Sunday, May 14, 2006
Was Zorba "The Greek" actualy Zorba "The Macedonian"?!
Recently I found out that Zorba, the famous caracter from the movie "Zorba the Greek", was actualy a real live person! On the tv show where I first heard this (it's run on TV Telma it's called "Vrti suci toa ti e Skopje", english "Twist it turn it that's Skopje") didn't say much about him except that he lived out his last twenty years here in my home town Skopje like a boheme, regularly visiting the most popular "kafani"-restourants, and that his final resting place is on the city's cemetary!!! Yap, maybe you knew this but this was very new and sort of important for me since such a famous person lived here and i've never heard of him (shame on me...or on the city authorities, THE MAYOR TO BE EXACT). Anyway I guess all of you have seen the movie with Anthony Quinn, but I doubt that any has read the book. From what I've read the book might have a diferent storry to tell. Here is the link of the page where you can read an interesting theory on the matter and afterwards judge for your self, who was zorba and did it even matter to him?! Feel free to give your opinion on the matter (after reading the article which i mentioned), I sence a great discusion here :).
I'm of to by the book... if I can find it.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
THE PICTURES :)
Some of the pictures are from the "four white walled" room we had and some from the city's pier. No top quality howerver since I took them with my phone, sorry.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Legacki Holliday
At the beginning I must say that I made an effort to write this (about three or four days ago) but just as I came to the end I accidentally pressed the back button on my mouse and... well all was lost, so I got a bit (an understatement) annoyed and decided to do it later, and that later is, well now.
So to get to the thing I'm writing about :). As most of you that regularly read my information and article full blog (I guess this would be an overstatement) know the first of may is a BIG holiday here in the Balkans, mostly because we are very sleep loving people that know when is enough work and we know exactly when to take a break so a two day holiday is never too much. Come to think of it we truly are special kind of people. We have no problem using all day to rest and relax, I mean just living here is tiring let alone working. What UNESCO should do is proclaim Balcanians an endemic species. I bet that the most bohemian, hedonistic man in the world would be somewhere from our loving peninsula. So after realizing that apart form the wars, ethnic tensions, and people trafficking, life here is one big holiday, I'll get back to my original point.
So the first of may came (and by now went) and me and my buddies went to a lovely town called Ohrid (I think you'll find this name pretty familiar) to get our much needed rest and to catch up on our beauty sleep. Taking a buss from Skopje (where we all live) we had a very plesent 4 hour trip to Ohrid, stopping at a place called Straza to take a leak and to eat a couple of the irresistible Mekici (I won't even bother to describe it I'll just say It's delicious and vegetarian - ED :) ).
Ohrid is a very beautiful and history full town with a special feeling to it which you can easily sense but can't explain, it's sort of mystical but in a very pleasant way, but wasn't very inviting when we arrived since dark clouds had occupied the sky above it which clearly meant there won't be any barbecue (that is a must do for all Macedonians on the first of may). We unwillingly accepted the fact that we'll be on burgers instead of barbecue, and went on to see the room we rented by phone (which to be honest costed us next to nothing). I won't lie and say it was a palace because it was just a plain four white walled room with five somewhat comfortable beds, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. Actually it wasn't a bathroom bathroom, rather a small hall with a shower (no tub or cabin) a sink and the magificent toilet. As simple as it may sound it was all we needed. After unpacking and settling in, we went to get supplies, bier and some cheap wine for the boys, and mineral water, expensive toilet paper, lots of veggies and fruit, and some more of the cheap wine for the girls. Happy and satisfied we decided to get the night on and we let the wine flow. Slightly under the influence we went to see the beautiful landmarks, which look especially beautiful at night, and on the way we met almost everyone from our school so it turned out to be a very fun night. As the evening draw to a close we found ourselves in a bakery blowing on a hot 1/4 of burek in our hands, trust me there is nothing better than getting some burek early in the morning/ late in the evening.
The next day was by far better than we expected. The best thing was the fact that the sun was shining and not much was left of the dark clouds I was telling you about which meant that we would have barbecue after all. We gathered our financial advisors and we all made a donation to the barbecue fund. All set and ready to go (we had the meat, coal, water, coke and beer) we faced an unusual problem, we didn't know where to set up camp. The local hill seemed as a good idea but when we got to it a big sign stating "National Park Galicica" made us reconsider and we kept one searching. After half an hour of sweting and puling bags arround we found the perfect spot where we decided to settle. Shortly after the plesent smell of tasty kebap, steak and barbaque sausage started to tempt us so I had to slap everybody on their hands if we were to have a proper lunch. Finaly the moment came when all was ready and we all enjoyed having lunch in such a peacefull and green place, with buterflies flying arround and birds singing ahhhh a moment to remember. The night was also magnificant. A very popular Macedonian singer, Vlado Janevski, had a gig in the local club so naturaly we went and we had a blast, despite the fact that the avarige waiting time on the doors was about 45 minutes! After the show we stroled down town for some hot burek and tired but happy wnet to sleep at around 5:30 in the morning.
