Macedonia, Republic of

Kriva Palanka, Republic of Macedonia – January 2018 — I will write about my town and his name is Kriva Palanka, it is a small town in Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Europa. Kriva Palanka has a 16.000-17.000 population and it is border town between Macedonia and Bulgaria. I grow up here and this town totally changed on worst. This mountain town once surrounded with nature and trees clean river now become so polluted, air smells like chemicals, rivers are full with plastic trash and chemicals and there is no fish. People cut almost every tree to heat, sell etc. There are too many cars, people are so uneducated that is like primitive colony. When i grew up things were very different, not so much people, and those that were living there were polite educated they respected nature and others but now is like horror movie. This town have very old monastery called St. Joakim Osogovski located in the mountain not far from the town, and it is the only thing now that give good light to the town.

Transition, wars, poverty all this thing left marks on this place and stupidity reach maximum level. When i was kid the water was so clean and healthy, now if you drink you will became sick. There are like 100 street homeless dogs that starve and [content moderated to remove information that might identify writer]. Town is poisoning them, they mix poison with raw meat and they put it all over town, it is horror dead dogs everywhere near schools and kindergartens, they rot in alleys and dumpsters it is so so sad! I hate that all i wrote are bad things but that is the harsh reality that i’m living in, my bad luck is that i’m stuck here and all i want to do is leave this place, i tried to change it but it cannot be changed. So sad writing this but some places are good and some are like this town. Regards

 

Kriva Palanka, Republic of Macedonia – January 2018 — I will write about my town and his name is Kriva Palanka, it is a small town in Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Europa. Kriva Palanka has a 16.000-17.000 population and it is border town between Macedonia and Bulgaria. I grow up here and this town totally changed on worst. This mountain town once surrounded with nature and trees clean river now become so polluted, air smells like chemicals, rivers are full with plastic trash and chemicals and there is no fish. People cut almost every tree to heat, sell etc. There are too many cars, people are so uneducated that is like primitive colony. When i grew up things were very different, not so much people, and those that were living there were polite educated they respected nature and others but now is like horror movie. This town have very old monastery called St. Joakim Osogovski located in the mountain not far from the town, and it is the only thing now that give good light to the town.

Transition, wars, poverty all this thing left marks on this place and stupidity reach maximum level. When i was kid the water was so clean and healthy, now if you drink you will became sick. There are like 100 street homeless dogs that starve and [content moderated to remove information that might identify writer]. Town is poisoning them, they mix poison with raw meat and they put it all over town, it is horror dead dogs everywhere near schools and kindergartens, they rot in alleys and dumpsters it is so so sad! I hate that all i wrote are bad things but that is the harsh reality that i’m living in, my bad luck is that i’m stuck here and all i want to do is leave this place, i tried to change it but it cannot be changed. So sad writing this but some places are good and some are like this town. Regards

Paddock Wood, ENGLAND (UNITED KINGDOM) — January 17, 2018 — I grew up in rural South East England. I was born in 1965 in the tiny town of Paddock Wood. My father took a train to London every afternoon and worked overnight, coming home in the morning. My mother used to joke that the town looked like a wild west town. It had one main street that terminated in an ornate train station. All the shops were one story high and independent. There were few people. She said that all it was missing was the tumbleweed and the music. Beyond the town the fields stretched for miles. My mother used to push me around the countryside in a stroller. We covered miles. The first words I learned were “sheep” and “duck”. When I was a bit older I started to explore on my own. I got a bicycle when I was seven and I used to explore the meandering country roads and the big apple orchards. I attended the local elementary school and made some friends. I became obsessed with pop music by age eight and would sing hits by David Bowie and Slade on my way to school each morning.

In 1975 my parents moved to another small local town but I got to go back to Paddock Wood a lot in the eighties. When my grandfather passed away my grandmother moved into a senior home in …. Paddock Wood, and as a newly registered driver I got the job of picking her up on a Sunday morning and taking her home in the evening. When my father got a new car in 1982 that had a radio in it I was so happy because I could play loud music on the way home after dropping her off. I have only been back to Paddock Wood once or twice in the last twenty years. A lot has changed. There are a lot more people but it feels empty without my grandmother. Many of the fields are gone, given over to new development but at night it is still at heart a tiny rural town and after the last train has left the station you can almost see the tumbleweed drift past.

Samokov, BULGARIA — January 16, 2018 — The name of the town I grew up in is Samokov. Samokov is a small town in Bulgaria, about 40 miles outside the capital city of Sofia. It is situated in the basin of Rila Mountain which is the highest mountain on the Balkan peninsula. We are about a 20 min drive to one of the biggest winter resorts in Bulgaria. The biggest Bulgarian river flows through our beautiful town also. But the most famous thing about our town is the potatoes. The town of Samokov is the biggest potato producer in Bulgaria.

I loved living there from the time I was born until I was 25. Oh those were the best years. Even though some of them were during turbulent times in history in other parts of the world. I lived there while Bulgaria was under the communist reign of the Soviet Union, some even considered us a part of the USSR, we technically weren’t, but we did have the same president for 45 years! I remember going on vacation to Germany when I was 10 and my dad telling me about what’s on the other side of the wall. I remember that wall falling down some years later and the new beginning for all the Eastern European countries. All of a sudden there wasn’t enough food in the stores, almost overnight. We had to get up at 5am and go line up in front of the grocery store, waiting for hours before they open, just to buy milk and bread. Rations were imposed, there wasn’t enough to go around, people that came late didn’t get any. It was hard times for a couple of years.

