Macedonia Travel & Tour April 2010
MACEDONIA Travels & Tour – April 2010
Landed in the Alexander the Great Airport of Skopje for ten days of exploration and a visit with my mum, a peace corps volunteer in Macedonia. Awesome and inspiring! She lives in the center smack dab in front of an orthodox church built in the 70s with a very funky design – and works at Konekt, a local NGO involved in social responsibility issues and making connections to strengthen the country. Macedonia has only been independent for 19 years now, having gained independence in 1991 at the dismantling of the former Yugoslavia. The red & yellow flag waives proudly all over, and of course 3Eg0-bird felt at home (same colors as the Rome soccer team!).
The honeybird & 3Eg0-bird tour
Began our stay with full-on music immersion. First we saw the colorful article in Tea Moderna (by Gordana Nastevska-Manasievska, photos by Tiziano Cocciò) about our visit, which was exciting – as it’s a very popular national magazine “in all the kitchen’s of Macedonia”. Our first day in Skopje, we were invited by the outstanding Vasil Gjuroski of Krug Produkcija to Draga’s house for a brilliant Saturday afternoon hang & barbeque. We discussed the show we would play that night and about life in Skopje. Such nice peeps!
3 April: Cool live show with the awesome local band Bei the Fish at La Kaña. We opened the show with an hour set, 3Eg0-bird on visuals and me on charango/guitar/vox. The audience was rad, receptive and got into the honeymood. A special guest even came all the way from France for our show. Bei the Fish then got everyone up and dancing (including my mum) and their visuals were very cool. As it was Easter eve, various people were breaking colored hard boiled eggs and making wishes. After the show Bei the Fish brought us to Giromania for late night deliciousness.
4 April: interview/live with Gjorgji Janevski on his program “Ako nikoj ne sviri” on the celebrated radio station Kanal 103 in the main TV tower of Skopje. He’s a fabulous guy, super passionate about music, and the interview concluded with questions in macedonian & answers in portuguese - wild great stuff!
5 April: we took the bus to the neighboring town of Kumanovo and played in Bar Cube. Upstairs was another club with Nirvana tribute bands. The promoter sent us back to Skopje in a mysterious taxi that took a dark country road to the highway (to avoid tolls) which was slightly perturbing. But now we look back and laugh!
The icing on the cake was the airing of a honeybird interview by Marija Atanasovska on the national TV station Thelma TV as part of her music show. This included an up-close and personal shot of “the bird”… très cool!
Fascinating cities and a gorgeous lake town
On Tuesday my brother Ilexunder arrived and our exploration began. We walked all around Skopje, including a visit to the old city beyond the River Vardar. In the old town we went to a chaigilnitza, a turkish tea room, named Galeria 7 (Sedum). We strolled through Gratski Park and enjoyed Makedonski St, the main pedestrian street which ends in a museum building with the clock tower frozen in time since the major earthquake which hit Skopje in 1963.
Our skopjan friends Lazo and Sonia took us to Zhabari for a delicious traditional meal, complete with the strong brandy-like drink rakia. On another evening we went with our friends Gordana and Igor to Sopotsko, an awesome apartment converted into a groovy hang out place.
We then drove down to Thessaloniki, a city with amazing nightlife (bars jam packed with peeps) and history as a flourishing center for Jewish ideas and up to WWII. There is a bit of a name dispute with the neighboring country, and in fact one man we met even told us that up north is still “Yugoslavia”. Ahem…
Then to Lake Ohrid: the pearl of Macedonia. It’s a spectacularly beautiful blue-green lake, with millions of years of history (one of Europe’s oldest and deepest lakes), including being the birthplace of the current Cyrillic alphabet.
Macedonia has been through many occupations – by the Romans, the Goths/Slavs, the Ottomans, the Germans, the Bulgarians etc etc etc yet their language and culture flourish. The people are chill with a good sense of humor. The kaval plays on and the Tavče Gravče is eaten, the rakia is drank and springtime blooms. I look forward to visiting Macedonia again – to explore further Skopje and Ohrid – to visit more towns (like Bitola and Gostivar) – and of course to play more shows!!!
Some great words I learned in the macedonian language:
Zdravo: hello
Fkusno: delicious
Patki: ducks
éden, Dva, Tri, Cheteri: 1, 2, 3, 4 (I actually managed to sing this in tutto al limone!)
Kako si? How are you? Super!
Ida-ciao: see ya!
Ubavo: beautiful
Machki: cat
Milomiye: nice to meet you
Nazdraviye! Cheers!
Zhabari: frogs (this also means italians, as the macedonians consider the italians frogs)
Poleka: slowly
Med = honey
Cadé? Where is? (just like in brazilian slang!!)
Pivo: beer (the local beer is called SKOPSKO)
Ores: rice (same word as in hebrew)
Sakam golem-o Skopsko vemolehm: I want a big Skopsko please
Nemu veruvai na casapot! Don’t trust the butcher!
