Macedonia by www.born2travel.it

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09.08.2004 Skopje (MACEDONIA)

And who would have ever said it! Even now, when we stop someone in the street to ask for information they ask us what we're doing here... They tell us, there's nothing to visit! The overnight transfer Belgrade-Skopje was very hard! Ten hours crammed into a dilapidated carriage surrounded by gipsies, petty thieves, shady characters... We didn't sleep a wink! Sergio stayed awake all night with me keeping watch over our things, our backpacks and the various gipsies who circled around us like sharks... what an awful night! The only positive note: we could admire the little villages and local stations... what scenery... it felt like watching an Italian film from the 40s or 50s.

10.08.2004 Skopje (MACEDONIA)

Having arrived in Macedonia we can truly say we are "at the end of our tether"!

Skopje: a very grey city, poor, sad, dirty and full of unpleasant people who size you up from head to toe, really a place abandoned by God... or by Allah (depending on your point of view), since here churches and mosques alternate!

[Luca]: We visited our embassy to say hello to "a friend of a friend"; he told us about a wonderful diplomatic life, even though he lives in Skopje; you work a lot but it's worth it because you have an important role for your nation, very fascinating!

In the evening, after dinner, we met a small group of young people and went around with them; they told us about their relations with the Albanians, about the difficult political/economic situation of their nation, and on our way back to the hotel we were struck by the notes of an unmistakable song coming from an outdoor piano bar! "Lasciatemi cantare" by Toto Cutugno; a real anthem that made us feel a bit nostalgic for our beloved Italy!

11.08.2004 Zagreb (CROATIA)

[Luca]: We're on the train, heading to Zagreb, a destination chosen at the last minute almost as if to say "I'll go anywhere as long as we get away from here...!"

The train goes... it carries on regardless of everything and everyone... Whatever happens, it goes! Each of its passengers, at the window, watches the resting nature, lost and astonished! The barefoot gipsy kids gathered by the tracks cheer us and wave... it slows a little... but then goes on... I admire the Slavic world scrolling past me, it looks like an old film, an old reel whose simplicity moves you...

Sometimes I think how lucky we are to have the opportunity to live these moments, feelings that will be forever carved into our hearts, our minds, our souls! Travelling is feeding on ever new and exciting experiences... only this way can I give meaning to this life! And then I get angry: how can you squander something so precious, dazzled by futile things... when I see those young people who, despite having the same "economic opportunities" as us, think only about having the most modern mobile phone or the most powerful car or the most expensive clothes only because they're by that designer... and then they give up on life...

We share our compartment with three medical students from Madrid; they're doing the interrail with fake tickets...

[Luca]: We've gone from the Macedonian third world to the little Croatian Switzerland... how on earth did they all manage to stay together before? It was madness to make all these populations, so different from one another, live together under the same flag... and indeed the bomb eventually went off! The 17 hours of train from Skopje to Zagreb passed pleasantly, also thanks to the company of three other medical students from Zagreb: Ivan, Iva and Silva, chatting about everything: from the former Yugoslavia to alcohol, from assisted fertilisation to women... [Fiona from Madrid]: Es curioso como ocurren las cosas, conocer a personas con quieres normalmente no establecerias relaciòn y estar aqui conpartiendo bebida y comida. Es un cumulo de experiencias y impresionas que me alegro de estar viviendo.

(How curious it is how things happen, meeting people with whom you normally wouldn't establish a relationship and being here sharing drink and food. It's a heap of experiences and impressions that I'm glad to be living.)

Now we're in a nice hostel in the centre; I adore hostel life, in here everyone seems like an old friend... you get to know each other even just because we're staying in the same place... and so it happens that you meet in the corridor a lovely Anglo-Indian girl who smiles at you with a friendly "good morning!" as if we'd been together all day!

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