Belgrade Day 1 - 4

25 - 28 September 2013

Day 1: Bus ride
The bus ride was actually quite pleasant. We did have to get out at the border but it was an easy check and I even had a bit of a sleep on the bus (rare for me). The bus arrived really early in the morning, it was still dark, and I was kicking myself for not taking the later bus so I could arrive when things were open. I busted out the map and headed off toward to hostel I had marked. I went past the zoo, although I didn't know it at the time, and I could hear roosters crowing because the sun was coming up. Definitely not something I'm used to hearing in the heart of a city.

Hostel
I arrived at the hostel, and it wasn't great so I won't mention the name. I booked in early and the guy said he'll just put me down as arriving for that night so I didn't have to pay for two night but he either stuffed it up or lied. I was worth it anyway to have a sleep and a shower.

Fort
There is a castle/fort right next to the hostel and it's kind of like a park so I went for a wander around it. It's a cool idea and lot's of other people agree because there were a lot of people around. The Slovenian guy I met in Skopje was coming on the later bus and I knew he was staying at the Sunrise Hostel so the afternoon's mission was to go find him. His hostel was much nicer than mine, although not as cheap but it was worth the extra. We made plans to go out for the night and because I had to go back to my hostel to change anyway, I decided to check out and move into this better hostel at the same time.

Rejected
We headed to a place that was recommended to us by the girl at the hostel but I got us rejected because there was a dress code and I was in thongs. Instead we went to a bar, had some beers and played some pinball. On the way back we stopped at a bakery type place where my friend ordered us a pljeskavica (hamburger) and a coconut bun thing. Both of them were really good; the Bulkans do some great meat. We weren't ready to end the night so we stopped at the bar next to our hostel and had a chat to some local girls who happened to be out for a birthday. One of the girls spoke fluent English but the other wasn't as proficient to the conversation swapped between Serbian and English to cater for all.

Day 2: Sightseeing
Today was a bit of an aimless sightseeing day. We started with going to see the birthday girl from the night before at her work, although it was super busy so we decided to try again later. We hopped on and off the train a few times, saw a student rally, walked through the main mall and went in search of a Big Z building that I was told about. We think we found it but it seemed to just be offices and not really what we expected (whatever that was). We also stopped at a church. On the way back we stopped in to see the birthday girl again and she gave us some free cake each, score! In the evening we had a few beers and played cards with the small handful of people in the hostel.

Day 3: Fort, again
A French guy from my hostel and I went out to see the fort and the zoo today. We looked at all the military equipment in the fort, climbed up the observation points and eventually made a whole lap around the place. We even got told off by security for walking on the walls.

Zoo
This zoo is the most depressing place on Earth! It was cheap to get it but all the animals were old and/or sick. None of the enclosures looked very nice and it wasn't like the animals were tortured but they just seemed neglected. My notes say I thought the place was like an animal retirement home. The only exception were the reptiles we seemed happy enough or at least not sad (do reptile have emotions?).

We helped a bird crack a nut open because he looked like he was having a hard time, saw some kangaroos of all things, fed an elephant (although we probably weren't meant to) and wondered why the aquarium in the zoo was selling aquarium supplies and sea grass. We finished the day with another burger (they're that good) and my notes tell me we went to a French place although I can't say I remember it.

Day 4: To Sarajevo
The bus ride was early so I bounded out of bed, hangover free and caught a bus without any hassle.

There is a pilot school

Some guns and tanks in the fort

More guns

More tanks

Panorama of tanks (I like tanks)

The coconut bun thing

The Slovenian, the Russian and the Frenchman

Got seagulls?

Moats in the fort

Looking back over the fort from the highest lookout point

Looking out at Belgrade from the lookout

Looking away from Belgrade from the lookout

A cannon that fires 30cm diameter shots

A tank

Another tank

Don't ride the bomb! I had to evade security for this shot

Can't remember what this is

Less gravity in the northern hemisphere 

A Lynx

Goat things

Raccoon

Feeding the elephant a biscuit

Feeding a peacock

Skopje Day 7 - 8

23 - 24 September 2013

Day 7: Back to Skopje
After getting off the bus, we headed off towards to hostel. I think each of us thought another person was leading because we got a but lost although made it in the end. We stayed at Shanti 2 because one of the girls in our group stayed there before and gave it a good review, plus it was close to town and the bus stop.

