Our first 2-3 days flew by in Skopje, so I felt I better start writing! I arrived Sunday morning, not without a dehydrated, mildly hungover morning involving an 8am flight to Vienna before my flight to Skopje. A 45 minute layover was complicated by an insanely long line for passport control which ended in me cutting the line, sprinting to my gate, and hugging a random person I did not know. We made it to Skopje around 11am. A group of 12 of us were on the same connection from Vienna, so we linked up in the airport and collected our baggage before finding our disgruntled shuttle driver. While we were excited, jet lagged and giggling with 12 gigantic suitcases, our shuttle driver was unamused. Begrudgingly yet miraculously, he crammed all of the suitcases (and us) into the van and headed for the hotel. It was not a smooth ride, full of traffic, honking horns, and near encounters with mopeds, but we finally made it to the Marriott. I was hankering for a nap at this point, but of course our rooms were not ready, so the front desk clerk gave us keys to the fitness center to shower and change. I was grateful for this compromise and refreshed myself before heading downtown to the “Old Bazar” with Dimitri and Karolyna. Dimitri is my partner for this trip, and he is also a ~45 year old dad from Belgium. He is wonderful and has loads of experience as a critical care nurse and educator. He’s also been on the “ambulance team” as they call it in Belgium and has responded to a bunch of crazy scenarios, including multiple home [birth] deliveries. Karolyna is one of the logistics coordinators and works in talent acquisition for BD, and she is from Poland. A visit to Poland is definitely in my future; I swear we are related, and everyone has been calling us sisters. The three of us were fast friends, and I was thrilled to spend the day with them. We meandered around the town, popped into a few stores, shared a ton of laughs, had lunch and a few drinks. The silliest things made us laugh, including the way Dimitri pronounced “Pearls” and trying the local liquor called Rakija. We also learned that people here are on “Macedonian time” – truly in no hurry at all. It is the land of 3 hour lunches and 5 hour dinners… AKA: I think I’m part Macedonian.
We met back up with the group at 6:30 for dinner at the hotel. Breakfast and dinner are included in our trip package, and the food is surprisingly good… and cheap. For example, a nice, multi-course meal for 3-4 people including drinks is typically ~$50-75 total 😱 They have surprisingly good wine here as well. More to come on this. We also tried another kind of Rakija called Mastica, which is intended to be an aperitif that is enjoyed before dinner. This one I preferred to the one with lunch; it kind of tastes like Ouzo – the Italian, licorice-tasting liquor. These liquors are all so strong that they say you should enjoy “no more than three.” We will see about that.
Everyone was tired after dinner, so we headed to bed, and I slept from about 11-9. Praise be. We had orientation starting at 11am, so I was able to squeeze in a short workout and eggs Benedict in the hotel restaurant. Everyone also drinks Turkish coffee here, which is very good and VERY strong. In typical Macedonian fashion, orientation started late and was pretty disorganized. They continuously remind us we need to go with the flow, and so we shall. We ended around 1:30 to go on a walking tour of Skopje, which didn’t start till at least 2 and had to end around 3 because we were so late for lunch. The tour was very abbreviated but we learned a bit more about the history; including the controversy over the name (beef with Greece), Alexander the Great (also beef with Greece over where he is actually from), and Skopje struggling through earthquakes and a fire that burned the whole city for 3 days. There have been so many tragedies here that there is actually a museum called “the museum of Macedonian struggle.” Hopefully we will have time to visit that and the Mother Teresa Memorial museum – apparently, she was born here! Last but not least, there is also a 66-meter tall, steel cross on top of one of the hills that you can hike to. I hope to do this one day while here, time permitting – I’m sure it’s a great view (and workout).
After lunch (rather, another huge multi course feast), I walked around town with a few of the gals to go shopping. They are famous for leather goods here, and possibly gold and silver? I’m doubtful it’s real, but I did get some cute gold plated earrings for only $10. Our friend, Sarah, got a nice leather jacket from a very enthusiastic salesman. He said his heart pounded for her, so there is in fact love in a hopeless place. We ended the afternoon with a Turkish coffee at a cafe before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the opening ceremony. It was really fun giggling with more of the girl group, including Karolyna of course.
At 6:30, we met back up for said “opening ceremony”. It kicked off with some nice words from Vlatko from Project HOPE and Sorcha from the BD social investing team. They are both so wonderful and teared up during their speeches. It’s clear this means a ton to them, and they really put their hearts into it year after year. This is also the third of three trips to this area and working together a team, so they are extra emotional. It’s also 20 years of BD VST. For this event, they invited nurses, doctors, and medical directors from some of the hospitals we will be serving over the next two weeks. We mingled, ate and drank, and ended the night around 10 when we found out we were leaving tomorrow morning at 6am for a 2.5 hour drive to Kosovo. I’m still awake now at 11, probably from nerves and my 4pm Turkish coffee, but I’m excited for our first day of volunteering. No idea what to expect, but here we go!
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