goin on vacation! tomorrow is the pre-travel aka 2 buses Pristina -> Skopje -> Sofia, airport hotel overnight, then Sofia -> Tel Aviv to hang out with my mom for a few days then -> Barcelona to see some friends from college then -> back to Sofia to connect to a flight for a few days in Budapest then -> meet Topher in Skopje and bus or taxi back to Sofia and actually get to visit it and then take Topher to Pristina :)
Skopje really is the ass-end of everywhere, but man ... there is a vibrancy there that is intoxicating. This is the post-apocalyptic wasteland humanity will rebuild itself from when it all falls apart. It won't be legal, but there's always a guy named Mirsad or Dejan or Ivan that "knows a guy" and can help you out...
That brick building in the back right is more of what I remember... with tall concrete Soviet-era towers... and it always seemed to have snowed a few weeks earlier, and the snow was all shitty with smog and road grime... But there were heavenly pastries!!