Snowfun @ Popova Shapka

Tanja and Me on Shapka, 2011

The weekend is coming up so it really need to make same plans! I can't stay another weekend in Skopje without mountains, fresh air, some activity... Some friends are off climbing to Greece, others have to study for some exams but luckily some others feel like skiing! And so do I! This year the days with good ski opportunities were countable on two hands and therefore we expect whole Skopje and Tetovo to be up there. Keeping the long rows of one month ago in mind, we leave at 7am from Skopje to be there when the ski center opens. A whole day of skiing is waiting for me. I've only really started to ski last year in Macedonia so I still count myself among the beginners but I enjoyed it so much that I decided to grab every skiing opportunity with both hands! Saturday is a cloudy gray day but the company is good and after the warming up it's not going too bad. Popova Shapka is one of my favorite places in Macedonia; you have a stunning view on the mountains and the village itself looks nice too. Furthermore, I can always find some friends from Skopje there! Even with the clouds, the view is amazing, the gray sea of clouds accentuates the snow-white tops of the mountains even more. I feel sorry to not bring my camera but it just doesn't go together with skiing (and falling) and actually I realize that the best pictures are made with your heart. Luckily I still have some pictures from last year to share. After the skiing we go to the cottage of a friend where a whole bunch of people is waiting to have a cosy après-ski party. The atmosphere is great and I'm more then glad to spend the night there instead of heading back to Skopje. Sunday is another skiing day and after some morning fog the sun breaks trough and keeps me company for the rest of the day. The thing I like the most about the second day of skiing is that the muscles get used to the movements much faster, you feel more secure and feel like you can control even when speeding up a bit more. I ski till all the lifts close down and then again we have some relaxed après-ski before returning back to Skopje in the late evening. When getting back to Skopje, I feel exhausted but really satisfied with the weekend. I stumble into my bed and as you know there's no better sleep then the one when you're exhausted. Instead of my usual hour long insomnia I don't even go to see the first 10 minutes of the movie i had put on. What a weekend... Hi, guys, any one up for skiing next weekend?