When everybody goes left, we go right!

Fake news and broken pyramids

We are sitting on the bus between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where we are enjoying an amazing view of the black and white mountains surrounding a deep blue lake. Most of the road on this busride is like taken from a fairytale and the setting could have been appropriate for any Lord of the Rings movie. The last 6 days we have been in Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro and this time it has mainly been the breathtaking parts of nature, that have been in the highlights.

“Look, look this is me!”
We had just arrived in Skopje with bus from Pristina, and were now considering what our next move should be. I had heard rumours about a chess tournament being played in Skopje, and for me the only option was to visit. Martin, who is of course as exited about chess that I am, agreed to go and visit Karpos Open, just for a couple of hours. Every time we arrive to a new country I ask the same question:

  • Ellen: “Who is the best player in this country”
  • Martin: “Ehhh, Nikoladic. He had about 2650 but in the later years when the alcohol took over his elo fell to about 2500 something”
  • Ellen: “You only change the name and tell the same story, be more creative if you want me to believe it”
  • Martin: “The story fits for about 75% of all chess players, so I think it is very realistic”

If you have not already figured it out, we do not know much about chess, but you can be a great chessgroupie and supporter anyway! At least I hope that is what Martin Percivaldi, Jonas Bjerre and Filip Boe thought, when I came to support them in Skopje after also having visited them in Jurmala. Some would call me a true fan! As always there were not a lot about the chess Martin and I found interesting, instead we found the chess shop, were I bought a pink “I love chess” pen (which I am going to force Nils to use when we play Reykjavik Open) and we talked to the owner about the various books. The highlight was, when I found an old edition of the Danish chess magasine with a picture of me and eagerly waved it in both Martin and the sellers face. This was after we had already found the bar.

The playing hall at Karpos Open

The playing hall at Karpos Open

Ellen the great
“This is the truth and nothing but the truth.”
The first impression of Skopje is, that it is stunning. They have these great “marble” buildings with huge pillars and gold this and light that and sculptures everywhere. But this is fake news. Or at least everything is new and stolen from the rest of the world – The Brandenburger Tor, the Wall Street bull and last but not least, the Parthenon in Athens! They even have a huge sculpture of Alexander the Great and “claim” that he comes from their country “Macedonia”, but this is a lie. I come from the Macedonian area in Greece and I am a direct descendent of Alexander the great… my father says. Things you have to see:

  1. The city center square is the place to find the huge sculpture of Alexander the Great placed in the middle of a fountain with lights and music. From here you can also see the 666 year old bridge and many ancient greek inspired buildings. This is the place to enjoy a cold beer in the evening.
  2. The old fort on top of the hill. I recommend this purely based on the view. Even though they actually have some history connected to this place.
  3. Go to Ohrid! Ohrid is a town placed at the great lake between Macedonia and Albania. Here you really get to enjoy the best part of those countries, with more than 1100 year old churches, fresh caught fish, viewpoints from the mountains and cemetarys with free walking peacocks. I must warn though, that the cab drivers do not stay away from the beer or rakia, just because he is driving in the mountains.

Things you should avoid:

  1. Do not believe everything you are told. There are many parts to this story. Even Bulgaria claims that Alexander is from their area. Since the body was never found, who knows. I just find it funny that the guide immediately assumed that we were going to have an argument because I was half greek. We had, but for different reasons.
Fake Parthenon, with light

Fake Parthenon, with light

One out of many amazing pictures from Ohrid

One out of many amazing pictures from Ohrid

The devils bridge (666 years old)

The devils bridge (666 years old)

