Saturday Experiences!

Today started  with a earthquake.

No really. An earthquake. But we couldn’t figure out if it was actually an earthquake or not.

 I had just woken up and was actually going to the bathroom when the toilet moved side to side for about 2 seconds, like if a someone was doing work or something.

About 30 seconds later Erin came out was all “Did you feel that? Do you think it was an earthquake? I was lying in bed and suddenly was moving.”

We go to look it up online, but nothing shows up, so we shrug it off.

 Later, I am looking on Facebook (which is horrible right now and has changed beyond use. So that is super annoying!) and see Daniel post that he felt his first earthquake today and that someone else posts that they didn’t feel it but everyone is talking about it!

I do the normal thing and google it. And find that yes it was actually an earthquake! Oops! It was a 4.2 magnitude about 37 miles southeast of Skopje. From what I can tell it was 8 miles underground? I have no clue how to read this stuff: US Geological Survey.

However, after that Jen came over and we went exploring!

We started off at the City Museum (the one near where I live) which had an exhibit from Japanese artists. It was pretty cool-lots of interesting more modern stuff and some really good ones. The other half of this old Railway Station is a museum of the city itself. Everything on this side was in Macedonian. But we had fun trying to translate stuff.

They had the first lift in Skopje (if my translation is correct). Old clothing and photo albums from Communist times, really old stuff from Romanesque times, and set up of some 50’s and 70’s style houses. Complete with yarn loop thing portrait of some guy:

Then we walked down Улитса Македонија (Macedonian Street) which is apparently celebrating 100 years today. Which meant lots of people there and even some in period dress:

Then we went to the Mother Theresa Museum. Did you know she was Macedonian? No, well neither did I! They have a museum here dedicated to her and her life. It’s kinda cool.

Then it was off to Plaza de Torres for lunch.

We then headed off to the National Gallery of Macedonia in this old Turkish Bath. It had a lot of really cool art work and architecture. See:

We then went off to Chartija (old town) to just wander around and go to the Bit Bazaar, or a market full of stuff. Want anything? Go to Bit Bazaar. Clothes? Bit Bazaar. Food? Bit Bazaar. Accessories? Bit Bazaar. Bathroom plumbing? Bit Bazaar. It’s cool to just wander around.

Then we went off to meet up with Erin and get some boza. However, we first went to see this jeweler that Erin uses for silver filigree. And ended up at tea with him for about an hour. He was super nice.

We tried to get boza, and did, but then we had to rush to go meet Vesna, Jen’s ride home.

Then home and relaxing. Then a surprise going out until 2 am with Ognen who wanted to forget that his aunt had just suddenly passed away.

 We went to old town and hung out there. After a while we went to the street celebration and danced to 1950s to 1980s music which was apparently really popular in Yugoslavia!