Ice Cream Ending

My last day in Macedonia was spent on yet another field trip – this time to Gostivar in the West of the country. Macedonians I have spoken with disagree with me, but out of all the parts of Macedonia that I have seen (and granted I missed the big tourist destinations) this was the most beautiful. It is in the “Albanian” area of Macedonia and is predominantly Muslim. In 2001 there was a civil war (sometimes downgraded to civil conflict depending on who you are talking to) in this region with Albanian-Macedonians pitted against mainstream Macedonians. There is some concern that this conflict could flare up again at some point as the underlying issues have not really been dealt with.

Regardless, I was awestruck by the beautiful mountains, picturesque villages, crystal clear Vardar River and trees on the hillsides. There is a lot of deforestation ongoing in Macedonia given that wood is the main fuel for heating and cooking, but this region still has some of it trees left. I would love to come back sometime and do some hiking or maybe even try my hand at skiing again – there are some good slopes in the area.

But I was there for business – sort of. My first stop was visiting a cheese factory. This family owned business owns a second production plant in Rome, Italy which is where they learned the art of cheese-making and let me tell you, they learned it well. The mozzarella, smoked provolone, and ricotta that I tried were all to US standards if not beyond. They are all made with sheep cheese so have a distinctive and delicious flavor. So yes, we talked for a while and ate cheese – I have a hard life. The second stop was a juice factory, and once again I sipped strawberry juice as we discussed the juice business in Macedonia.

This has been a great trip and not only because of all the sampling of local delicacies. Macedonia has a rare opportunity right now. Their labor is very inexpensive compared to the nearby European market, plus they are getting support to be able to enter the EU, so if all goes to plan, there will be major changes in the country over the next few years (hopefully with my company helping them along the way if we are successful in this bid). In my opinion their biggest obstacle is corruption.

My last evening my colleagues and I went out to dinner with our translator and the woman who has managed logistics while we were here. They are both great fun so it was an evening with lots of laughter and the evening ended with a trip to the gelateria. Who could ask for a better end?