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Tag: Macedonia

  • Obama Elected, The World Rejoices – Turkey, Macedonia Perhaps Not So Much

    Even though sentiments are mixed in the US, around the whole world people have reacted enthusiastically about Obama‘s election. People around the world have had more than enough of Bush’ policies and were hoping for a change. Change being the keyword of Obama’s campaign and McCain being associated with Bush, caused the most people to be more favourable towards Barack Obama. The website If the world could vote? shows that all over the globe, more people were rooting for Obama than for McCain.

    Obama is young, ‘black’, a Democrat and instills hope, whereas McCain was seen as very similar to Bush, partly due to employing similar tactics to the ones of former Republican campaigns.

    One country that seemed significantly pro-McCain on aforementioned If the world could vote? is Macedonia. Why? The Republic of Macedonia borders Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Serbia and Kosovo. Not the easiest region for a country. Greece refuses to recognize ‘Macedonia’ as their name, one of the reasons being a similarly named province in northern Greece, and Macedonia is thus referred to in the UN as The Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia (FYRM). It’s a very complex issue. McCain has been very outspoken about recognizing Macedonia by its constitutional name, whereas Obama has been more careful about it.

    Randy Scheunemann, a McCain adviser said the following about NATO membership bids:

    On Albania, Croatia and Macedonia, Senator McCain has been strongly outspoken in support for including them. They are ready. In the case of Macedonia, they’ve been a membership action plan for eight or nine cycles.

    With respect to the Greek concerns, the United States recognizes Macedonia under its constitutional name.

    And he certainly hopes that there’s not going to be this throwback to the 19th century style of Balkan politics, and the Greeks throw a red card on the membership of Macedonia.

    Since this is a very big issue in Macedonia, as territorial, cultural and national integrity always are in the Balkans, it’s no wonder people in Macedonia were hoping for McCain to win.

    As for Turkey, people might be happy to see a change in government. Bush’ unpopular policies have led to an increase in anti-Americanism around the world. In June, a Pew poll found that out of 47 countries, Turkish people had the least favourable view of the United States (source: The New York Observer). In that sense, Obama will be a welcome change.

    It is hoped that the new President will aid Turkish efforts against the PKK and the Kurdish insurgency in the Iraqi border area, support the EU’s membership bid and put pressure on European politicians, and support Turkey in its process of becoming a modern, democratic country. It’s not expected that Obama will aid Turkey’s military efforts or put significant pressure on the EU to get them to admit Turkey.

    Moreover, just one day before the elections, Obama renewed his commitment to recognize the Armenian genocide, a very sensitive issue in Turkey. McCain “never pledged to label the Armenian killings as genocide and is seen by the U.S. Armenian community as a politician against or indifferent to Armenian matters” (Turkish Daily News).

    Turkey’s foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said “the formal recognition by the United States of genocide would seriously damage U.S.-Turkish ties and hurt Turkey’s efforts for reconciliation with Armenia” after meeting Phil Gordon last week, a senior foreign policy adviser to Obama.

    Turkey is an important ally (NATO member) and trade partner to both the US and EU, as it has a stabilizing presence in the Middle East, often mediating in Arabic-Israeli talks.

    Looks like Obama will have a lot on his hands when he takes office in January.

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  • Foreign Hairdressers

    It’s always interesting to go to a hairdresser in a different country, or even to go to a hairdresser from a different country in your own country.

    I clearly remember the first time I went to a Turkish hairdresser in The Netherlands. As a student, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on haircuts, so I went to a Turkish one, since they’re a lot cheaper. After he was done cutting my hair, he pulled out a metal stick with some cotton on it. He dipped it in some liquid and I assumed it was to clean the equipment. He then lit the cotton on fire! Now I was very surprised and quite anxious about what he would do next. He then stepped back behind me in that typical hairdresser manner of manoeuvring and started making quick strokes along my face with the burning end of the stick, quickly followed by what can be best described as soft slaps (either because he could get away with it, or to prevent my face from catching fire). I hardly ever find the opportunity to use the word flabbergasted, but that time I was completely flabbergasted by the hairdresser’s shenanigans with his grooming paraphernalia.

    Over time I got used to it and quite appreciated it. A warning when he did it the first time would have been nice, but I might have politely declined and missed out on all the adventure. 😉

    Another ‘odd’ experience I had with hairdressers was this summer in Strumica, Macedonia. I entered the smallest hairdressing shop I’ve ever been to and it was almost like the scene of a movie like Hostel. Very Eastern European. Very cool. You can read about it here: Strumica: Last Days (incl. pictures!).

