💧 5 day Tour! // DAY 3 - Skopje, Macedonia // Surviving a flood //Covering a legendary Macedonian band // Part 2 💧

Quote from Part 1:

"The next morning we woke up early and something was wrong.
The whole sky was dark and there was no sign of sun. We looked outside and saw a mini apocalypse happening.
The rain was literally pouring through the whole city, which caused a complete traffic collapse and made the whole city to shut down for maintenance. The streets were flooded so much that we couldn’t drive our car through it...
We were trapped…
The only way to get to the car was by taking our shoes off and running through the water, and we were supposed to be in Skopje (around 500 km away) until 5 P.M.

Will we make it?
Will we survive the elements?
What happens next?"

---

The water was cold, biting ruthlessly to our feet.
We somehow managed to throw in our luggage, and open the gates of the backyard.
We were soaking wet, and tried to dry our feet and clothes a dry towel. Then we entered the street.
It was absolutely crazy...

The water was literally splashing our car doors. Seeing the cars turning around or getting stuck in the middle of the road we figured that we should choose our route carefully.
At one point we had to get up to a sidewalk so we don't drown...
Joking, it wasn't that bad, but it was quite fucked up. ;)

(we even heard that one guy was canoeing through the streets :D actually found a picture of him)
Finally, we managed to get a hold of a bigger road and continue our course towards Macedonia.

The road was soaking, but we had to press on.
Fortunately, we made a small detour around Belgrade, so we didn't get stuck in some traffic jam.

We traveled for around 5 hours, really rushing, and got to Skopje just in time. The weather was much better over there.
Even tho' the rain wasn't falling, they moved the concert inside the venue (the original was supposed to happen in front of it, on the open).

The hospitality is always perfect in Macedonia. It's always seems to the bands that the souther you go in the Balkans, that the more chaotic it gets. But despite their absurd government, the people are amazing, bright and welcoming.

There were around 50-60 people at the concert, they told us that another concert (Morcheeba) was happening somewhere, and that maybe a lot of people will be there. But this was just the crowd for us - the people were interested.

We played with a really cool Macedonian young band called EMA.
They sounded awesome, a really interesting mix of emo, post-hardcore melodies and rhythms.
Our show was really nice. It's always nice playing in front of a familiar and friendly crowd.
They were listening closely and carefully, and even when we did our a capella song, there was complete silence.
Since they asked for another song, we decided to play a cover of a great Macedonian punk band called "XaXaXa".
They were one of the amazing bands from there that had a great influence to the Balkan scene. While they were active, they played a great number of shows all around Europe.

(here's a little snippet of the show - video by @marinauzelac)

The crowd loved it, and we felt great playing it (actually never tried it before). But we love the song, since it touches of the point of living and growing in a dysfunctional capital.
Here are the lyrics, and their translation from the band page of XaXaXa - https://xaxaxa.bandcamp.com

Колку назад можеш да се вратиш - HOW FAR BACK CAN YOU GO?

Колку назад можеш да се вратиш, и сето тоа да ти треба
И колку тоа сега е важно, колку стварно е важно?
И дали Скопје стварно е начин на кој ќе не снема?
Земјотрес и војна исто се , се рушат градови,гинат луѓе.
Земјотрес и војна исто се, господине…
И дали Скопје стварно начин е на кој ќе не снема?
И дали стварно Скопје начин е ?

---

HOW FAR BACK CAN YOU GO?
How far back can you go, and need all of it
And how important is that now, how important is it really?
And is Skopje really our path to death?
Quakes and wars they are all the same, cities collapse, people die.
Quakes and wars they are all the same, Sir…
And is Skopje really our path to death?
And is Skopje really the path ?

---

It was absolutely beautiful. The show, the aftermath...
Of course at one point my gang went to sleep, and I was left as an ambassador to drink with our Macedonian brothers.
One of our great friends Đole, took me to a local "bar" (we call it "kafana") that's right next to Vardar, where you can hear the eastern turbo-folk music, smell the Macedonian grill (even at 4AM) and drink cheap beer and rakija as much as you want.
The last thing I remember is plummeting through some tall grass at around 6AM, watching the sunrise, and talking to some random "lady of the night".

But more about that in Part 3 ;)

Hope you enjoyed this,

Cheers <3