L'itineraire

mercredi 12 novembre 2008

A damn long day!

It starts with an early wake up in the islands church. Despite the 6 am alarm clock we will not see the complete sunrise on the lake. We get to the old roman cistern and sit down to enjoy the sunrise and meditate a bit. Yoga breathing and a couple aom. This does not calm down Goze so much and we go through the woods for the dead side of the island. This promised paradise is intriguing me and i cant wait to see it but first, as we walk through the woods, we stumble on one more ruin. Roman house probably says Goze. Next to it are laying numerous ceramic pieces and we start digging around a bit, only the first couple centimeters and still we are finding lots of ceramics. Parts of bigger and smaller pots, jars etc... We leave it there and go for the paradise. We are now walking with my compass, don't want to get lost again :) Soon it starts to smell, we are getting close. Amongst the gray ground, Goze notices one more mante religieuse, quite aggressive this one.
Then the grass starts to get higher and greener. The color is accentuated by the contrast with everything else that is white and dead and with the bluest sky. Goze is half astonished half disappointed, he never came at this time of the year and he has always seen it all white and dead. As promised, the trees have crazy shapes, are white and dead, no more leaves here for some time. It is truly unreal and magic. Some more pictures and a stop at his spot later, we get back to our shelter.
We have a dejeuner sur l herbe without naked women, make more jokes, talk more apu and enjoy the sun. I believe it is already eleven and this food will be enough as we get back to the church, we realize it is only 9. The fishermen will pick us up at 1pm, plenty of time until then. So we decide to pack and spend the rest of the time by the beach. As we packed everything, we realize the floor is real dirty and grab the balais and start cleaning. It was really needed and this will be a far better deed than leaving money. We chill in the sun, Goze goes for a swim, i sun bade.
Soon the fisherman arrive, luckily at the same time than the police which will therefor not bother us. We load the stuff and head back to the land. The fisherman have caught 2 small trouts, they still seem pretty big to me and we decide to buy them, they will make a proper meal after all this bread, cheese and bad pasteta. As we arrive on land, drink tea with the fishermen, Goze talks business, and negotiates the price of fish and a ride to Ressen. 1000 dennars for fish and ride plus the usual 2000 for the boat ride. My money is going lower and lower faster than ever. Before leaving the village, we visit the house Goze plans to buy to make his home. He left his soul here as he says and has to come back all the time so he will buy this ruin and make it his home. It is the only house in the village located a bit higher and the view on the lake is amazing. There is a lot of work needed on the house but it is worth it. Our driver knows the owners, they live in Ressen and he will drop us there so that Goze can talk business.
After bringing coffee and chocolate, he talks a bit with the present old lady about the house and we head for the bus station. Again no hitchhiking. Is Goze scared? for sure not! lazy? maybe a bit but it is mainly because we are starving for fish and need to be in Bitola for the train to Skopje. As i mentioned before, the train is much cheaper then the bus in Macedonia. So this time we take an illegal taxi, a Turkish man is going to Bitola and is filling up his car. 4 in the back, we are a bit squeezed but who cares, it makes it all cheaper for everyone. The trunk does not close but it does not matter, the old bike tire is there to close it somehow. And off we go in the old,fully loaded and coughing lada! Goze is once again talking a lot, i don't mind, i even would enjoy it if he wouldn't yell in my ears. But he nows it, he is full of energy and cannot help it :) My other neighbor went to Austria, Germany and the Switzerland to work. 8 years long. He speaks perfect German and we talk a bit about humanity, religion and Macedonia. The whole care except us (Goze is learning, i know 2 words) speaks Turkish and has a great familiarity with Turks. If the Macedonians hate Greek and some Bulgarians, they love the turks just as much. So we speak a bit about Turkey and everyone agrees how great it is there!

Pictures of the frst part of the day:


In Bitola, after missing the street, a hundred dennars extra get the driver to turn around and drop us right in front of a friend of Gozes house, he is a junky he says, but a good guy. And as we get in we find 2 of his friends but he rushed of. There is a Canadian, he was chased out of Canada as he explains and his family have a house here in the mountains where he stays. The other one is Macedonian. Goze goes out to get some bread and lemon to go with the fish. Meanwhile i start cleaning the fish properly and wash a couple pans and plates. The two guys are sitting close enough for me to hear their conversation. A real junky conversation, they are talking about what the doctor says about the scares and never healing injection spots on their body, about the fact that they do to much and then about how horses (heroine) is the best drug ever. How all the others give you paranoia and how many great people do this drug. That it is better than sex (ooo trainspoting). That the only bad thing about it are the crises, that they should be able to change their blood. Then, probably speaking about the bad looks and xxxx they are victim of, they say how bad all the people are out there. I have to think about my friend i met in Croatia and who is a drug counselor... these people are in an other world and to get of this drug you have to take that decision. But in their conversation i feel they try to comfort themselves and i really sense there is a heavy addiction here and that they know this very well. I do not intervene however and just learn from this conversation and scene how relative things are (once again) and who dangerously great and addictive that drug is. I think again about what that man said giving me a ride a couple days ago, how many of his friends switched to heroine and died of it. And as Goze says once again, all the people hooked on H are great, the all had some problle in their life and escape with this. To the reader thinkng “pfff, this is no excuse, you gave to fight, turn to your family and friends blablabla...” I ask them to think again, and consider my “pfff, your life is sooooo easy and you are a lucky bastard!”
Goze comes back, he takes over the cooking, not satisfied with my preparation of the fish. And he is probaby right since he cooks us the best fish ever. Even Emerson, the Canadian guy who said he would not eat fish because he does not like it joins us in this feasting. There are now just the tree of us and we are drinking white, eating and talking like completely normal people. Eerson is realty a great guy and i feel he needs help, counseling or something similar, probably simply love and attention. he gets an petit bonhomme, a pink and orange girly. Later Pero comes back and he tells us no way there is a train at 10pm. Thats the train from Skopje not to Skopje. Ok great and when is the next one. at 3.30 am... Ok nema problema, lets go out! We have 500 left if we take out the train ticket. We catch a cab, get the youngest driver in Bitola, he just got 18! And as we walked 50 meters on the main walking street, the giro, we see a couple young guys and girls playing guitar and singing for money. This is where our road stops, we sit down and enjoy great conversations and a lot of laughter. Some of them ar acedonians, some from Bitola, some from Skopje, some are Turkish and there is the other French bitch. Some of them where at Rainbow, some sing great improvised songs with great voice, some drink beer, some vine with honey, some prefer eating a cheap version of nutela with their fingers. We sit there for hours and at one point everyone, even the ones who wanted to stay, decide to go for Skopj. They had a great day, people where generous and the collected money will pay for the night train!

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