Landed in the Alexander the Great Airport of Skopje for ten days of exploration and a visit with my mum, a peace corps volunteer in Macedonia. Awesome and inspiring! She lives in the center smack dab in front of an orthodox church built in the 70s with a very funky design – and works at Konekt, a local NGO involved in social responsibility issues and making connections to strengthen the country. Macedonia has only been independent for 19 years now, having gained independence in 1991 at the dismantling of the former Yugoslavia. The red & yellow flag waives proudly all over, and of course 3Eg0-bird felt at home (same colors as the Rome soccer team!).
The honeybird & 3Eg0-bird tour
Began our stay with full-on music immersion. First we saw the colorful article in Tea Moderna (by Gordana Nastevska-Manasievska, photos by Tiziano Cocciò) about our visit, which was exciting – as it’s a very popular national magazine “in all the kitchen’s of Macedonia”. Our first day in Skopje, we were invited by the outstanding Vasil Gjuroski of Krug Produkcija to Draga’s house for a brilliant Saturday afternoon hang & barbeque. We discussed the show we would play that night and about life in Skopje. Such nice peeps!
3 April: Cool live show with the awesome local band Bei the Fish at La Kaña. We opened the show with an hour set, 3Eg0-bird on visuals and me on charango/guitar/vox. The audience was rad, receptive and got into the honeymood. A special guest even came all the way from France for our show. Bei the Fish then got everyone up and dancing (including my mum) and their visuals were very cool. As it was Easter eve, various people were breaking colored hard boiled eggs and making wishes. After the show Bei the Fish brought us to Giromania for late night deliciousness.
4 April: interview/live with Gjorgji Janevski on his program “Ako nikoj ne sviri” on the celebrated radio station Kanal 103 in the main TV tower of Skopje. He’s a fabulous guy, super passionate about music, and the interview concluded with questions in macedonian & answers in portuguese - wild great stuff!
5 April: we took the bus to the neighboring town of Kumanovo and played in Bar Cube. Upstairs was another club with Nirvana tribute bands. The promoter sent us back to Skopje in a mysterious taxi that took a dark country road to the highway (to avoid tolls) which was slightly perturbing. But now we look back and laugh!
The icing on the cake was the airing of a honeybird interview by Marija Atanasovska on the national TV station Thelma TV as part of her music show. This included an up-close and personal shot of “the bird”… très cool!
Fascinating cities and a gorgeous lake town
On Tuesday my brother Ilexunder arrived and our exploration began. We walked all around Skopje, including a visit to the old city beyond the River Vardar. In the old town we went to a chaigilnitza, a turkish tea room, named Galeria 7 (Sedum). We strolled through Gratski Park and enjoyed Makedonski St, the main pedestrian street which ends in a museum building with the clock tower frozen in time since the major earthquake which hit Skopje in 1963.
Our skopjan friends Lazo and Sonia took us to Zhabari for a delicious traditional meal, complete with the strong brandy-like drink rakia. On another evening we went with our friends Gordana and Igor to Sopotsko, an awesome apartment converted into a groovy hang out place.
We then drove down to Thessaloniki, a city with amazing nightlife (bars jam packed with peeps) and history as a flourishing center for Jewish ideas and up to WWII. There is a bit of a name dispute with the neighboring country, and in fact one man we met even told us that up north is still “Yugoslavia”. Ahem…
Then to Lake Ohrid: the pearl of Macedonia. It’s a spectacularly beautiful blue-green lake, with millions of years of history (one of Europe’s oldest and deepest lakes), including being the birthplace of the current Cyrillic alphabet.
Macedonia has been through many occupations – by the Romans, the Goths/Slavs, the Ottomans, the Germans, the Bulgarians etc etc etc yet their language and culture flourish. The people are chill with a good sense of humor. The kaval plays on and the Tavče Gravče is eaten, the rakia is drank and springtime blooms. I look forward to visiting Macedonia again – to explore further Skopje and Ohrid – to visit more towns (like Bitola and Gostivar) – and of course to play more shows!!!
Some great words I learned in the macedonian language:
Zdravo: hello
Fkusno: delicious
Patki: ducks
éden, Dva, Tri, Cheteri: 1, 2, 3, 4 (I actually managed to sing this in tutto al limone!)
Kako si? How are you? Super!
Ida-ciao: see ya!
Ubavo: beautiful
Machki: cat
Milomiye: nice to meet you
Nazdraviye! Cheers!
Zhabari: frogs (this also means italians, as the macedonians consider the italians frogs)
Poleka: slowly
Med = honey
Cadé? Where is? (just like in brazilian slang!!)
Pivo: beer (the local beer is called SKOPSKO)
Ores: rice (same word as in hebrew)
Sakam golem-o Skopsko vemolehm: I want a big Skopsko please
Nemu veruvai na casapot! Don’t trust the butcher!
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