    So today I got my hair cut here in Istanbul… and it was about time. I decided to go with a simple shave. First I haggled a bit about the price… “Hayır. Benim arkadaş… beş lira!” (“No. My friend… five lira.”) We agreed upon a more reasonable price and he did his job. At the end there was no burning stick, but he did something I haven’t encountered before. He got some cotton out, which immediately made me think he would do the burning stick thing, but then he put the cotton on a comb and held it under the tap for a second… He then combed through my hair a bit. I suppose it was to get all the little hairs out.

    So what about your foreign hairdresser experiences? How about in your country? Anything that foreigners would consider ‘unusual’?

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  • Strumica – Last Days

    That evening Mite and I decided to get our hair cut. For him it was his beardhair, for me it was the other headhair. In total, we got our whole heads cut. We walked a bit out of the town and into the hills. There were still a bunch of houses, but they got more and more sparse. We walked up a hill and up to the shabbiest barber shop I’ve ever seen. The guy did a decent job, although my hair wasn’t really shorter afterwards, only crooked, but it was for free since he was a friend of the family (not mine; Mite’s).

    Being so happy with our new cuts, we decided that night was party time! Or maybe it was pre-decided. It doesn’t matter for the story, so I’ll keep it to myself, possibly carrying it to my grave. We got the whole group together and went to a few loud bars with FashionTV on their big screen televisions that were hanging from the ceiling. No difference between Macedonia and Bulgaria there. We ended up in some club and had a lot of smiles on our faces and alcohol in our blood. Excellent. The next day we did the same. See the pictures.

    The next day we took all the children out to play in the park. It was really good and actually made me think twice about what I’m pursuing in my life. Activities like this make me feel really centred, calm and happy on a deeper level than the superficial level of every day happiness. For now I’ll just postpone this thinking about what I want to do with my life until a later point in time, probably mid-life crisis. Without further ado; the pictures! (As always, click to enlarge)

    Click here for entire photo album…

    The next day we chilled out and in the evening got together for one more drink since I’d be leaving. To those that were present: thanks for coming out to say bye! To those that were still up when I got into the taxi: thanks for staying up so late! Speaking about the taxi… I still had to go past a cash machine before I got into my bus back to Sofia (at 3am). We stopped at one machine, I tried… No luck. Other cash machine… same story. I started to get worried. We tried another, but nope. With the fourth one we finally had success. We headed to the busstation where we discovered the driver had no change. I went in quickly to buy a ticket, so I would have change to pay the driver. I tried to buy the ticket, but the guy kept repeating “600 denari, 600 denari”. I had given him one thousand and was wondering what the problem was… 600 more? Oh no… I’d have to go back into the city and get more money… I’d probably miss the bus. Then he put 400 on the counter and started writing my ticket. These people love to fuss about not paying in the exact amount. No more worries, paid the taxi, got in the bus, didn’t sleep in the bus… Ended up being awake for about 40 hours by the time I took my one hour nap. Back at the Art Hostel in Sofia. Back where I began.

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  • Strumica – Stop… Roma time!

    That evening we celebrated a birthday at a bar in town. Isabelle turned 20 and as Leni and her boyfriend Vlado joined us, they surprised her (and us) with cake and chocolate. We had a drink, chilled out and called it a night at an unridiculous hour for a change.

    The next day I could sleep in a little, because Mite and Isabelle had some stuff to do at the NGO’s centre. At around 12 I was picked up by Mite and we were going to have some coffee before our afternoon activity. This afternoon activity was something I’d been waiting for since the moment I decided to go to Bulgaria last year, so naturally I was very excited. In the afternoon, we’d be heading over to the Roma neighbourhood to visit the host family of one of the American girls, Alex. In this neighbourhood however, you are never left alone (that’s a positive thing), so I knew I’d see a lot of stuff I normally wouldn’t, or never have… and that there would probably be some great photo opportunities too. 😉

    Mite and I headed outside and saw a guy sitting behind a car. It was the crazy man we’d seen the day before as we were sitting outside a bar. The guy seemed to be completely in his own world, or even dimension, and today was no different. Mite asked for my camera and he managed to inspire me quite a bit. He knows no shyness and that’s the reason why he gets great shots. Definitely a motivation to get out of my own comfort zone. The crazy guy hardly noticed the camera and I wonder whether he had any idea of what a camera is and what was going on around him.

    Later that afternoon we visited the Roma neighbourhood. It was quite the experience. I’ve often heard Bulgarians complain about the Roma, saying they’re dirty and their neighbourhoods are like landfills and though they might be right, I wonder if they cannot see the beauty that’s right there. A speck of mud on a flower does not destroy the flower’s beauty, the obsessive and judgemental mind does.

