in North Macedonia

I have to admit that this country was not on my ‘must visit’ list, but having decided to visit Albania before a return visit to the UK in July, it seemed to make sense to also visit the neighbouring countries.

I’d heard that North Macedonia – or at least its capital, Skopje – was a strange, rather ‘fake’ place, and could quickly see why it provokes that response.  Situated in an earthquake zone, large parts of it (apparently some 80% of the buildings) were destroyed in a huge earthquake in 1963.  Some of the subsequent re-building was in the modernist, or ‘brutalist’ style, together with plenty of pre-fabricated apartment buildings erected hastily to house those made homeless by the earthquake.  The picture above shows the brutalist Central Post Office and Telecommunications building.

But then in 2010, the government launched ‘Skopje 2014’ – a big, expensive, and pretty controversial, project to add some grandeur to the city.  Apparently, more than 120 buildings were constructed, costing some US$700 million, many of them in neo-classical style.  & statues were erected – statues of lions, of great Macedonian warriors on horseback, of women supporting their menfolk … there are statues in every square, on every roundabout, every corner.  They even built three fake antique ocean-going ships, anchored in concrete in the river that runs through the centre of the city.  This is a picture of what one of them looks like now…

Meanwhile a historic aqueduct (could be Roman, could be Ottoman – they haven’t bothered to work out which) runs through a couple of anonymous fields, next to a dirt track which is starting to be used as rubbish dump … very strange attitudes!

But it wasn’t a bad place to relax and to wander around for a week, looking at the statues, yes, but also at the old stone bridge, at the remains of an old fortress, and visiting the quite interesting Museum of the Struggle for Macedonian Independence.

& I was told that I really shouldn’t miss a day trip out to the Matka Canyon, which I didn’t, despite my struggles with their bus system.  I walked to the large bus station area, and eventually found the information booth, but this was only open 08:30-09:30 (and then again late afternoon), and by this time it was 09:45.  However a lady standing nearby asked where I was going, then motioned to an area behind the booth.  I went that way and found myself in a police vehicle maintenance yard(!), so asked in their office.  They didn’t speak English, but managed to understand my request and to tell me the bus number I needed.  I walked back into the bus station, looking for the stand for the number 60.  No, of course it wasn’t between those for the 58 and the 63, why would I assume that??  Someone saw me looking lost, and I used my fingers to tell him the bus number I was looking for – and he kindly walked me over to the correct stand.  There was no-one else waiting, and about ten minutes later he came rushing over, and showed me an app on his phone.  I’d just missed the 10:30 bus, and the next departure was at 13:10.  So I gave up, and decided to go the next day.

This time I got the hostel to get the Skopje bus app for me, and show me which button to press to get the information shown in English, and followed their instructions as to how to get there from my location, leaving five minutes earlier than they suggested in case I could not walk to the bus station in the 19 minutes they quoted, but when I got to the bus stand there was no-one around and it didn’t look hopeful.  Entering by a different gate, I’d passed a tourist information kiosk in the bus station, so I went there to get information.  Apparently the bus had left six minutes after the time the app had told me to start walking… But at least I knew where to wait for the 10:30 bus … and had time before then to photograph the list in the information kiosk of the bus return times.  Although when I finally got to board the bus, the driver told each of us to photograph a little piece of paper he had with the return times on – which, of course, were not the same as those listed at the information kiosk!!

It then took quite a while to get there, as our driver stopped at one point to do some shopping(!), but EVENTUALLY I arrived at the entrance to the canyon.  & thankfully, it was worth it!  You can take a boat trip, but I opted to walk – you can just see parts of the path on the right-hand side in the picture above.  It was a beautiful walk and I saw only a handful of other walkers during the couple of hours it took to amble along the path and back.  & to my relief, the bus back did actually depart at the time written on the little piece of paper I’d photographed that morning.

I also did a half-day trip to the town of Tetovo, mainly to see the Coloured Mosque (Šarena Džamija).  It was first built in the 15th century, financed by two local women, but a re-build in the 19th century made it the draw it is today, when its incredibly colourful interior was produced, using all natural pigments - allegedly 30,000 eggs were used to produce the yellow paint.