Macedonia was a country I knew not much about, other than our favourite €2 bottle of red wine in Germany originated in Macedonia; and that it has a name dispute with Greece, as the traditional area known as Macedonia encompasses part of Northern Greece. Hence officially, Macedonia is called "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" - or FYROM. I know few people who had been there either - but I was keen to do as many Balkan countries as possible, partly in order to say I've been to as many countries in Europe as possible but also it made sense for our travel plans to pass through these countries so why not spend some time? Clearly Macedonia had not been a priority country for us since we hadn't already been there; and since Macedonia was not a major point on our big travels, the time we could spare for it was not long - effectively 2 days. But that would be enough to visit the capital, Skopje (said Skopia - J's are Y-sounds, hence the native spelling of Yugoslavia was "Jugoslavija" but I can't really explain the A sound for the E - just go with it!).
So this blog entry is for Skopje and Macedonia - and for my convenience above all else, I am returning to the "new" format for this post.
Originally we planned on catching the Thessaloniki-Belgrade night train, which left in the evening and passes through Skopje - its also cheaper than the bus. But we heard ahead of time this train might not be running - and at Thessaloniki we discovered it wasn't, so instead we had to catch the 8.30am bus from Thessaloniki to Skopje. This bus took 4ish hours, but because of a time difference between Greece and Macedonia we arrived about 11.30am.
As for the journey itself - the bus was at least half full, the first hour-ish was traveling through Greece but felt less and less "Greece-like" as we went on. At the border our passports were collected and we got Greece-departure stamps; down the road we got Macedonian arrival stamps. There was a small kerfuffle at the Grecian border with an asian girl who had a green passport and who had exited Cyprus through the Turkish side and had then come back into Greece - she didn't seem to understand the Grecian authorities didn't take kindly to the fact she didn't come to Greece from Greek Cyprus since Greece doesn't recognise Turkey's claim to Turkish Cyprus. Surprising considering she had an internship in Pristina, Kosovo and must be aware of the border difficulties there with Serbia! Or maybe she didn't know about that either?
Other things of note were no less than 3 Casino's and Hotels just across the Macedonian border from Greece - are Casino's legal in Greece?; At the first stop a lot if passengers got off; We then drove along a fairly new fancy sweeping highway, which suddenly out of nowhere drastically deteriorated in condition and the bus was shaking, shuddering and pitching everywhere across the bad tarmac of the road. This went on for some time and all I could think of is that this would be doing Sasha's travel sickness no good - except she's fast asleep and despite all the rattling, sleeps right through the bad section of road until it eventually gets back to good condition. It seems this road is actively under reconstruction in parts, with the help of EU funding - despite Macedonia not being an EU country. There was an overly fancy and complicated retractor gate (mounted on rollerblade wheels) at one bus terminal we stopped at; And at Veles, a lady in a car almost drove into the side of the bus at the terminal. The bus ride ended at the elevated Railway Station in Skopje, a little early and with few passengers left on board.
We were now a month into our travels - so we'd booked an apartment which had access to a washing machine so we could do some much needed washing. It was only a few blocks from the train station, but we had a little trouble finding its exact location - it was in the "ancient" quarter of Skopje but this area is very run down and seemingly low-socioeconomic. Surely we were in the wrong area? It also didn't help that we were being followed around by a feral dog, whom I called "Snaggle-tooth" who looked like any minute he would stop observing us and decide to attack us. But no we found it - and the apartment complex was a little pocket of luxury in an area that was less-than. Having arrived a little earlier than we said we would (12pm) the owner was not there to greet us and the cleaner lady was mightily confused (not much English), but it all got sorted and once the cleaner lady had finished with our room we went inside and settled in. It was very comfortable, we cooked breakfasts here although we could not get the hotplate to work - it kept beeping and the instructions didn't help so Sasha very inventively cooked our mushrooms and eggs in the microwave (with fresh tomatoes and bread constituting our breakfasts).
The apartment had a lot of room, quite a bit of it became taken up with drying laundry though we did put one load through the dryer. There was one feature of this apartment room which stood out - it had an old Roman well inside it. The owner told us it was protected by local government, which by the tone of his voice it sounded like he wished he could have covered it up or buried it! Instead it had become a feature - it had a sealed glass top on it, and lights pointing down in it to illuminate it. During the daytime it seemed to have a small pipe of water pouring down into it, but this water stopped in the evenings and overnight. Apart from the sink drain clogging up causing the bottom of the sink to leak into the cupboard space below (not our fault, and they fixed it) we had a very pleasant stay here!
