of various jokes by older generations, this car is amazing. Although they are no longer produced and TIME magazine lists it as one of the 50 worst cars of all time, I estimate that 20 percent of the current cars in Skopje are Yugos from the 1970s. Those Yugoslavian engineers definitely built Yugos with longevity in mind. Walking around town, it is not uncommon to see a dozen Yugos stopped at a traffic light. Similar to my craving for an El Camino in high school, I now yearn to own a Yugo. I can already picture myself cruising through town in a 1974 banana yellow Yugo hatchback (they are almost all hatchbacks). In the words of Tupac, "Picture me rollin'."

Moving along, I met up with Ivan, a friend from Perrotis College, near his home in Downtown Skopje. Our meeting spot was the center of social life for any Macedonian under 40: McDonald's. At any time of day or night, there are hordes of teenagers and young adults hanging around outside, inside, and all around the Skopje McDonald's. From there, we ambled around town, chatted about Macedonian history, and set up plans for the next night- New Year's Eve. On NYE, we met again at McDonald's and hopped in a cab (not a Yugo unfortunately). It was a typical New Year's Eve: attending a rave-like concert in Skopje, Macedonia with a thousand strangers. The band that as playing was the Gorillaz, an American hip-hop group that is famous for maintaining the secrecy of their identities by featuring cartoon gorillas in music videos and performing live shows behind a dark curtain. Although not my favorite group, the show was a lot of fun, especially in the category of people watching.

The rest of my time in Skopje was great: spending time with Ivan and his friends and exploring Macedonia. After five days, I had seen most of what Skopje had to offer and it was off to Kosovo for the next adventure.