A DAY IN THE LIFE
Location: SKOPJE, NORTH MACEDONIA
Date: Saturday October 15th
Plan: Take the public bus that departs frequently to hike around Canyon Matka, a beautiful man-made canyon and river, and the oldest artificial lake in the country. This should be a half-day trip at best, so the plan is to explore Skopje in the afternoon.
Travel Companion: my brother, Ahimsa (Ahi)
MORNING:
8:00 AM My brother and I wake up in our hostel beds, and head downstairs for breakfast. I have a cup of strong black coffee and two breakfast cookie type things I like to think are vegan. Ahi has muesli with apple juice. A hostel that provides breakfast is pretty cool and definitely worth taking advantage of!
I showered last night, so once I’m done drinking my coffee, I head back upstairs to get dressed. Remember my sunglasses at the last minute.
8:45 AM Ahi and I leave to catch the 9:40 AM departure time posted at the hostel. The local bus station is located right behind the main bus terminal/railway station in town, and it’s only a 5 minute walk from the hostel. You can find it by locating all the obscenely cute bright red double decker buses. I buy two day tickets from the lady at the kiosk. The total is 250 denar, or $3.80. We find the spot for the number 60 bus but still have about 40 minutes. We decide to take a walk around the neighborhood, which is just apartment buildings and train tracks, but the sun is out and we spot a kitty or two.
9:30 AM I get anxious about time, so we arrive back to the number 60 bus spot early and just wait.
9:50 AM OK. I guess the 9:40AM bus isn’t coming today. We check for the next posted arrival time, which is 10:30 AM. We talk and decide to just wait, as a) there’s not a lot of stuff to do around the station and b) it’s a guess whether the bus will actually come at 10:30. It could come earlier or later, we just don’t know. North Macedonia is a good country to just roll with the punches.
10:00 AM I’m pacing the station, just looking at the cute buses. And bonus! I find 15 denar credit in the espresso machine, so I push the ‘espresso’ button and get a tiny hot cup of sugary espresso. Yum.
10:15 AM la la la still waiting
10:30 AM The bus arrives. Whoop whoop!! It’s not a double decker, but it is bright red. We flash the tickets to the driver, then spot a machine right up front where you swipe your ticket. Easy peasy! We grab a couple seats toward the back and settle in for the 40-60 minute ride. The distance is less than 10 miles, but there are a lot of stops, and we’ve read that sometimes the bus doesn’t go all the way to the canyon. If there are too many cars at the end (how do the bus drivers know?) the bus will stop at a seemingly random place to let off all the passengers, who walk the rest of the way.
11:30 AM 60 minutes later the bus stops at a seemingly random place. One woman who speaks Macedonian asks the bus driver for more information, and shares with the whole bus that there are too many cars at the Canyon (again, how does the driver know?!) so this is the last stop. Thanks, random lady!! We disembark and walk about 20 minutes past a couple restaurants and shops to the canyon entrance.
AFTERNOON
12:00 PM There is one path to follow, so my brother and I just start walking. It takes us past some stands selling ice cream, corn (okeeee!), jewelry, and some questionably creepy hand-carved little statues.
OK this path is amazing! We follow it past a restaurant, past some toilets, and then just keep walking. There are occasional handrails, and the crowds of people slowly start to disperse. Which is good, because the crowds entail a fair amount of smokers and at least one guy who keeps yelling the same phrase into the canyon, leading to surprisingly loud echoes.
Pretty soon it’s just me and my brother, a bunch of butterflies, and large groups of kayakers and boat tourists in life vests down below. It’s peaceful, and Ahi tells me about the ghost stories he’s reading, and we play a few word games, and laugh a lot, and pass very few people.
1:00 PM We get to the end of the path – it’s blocked off by a giant X gate – so we decide now is a good time to turn around. Ahi looks up the time the next bus allegedly leaves, which is 2:40pm. Perfect, we think!
We walk back, ooohing and ahhing at nature.
2:00 PM Stop for grilled corn, OBVIOUSLY.
2:15 PM See the cutest little bubs soaking up the sun rays.
2:25 PM We arrive back to where the number 60 bus let us off, and there are several small groups of people. This is good, we think. Safety in numbers. A group of 5 teenage Muslim girls, a small family, a couple, two guys. We sit and wait.
And wait.
And wait.
A taxi driver tells us the bus is done for the day. People don’t believe him – there are several more buses scheduled for the day, and it’s Saturday, a busy tourist day, and all the schedules say there are at least 3-4 more buses. He offers to take anyone back into town for 1000 denar (about $16.) That’s mildly outrageous, considering the return bus ticket cost 240 denar ($3.80) for both of us. We wait longer.
And longer.
And longer.