One of the major things we did was the free walking tour. As always it gave us a good crash-course into the history of the country, the city, and the people. Skopje has been settled for thousands of years, but its been rebuilt a few times. Why? Its prone to earthquakes. One of the most significant earthquakes was in 1963, when 80% of the city was destroyed. Skopje was part of Communist Yugoslavia then, led by Tito. Yugoslavia was not a part of the West, nor the East - it was cozying up to both, unable to join either side but each side was not wanting it to join with the other. Hence when Skopje was reduced to rubble, both the US and Russia sent significant aid - the US primarily dealing with food, supplies and all the field hospitals, while Russia set about helping rebuild the city. One of the major symbols of the 1963 earthquake is the old railway station - now a museum in the remaining intact portion but where it was reduced to rubble, the rubble parts remain as does the clock which stopped when the earthquake struck. A new train station was built on the side of town, a huge elevated concrete structure. The old train station lies at the end of a street built in Ottoman times and was named after the Sultan; the name changed several times, under Austro-Hungarian Rule, post-WW1, a few times during WW2 as Macedonia was occupied by different forces; it was named after Tito after WW2 and is now Macedonia Street. Our tour guide, Miha (Mika) mentioned the naming dispute with Greece, and how it would be a shame if the street had to change its name once more to "Northern Macedonia Street" or whatever it might become. That same naming dispute is what is partly holding up Macedonia from joining the EU - all EU member states have to unanimously agree to countries joining and Greece wont accept Macedonia joining until the name dispute is resolved.
We wandered around a lot of the inner city, and saw a lot of the new buildings and statues. It seems Skopje got itself a Mayor who decided to spend multi-millions on new statues, monuments and heritage-looking buildings. He clearly went overboard - the buildings are largely Baroque style so while pretty, they don't speak for Skopje's heritage and there's more statues than you can poke a stick at. It seems as if every time the Mayor went overseas somewhere he'd come back and have a version of something built in Skopje. Miha said it was like the Mayor had a medical condition - he called it "Copy/Paste Syndrome". They have an Arc de Triumph that's dedicated to Arts since Macedonia has no battle Triumphs in its history, and they started building their very own copy of the London Eye, but the Mayoralty has changed and that development is stopped. The statues in themselves are usually quite well done and attractive in their own right, the only thing is there's too many of them in a small space and considering we saw actual shanty shack houses in the suburb near our accommodation, a lot of that money would clearly have been better spent elsewhere.
There are three other major things worth mentioning of the tour - the first was the Mother Teresa Museum. As mentioned in my Albania post, she was an ethnic Albanian so they claim her as their own and celebrate her in Albania. But she was born in Skopje, so they claim her as their own and celebrate her in Macedonia. They have a small museum and chapel to her in the central city, with some "relics" such as her headscarf. Perhaps rather than call it a museum, it would be best called a Shrine. The other thing was some of our tour members. From the very beginning, one of the members of our tour stood out - it was a street dog and she was following us around on the tour. Later other dogs joined in - they were fine except when they saw a moving wheel, and would go nuts and try and attack it. So people on their bikes got harassed, and cars got harassed. At one point we had 5 dogs and they chased a car up, and then back down, a street by the waterfront - the driver seemed a bit panicked with all the dogs trying to attack his car wheels and he kept swerving to try and throw them off. The dogs stopped all of a sudden when there was some yelping - one of the dog's had their paw run over and it was yelping in pain, but soon enough it was walking on that paw again so the injury mustn't have been bad. After this the original dog decided to leave the tour, but the others followed us for a while. We've never had anyone other than humans on a walking tour before so it was quite different! Lastly - the rest stop was at a little restaurant where our tour guide Miha bought us all a shot of Rakia! Well two for Sasha and I - Miha asked whether anyone wanted another and Sasha said yes for both of us. I was actually happy with just the one but it would have been rude not to drink the 2nd!
We'd done a few Bazaar's in Turkey and Skopje had one too, in the old Ottoman area of town. It was huge - with very tight laneways between stalls. But it was nothing like the Turkish Bazaar's we'd seen. At fist impression it reminded me of the Victoria Markets in Melbourne, selling cheap Chinese-made knock-offs of things but there was also a lot of produce as well as a lot of shoes. So many shoe stalls. There was also a lot of flags or clothing with the Albanian flag on them here too, but none with the Macedonian flag. Macedonia has an ethnic Albanian population-always has, after all Mother Teresa was one - but it apparently increased when Serbia began making its troubles in Kosovo and the ethnic Albanians from there fled into Macedonia. Apart from ramshackle stalls, the other thing was the roof awnings of the Bazaar were covered in trash. Just covered everywhere! The whole place was less Bazaar and more Bizarre really.