And then we went to Albania…
Untill now we have only been pleasantly surprised. This time Tirana really made sure, that we had to search every corner to find something slightly decent. It all started at the bus station where the cab drivers were basically blocking the exit from the bus screaming “TAXI, TAXI to OHRID”. Yeah thanks I just arrived from there, let me out. Then we had decided to by our ticket to Podgorica in advance to save time, but the woman we talked to in 1 of the 25 ticketoffices claimed, that there were no busses to Podgorica ever, however she could arrange a cab for 90 euro. No thank you. Instead we decided to go to the hostel and ask them, and of course they told us that ticket office number 6 is selling the buss tickets, and the people just do not want to help because of dirty competition. Not the best start.
We got a map of the city, and were ready for a long day with sightseeing, when we discovered, that they almost did not have anything to offer. The top thing to see was a pyramid that was broken… nevertheless we found a quite nice park at an artificial lake and we bought some cake at the biggest pastry shop I have experienced. A true bite of heaven. Even though the prices were so low that I twice in a row started crying from laughter, when we had to pay, I was glad that we were going to leave in the morning.
After having “donated” the rest of our Albanian papermoney to some random person, we found the bus for Podgorica.

  • Bus driver: “It cost two euro to put the bag in the trunk”
  • Me: “I want my bag with me inside of the bus”
  • Bus driver: “No , you have to put it here”
  • Me: “I am not going to pay to put my bag in a place I do not want it”
  • Martin: “Ellen, please just give him the money”
  • Me: “No, I refuse”.

At this point Martin was kind of scared that the Albanian man would not let us on the bus, nevertheless I had already had a full breakfast and coffee and therefore stuck to my principles. The bus driver’s face was kind of red, when he finally gave up arguing. Nobody can fool me. I am not going back to Tirana. Ever. And apparently Martin do not want to bring me to North Korea, when he plans on going there.

The very "nice" pyramid

The very “nice” pyramid

In Albania they do not play chess, they play domino

In Albania they do not play chess, they play domino

The view from the park is pretty acceptable

The view from the park is pretty acceptable

The great escape from Albania
When we arrived in Podgorica the rain was pouring down. For the third time in a row we had forgot to download the map to the hostel and we were now very confused on which way we had to go. As the great leader that I am, I said “no worry” and started walking. Since the rain decided to increase, we had to find a restaurant and get some shelter. Martin could then appropriately get something to eat, and I could connect to the wifi and check the road. Once again we had no problems with guessing the wifi password (usually you just put 123 after the name of the place) and I could confidently inform that he hostel were placed about a 100 meters from the bus station… and that we only had walked about 2 kilometers past it. But hey, at least I tried, and this only contributed to keeping our walking average at about 15 km a day. Things you have to see:

  1. The Montenegrean “Niagara” falls is located about a 15 minutes drive outside of Podgorica and is an immense waterfall surrounded by the beautiful nature of Montenegro. As opposed to the Niagara falls in USA, you can here enjoy the sight without all the tourist and have the possibility to jump from rock to rock and see the waterfall from different angles.
  2. The old bridge and leftovers from 15th century was a perfect place to take a small walk. The stairs from the hill leading down to the river is a lovely climb despite of the crap that is thrown here by careless people. The car tire in the river and plactic bags hanging from the trees really ruined a lot of pictures.
  3. The 10th century church and the spooky overgrown graveyard was really a different church experience. We were both stunned by how well preserved one of the wall paintings was, and agreed that our/this church number 23 on this trip was the best.

Things you should avoid:

  1. Nils informed me that this is the most criminal city of Europe. I really felt scared of the people(s)… English abilities in this town. That is definitely criminal. Otherwise it seemed pretty quiet.
Me and my new Macedonian haircut enjoying the "Niagara" waterfall

Me and my new Macedonian haircut enjoying the “Niagara” waterfall

The old area and bridge

The old area and bridge

The new church

The new church

Once again all the traditional meals consist mainly of meat and both Martin and I are considering to go vegetarian when we get home… Yeah right. I think that boat sailed for Martin when he ate a veal heart yesterday and said: “I feel superior to the animal”. Maybe you do, but you snore like a bear.

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Some very nice people, we meet in Ohrid!

Will be continued… 

 

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When everybody goes left, we go right!