3:05 PM A small group of young backpacker dudes come into our vision as they walk up the hill from the direction of town. They stop at the last of us in the group and ask what we’re waiting for. Then these little angels tell us that the bus, in fact, is not coming. That the 2:40 bus dropped them off about 30 minutes down the road, citing too many cars (what. how.). So we as a group, without talking to each other, set off down the road. The family falls off, probably opting to grab the taxi back into town. The rest of the groups walk separately. It’s a pretty walk in the late afternoon in the countryside of North Macedonia. Nothing to complain about. We’re thirsty and amused. Worst case scenario, we think, is either walking the 8 miles back to town, or catching one of the taxis if necessary and available.
3:30 PM The group of Muslim teenage girls stop in a store to ask questions. I hear the shopkeeper say to look for the number 12 bus, about 500 meters up the road still. My brother and I consider getting a cold drink, but the drinks in the cooler aren’t, in fact, cold, so we keep walking.
3:45 PM The hodgepodge group of us arrive at another market. My brother and I buy a bitter lemon drink and a small bag of paprika chips. The shopkeeper is so friendly! As are so many people we’ve encountered in this country. They direct us around the side of the building to the back of the shop. This is, apparently, the bus stop.
I sit on the curb in the sun trying to warm up. My brother stands in the shade across the way, trying to cool down. The shopkeeper tells us the bus comes every 15 minutes or so.
The bus comes!! We all run from our various spots to board. Swipe our return card. Relax into our seats.
4:00 PM a couple of stops later, we see a couple wearing heavy backpacks who had been waiting with us earlier and walked much quicker than the rest of us, running for the same bus we’re on. The bus driver stops and lets them on. Success!
4:45 PM My brother and I get back into Skopje and decide to walk around a bit in the city since we haven’t had much of a chance to explore yet. We’re both hungry, or at least I am (I always am!), but most of the vegetarian/vegan friendly places in Skopje are closed on the weekends, at least according to Google.
5:00 PM Skopje is Statue City!! So many statues here. The official nickname of Skopje is the ‘City of the Seven Gates’ but it should probably be called ‘City of the Infinite Statues’. It’s pretty cool. Both Alexander the Great and Mother Teresa have connections in this country, so a lot of statues and monuments are dedicated to these two.
We see Facebook flavored ice cream, which is objectively delightfully hilarious, and later we also see Snapchat and TikTok flavors. I love it here.
6:00 PM After wandering a bit, we head to the market to pick up olive oil for tonight’s dinner, which is going to be really weird but so good based on some random stuff we picked up the night before.
EVENING
6:30 PM We arrive back at the hostel and I see a couple of the people who went up to Canyon Matka as well. Curious how they get back, I ask them. They have a similar story – they left later than us, and had to walk a bit as well but ended up catching the number 60 bus. Shrug. One thing I appreciate about traveling in the Balkans specifically is there are good lessons in just going with the flow and not getting too attached to method or outcome.
7:00 PM I start making dinner for Ahi and me. There’s a weird vegan chicken dry mix that I fry up into patties, which takes FOREVER, and I ended up blending the cooked vegan chicken mix with a can of kidney beans and corn, then laying that into a spinach and chia tortilla with fresh baby spinach. While I’m cooking, Ahi is chatting with a group in the commons area. More people check in, and one of the staff gets a shot of Raki for everyone. It’s probably the smoothest I’ve ever had. So good.
8:00 PM You can tell there is a social energy in the air. Once dinner is ready, Ahi and I eat and chat with the others. Among the group is a young charismatic Chilean guy who just arrived from Pristina Kosovo, an American from Washington State who went to Harvard with Malia Obama and is currently studying at Cambridge, a quietly dour German girl, an 18-year old Swiss girl trying to figure out her life, and an Egyptian engineer turned social media entrepreneur (I know all the details about how many millions of views his Instagram, TikTok and YouTube videos receive).
We keep chatting into the night. Ahi and I buy a beer from the hostel cooler for 80 denar each, about $1.27.
12:00 AM Right at midnight, Jose, a hostel volunteer, comes around and tells us all its quiet hours. Jose is an older Spanish guy who used to be a doctor and now travels around the world. He’s been to over 70 countries. He’s got a quiet calm energy.
I am in conversation with the Egyptian social media empire builder, and trying to figure out how to extricate myself from the not-actually-a-dialogue, so Jose’s gentle ending of the party comes at a good time. A couple of us exchange social media handles, and we all head to bed.
A day that includes nature, kitties, corn, and adventure is always a good day!
Hostel: Shanti Hostel (highly recommend!)
About: Canyon Matka
About: North Macedonia
Check out my brother’s perspective in his blog post here!
[…] post is one-half of a day in the life double dosage. Check my sister’s blog for her take on the same day.We had arrived in Skopje the day before. It’s known as the City […]