Walking the Gauntlet

I went on a very interesting drive today and feel lucky to have come out alive. I went by taxi to the town of Kavadarci which is 1.5 hours from Skopje to visit a peach farmer who is exporting his peaches to Europe. The main road east from Skopje was previously a very nice four-lane divided highway, but as of Monday they closed one half of the highway and moved all four lanes into half the size. Needless to say, the road is now far too narrow for two cars to drive in the same direction, never mind all the trucks that use that route to transport goods to and from Greece and Bulgaria. When my driver dodged through the barriers dividing the directions in order to pass the first of a long line of trucks crawling up a hill creeping around the curves, I decided it was time to intervene and tell him that I would rather arrive in one piece 5 minutes late than not arrive at all. Even with a severe language barrier, he was made to understand my intention and we crawled along the rest of the way.

On the way back from the visit I saw a car lose its wing mirror on the barrier and we passed an accident (only one). There were three cars involved, and two of the cars were Parliamentarian’s vehicles. Maybe this will change the decision about the road? It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

When your life flashes before your eyes, it makes you want to make the most out of the time that you have left. So I went out to dinner with some colleagues from Washington that are based here and sampled the nightlife of Skopje. Who knew that I would be out at a salsa bar in Macedonia!