Balkans-bound
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
283
293
Trip End
Ongoing
Skopje, Macedonia
Thursday, August 25, 2011
I did a lot of research over the summer and was overwhelmed by the possibilities the Balkans held. Three weeks sounded like a long time, but after reading about all the things we could do, it looked like we were really going to have to pick and choose and skip over a lot of things that sounded really worthwhile. Our plan began with us in Macedonia with a night in the country's capital, Skopje.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30pm, so we went to work extra early that day in order to run home before making the trek out to the airport. After a cab ride home, we had a few minutes to relax before we needed to head to Taksim to catch the Havas. We gathered our things together and were ready to leave, but couldn't get Diegs out from under the bed. I was worried we were going to miss the bus and was on the verge of leaving without giving him a hug, but Konrad's persistence paid off and we finally got him to come out. We gave him hugs and kisses and then made the mad dash to the Havas. I feel so grateful that we didn't leave without saying goodbye to him, even if it was a bit rushed, since it was the last time we saw him.
The check-in was the fastest ever, literally taking under three minutes. We were through security just as fast, and found ourselves in limbo with plenty of time before boarding. That was a good thing because I had offered to do a little duty-free mystery shopping. We went to Hermes and Bulgari as undercover shoppers and decided to take advantage of the opportunity by turning it into a wedding ring shopping trip. They didn't really have anything we were particularly interested in, but it was fun to do, and was a step forward towards our future nuptials.
As it turned out, we could have been a bit more leisurely about our shopping because the gate wasn't even open at the time we were meant to be boarding the plane. It finally opened and everyone got through security, only to have to sit and wait on the other side, without any announcements or updates being made. Our layover in Belgrade was less than an hour, and soon we began to worry that we wouldn't make the onward flight to Skopje. We finally boarded and took off around 9:00pm. We arrived in Belgrade late, but the connecting flight was with the same company and they held the plane for us, so it looked like we would actually make it to Macedonia that night.
After arriving in Skopje more or less on time, we made our way to the baggage carousel. We weren't hopeful that our bags had actually made the transfer, seeing as how they had hurried us from one plane to the other in a matter of minutes, and then promptly took off. It quickly became clear that they had not been put on the second plane. We filed our report and then met the driver waiting to whisk us to our guesthouse.
Apart from the street our guesthouse was on, Skopje was very quiet. It's a city of only 640,000 people, and I think most of them were safely tucked away in bed by 11pm that Thursday night. There were still a few people out and about, mainly making merriment along bar street, which was right below our hotel. It was impossible to block the noise out, but fortunately the city shut down at 1am, so we didn't have to wait long for sleep to come.
