For this day, which was Simon’s last one, we have planned a
walk to the castle, and later Shutka. The old stone castle from the 6th century; the
strange devices which they are building inside are meant to develop into a museum and
some re-construction of an old building…
We mostly enjoyed the stunning view.
We mostly enjoyed the stunning view.
On our way back we planned a quick stroll through eh old
bazaar which ended up being a lengthy venture, talking to lots of people.
Language-wise, this is a perfect place for me right now; my Serbian is less than perfect, and frequently I keep getting scraps of my old Turkish and Romanes words in there. The store holder there are certainly not on a high educational level, but plenty of them speak Serbian, Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and Romanes. Some amongst them have been working in Germany as seasonal workers and picked up a bit of the languages, so whichever language will jump to my head it will be understood
We again talked to lots of people, and I ended up distributing all
my businesses all over the place. When wandering off the main road, the stream
of new friendships multiplied itself hugely.
We were invited into a religious Muslim-leader’s prayer room
for deep chats about the meaning of the world in my poor Serbian mixed with
Romanes, broken bits of English, Italian and Simon’s native Czech language.
And what a wonder, some of the visitors who pooped in dragged by the gossip of the arrival of alien guests to Šutka, knew Amit ! So after plenty of phone calls (all international from my phone, I don’t want to know how high the bill will be L) we were dragged into a cab and brought to Amit’s House, which was not in Šutka after all but in the nearby settlement of Topana. In the cab, I had the first ever bad experience with Romany from there, when he wanted to charge 500 Denars for a short trip. After a strict Balkan-style protest from my side we negotiated 150 denars, which was fine.
Language-wise, this is a perfect place for me right now; my Serbian is less than perfect, and frequently I keep getting scraps of my old Turkish and Romanes words in there. The store holder there are certainly not on a high educational level, but plenty of them speak Serbian, Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish and Romanes. Some amongst them have been working in Germany as seasonal workers and picked up a bit of the languages, so whichever language will jump to my head it will be understood
We came back with Šlivovica, a pair of perfect travelling
slippers (cheap, light, plastic and tacky-pretty) for myself, tomatoes,
cucumbers and strawberries (which I later managed to loose!).
When going for a coffee afterwards, we met Simon’s ‘old’
Macedonian friend from 2 days ago, who is a real hippy-artist, completely
anarchistic by default, wondering through life and through Skopje round with
music and art end everything which came his way.
Our Šutka trip was yet delayed
as we popped by his house, a romantic little Narnia right in the centre of Šutka.
He ended up playing some old Macedonian folk songs to us, quite different from
the famous Makedonsko songs (Jovano Jovanke, Makedonsko Devoice, Mori Sokol
Pie) we all know.
It was an effort to get ourselves out of his amazing gush of
music playing, to finally catch the bus towards Šutka. I aimed to meet my
musician friends Amit and Asan for a drink there. However, my hugely expensive roaming internet did not work there, so I could not message them, which at first made me feel rather anxious.
However, we enjoyed the tourist stroll,
taking pix, as secretively as possible not to induce the evil eye onto the
residents. The
most fascinating about Šutka is the vast discrepancy between exuberant luxury
and real poverty.
And what a wonder, some of the visitors who pooped in dragged by the gossip of the arrival of alien guests to Šutka, knew Amit ! So after plenty of phone calls (all international from my phone, I don’t want to know how high the bill will be L) we were dragged into a cab and brought to Amit’s House, which was not in Šutka after all but in the nearby settlement of Topana. In the cab, I had the first ever bad experience with Romany from there, when he wanted to charge 500 Denars for a short trip. After a strict Balkan-style protest from my side we negotiated 150 denars, which was fine.
What an intense heart-felt welcome I received from Amit and
Asan. Amit’s mum was there, and various uncles, brothers and other relatives
popped by. We had tee and cakes, and we managed a decent conversation – I think
I was able to convey the outline of our project to them, and we agreed to meet
for a rehearsal the next day. We watched videos from their performances at Guča,
in Germany and London, Croatia, Greece and so on, and we of course also watched
my videos.
We were brought back by a taxi service from their friends,
this time to an appropriate rate – whilst it might happen frequently, that they
try to get as much out of western tourists as possible, to friends, they have a
very high code of honour. Looking forward to making music tomorrow…
with Asan, the trumpet player
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