Europe de l'est

I lived in Spain for 17 months before I officially left the Iberian Peninsula for the first time. I unofficially left the peninsula when I lived on Gran Canaria for 6 weeks over the summer, although that almost African island is still considered to be part of Spain even with 1200km between them. When I did leave, it wouldn't be the ancient ruins of Rome, the La Rive Gauche en Paris or the Globe Theater in London that lured me north of the Pyrenees Mountains, It was the Balkans of Eastern Europe, and more importantly, some good friends from Macedonia that I had met while working in Colorado the summer before coming to Europe. I had been thinking of visiting them since the year before, but had never worked up the nerve to commit and click the Buy button. This year was different, though, as I closed my eyes a couple of weeks before Semana Santa and forced my hand. I would be visiting the lands of Alexander the Great, the doorstep of the cradle of ancient Western thought, the stage of centuries of struggle for territory, freedom and a sense of identity. In a world where many people argue against the idea of borders and boundaries, this slice of the earth is only now beginning to live in makeshift harmony after the ever-changing lines on the modern maps were drawn in temporary permanence. Coming from the U.S., a country that hasn't seen separatism (except for Texas) since the 19th century, this was all very fascinating to me.

Sun breaking over Skopje

the man himself: Alexander the Great

Tierras Divididas

 I came to see these guys:

Orthodox Church en Sofia, Bulgaria

And saw cool things like this...













and this...

Canyon river that leads to Europe's deepest underwater cave

    It was a great and new experience for me to exit the comfort zone that Spain had become for me. To not know any of the language and very little of the culture of the region was scary and exciting.. I was able to try new food, see new ways of life, get ripped off by new taxi drivers, learn some new things about the history of the region, to see how my friends live and know their concerns about the future as well as their hopes and fears.