Next day was departure day so all that we did was sit in a cafee and enjoying the beautiful weather and the very tasty cofee. When we got on the bus for Skopje we were pretty sleepy so I didn't notice when we arrived back untill I felt the buss stoping about a km from the bus stop and the drver saying "People I'm very sorry but the buss broke down. Anotherone is comeing so just wait and be patient." what luck I thought, but then I looked out the window and noticed that we were just next to my building, now what do you say about that?! So I said my goodby's with my friends, picked up my ludgedge and before you now it I was being bombarded with questions like "How was it?" "Did you have any toruble?" "Did you have enough money?" and that sort of mom and dad questions :). Politely refusing to answer any I got in bed and resumed my paused sleep.
PS. Since I can't add pictures (I don't know why) with this post I'll put them in another one.
So to get to the thing I'm writing about :). As most of you that regularly read my information and article full blog (I guess this would be an overstatement) know the first of may is a BIG holiday here in the Balkans, mostly because we are very sleep loving people that know when is enough work and we know exactly when to take a break so a two day holiday is never too much. Come to think of it we truly are special kind of people. We have no problem using all day to rest and relax, I mean just living here is tiring let alone working. What UNESCO should do is proclaim Balcanians an endemic species. I bet that the most bohemian, hedonistic man in the world would be somewhere from our loving peninsula. So after realizing that apart form the wars, ethnic tensions, and people trafficking, life here is one big holiday, I'll get back to my original point.
So the first of may came (and by now went) and me and my buddies went to a lovely town called Ohrid (I think you'll find this name pretty familiar) to get our much needed rest and to catch up on our beauty sleep. Taking a buss from Skopje (where we all live) we had a very plesent 4 hour trip to Ohrid, stopping at a place called Straza to take a leak and to eat a couple of the irresistible Mekici (I won't even bother to describe it I'll just say It's delicious and vegetarian - ED :) ).
Ohrid is a very beautiful and history full town with a special feeling to it which you can easily sense but can't explain, it's sort of mystical but in a very pleasant way, but wasn't very inviting when we arrived since dark clouds had occupied the sky above it which clearly meant there won't be any barbecue (that is a must do for all Macedonians on the first of may). We unwillingly accepted the fact that we'll be on burgers instead of barbecue, and went on to see the room we rented by phone (which to be honest costed us next to nothing). I won't lie and say it was a palace because it was just a plain four white walled room with five somewhat comfortable beds, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. Actually it wasn't a bathroom bathroom, rather a small hall with a shower (no tub or cabin) a sink and the magificent toilet. As simple as it may sound it was all we needed. After unpacking and settling in, we went to get supplies, bier and some cheap wine for the boys, and mineral water, expensive toilet paper, lots of veggies and fruit, and some more of the cheap wine for the girls. Happy and satisfied we decided to get the night on and we let the wine flow. Slightly under the influence we went to see the beautiful landmarks, which look especially beautiful at night, and on the way we met almost everyone from our school so it turned out to be a very fun night. As the evening draw to a close we found ourselves in a bakery blowing on a hot 1/4 of burek in our hands, trust me there is nothing better than getting some burek early in the morning/ late in the evening.
The next day was by far better than we expected. The best thing was the fact that the sun was shining and not much was left of the dark clouds I was telling you about which meant that we would have barbecue after all. We gathered our financial advisors and we all made a donation to the barbecue fund. All set and ready to go (we had the meat, coal, water, coke and beer) we faced an unusual problem, we didn't know where to set up camp. The local hill seemed as a good idea but when we got to it a big sign stating "National Park Galicica" made us reconsider and we kept one searching. After half an hour of sweting and puling bags arround we found the perfect spot where we decided to settle. Shortly after the plesent smell of tasty kebap, steak and barbaque sausage started to tempt us so I had to slap everybody on their hands if we were to have a proper lunch. Finaly the moment came when all was ready and we all enjoyed having lunch in such a peacefull and green place, with buterflies flying arround and birds singing ahhhh a moment to remember. The night was also magnificant. A very popular Macedonian singer, Vlado Janevski, had a gig in the local club so naturaly we went and we had a blast, despite the fact that the avarige waiting time on the doors was about 45 minutes! After the show we stroled down town for some hot burek and tired but happy wnet to sleep at around 5:30 in the morning.
Next day was departure day so all that we did was sit in a cafee and enjoying the beautiful weather and the very tasty cofee. When we got on the bus for Skopje we were pretty sleepy so I didn't notice when we arrived back untill I felt the buss stoping about a km from the bus stop and the drver saying "People I'm very sorry but the buss broke down. Anotherone is comeing so just wait and be patient." what luck I thought, but then I looked out the window and noticed that we were just next to my building, now what do you say about that?! So I said my goodby's with my friends, picked up my ludgedge and before you now it I was being bombarded with questions like "How was it?" "Did you have any toruble?" "Did you have enough money?" and that sort of mom and dad questions :). Politely refusing to answer any I got in bed and resumed my paused sleep.
PS. Since I can't add pictures (I don't know why) with this post I'll put them in another one.
