- Please open your bag. Yes.- What are these bars, chocolate? Yes.
- Please, open one. Yes.
- Where are you going to? Macedonia.
- What for? Tourism.
- There's nothing to see there.
That's what the Bulgarian border officer said after checking thoroughly what was inside my backpack. Every passenger had to leave the bus with its bags. The bus was searched and all the bags put on a table and opened. It's interesting to notice that I was not entering Bulgaria. I was leaving it.
After arriving in Skopje, I wondered why the Bulgarian guy was so harsh on Macedonia. The city looked clean and organized, the road that took me to Ohrid was very good. And Ohrid itself looked like a piece of Côte d'Azur minus the celebrities and luxury cars. The beautiful scenery and people, good bars, food and wine are there. I recommend visiting the place before it loses its charming naiveté and becomes part of the expensive and crowded circuit of summer Festivals. I can imagine a fancy boat taking Nicole Kidman and the like for a ride to the Albanian side in the afternoon before they announce the winners of whatever festival (Lake Ohrid is in the border between Macedonia and Albania). 
As a friend remarked a day later, everyone needs some else to look down on. The Romanian taxi driver in Sibiu, upon learning that I would head to Bulgaria a day later, told me to be careful because Bulgarians were thieves. He looked at me strangely when I told him I had good friends in Bulgaria and was sure I'd have a great time there. In Ohrid, a Macedonian guy of Albanian origin questioned why on earth I would go to Albania. I read somewhere that Albania is one of the countries that suffers most of a misperception about thievery. I spent less than 2 days in the country but never felt unsafe. Tirana, by the way, had a surprising lively nightlife for a Monday. Plenty of nice bars. (It also has its Apple and its Bang & Olufsen authorized dealers). And would I ever have guessed I would hear Vanessa da Mata's "Não me Deixe Só" in a bar in Tirana? A second border story, this one at JFK in NY:
after checking my passport and my visa, the officer at the passport control comes with this:
- What's the purpose of your visit?
- I'm returning home, I reply.
He looks at my visa and says:
He looks at my visa and says:
- You're returning to your job!
3 comments:
Oi, Rodrigo, muito legal o seu blog. Mas que raios você foi fazer em Tirana?
Very nice story. and it is not surprising that in each of the countries you've visited the people were complaining on their neighbors. It's very typical for many places, in our region as well.
I liked the last part of your diary: crossing the border in JFK.
You seem to have a particular devotion for the eastern European countries and former dictatorship regimes. There you may find undisclosed and unrevealed beauty in tons I presume - like in those lovely publications/films... Don't blame you, Rodrigo, to wish to uncover the other side of life yet to be exploited and explored. However, the sense of territory is absolutely reasonable though repulsive; it is clear to note and feel it either by denigrating your neighbors or making sure that one does not belong to any given tribe, such as the JFK example whose kindness demonstrated by the passport control officer was certainly performed by somebody that some day was also an immigrant... Great stories!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lML2N4xB9GU
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