Earlier this month I was in Albania writing a story on the 700,000 + bunkers; artifacts of an era that most want to put behind them. And while there, I had heard that in neighboring Macedonia, hundreds of ethnic Albanians were packing it up, selling all their possessions, and buying one-way bus tickets to Brussels. To seek asylum.
So I hopped on an old bus from Tirana at 7 in the evening and arrived, tired and worn out at 8 am in Kumanova – a small dusty city in the Likove region of Macedonia that borders Kosovo and Serbia.
And it was all true. That day, myself and another journalist from ALSAT – Macedonia’s national TV station, went to a village in Likove where I got to interview the major and a couple of villagers.
“I’d rather sleep in a bus station in Brussels than here in Likove,” said one villager. A few hours later, we took off to Skopje – the capital – where I had another interview with the vice prime minister in his spacious office. Mind you, I had had no sleep since Tirana and I was operating on caffeine and the rush of mad Balkan driving.
To read my article – go here:
http://euobserver.com/9/29607