Skopje, Macedonia

I’m lazy, fat, and full of myself. And it’s a good thing.

After a wild Friday night in Nürnberg where Kate and I visited our friend Marc and I broke my non-drinking pledge (as supported and actually encouraged by Kate) with barbarian-like modesty, I hopped a flight to Skopje, Macedonia, to attend a conference for the week. Since arriving, I’ve noticed that I tend to work out less and eat more when I’m not influenced my wonderful and moderating spouse. (What doesn’t help is that the food pyramid in Macedonia looks more like a meat pyramid with spicy beef sausage at the bottom and deep-fried chicken filled with cheese wrapped in bacon at the top – and translucent fries and deep-fried cheese dripping down the sides).
And I also tend to find and perfect other vices as well. For instance, yesterday I played some European blackjack – where I won four euros, might I add shamelessly. Two nights ago on TV I watched a documentary about porn stars. And last night after dinner we went to a smoky Balkan saloon that had rowdy music that made the inner beast in me get up and shake my groove thing in front of important members of various southeastern European nations’ governments.

Skopje, so far, has obviously been a blast. The scenery here is beautiful – it’s a small, temperate city bisected by a meandering river, overlooked by a fortress and a Roman aqueduct, and surrounded in three directions by mountains – some of them snow-capped.

The locals are very friendly. The food is … meaty. And there’s a good mix of mosques, churches, pedestrian zone, and historic sites, including Mother Theresa’s birthplace.

Here's the original Roman acqueduct and a plaque commemorating where Mother Theresa was born.