On tap for today – a short trip over to Vodno Mountain which is about 15km south of Skopje.

I got up at 8am and by 9am I was in search for breakfast.

Turns out that the great breakfast search was my biggest adventure of the day!

I know you’re dying to hear this breakfast adventure, so, here it is…

The Great Breakfast Adventure

Well, first of all, let me preface this by saying if I wasn’t allergic to gluten, getting breakfast would be a breeze.

I could stop at any number of little food stalls scattered throughout the city and get some burek or some other pastry for breakfast.

With the gluten allergy, however, it ain’t that simple.   Sometimes I gotta search out my breakfast or lunch.   I don’t always want a heavy meat dish.   Sometimes I just want bacon and eggs or a sandwich.

So, with all that said, I was somewhat skeptical when the guy at the hostel yesterday told me that breakfast was included with my stay.

Sure enough, when I popped my head out of my dorm and went to the dining area, there was only cereal set up.

No worries though, I had kind of anticipated that and I had a plan.

A glorious plan!

I had this great little health food restaurant marked out on my map.   Yes, there were uber healthy things on their menu but they also had some good breakfast items and paninis.   Oh, and they had gluten free bread options to substitute!

The place was all the way in town about a 20 minute or so walk but I had plenty of time.   I left the hostel at 9am and my bus to Vodno Mountain didn’t leave til noon.

Plenty of time.   What could go wrong?!?

I walked all the way to the restaurant, went inside, and excitedly ordered their avocado toast with scrambled egg.

They.

Were.

Out.

Of.

Gluten free.

Bread!

Motherfucka!

You have got to be kidding me!

I was gonna get a nice panini to takeaway for lunch later and now all of that, all my dietary plans for today were out the window.

So disappointed!

You know what happens when you have a plan with no backup contingency?

You end up wandering around town aimlessly looking for somewhere to eat!

My cushion of time before I had to catch my bus was slowly shrinking.

No big deal though, I still had plenty of time.

Just had to find something around the next corner…

Okay, maybe the next corner…

Hmmm, I appear to be walking in circles…

Finally I gave in and just went to the Burger King in the main square.   I no longer had time to sit down and eat as my bus was leaving in about a half hour so I just wanted to grab a bunless burger to go.

I went to the counter to order my burger without a bun.

She said they couldn’t do it.

Um, what?!?

I stood there stunned.   What do you mean you can’t do it?

She said they didn’t have a button for it.

I just laughed.   This whole breakfast adventure was just getting comical now.   In fact, I relished in how I would write about it in my blog today.

So, I left.

I had no food and I was out of time.

The bus to Vodno Mountain leaves every hour and I just said, you know what, I’m just gonna find a place to sit down and eat and take the later bus.

So, my great breakfast adventure ended with me sitting down at a nice restaurant eating, you guessed it, a bunless burger with egg.

Breakfast complete!

Off to see a cross

My only plan for today was to see the Millennium Cross high atop Vodno Mountain that overlooks the city of Skopje.

Like I said, the public bus (#25) runs pretty much every hour and only costs 40mkd ($1).

With all my breakfast adventures, my timing was a wee bit off and I missed the bus I wanted to take at 10:55 and opted for the 11:55 bus.

Problem was, I was at the bus stop at 11:20.

I decided instead of waiting another half hour that I’d just take a taxi up to the mountain.

I had heard taxis were relatively cheap, about 400mkd ($10), and I really just wanted to get up there to start my day finally.

I walked over to the taxi stand and asked how much for the taxi.   He quoted me 600 ($15) and, while I knew I was getting overcharged, I just couldn’t be bothered to fight over 5 bucks.   So, I let him scam me 5 bucks.

I’ve come a long way from the days in Thailand where I haggled over $1 for my pad thai.

The drive is less than 20 minutes and once you arrive to the foot of the mountain, you can either hike up the mountain or take a 10 minute cable car for 100mkd ($2.50) return.

I think you all know what option I chose.

No way I’m hiking up a mountain!

I got to the cable car entrance around 11:30 only to find out that the cable car service takes half hour breaks periodically throughout the day for some reason and the next one didn’t run until noon.

So, I had a half hour to wait anyway…

Whatever.   I was here, and that’s all that mattered.

I just waited at a nearby picnic table until it was time to finally board the cable car.

The cable car ride took about 10 minutes up the mountain and stopped right at the foot of the big metallic Millennium Cross.

After a few photos of me and the cross and a bit of a walk around to see the sky high view of the city below and I was back on the cable car down the mountain.

This time I caught the bus back into town and by 1:30 I was back at my hostel.

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon just sitting at the picnic table in the hostel courtyard chatting with Ivo the manager of the hostel.

I was asking him about what kind of festivities were going to happen on the upcoming Macedonian Independence Day and found out Macedonians don’t really celebrate the day like we would in Canada or the States.

We ended up getting in a long conversation about what life was like growing up in Yugoslavia and how much of the residents now regret opting for independence into Macedonia.

Volleyball!

I was trying to figure out something to do tonight so I googled “Skopje events” and the first thing that came up was a volleyball match between Macedonia and the Czech Republic tonight.

Now, I’m all for unique adventures and I’ve never gone to a volleyball match before.

Seems like serendipity to me!

At 5:00 I headed out to get some dinner a little restaurant Ivo had recommended to me before catching a nearby bus to take to the stadium.

The stadium is about an hour walk from the city center but the bus takes you there in half that time.

Anyway, the bus came and took me to the stadium, I bought a ticket, and went inside.

I was pretty early but it was cool to just take it all in.   Here I was again in a foreign country taking in a cultural event.

Slowly but surely the stadium started to fill with people adorning Macedonian shirts and wave Macedonian flags.

My smile grew larger.

As I looked around, I summed up that I was probably the only Canadian in this place tonight, and for that matter, maybe the only non Macedonian in there.

The best part was obviously when the Macedonian national anthem played and then everyone sang acapella.

Smile growing even larger…

As for the volleyball, well, Macedonia hung in there but they lost 3 straight sets 25-19, 25-23, and 25-17.

The second set was so close and you could feel the wind just leave the sails after that close loss.

After 90 minutes of volleyball, it was all over at 9:30.

Now the tricky part…,

How the hell do I get back to the hostel?!?

I figured there’d be a bus stop across the street from where I got off but, yeah, there wasn’t.

Then I figured I’d just hail a cab down and take one back but none stopped for me.

Sigh.

Guess I’m walking home.

For an hour.

At night.

Oh, what fun!

I walked for about 20 minutes and saw a bunch of taxis waiting across the street.

Sweet!

10 minutes later and I was back at my hostel.

What a crazy day.   Who would have thunk when I woke up this morning that I’d be at a volleyball match later that night but there it is – it happened.

It’s just the beauty of backpacking.   Ya never know what the day will bring!