    I’ll try to explain what’s not captured in the pictures, but then I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Entering the neighbourhood, as a group that clearly was not from around there, we drew quite the attention. Children loved the cameras and came to pose for us. We walked around and immersed ourselves in the noise and continuous chaos of the neighbourhood. It was great to have people from Alex’ host family as our guides, this made the neighbourhood and the people so much more accessible. Also, Mite and his colleague Leni have been working with some of these kids for years, so they too knew quite a few people there. It’s hard to put into words what the neighbourhood is like though, so without further ado, the pictures.

    Click here for more…

    As said we visited the host of Alex who had a huge house. They lived in Germany for decades, working there to earn money and went back and built a house the size of a villa. After having some coffee, we were offered to come up to see the view from the top balcony of the house.

    Following the Roma hospitality, we headed back to the city so we could all go to dinner. On our way back we visited a mosque which was still under construction. An interesting fact about the Roma people here is that a lot of them see themselves as Turkish and even speak Turkish. Some don’t even speak Macedonian. A fair share of them is also Islamic (evidently). Turkey won’t recognize their claims for Turkish nationality however.

    As the sun went down and the evening stole the day’s presence, more new experiences awaited me.

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  • Strumica – Roma’s and Sandwiches

    The second day in Strumica I woke up with a bit of a hangover. We all got up and I went along with Mite to bring Isabella to the centre of his NGO where she would go to work with other American volunteers and then the plan for Mite and I was to go for coffee. Once there, Mite was put to work, so plans changed. I was standing around a bit and a guy was hooking up computers, so I figured I’d help out a bit. After hooking up some computers, I went to find Mite who was in another room with the American girls doing some activities to teach English to Roma children.

    They were busy with an exercise to write down three things about the first impression you had about a particular person in the room. The children stated some pretty sweet and funny things. After that we were put to work to make badges for ourselves with our name on it, but we had to draw something on it too. After that we did ‘Simon Says…’ to teach the kids some more English.

    See the pictures of the children in my Picasa album…

    After this Mite and I went for lunch and got some of the biggest sandwiches I’ve ever seen.

    We then met the girls in the centre who were done with work by now and Mite and Leni (who also works for the NGO) showed them the ways home. This was very interesting, because one of them was staying in a Roma neighbourhood. You enter quite a different place when you walk into the Roma neighbourhood; it’s like a village of its own and a very busy and noisy one at that. One of the girls was picked up by the family where she was staying and we were all invited to come around for coffee some time. This plan’s definitely on the table and I’m very excited about it.

    We then went home, had dinner, chilled out a while and Mite and I went out again to meet some more of his friends.

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  • Pictures up now!

    The bird from our hotel (read here)

    The lizard on the mountain (read here)

    See the Bulgarian photos so far here and the ones from Strumica here.

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  • Hello Strumica, Macedonia!

    On Tuesday I spent some more time in Blagoevgrad and saw a little more of the town. All I really did was wander around a bit and occasionally sit down, have some juice and read Carlos Castaneda’s Teachings of Don Juan. Perfect.

    I didn’t feel like walking around with my backpack in the sun (at the risk of melting!), so around three o’ clock I took a taxi to the bus station so I could catch a bus to Strumica. I walked into an office of the station and asked about tickets. They sent me to an office across the street from the station. This office sent me to a bus station next to the one where I was. It took quite a while to figure out where I had to take the bus exactly and I wasn’t really sure until I was actually on it. At ten past five, I was on my way to Strumica in a bus full of Bulgarians and Macedonians.

    As we came closer to Sandanski, I recognized a particular road and I remembered it so clearly that I was a bit startled. It immediately recalled some more memories of the last time I travelled down that road – on my way to and from the Balkan Youth Festival last year.

    After spending about 1.5 hour at the border, I arrived in Strumica at 9 o’ clock and was picked up by my friend Mite (also referred to as Mitko). He took me to his home and explained that he was going to be having another guest for the next 10 days due to his work for a local NGO. So one or two hours later an American girl named Issabella arrived who’d been in the Balkan region for a few weeks. We chatted for a while and after midnight Issabella went to bed and Mite and I went into the city. I was very curious to see what the town was like.

    The town was swarming with young people. Apparently young people go outside every evening in the summer and hang out in one of the many bars, in the park, on the street in the center or at squares. I wish people in Holland would live a little bit more ‘outside’, but I guess it’s not in our culture.

    We had a drink with some of Mite’s friends and I was introduced to a Macedonian drink called “mastika”. It’s a lot like the Greek ouzo, but there’s a clear difference. The taste of mastika is not as sweet and a lot more subtle. I heard a lot of stories about Macedonian history, Macedonia and the EU, Bulgaria, etc. Rather popular topics among intelligent young people in the Balkans. I’ve rarely discussed Dutch history or the EU with friends in Holland, only recently, because of my studies related to the EU.

