J’s SIPA classmate Steve K recently arrived in Pristina to visit with Steve F., another SIPA classmate who also works for UNMIK. It was our duty to show Steve K the sites – a responsibility we took very seriously! Since there was a long weekend this past week, on Friday morning the 2 steves, J & E all hit the road for a trip to Greece.
Our first destination: Skopje, Macedonia. About two hours due South from Pristina, Skopje is the capitol of Macedonia. The road through Kosovo is filled with industrial buildings, an inexplicably large number of motels and quite a few gas/petrol stations.
But once you roll into Macedonia, the landscape changes. It is quite mountainous, and there are lots of valleys and idyllic little streams scattered through the mountain ranges. Beyond enjoying the landscape though, Macedonia was not our destination, so we stopped in the only restaurant that was open in Skopje (it was the Ramadan feast day), McDonalds if you can believe it, and were SERVED at our McD’s table. We then picked up a rental car and rolled on after E had his first go at driving a standard car (a successful attempt). Beyond the escaped cows we encountered round a bend, the road was ours – not many other people were out and about. So, shortly thereafter we arrived at the Greek border.
From there, it was past Thessaloniki and Mount Olympus, and onward to the Greek peninsula of Halkidiki. High tourism season is definitely over in that part of Greece, so we were easily able to maneuver through the narrow little cobble-stoned streets that eventually lead you to the water. Seeing as the water surrounds you on three sides, you’re never far from the beach in Halkidiki!
We stayed in locally owned apartments in the heart of the little Greek village of Afitos. In our two nights’ there, the guys consumed innumerable fresh octopus tentacles… they keep a live octopus in a tank at the restaurant and chop off the tentacle(s) of your choice. As Steve F delighted in telling me, “they grow back so the best time of year is the BEGINNING of the season when the poor buggers have had all winter to regenerate.” Lovely. The guys had alot of other seafood too, but nothing else that was still wiggling when served.
We also partook of our fair share of ouzo – the greek anise-flavored drink. I appreciated the cultural warning in the binder in our apartment… “if you have too much ouzo to drink one night, beware of drinking too much water the next morning as it will make you drunk again.” For those of us who have toasted with pastis or ricard or some other national anise-flavored drink, this is a warning we know to be well worth heeding.
We spent our days driving along the coast, ambling along the beach, partaking in a bit of coffee, ouzo, retsina (a greek drink that is some kind of fermented beverage that includes pine resin), and playing many hands of cards. We must mention our favorite waiter – the Buddha Boy. As for physical recreation, E was the only one of us brave enough to swim in the crystal clear water since while it wasn’t exactly cold, it was certainly not warm!
Sunday afternoon found us homeward bound. By 9:30pm were back in Pristina. Many thanks to Steve F for doing the majority of driving!
