July: EXIT, Yeasayer, Mavrovo, Treskavec and the south of Albania

In July I didn't spend so much time in Skopje. I visit a monastery, went to EXIT festival in Novi Sad, had a training in Mavrovo National Park and went for a trip to Albania.

Treskavec

Lael, Aurelie and Marta (EVS volunteers in Belgrade and Krusevac) came to Macedonia for a trip. I went with them to Treskavec monastery. That was a really nice trip! This old monastery is located on a mountain which we had to climb. There was thunder coming so we had to hurry up a bit. It was a beautiful walk and we managed to arrive just before the rain :-P
We stayed one night in this very old monastery. I found it very special.

EXIT Festival

Exit Festival was fantastic! Exit is one of the biggest festivals in Europe and it takes place in Novi Sad, Serbia. It is located in a big fortress, so no big field of grass but a labyrinth with stages everywhere. Although it's grown out to be a big commercialised festival with visitors from all over Europe, it started as a protest festival against the political regime of Milosevic. 

I had loads of fun, but the first evening was defenitely the best! Mainly because the band Yeasayer played this evening, which was defenitely my favourite gig! Other bands I really enjoyed where LCD Soundsystem, S.A.R.S. and Royksopp. 

Mladiinfo Training in Mavrovo National Park

In the middle of July Mladiinfo organised a training called "Virtually Active". It was held in an hotel in Mavrovo National Park. Especially with this hot and humid weather in Skopje it's nice to escape to a more cool and fresh place in the mountains. The training was much more interesting than I thought it would be! It was for example interesting to know how you can use the internet more efficient by the use of RSS and social bookmarking. We also had a short photography lesson and learned how to photoshop our pictures for the web. To see the pictures I made during our trip to the old village of Galichnik, click here.
There were participants from all over the Balkans, Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia. We formed a nice group of people to have fun with during and after the trainings.

Albania

Together with Ewa and Mauro (Volunteers in Bitola, the 2nd biggest city) I went for a trip to the south of Albania. As poor as volunteers are, we stayed in the most cheap places and tried to travel as cheap as we could. But also we stayed in some nice hostels. Albania is a special country I would say. It has a lot of opposites. One one hand the nature is very very beautiful, but on the other hand there's also a lot of dirt and garbage everywhere. I especially liked the old cities and the coast line. Although some villages are more like a construction site (it will change), the beaches are beautiful! My favorite place was Berat, a beautiful old city with houses against the hillside.

Korca

Our first visit was to Korca. A nice but not so special city. One evening was enough to see the deserted market and the church.

Our nice mosquito room. Ever killed 20 mosquitos in one night? ;-)

Gjirokaster

After a beautiful 5 hour trip with a small bus on through the mountains on a very bad small road, we arrived in Gjirokaster. This city has a very nice old castle from the 12th century.

View from out of the van

View from the castle

Saranda

This is a touristic place along the coast. We stayed one night in a nice hostel where we had dinner with some nice people. On the beach we bought ourselves a nice present, an inflatable crocodile.

Ksamil

This village on the coast looked really like a construction site. They even didn't build a normal road yet, it was just a path of sand and stones. But the beach was really nice. there where a lot of little islands we could swim to, so we had a nice and relax day on the beach.

Vuno

This old village with 200 houses, with only 30 inhabitet had a nice old renovated primary school which is in use a an hostel in the summer. We stayed there two nights. It was a relaxt place with a camp fire in the evenings. The hostel is ran by an Albanian guy and a Dutch woman. They also had a little baby and a dog. They also had visitors from Netherlands; 2 couples with each a baby and a dog.

Berat

This is the last city of our trip in Albania, and for me it was the most beautiful one. We stayed in a nice hostel, that turned out to be a party hostel.

Ewa's black feet

Struga

After Berat we went back to Macedonia. We stayed one night in Struga. This city looked totally different comparing to the other times I've been there. It was changed into a touristic and alive place full with people. A lot of people where swimming and jumping from the bridges and the terraces were full.

I went back and took a train from Bitola to Skopje. It was a nice experience to travel with this old train, besides it broke down half way. Unfortunately I already finished my book, but I met a nice girl there so I had some company.

Now I'm back in Skopje. In 3 weeks I will go back to The Netherlands (21-08). Although I really like it here, I'm also looking forward to go back and see everyone again!