After getting about 3 hours sleep, it was time to hit the town. The development of the city was amazing, or so it seemed since I’m not used to seeing street signs, regular traffic lights and – dare I say – McDonalds! Of course that was the first stop, and even though the menu was in Cyrillic I don’t think anyone can misunderstand “fries”. It was heavenly and although it was quite a shock to the stomach it was worth every bite. After that we wandered over to a fabulous bookstore, followed by a walk around Skopje, viewing Christmas decorations, the old bazaar, mosques, churches, and the dominant landmark in the city, a huge fortress called Skopsko Kale, which was built during the rule of the Romans.
Towards the end of the day we found an Irish pub, but they were out of Guinness. At first I couldn’t believe it but since it was Macedonia and not Ireland it was a bit more believable. The menu was filled with large varieties of food, from Mexican to Indian to chicken fingers (again, not your typical Irish pub). It was quite a change from the pizza and pasta options that are the staple menu items in Albania.
In search of a particular shopping center in Skopje, we ventured down one of the main streets since we were convinced it was towards the end, and not too far (on the map anyway). After about an hour of walking, we stopped in a café to have a hot chocolate, only to be told that the store we were looking for was all the way back near where we had started. Taking a taxi to retrace our steps, it turns out the store was literally right around the corner from the bookstore we had been in earlier. My navigation skills were put to the test during this whole trip and it turns out they need some polishing…
Back at the hostel, there was another guest that had arrived. Strangely I never met the guest, only heard “its” voice outside in the sitting area. The interesting part was, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Just when I thought it was going one way, the voice would either get higher or lower in pitch and throw me off even more. After a while I made it a point not to see “it” so that I could continue the sound test. Unfortunately the answer was never discovered. What was revealed however, was a random black sock on the back of the toilet seat. Was this a sign? A warning? Had “mystery guest” known all along it had been subject of a guessing game?
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