Burger and beer
We went to a burger place that I had walked past a few times when I was in Skopje the first time. It was a tiny hut and served food straight to the street. We had no idea what the lady was saying so once one of us got something ordered, everyone just copied. These burgers were AMAZING! As we munched away, we went for a wander through the markets and the old town and because I had some friends with me this time, I took the opportunity to get some photos taken with random things. We ended our wandering in the pub area near the river where we ordered the 3L beer towers and some pizzas to cure the munchies (I think we were wandering for quite a while).

Back at the hostel we had some Rakia with some Germans who were sporting full body fluoro jumpsuits straight from the 80s and these didn't do justice to their party animal personalities. My notes also tell me that an Estonian girl there taught us that Estonian for cheers/good health sounds like "therapy sex" and saying 12 months sounds like "cock taste good".

Day 8: Exploring
After booking my bus ticket to Belgrade, I went out to look around the town again. This time we went to the bazaar in a big group consisting of two Kiwis, a Canadian, a Minisotean, a Solvenian and two Aussies (including me).

The bus ride was overnight, which I wasn't looking forward to. For food, I made myself a mega sandwich with some processed meat and cheese (as close to ham and cheese as you can get there). It seemed like a good idea at the time but I wasn't thinking of the fact that this meat could be out of the fridge for quite a few hours in a warm bus. Still, I ate it and I'm still here to tell the tale :D

I killed some time chatting at the hostel before jumping on my bus.

The big horse statue

No bull!

Quite a stylish guy

The awesome burger

Boom gates beat you down here

Beer tower!

Rakia on the river

Lake Ohrid Day 1-4

20 - 23 September 2013

Day 1: Catching the bus there
The bus ride there was like most of the others I'd had recently; not too much respect for rules. We started off with too many people for the minibus so there was one guy sitting on the floor and along the way we were dropping people off and picking them up at seemingly random spots. I reckon the bus driver was just doing favours.

At the other end, I jumped off the bus and whipped out my trusty compass. After some head scratching and twirling around I figured out the direction to wander and I was off. The highlight of the walk was when I went past a primary school and the kids ran up to the fence and asked if I had somewhere to stay.... repeatedly. These kids were less than 10. They really get them working young. I didn't have anywhere booked but I was headed towards the Sunny Lake Hostel, that came highly recommended, and was hoping to score a spot, which I did.

Dinner
I made myself dinner at the hostel because it had a full kitchen. It might not sound like much but most of the hostels I stayed at either didn't have a kitchen or they had an area that could maybe, sort of, be loosely defined as a kitchen. But even if they did have something, it rarely had enough utensils to be useful for anyone other than MacGyver. However, all the hostels I stayed at in Macedonia had awesome kitchens with lots of utensils and even spices and oil and all that other useful stuff. Plus, did I mention, they were some of the cheapest hostels I stayed at? Win!

After dinner I got in invited to dinner with the other people staying there, doh. I still went along and creepily watched everyone eat. I can't remember what I had for dinner but my notes say that I cooked myself basically what the restaurant served but mine was cheaper and better, go me :D After dinner we stopped at some bar and had the mandatory shots of rakia. Then we tried to make some dodgy deal with some locals to get some black market rakia but it didn't happen so we had to settle for cheapo wine from the local shop instead. This wine fuelled a night of card games (ring of fire) and saw us going to bed at 2am.

Day 2: On ya bike
I hired a bike from the hostel and went for a ride part way around the lake. The lake is over the border of Macedonia and Albania and I'd heard stories of people riding bikes all the way round but that would've been a much larger trip than I was prepared for so I stopped when the bike trail stopped and headed back. I rode up to the fort on the top of the hill and paid the cheap fee they were asking to climb its wall and look out over the lake and the town.

