Day 124 – Struga and Vevchani – Friday 1/13/12

Ohrid Lake from the dock in Struga, Macedonia

 Trying to make it to as many cultural and traditional events as possible while in Macedonia, Cassidy, Lizzie and I were headed to Vevchani today! We rented a car from Skopje and began our journey to the Southwest of Macedonia. On our way to Vevchani we were able to stop in the city of Struga which is on Ohrid Lake.  We took some pictures of the lake and then had some coffee or cocoa if you are Cassidy or tea if you are Lizzie.  We also walked a few blocks up the river that runs through Struga. From there we got back in the car to head to our original destination...

Strug- and Ohrid Lake

Along our walk I saw this happy fellow!

A church in the park along the river

Vevchani is a village in the southwest part of Macedonia. When the break up of Yugoslavia occurred, the village of Vevchani decided that it too wanted to secede and be it's own country. This was a bit different than the countries that seceded from Yugoslavia, there was no protest or battle, but Vevchani did create their own currency and passports.  They are technically still a part of Macedonia, but they have created independence for themselves as well.  Each year Vevchani holds a New Year's Carnival on the date of Old New Year, January 13th and 14th. For two days the people of Vevchani host visitors from all over.  The people are said to dress in costumes that are the most evil thing they can think of and they have a parade and act crazy for one night, then on the 14th they burn the costumes.  Although that is the tradition, I think that it has evolved slightly into people just dressing up in creative costumes- that are not all evil; I mean there were kids dressed as smurfs and old men! 

When we arrived in Vevchani we were greeted at the gate of the city by some men and young boys who made us citizens of Vevchani (we purchased their passports) and gave us the correct currency (we 

bought paper money).  It was our first experience with the whole carnival and it was a great start! You could tell how full of pride these people were and the little boy in their aviator sunglasses were having a BLAST!  After finding parking we decided to find some lunch before the parade started. There are only 2 sit-down restaurants in Vevchani. The one we picked happen to also be hosting the US Ambassador at the time. They told us we had to wait until he was finished to be seated.  Waiting outside of the restaurant we met two other travelers, one from Serbia and the other Norway who were on vacation in Macedonia. We ended up having a great conversation with them and then sat and shared lunch with them once we were let in the restaurant. The lunch was very tasty- cheeses, meats, ajvar, dips, cheese pastry, meat pastry, and salads. It was all so delicious and the company was unmatched!

View outside the restaurant

dancing- and in costume

Dancing

From there we went outside to see the festivities.  Walking down the streets were small parades of people all heading to where the parade would begin.  There was folk dancing going on as well.  Before long we went and found our place along the parade route.  We had an idea of what was to come, but NOTHING like what it turned out to be.  The first warning we received was to stay away from the guys in the red outfits. They were the crowd control and were known to have dead animals that had been dipped in animal fices that they swung around to keep the parade route clear, and to just instill a bit of fear and disgust.  We were pretty sure that this year was only mud- but it still was disconcerting!  Not wanting to be in the front, in case the guys in red came by, my pictures are not the greatest, I hid behind people. But I think it gives a pretty good example of what it was like!

People walking to the staring point

Muammar Gaddafi and his men

STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS!!

Obama was there!

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We had masks too!

Lesson: Tradition is window to the past; it helps make us who we are as people. Getting to see other people’s traditions is like seeing a window to their life.