On the 1st of May, I discovered a new side of Macedonia—the Macedonian countryside. 

With my Macedonian friends, we decided to celebrate the Labour Day in the best way we could. BARBECUE! They invited me to Celopek, a little village not far from the Serbian border. The beginning of the day was similar to how we celebrate Workers’ Day back home, a big barbecue with some beers. So, the most exotic part was to understand the Kumanovo dialect! Hard to understand at first, but after a couple of hours, you’ll get it. 

The first thing they showed me in Celopek was a little fountain. I felt like I was in a video game: just water and a lot of butterflies around me. If you don’t see that, it’s hard to imagine…

After eating a lot of pleskavica, chicken with cheese, and bread, we decided to go to the hot springs – Strnovac Banja. And what an experience! I didn’t expect to find this in Macedonia. For two hours, I felt like I was back in Guadeloupe, at St Thomas Hot Springs, where water goes up to 80 degrees. The springs are located in a city we call Bouillante, which means boiling, so it’s easy to understand what’s happening there. The former name was Boiling Fountain. Enjoying the hot springs and watching the stars was wonderful, especially when you cannot see them in Skopje

Then we came back home. I felt like I hadn’t spent enough time in Kumanovo, so I decided to stay longer to discover the city. The only times I had been there before, I’d just driven across it on the way to another Macedonian place.

It was interesting to discover this city. You can see a lot of teenagers outside, just chilling in cafés or next to the schools. I’ve learned that’s a habit there. I was surprised because that’s not common in France. Teenagers usually go straight home after school, and if they go out, they stay in their neighbourhood. Even in Skopje, it’s not that common. At least to me, or probably it’s just less visible.

People don’t speak much English in Kumanovo, so thanks to my basic Macedonian, I managed to make myself understood—and it was nice, in fact. In Skopje, because of English influence, people tend to switch languages if you can’t speak Macedonian. Kumanovo was good practice.

I went to my friend’s home and met his family. They were happy to meet a new person from abroad, asking me a lot of things about my culture, how we live, what we eat, how life is on an island. 

There are 2 things that warm my heart: when you are interested in my culture, and when you feed me. And when people don’t know how to speak your language, they will show you how they appreciate you with food and alcohol, so, every 30mn, they ask me if i’m hungry and it’s hard to refuse because you don’t want to hurt them, but you still feel warm with these intentions.

During my third day, I finally started to walk around Kumanovo, enjoying the sun in square Marshal Tito, and my friend decided to show me something next to Kumanovo Banja. I was so shocked! Can you imagine? Natural sparkling water in nature! I’ve never seen that in my life, so we brought some bottles home. End of the day, we went to Agora, one of the most famous bars in Kumanovo, after eating in a beautiful restaurant.

On Sunday, at the end of the trip, I was supposed to go home in the morning, but my friend’s mother asked me to take the last bus, so we could spend more time together. I was so glad to be welcomed to her house, no one else can compete with Macedonian hospitality on this planet.

Thank you, Mario, Damjan, and Stefan, for this nice weekend. Special shoutout to Mario,  who was my translator the whole weekend. I will never forget this trip.

Terry Ruart