Hill climb
There's an decent sized hill next to the lake and the town that I could see from the balcony at the hostel. I could hear its siren call asking me to climb it. I, prepare for excuses, wasted too much daylight in the morning with the ride and really wasn't feeling 100% after the night of cheap wine but my hill climbing spirit was still strong so I had to at least try.

I made it part of the way up. I'm not sure exactly how much that part is but I'll put myself at about 50% although it looked harder toward the top because there wasn't really a trail. Even with where I got to, I still had a great view although the camera didn't because of the sun. Pro tip: if you're planning to take photos of something, try to get there when you aren't taking photos into the sun. This is something I failed at many times.

Going out
Back at the hostel everyone busted out there secret stashes of rakia (I swear this stuff is easier to get than water) and we all did the backpacker swapping stories thing. I really liked this hostel because it had a balcony with comfy couches, a great view, a nearby fridge and it was just the right size to host a good sized group of people. We visited two bars during the night. The first being a small upstairs place that learnt what a "three wise men" shot was thanks to my Kiwi friend and the second was a place that played live music, just for something different.

Day 3: Tourist sights
Today I went to see some of the tourist sights with two Aussie guys that were staying at the hostel. We went up to the fort on the hilltop, which I'd already been too, but it was good to have company plus there's someone to take photos for the blog. We also saw a basilica/church combo that was hanging on the side of the hill over the lake. Back in the town we stopped and chatted to a lady with a jewellery shop. The two Aussie guys loved all the stuff she was selling and after they bought some stuff (and I hadn't), she gave me a bracelet for free.. How nice :D

All three of us were crashing so we grabbed a Gyros, the local meat in a wrap thingo, and headed back to the hostel for a snooze. We stayed at the hostel and played cards and enjoyed some more rakia. My notes also tell me that I had a crap sleep but can't remember why; can't have been that bad.

Day 4: Back to Skopje
We spent the morning packing and chatting before making our way to the bus station. It was good because there was a group of 4 of us all heading back together and it's always nice to have company.

There's a surprising end to this slide

Up on the hilltop fort

Me with one of the Aussie guys

The view from the hostel balcony and the hill I tried to climb

No issues with copyright here

Looking out over the lake from the hilltop fort

Looking back over the fort

Looking over the fort from another angle

The fort again

The view toward the top of the hill from where I stopped

Looking back out over the town from where I made it to on the hill

The basilica/church thingo

NO! Just, no. So ugly :(

Skopje Day 1-5

15 - 20 September 2013

Day -1: Lame bus ride
I'm still sitting at the bus stop in Kotor, waiting for the bus to take me to Skopje (pronounced skop-ye), the capital on Macedonia. The bus was 30 minutes late but that didn't bother me too much because I had stuff to keep my entertained. When the bus rocked up, it was mostly empty so I thought it was going to be a good ride but oh how I was wrong. At the next stop the bus almost completely filled up with the only free seat being the half a seat that wasn't covered by a super fat lady's fat rolls.

My seat buddy was an old guy that smelt a bit and wasn't afraid to push me out the way when he wanted more of the crap-all room that there was. It was a fairly sleepless ride thanks to being so cramped so I just watched episodes of The Wire. The other bummer was the fact that every other person on the bus was a smoker so the bus was engulfed in smoke every time we stopped and one guy couldn't wait until the next stop so he lit up on the bus. I'm not a smoker so you can imagine how I felt...

On a more positive note, the bus driver was really smooth. We drove through Albania where they didn't care too much about our passports, it was only the countries around it that actually checked. I did set foot on Albanian soil but it was a bus stop in the middle of nowhere so I don't have much of an opinion.

Day 1: Arriving in Skopje
I was experiencing an organisation fail when I rocked up in Skopje. I didn't have any money pre-exchanged, didn't know what the exchange rate was and didn't have a map or any hostel details. I walked outside the bus station and must've had my deer in the headlights face on because a taxi driver pounced on me. He said he'll take me to a really good hostel and I was sceptical because hey, that's what they all say right? Still, I didn't have many options and I was understandably tired after the 13hr bus ride so I jumped in with him.

