Well, it rained all day today - it was cool and damp - I had the windows shut for most of the day. I was able to catch up with my blog though since I was alone for the most part of the day. Tina had to go to university to register for a couple of courses and get her marks from her recent courses. The plan was for me and JB to take a taxi back to Macedonia Square - cross the Stone Bridge and go to the 3 museums located right there. Tina would meet up with us somewhere in that area. It was raining when I woke up about 8:30. Tina was showing JB how to use the Macedonian phone so he could call a taxi later for us. I told them that I was not going to the museums in the rain - my bones were already aching from the weather. So they decided JB would go with Tina - I would poke around here - then if the rain stopped by this afternoon, we would take a bus to Matka Canyon and take a boat ride thru the gorge. There are caves that you can explore as well but I would wait at the restaurant if they were doing that. So off they went.
I ate some fruit and yogurt - threw a few things in the washing machine - what a deal that was - I couldn't figure out how to use either machine! They are unlike the washer and dryer I have in Sneem - I still need the directions to figure out what cycles to set both machines at. I tried looking up the directions for these machines online but they were in some other language with no option for English. So I just threw my few things in, added some detergent and turned the machine onto 40 - I'm not sure if it was 40 degrees or 40 minutes! It did the job though.
I chose 40 degrees on the right side - I was afraid the 40 degrees on the ECO side would take too long.
The dryer was much harder to deal with - I put the clothes in - cleaned the little bit of lint out the dryer - then aggravated myself for not being able to figure out the settings. I spun the dial and pushed the start button - it said 1:30 which I presumed meant it would take that long to dry the clothes - well it didn't - the clothes were still wet when it stopped in 15 minutes. I turned the dial again - it said 2: 40 - again the clothes were still damp when it went off. After the 3rd try, the clothes were finally dry. The only consolation was that Tina did not know how to use the machines either!
There were icons under the display and then on the dial on the right.
After doing laundry, I settled down with my blog. There is a big screen TV here, but local programs are in Macedonian and I am having trouble getting streaming services except for YouTube. I can't get my regular Prime Video features including my Great Courses when out of the US. So I settled for some classical music as I was typing. JB messaged me about 10:30 - they were still at university - cold and wet - they hadn't been able to get a taxi because of the rain - no one was walking except them! Took them 30 minutes in the rain to get there. He texted a little later that it would be at least another hour - was I getting hungry? It was still raining here so I said I was not hungry and was content to just chill if Matka Canyon was off because of the rain.
They arrived back about 1:30 pm with a big surprise for me. I had been watching a vlog with JB back in Fort Myers and the guy went to a burger place in Skopje that specializes only in burgers - they are served with cheese and French fries ON them - ketchup, mustard, and a special secret sauce - as well as lettuce, tomato and pickles if you want those. We had talked about going there - so JB and Tina walked there this morning in the rain! They had their burgers there and brought one home to me with the lettuce, tomato, and pickles which I couldn't even see! Look at the size of this monster! The little forks are to eat the French fries with - I used them to scoop the fries out so I could at least try to get my mouth around a part of it for a bite. I have to say that it was delicious especially the bun. I had a few fries which were also terrific. I managed maybe a third of the burger before I was full. What a gastronomic experience - it lived up to the hype in the vlog!
After a while Tina needed some coffee. I was too comfortable to go out in the rain - the coffee is too strong - I'm used to a small teaspoon of Jacobs instant coffee with Stop and Shop nondairy French vanilla creamer at 4 pm every day. I could have taken a Barry Tea Bag with me in case the coffee shop did not have tea - Tina had said yesterday that I could bring a tea bag with me and get a cup of boiling water and a spot of milk - but I decided against it. So off they went again. I was packing up my suitcase - we have to be out of here tomorrow by 10 am - I had already taken a shower so 3 of us wouldn't be trying to get in there in the morning.
Jacobs Cronat Gold is a light roast instant coffee from Germany.
JB And Tina arrived back with another surprise for me - a chocolate covered ice cream bar with caramel bits on top of it - just what I needed! It was delicious - she had brought 3 different bars so we all had one. She had also bought some kind of powdered coffee that has sugar and milk already in it. That tasted more like hot chocolate than coffee - so I finally had my first coffee in Macedonia!
We just chilled for the rest of the evening - they were doing some laundry and packing - we were talking about the plan for tomorrow. Tina had texted the owner who had agreed to a late check out at noon. So instead of all of us dragging our suitcases in a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car, JB and Tina will walk to the bus stop and take the bus to the airport and pick up the car. Tina will be able to ask if we can go across borders with it - we hope to get to at least Bulgaria and Romania - but you need some kind of green papers for the car to show at the border check points. I will stay here and do a quick clean up. Then we are thinking about driving to see the 50 arch Roman Aqueduct and pass the archeological site of Scupi before driving to Matka Canyon. The aqueduct is on a dirt road so if it is raining - 45% chance of rain tomorrow - we may skip it.
So that was today's non-adventure - hopefully the rain will pass by tomorrow and things will go as planned. If not, we just punt. JB and I were looking to see if there are any interesting spots along the way tomorrow. Veles and Prilep are a couple of spots to stretch our legs and get a coffee.
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