Skopje

Zachariah had to go to Skopje, Macedonia for the day a few weeks ago, and the fam got to tag along. It was a quick trip. The three-ish hour drives there and back were exciting, as several times Nuala and the barf bowl played get-to-know-you games.

We only really had time to go see Skopje Fortress, or Kale (from the Turkish word for "fortress") Fortress (so yes, that's a bit redundant ;) and then eat lunch. Which Nuala did puke up after drinking about 3 gallons of water, too. But it was fun. Soooo hot! We walked to the fortress from the embassy there in Skopje. The guard said it was "no more than 10 minutes." He saw we had three small children, but apparently did not take them into account. I thought he did. But no. It took forEVER. But we made it and got to look at the cool fortress.

View from the wall. See the cross on that mountain?

Bran and Nuala were pretty pooped.

Ahhh... the sidewalks leading down to the restaurants were so cool and inviting, with the vines hanging above...

Yummm... Macedonian cuisine is much like Bulgarian. So we had delicious beans, a shopska salad (cukes, tomatoes, with tons of sirene cheese...like feta), which was probably the best I've had, sausages, grilled meats... it was delicious.

Loads of little kitties were hanging out around the restaurants. The kiddos had fun tossing them scraps, and Maeve had fun staring. And grabbing, but the cats preferred her to just stare.

There were a lot of mosques there, too. Here's one.

And oh! My goodness...you'd have thought we learned our lesson, right? In fact, when we finally arrived at the castle after our "ten minute" walk, we were determined to get a taxi back. Determined. Buuuut... after eating and resting we oh-so-wisely decided that we could handle the walk back. HA! It was even worse. Bran and Nuala were so not into it. We had to carry them for chunks of time, and they are heavy! 37, 38-ish pounds. Whew. And it was hot. AND I'm pretty sure it was slightly uphill. That was NOT a highlight of an overall fun trip.

I just thought the name of this gas station in Macedonia was funny..."Makpetrol" heehee...

Their bathroom did not leave me smiling, though. I'm not a stranger to these toilets, but I don't use them if there is any way possible on earth or elsewhere to avoid it. And there was. It reeked! And then Bran helped matters by peeing in there and of course getting maybe 1/10th of it in the actual hole. Ewww. Good times!