The weather in our town was perfect growing up, not too hot and not too cold. Summer only lasted about 2 months, and most of the time temperature didn’t go above 85 F. Winter was the longest. It started snowing in October and there was almost always snow still on the ground in April. But they were mild winters, where everything was covered in snow, looked like winter wonderland, and everyone enjoyed it. Especially kids. We went sledding and skiing every chance we got. We built snow forts and had snowball fights. But the longest season of all was Fall. With it’s many sunny days it was my favorite time of the year. And now, 20 years later, if I could I would return and raise my children there. Sadly it’s been more than 10 years since I’ve been able to visit.

Kriva Palanka, Republic of Macedonia – January 2018 — I will write about my town and his name is Kriva Palanka, it is a small town in Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Europa. Kriva Palanka has a 16.000-17.000 population and it is border town between Macedonia and Bulgaria. I grow up here and this town totally changed on worst. This mountain town once surrounded with nature and trees clean river now become so polluted, air smells like chemicals, rivers are full with plastic trash and chemicals and there is no fish. People cut almost every tree to heat, sell etc. There are too many cars, people are so uneducated that is like primitive colony. When i grew up things were very different, not so much people, and those that were living there were polite educated they respected nature and others but now is like horror movie. This town have very old monastery called St. Joakim Osogovski located in the mountain not far from the town, and it is the only thing now that give good light to the town.

Transition, wars, poverty all this thing left marks on this place and stupidity reach maximum level. When i was kid the water was so clean and healthy, now if you drink you will became sick. There are like 100 street homeless dogs that starve and [content moderated to remove information that might identify writer]. Town is poisoning them, they mix poison with raw meat and they put it all over town, it is horror dead dogs everywhere near schools and kindergartens, they rot in alleys and dumpsters it is so so sad! I hate that all i wrote are bad things but that is the harsh reality that i’m living in, my bad luck is that i’m stuck here and all i want to do is leave this place, i tried to change it but it cannot be changed. So sad writing this but some places are good and some are like this town. Regards

Paddock Wood, ENGLAND (UNITED KINGDOM) — January 17, 2018 — I grew up in rural South East England. I was born in 1965 in the tiny town of Paddock Wood. My father took a train to London every afternoon and worked overnight, coming home in the morning. My mother used to joke that the town looked like a wild west town. It had one main street that terminated in an ornate train station. All the shops were one story high and independent. There were few people. She said that all it was missing was the tumbleweed and the music. Beyond the town the fields stretched for miles. My mother used to push me around the countryside in a stroller. We covered miles. The first words I learned were “sheep” and “duck”. When I was a bit older I started to explore on my own. I got a bicycle when I was seven and I used to explore the meandering country roads and the big apple orchards. I attended the local elementary school and made some friends. I became obsessed with pop music by age eight and would sing hits by David Bowie and Slade on my way to school each morning.

In 1975 my parents moved to another small local town but I got to go back to Paddock Wood a lot in the eighties. When my grandfather passed away my grandmother moved into a senior home in …. Paddock Wood, and as a newly registered driver I got the job of picking her up on a Sunday morning and taking her home in the evening. When my father got a new car in 1982 that had a radio in it I was so happy because I could play loud music on the way home after dropping her off. I have only been back to Paddock Wood once or twice in the last twenty years. A lot has changed. There are a lot more people but it feels empty without my grandmother. Many of the fields are gone, given over to new development but at night it is still at heart a tiny rural town and after the last train has left the station you can almost see the tumbleweed drift past.

Samokov, BULGARIA — January 16, 2018 — The name of the town I grew up in is Samokov. Samokov is a small town in Bulgaria, about 40 miles outside the capital city of Sofia. It is situated in the basin of Rila Mountain which is the highest mountain on the Balkan peninsula. We are about a 20 min drive to one of the biggest winter resorts in Bulgaria. The biggest Bulgarian river flows through our beautiful town also. But the most famous thing about our town is the potatoes. The town of Samokov is the biggest potato producer in Bulgaria.

I loved living there from the time I was born until I was 25. Oh those were the best years. Even though some of them were during turbulent times in history in other parts of the world. I lived there while Bulgaria was under the communist reign of the Soviet Union, some even considered us a part of the USSR, we technically weren’t, but we did have the same president for 45 years! I remember going on vacation to Germany when I was 10 and my dad telling me about what’s on the other side of the wall. I remember that wall falling down some years later and the new beginning for all the Eastern European countries. All of a sudden there wasn’t enough food in the stores, almost overnight. We had to get up at 5am and go line up in front of the grocery store, waiting for hours before they open, just to buy milk and bread. Rations were imposed, there wasn’t enough to go around, people that came late didn’t get any. It was hard times for a couple of years.

The weather in our town was perfect growing up, not too hot and not too cold. Summer only lasted about 2 months, and most of the time temperature didn’t go above 85 F. Winter was the longest. It started snowing in October and there was almost always snow still on the ground in April. But they were mild winters, where everything was covered in snow, looked like winter wonderland, and everyone enjoyed it. Especially kids. We went sledding and skiing every chance we got. We built snow forts and had snowball fights. But the longest season of all was Fall. With it’s many sunny days it was my favorite time of the year. And now, 20 years later, if I could I would return and raise my children there. Sadly it’s been more than 10 years since I’ve been able to visit.