On Saturday I had the opportunity to go to Osogovo mountain with some Macedonian friends from Obleshevo and nearby Cheshinovo. When I woke up that morning, I wasn't feeling the best, but I decided I didn't want to pass up the chance to go mountain biking on a beautiful day. They had an extra bike for me, and of course I brought my Peace Corps-issue bike helmet. For non-PCVs, if for some reason I'm caught not wearing a helmet by...I don't know...an undercover agent from the Peace Corps staff, it is grounds for me to be booted out of the country. I'm assuming it's a liability issue, but I know my Macedonian friends got a kick out of it, since no one wears bike helmets here. After all, not wearing car seatbelts in this country is technically illegal, but generally no one wears a seatbelt unless a police checkpoint is coming up on the road.
After loading up on food and beverage in Kocani for our trip, our two-car convoy was off to the mountains.
The first leg of our bike journey was all downhill...so the biggest problem was trying to check our speed so we didn't run into a tree or something. Once we hit the bottom, we reached a creek with a small bridge, and started our uphill climb.
Well it was definitely uphill. The bike I borrowed could not shift gears, and I had to walk it for a while before I was given someone else's (much better) bike and sort of took off ahead of everyone. Even with the nicer bike it was still tough going, and it made me realize that running most mornings on flat terrain doesn't prepare you well for mountain biking. And it didn't help that my lungs were in pain and I was starting to cough some. But there was some nice scenery.
We eventually made our way to the village of Babishte (which apparently means scary grandmother, assuming my Macedonian friends were not joking with me), where we planned to make some skara with sausages and bacon wrapped chicken. Yum.
After my friends talked to a villager about where we could make a fire for our grill, we set things up and passed around a water bottle of rakija.
Eventually we got the grill going and had a nice time chatting. Two of the people in the group had lived in the US for a period of time so it was interesting to hear their perspective about which places they liked best (or didn't like at all). By the time we finished eating and cleaning up, it was about 4:15 so we needed to start heading back before we lost daylight. At some point on the return trip, my body decided it had enough, and my lungs felt like they were on fire. Yet I still attempted the uphill portions and would stop whenever the pain was too much. By the time I made it back to where our cars were parked, I was pretty exhausted, and I started to get really cold. A few minutes later the rest of my friends arrived. I probably should have said I wanted to go home at this point, because I was not feeling right, but I nevertheless agreed to go grab one beer at the shop next to our cars.
Pretty soon after we sat down, I was shivering...and it was 70 degrees out. Things got worse from there as I started feeling light-headed, but we stopped at a pharmacy on the way back in Kocani for some meds, where I managed to tell the pharmacist my 'white graves' are hurting instead of my lungs (I said бели гробови instead of бели дробови). I blame it on the light-headedness. By the time I made it home, my shivering had turned into overheating, and I was running about a 103F fever. My host family took care of me though, and I definitely needed it because I was kind of a wreck. Living with a family definitely has its positives and negatives, but when you're really sick and there's no doctor nearby, it's a definite plus. After a pretty rough night of sleep battling my fever, I woke up feeling better, was able to conclude I probably just have a bad cold and nothing worse. With a few more days of rest, I should be ready for more adventures...