Our 2nd, and last day in Skopje had sunny weather so we decided we'd go to the nearby Lake Matka for a visit. We'd heard good things about it, but had been told it was busy on weekends. That was fine - Monday was our first full day here, and we thought about going in the afternoon but settled upon going on the sunnier day, Tuesday.
Tuesday was the 1st May. 1st of May is May Day - the Worker's Day, a public holiday. We knew this, we knew it would likely be busy. We headed to the bus station (going to the Long Distance bus station accidentally first) which is located under the vaulted Railway Station. We found the place where the #60 bus would depart from - there was a bus in the parking spot already, but parked up, doors closed and no driver. We arrived here just after 11, the next bus wasn't until 12.10 and if we'd been prepared we could have gotten ready earlier for the 10.30 bus. Already though, there was a small crowd waiting for the next bus and over the next hour it continued to grow. There was an orderly line at first, which evolved into a kind of mob next to the bus - getting on the bus was going to be interesting as surely everyone here would not make it on! We discovered thanks to a neighbour in the line that despite the advice we'd had to buy your ticket from the driver, instead there was a ticket booth where you got them. I raced down there, got us two tickets (passes with two trips loaded on) and came back to find some movement - is the driver here, are we boarding? No, it was just one of the passengers trying to push the buttons on the side of the bus to open the doors so people could get on. He didn't succeed by the way!
It was virtually time for the bus to depart when I started noticing people dropping off from the end of the line. Then a big guy who had been one of the people standing right in front of a bus door at one point came barrelling past, grabbed someone and disappeared in the same direction the people from the end of the line were going. Something was up - I told Sasha to go investigate, but within seconds it became apparent the #60 bus had parked up in another parking spot! People were pushing their way on to this bus before everyone had gotten off, and we got on in the middle door - just too late to get seats but we had a decent standing spot. Not everyone at the bus station was able to get on - but Sasha and I were in a spot where we weren't being crushed and had a fair amount of room. But we hadn't booped our tickets - the only booper was at the front of the bus and we couldn't get there, but it seemed at least half the bus hadnt validated their tickets either! . We tried picking up people along the way, with limited success and some guy kept yelling like he wanted off every time the bus drove away from a stop.
Then about 40mins into the journey, all of a sudden we turned into a road and got stuck in a very heavy traffic jam. It was a hot day, no aircon on the bus but a bit of a breeze from the open windows as the bus moved. But now the bus was only moving a metre or two at a time only once every few minutes - so no airflow and it started getting sweltering. We could see a Lake out to the side - we knew this wasn't Matka but surely Matka was nearby? At one point people yelled for the doors to be opened and they hopped off, and walked forward or over towards the nearby Lake. 15mins later and about 10 metres down the road the doors opened again and we hopped off - Sasha couldn't take much more on the bus so we hopped off, and walked with all the others doing the same forward along the road past the buses and cars. Some of this crowd jumped on another red bus that was much less packed a bit further up the road - we joked it was the 10:30 bus but for all we know it might have been. We reached a small town which was the centre of an almighty traffic jam - basically two lanes of traffic couldn't comfortably pass on a bridge, but traffic was backed up on both sides with nowhere really for vehicles to go. Shortly after we worked out we were still an age from Matka - on a normal day it was still maybe a 10min drive further on, but traffic was at a complete and utter standstill. The only way to reach it now would be to walk - hell no were we doing that in this heat with basically all of Skopje going there. We got icecreams from a store next to traffic jam bridge and walked back to the Lake we could see.
We found a spot and sat down near the lake edge. This was Lake Treska, an artificial swimming/bathing lake with big concreted sloping sides. It wasn't the most appealing lake, and certainly not our intended destination but it was pretty busy in itself and it was definitely the only lake we were getting to today! We had our picnic lunch by the lake, just absorbing our ordeal and wondering when, if ever that bus would have gotten to Matka - and what kind of hell it would be there overrun with all the people!
After lunch, we did a lap around the lake, and started walking back towards Skopje past a slowly moving line of cars leaving the area. None arriving though - that lane was empty, and we soon found out why when we saw the police had blocked the road. A few taxi's tried to get our attention to give us a ride back into town, but we thought we'd try and see if we could find a bus stop where some buses other than the #60 also went to. We happened across a bus station with a parked up bus going nowhere and a #60 sign scrawled in the front window, and a lot of confused people. Seems buses were terminating here, and people were scrambling to get into taxis to take them to Matka - good luck! Just as we decided to carry on, we noticed the #60 leaving - heading for Skopje, so we scrambled on. It was a much more pleasant journey back, but in all a rather abortive trip to Matka!
