Man at Bar #2

Last weekend (April 25-26) I took part in something I never expected to happen when I set off for Southeastern Europe - a tourism commercial for Macedonia. Last fall, just for the hell of it, I went with some of my friends to a casting call for a production company. The girls were more serious about it, but my friend Dave and I were there so why not sign up ourselves?

Dave actually lives full time in Macedonia and speaks Macedonian so there was some plausibility to his involvement but I just go there on weekends and have about a 50-word vocabulary, so I never took it seriously.

7 months later, Dave's wife Billy got a call from the production company wanting the four of us to be extras in a commercial promoting tourism to Macedonia. We would have to leave Skopje at 6 AM, drive 3 hours to the Ohrid airport (St. Paul the Apostle International), spend maybe 12 hours on set, have no speaking roles, and get paid 1000 denars (about 20 bucks). Of course I said yes.

That Saturday morning was probably the earliest I've been up during the whole of the past year. I don't get up any sooner than 8:30 for my real job but I was up at 4:45 for my shot at Macedonian superstardom. Most of the extras were being provided a bus ride to/from Ohrid but since this might be the only chance I ever get to see Ohrid, I insisted on being able to drive myself there so we could spend the night and explore the town the next day. Also, I wanted to take the Jeep on what is probably one of Macedonia's prettiest drives.

Ohrid's airport is the second-busiest in all of Macedonia so after that day's only plane arrived and the passengers disembarked at 9:30, the airport belonged to us and we could make as many bomb jokes as we wanted. In fact, the whole commercial turned out to be a bomb joke - the storyline was about a traveller arriving to see Mount Bomba (yes, there really is one) and airport security overreacts when he tells the officer at passport control he's coming to see "bomba", which is also the Macedonian word for bomb.

I was picked to be in the first scene of the day which consisted of normal airport activities - people standing around chatting, waiting in line, drinking coffee, and Dave and I standing at the bar. Since I am no gloryhound, I let Dave be "Man at Bar #1" and claimed "Man at Bar #2" for myself. I'm thinking about creating an IMDB entry for it.

We shot take after take after take. I never realized how much extras have to work for the crappy pay they make. I'm fairly sure extras in Hollywood make more than I did but probably not by much. Craft services! A meal was provided which was a lot cooler than what I expected but they didn't exactly break out the 6-foot Subways for us. Instead we had cold and questionable "chicken burgers" which were drenched in mayonnaise and ketchup and had french fries on the inside. Needless to say, I was almost starving by the end of the day. Thankfully I had brought a one pound bag of Twizzlers to snack on.

Macedonian Tourism doesn't care much for chronological accuracy in their commercials. Through my skillful use of time travel, I managed to appear in two scenes which take place at the same time. While at the bar, the kid in line says "bomba" and everyone panics and flees in all directions across the shot behind the passport line. At the same time, on the other side of the passport booth, I'm walking across the shot up to the check-in counter (the airport is that small). I doubt anyone will notice (or care) but there I am, acting my ass off, looking like the quintessential American traveler. Well, except for the socks-with-sandals thing. I briefly considered that but wisely decided to pass.

We finally finished around 8:45 that night. All the other extras crowded onto their bus back to Skopje but my friends and I headed to our hotel in Ohrid. Unfortunately we were too wiped out to really get into any shenanigans that night. We ended up eating dinner in a fish restaurant called Fish Restaurant (it might have had another name but that's what the sign said). If we had had a little more patience we would have found some nicer places but we (the men) were cranky and hungry.

Dave and Billy had to go back to Skopje early on Sunday but Jule and I devoted the day to exploring Ohrid. The old town maintains its Ottoman and Byzantine influences with old churches, narrow and winding streets, and white houses with overhanging upper-floor expansions. One of our first stops was an old Byzantine-era church which was quite different from American-style churches. No pews, no set service, and no priest (at least not one visible). Instead there was iconography everywhere and people would go to their (family, favorite?) icons and pray for intercessions. In the background what I assume to have been a recording played of Orthodox hymns and a sermon. I didn't pray for any intercessions on my behalf (I couldn't find St. Tomislav) but I lit candles and said prayers for my grandparents (Nana and Papa) and my Great-Aunt Pat and cousin Shannon (who both recently passed away).

After church we wandered the streets for a while and scared a little old grandmother peeking out at us from her doorway. She did not want a picture and slammed a door on us even though she was hardly in the field of view. We wound down the hill to the lakeside and found a cool restaurant to have lunch at, Taverna Momir. They had a terrace right on the lake which even had what was supposed to be a small dock which water taxis could bring guests up to. I say "supposed to" because the lake was above the top of the dock and the lamppost at the end stuck up out of the water by itself. After lunch, it was time to head out.

I wish I could have stayed in Ohrid longer or visited sooner but I already had a 5-hour drive back to work in Kosovo awaiting me that evening. The town is amazing and if you ever visit Macedonia, you're hurting yourself if you don't make it to Ohrid.