Awesome hostel
He took me to HiSkopje and it turns out he was right, it was a great hostel. In fact, it was one of the best I'd stayed in so far because it was clean, very new, had great internet and had a full kitchen with (only travellers will get excited over this stuff) multiple pans, something to stir with, cutlery, clean plates, oil and stuff to wash up with. Anyway, after checking in the first mission was to sleep so I had a snooze before going for a walk around the neighbourhood and getting supplies from the shop.

Day 2: Gym
I found out there was a cheap gym nearby, 100 denar which is just over $2 AUD, so I ventured out to find the place and although there was a bit of poking around and climbing stairs in multiple buildings, I did find it in the end. It was a well equipped gym and it's not like I ever go to the gym at home but it still felt good.

Burger fail
After the gym I had the munchies and I found a burger place that looked great but the whole menu was in the Cyrillic alphabet so I couldn't even try to make some words out and with that I chickened out.

Main square
I kept walking and found myself in the main square where there are A LOT of statues. Seriously, there are so many! One of the bigger and better ones is a typical dude on a horse statue with a fountain and light show at the base. The stone bridge, that is listed as tourist attraction, isn't really anything special and other than that, I went for a wander through the new and surprisingly posh shopping centre where I found a patch for my bag.

Day 2: Bike hire fail
The hostel hired out bikes and the city would be a good one to ride around so I hired one for the day but it had a bent pedal which is hugely annoying to ride on. I bent it straight but as soon as I put some force on it, it bent again so I had to take it back and proceed on foot.

Millennium Cross
The nearby hill has a big metal cross on the top, called the Millennium Cross, and it's one of those things that I had to go see. The walk up took me through some great walking trails in the forest and part way up, when I wasn't sure which way to go I ran into an old local guy who gave me directions that were something like "go 200m down this track where you'll see some steps and a path going up the hill". I followed the instructions but the path was crazy steep and if I'm honest, there wasn't really a path because I was blazing my own trail through the bushes. There's not much to do at the top so I took in the views, took the obligatory photos and headed back down. The walk down, which I logged, was much nicer and I even spotted the place that the old guy was talking about *rolls eyes*.

Day 3: Organising stuff
Today was a day to get organised so I looked up flights for future destinations and booked a bus to Lake Ohrid, my next stop. I also hit the gym again and cooked an awesome dinner with meat patties from the butcher.

English lads
I met a group of English lads who were over for a holiday. I joined them in the backyard for some drinks before heading into town where we had some more beers and talked crap at a pub while enjoying a nice view of the castle walls.

Fun fact: it's talk like a pirate day today :D

Day 4: Off to Ohrid
The only note worthy thing of the morning happened during my walk to the bus station. I saw at least two cars chirp their tyres right in front of cop cars and they didn't even care, what a place!

Thoughts on Skopje:

• The city is part ghetto and definitely fits my preconceived stereotypical view of eastern Europe but the other parts, including the main square, are quite new, modern and well maintained.
• There don't seem to be many road rules
• Their currency is strange because they have notes that are a smaller denomination than some coins
• It's really cheap
• They're pouring lots of money in and in a few years, I think it'll be really popular
• I'd stop here again if I was coming back through (and I was and did)

View out over the city from half way up to the Millennium Cross

A hill near the Millennium Cross that someone has written a message on with stones

The Millennium Cross

Obligatory selfy with the cross

The "dude on a horse" fountain

The Cross towering over the city

Panorama over Skopje from near the Cross

Panorama in a different direction from the Cross

Panorama in yet another direction (not many directions left)

Another one over  Skopje but you can see the cable car lines and Macedonian flag in this one

This had me confused. Do they mean toilet paper or those clean wipes? Turns out they do mean TP and it's because the plumbing is rubbish.

Looks boring; tasted awesome!

The giraffe I shared with the English lads

The castle at night

The horse-dude fountain at night

What's wrong with this picture (hint: spare taps)