Pristina, Kosovo
After 3 days in Skopje, I took the bus to Prilep. It was a stopover for one night to break a long stretch of the road ahead into two shorter parts. I booked a room at the hotel Salida one day before coming here. It was €20 per night, quite decent but with slow WiFi.
Reports about Prilep say that it is not worth visiting. I agree, in general, however Prilep has enough to offer for one day. It is not a tourist place; I noticed no obvious visitors on the streets.
The first thing that catches the eye in Prilep is tobacco leaves hung out to dry in sunny spots. I never saw how tobacco leaves are cured and, at first, I did not understand what these things were. Then I recalled reading about Prilep that it was the center of tobacco production in Macedonia for 500 years. Apparently, I was in Prilep in the middle of tobacco harvest.
Prilep has its own statue of Alexander the Great. Unlike the enormous monument in Skopje where Alexander depicted mounted on a horse, the Prilep statue is a lot smaller and Alexander is stark naked save for a strange piece of cloth that is magically remains stuck to his hip without being wrapped around his body. There are other monuments too. it looks like Macedonians have a thing for them.
Fascinating the way the tobacco leaves are dried! It seems unchanged for 500 years:) And Johny Walker who keeps on walking makes one smile:)
Prilep was a pleasant surprise for me. I wonder how people figured out that tobacco leaves could be used for smoking. Curing the leaves is not a straightforward process.