    Later Mite and I got some beers and sat at the central square in Strumica and chilled out a bit. Talked about everything. Around 4 in the morning we planted our asses in our respective beds and dozed off for a 4 hour nap.

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  • Holiday!

    Yay!

    Going on holiday very soon. Took care of everything I wanted to take care of before I left. Now the plan’s to meet up with one more friend for an hour or so, go buy some more travel accessoires, get my ass over to Anton’s house to sleep there and get on the road in the morning.

    I’m travelling with Anton’s mom and her boyfriend and we’re going by car… to Bulgaria. It’s going to be quite a trial, since I don’t like heat, cars, or waiting, but fuck it. It’s also an adventure. Maybe. Anyway, turns out we’ll be coming through Novi Sad, Serbia, where I have a friend that I met at the Balkan Youth Festival (BYF) last year. Then going to Sofia, Bulgaria to visit my girlfriend. Then going to Strumica, Macedonia to visit another friend I mate at the BYF.

    All the way down there, the landscape can be a lot like the picture below, so I’m really looking forward to submerging myself in the unknown again. 🙂

    Then it’s back to Bulgaria, where I will finally see the Black Sea coast! I’m (more or less) packed and ready to go! Here I come. 🙂

  • Sandals vs flip-flops

    Sandals vs Flip-flops header

    So, I’m about to embark on my holiday to Bulgaria. Pushed forward from Saturday, to Wednesday, to Thursday, to Friday, I’ve been preparing for the trip for a while now. Seeing as it will be very warm in Bulgarian and Macedonia, I don’t want to wear my shoes all the time. So I told my girlfriend that when I’m in Sofia, where she lives, she’s going to help me pick out a pair of flip flops. She reacted as if I had asked her to help me find some sandals.

    Well… that’s for Holland. In Holland, sandals are perceived as a rather nerdy thing to wear. Flip-flops are cool! In Bulgaria, flip-flops are apparently not cool. Well, not if you want to be perceived as masculine anyway. Apparently there, it IS okay to wear sandals. Which is a big don’t in Holland.

    So obviously you understand my big fashion dilemma right now. How to look cool everywhere!? I will go not eat something now and starve myself to death so I look more like the people I admire. I’ll leave you with a question though. Or two. Two questions! No, three.

    What’s it like in your country? Are men who wear flip-flops really less masculine? Is wearing sandals in the city for nerds and old people?

    Let the debate commence!

    Sandals vs Flip-flops header

  • Rush!

    Letter of Acceptance

    I’ve been officially accepted to Yeditepe! Time to sit back and relax, right? Not.

    Last week: 2 final exams. This week: 1 final exam, 1 deadline for a website, some work assignments. So at this point I was already busy. Anyway, I decided to figure out how I would get my ERASMUS grant. I went to the international office and they informed me I should have my forms in before the 15th of July (I would be in Bulgaria/Macedonia from the 25th of June to the 17th of July), including a certificate of enrollment for the NEXT study year. I handed my enrollment in last Friday and was going on holiday this Saturday, so that got me quite stressed.

    “No worries, mate” I told myself. I figured I’d just take care of something that I could take care of immediately. I googled a bit to find out more about the Turkish embassy in Holland and visa. The embassy site was nearly completely in Turkish, but I found a number and called them. After passing through 2 rude receptionists and being connected to a person, I was informed that I should not call her but someone asked and she asked me why I called her. I blamed television and she gave me the number of the Turkish consulate. I called the consulate, had to go through the same annoying type of receptionists and finally got someone who knew anything about what I was asking. Turns out the studentvisum for Turkey is… 446 euros! Awesome. Perfectly reasonable to ask from a student, right?

    More stress.

    Then I did something I should do more often before asking stuff to people who don’t really know the answer either. I used my eyes and applied them to some text. I did some reading. I saw I could get an advance on the Erasmus grant, which meant I could probably use that money to pay for the visum. Also, I got in contact with the central international office of my degree factory (commercial university) and found out my enrollment for this year would be enough.

    Last time I had stress relief like this I decided it would be best not to blog about it. So I won’t.

    Nervewrecking stuff if you’re going on a holiday for a month in just a few days. Anyway, it all seems to be okay now. Still nervous about the visum, since I’d rather not borrow money for it, but we’ll see. Let’s hope the woman was confused and told me the normal or work visum instead of a studentvisum. Not counting on it though. The very worst is that I will have to go visit the consulate which is built in Holland’s pit of doom, Rotterdam. Lord, help me :sad:

    Oh! So I’m going on a holiday this Wednesday. Expect to see many stories and pictures! :cool:

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