Its kind of stupid but it deserves mentioning. Our first night in the apartment, a big fly flew in the room and it wouldn't fly out the door - and leaving the door open meant more bugs were coming in, including mosquitos. The mosquitos were easy to dispatch, but the fly was bothering me - I made a numbers of attempts to swat it on the wall with a jandal, or in midair before giving up - with Sasha thinking it was quite amusing.
But later closer to bedtime the damn fly kept buzzing all over the room and it was irritating. Trying to sleep would be impossible with it buzzing around so we both then attempted to try and swat it in the air with a jandal each - and because we were each side of the room, all we managed to do is scare it into flying from one side of the room to the other over and over again. Like we were playing tennis with it.
We had no flyspray, but we had hairspray so we gave the fly a few targeted hits of that really started to irritate but also subdue the fly enough to land on the wall. One huge whack with a jandal later and they fly had departed this mortal coil and we could sleep - once the smell of hairspray in the air had dissipated!
Apart from probably the world's largest collection of statues, they have some London double-decker bus clones made in China. The copy/paste of icons is not just limited to statues or monuments! For the record we didn't ride any of them, just a stock-standard low-floor bus. In Skopje there was also a lot of delivery bikes that seemed to be trailer decks with bikes welded onto the rear, something I hadn't seen elsewhere before but a fairly good idea. The one I liked best though - someone had built one of these using a motorbike rather than a push-bike. Nice!
On food we were keen to try some traditional food, but the first restaurant we visited was a bit of a bust for this despite our research. Hungry after the walking tour we went back to the restaurant we'd had the rest stop (and Rakia at), which had amazing food and as we later discovered had actually been on our list of places to try. We liked it so much we went back here again - the Shaska burger (a meat patty with a kind of cottage cheese inside it) being a favourite, as was the cheesy bread - but most meals seemed to be covered in grated Balkan Cheese in copious quantities! Breakfasts were supermarket bought and consisted of eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and bread - with Sasha artfully using the microwave as we couldn't get the hotplate to work! We also had two dinners at our accommodation - buying some at-the-time unknown delicacies from the bakery at the supermarket but as we discovered later one was Borek, a sort of large pie (sold in slices) and the other was a Quiche-like pie. We ate these with a side of salad that we made up, and it was not only inexpensive but filling.
So drink - naturally there was Macedonian wine, with Red, White and Rose varieties tried. The red was a bit humdrum when compared to our €2 favourite, and strangely enough wine wasn't really all that dirt cheap in Macedonia when you did the conversion back to Euros. We also noticed a tendency for some wines to come in Litre bottles, which often was the cheaper bottles too.
As mentioned earlier we had Macedonian Raikia - twice on the tour, and also twice later on when we ordered a shot and were shouted a 2nd by the staff! I also tried two local beers, which were ok but stock-standard lagers; and we also had "Blue Fanta", which used to be called "Madness" the first time I saw it but was labelled "Exotic". Just like the green Fanta in Albania which was just in a green bottle, this blue fanta was just in a blue bottle. Was tasty though! They also had a whole lot of local cola and orange soft drink brands - one having labels suspiciously similar to Coca Cola and Fanta!
Summing Up
I got a fairly similar feeling to Skopje and Macedonia as I did from Bucharest and Romania. Both are up-and-coming cities - a wee way to go yet but it will probably become a trendy destination in the future, especially once it manages to become part of the EU. For now its partly off the beaten track, which I guess is part of the appeal. We didn't go elsewhere in Macedonia although we saw a fair chunk on our bus ride from Greece - what scenery we saw was nice but nothing out if the ordinary. It wasn't until we were in Skopje I heard of a place called Ohrid in Macedonia, which is a lake which is shared with Albania and looks absolutely stunning. While I don't think we have any need to go back to Skopje, I think Ohrid would be a place we'd like to visit (and had we known about it maybe we would have tried to squeeze it in this time). Sasha really wants to go back to Albania someday and I do too, plus I'd like to go back to Montenegro as well as visit Kosovo - its not hard to see a visit to Ohrid falling in with these destinations and it all sort if lends itself to a trip. So I think there is a very good chance this will not be our only visit to Macedonia - the country may have a new name the next time we visit though!
Macedonia was our first visit into the former Yugoslavia this trip, and so naturally all the other former Yugoslav countries we visited got compared back to Macedonia as a reference point. Of all the Yugoslav countries Macedonia is the only one which hasn't been affected or tainted by some kind of trouble when it broke away from Yugoslavia - it did so peacefully after a referendum, I'm not really sure how it got away with it but I need to do more reading up about that. The next few countries I will blog about have much more complex recent histories - hopefully it wont be too long before I can post those up!