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Hello once again from North Macedonia.  Today it’s time for us to scope out Skopje, the city that we’ve been staying in for 2 days now but still not seen any more than our hotel complex and a few roads.

Having learnt a great deal from our ‘free’ walking tour in Tirana, we decided that it would be a good idea to do something similar here.  We found one online starting at 10am from the main square, and thus journey to the centre of the city.

The main square is called Macedonia square.  I assume the country gave this its name rather than the other way around!    

Our tour guide is called Vasko – 52 years old and was born and bred here in Skopje.  He’s lived here all his life and speaks softly with a light Russian style accent and lisp.

Vasko describes Skopje as a crossroad in a mosaic.  Again this city was a stopover on the main Roman route from Italy to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).  

North Macedonia has a population of 1.8 million.  Of those – 500,000 (roughly speaking) live here in Skopje.  So that’s somewhere between a third and half of the country’s natives residing in the capital. 

In 1963 a huge earthquake devastated the city, and most buildings were reduced to a pile of rubble.  Many were rebuilt in an architectural style in keeping with that period (modernist or brutalist).

That’s where Project 2014 enters the chat.  It was a concerted effort by the government of the time to regenerate the city centre, and give the place a bit of class.  Many of the modernist / brutalist buildings were given a neoclassical make over (looking more like they would have done before the earthquake. 

In my opinion, Project 2014 has had the desired effect.  The city looks historic and has a consistent feel about it.  Needless to say, this wasn’t popular with all of the locals – it was funded by local taxes and rates, and they say it’s all fake or just for show.  Just shows you can’t please everyone.

Since 2014, 145 statues have been installed, but Vasko says his figures are probably out of date.  There are new ones popping up all the time.  All of this has seen an incredible rise in tourism over the decade.

Still in Macedonia Square, attention turns to the giant statue in the centre.  “Welcome to Skopje, where Alexander is really great!”  The statue is a giant man on horseback.  They call it ‘Warrior on a Horse’.  It’s implied that this is Alexander the Great (in fact, we all know it is), but they can’t really say it.  Alexander the Great was from Greece, and it’s another chapter in the complicated relationship between Greece and North Macedonia.  Cultural appropriation is a phrase that gets bandied around a lot these days, but that’s kind of what the Greeks accuse the North Macedonians of.  

Despite the controversy, I love that the warrior is on a plinth resembling a super sized cake stand or one of those roundy-round rides at a fair with all of the swings dangling below.  No swings on this, and it doesn’t seem to rotate either.  Missed an opportunity there if you ask me!

We’re led to a shopping centre that actually looks and feels like a cruise ship on the inside. 

When it opened in the 1970s, it was like a window to the western world for a country still peering from behind the iron curtain.  Vasko tells us about a church that used to stand where the lingerie store now is.  It was also a casualty of the 1963 earthquake

Vasko tells us that we’re now making our way to 3 other European cities – London, Paris and Berlin.  If this free walking tour actually takes us to all 3 cities, I’ll eat my hat!  

Alas, it’s merely metaphorical.  London for the double decker buses, Paris for a knockoff replica of the Arc de Triumph, and Berlin for a knockoff replica of the Brandenburg Gate.  

Pre earthquake, double decker buses were common place in Skopje.  They were British made, right hand drive, and red, like the ones in London.  These gradually disappeared through the remainder of the 20th century, until Project 2014 brought them back.  When the buses went out for tender, you’d expect a British company to have won it – not at all!  They’re all now made in China.  

Not much to say about the Arc de Triumph – it’s made of marble and says Македонија on top.  That’s a lovely touch.  From a distance, I don’t think you’d be able to tell this one apart from the one in France.  

The Brandenburg Gate knockoff is like something you’d get on Temu – it’s only lightly inspired by the one in Berlin. 

For some reason, there’s a guy in his pants holding a torch in front of it (not a real guy, just a statue).  The story goes he was originally naked, and it caused such an uproar that the sculptor had to come back and sculpt on a pair of pants.  On the side of the underwear, he added a funny face just for the lols (and as a way of sticking two fingers up at his critics). 

On top of the gate are 4 horses, each with their front feet in the air, and behind the gate, an angel is holding her halo to the sky on top of a very tall plinth.  Again this resembles one in Berlin.  

The whole thing is a symbol of a gate to eternity for Skopje’s fallen heroes.

I’m told another thing I didn’t know about the Balkans War. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia, (North) Macedonia and Bosnia proposed a country of independent states (a bit like the UK), but this was rejected by Serbia and the war soon began.  No surprise, Serbia does seem to have a bit of a power complex.

In 2028, Skopje will be the European city of culture in 2028, and Vasko thinks there’ll be a bit of a push to get the place tidied up, so any buildings that weren’t fixed by Project 2014 should get another opportunity.    

As we walk on, there are stray dogs absolutely everywhere.  When we queue at the side of the street to cross at the light, the dogs go on ahead, almost like they’re safely shepherding the group.  When another dog comes in from afar, a barking match ensues and they know not to come near us.  Each dog we see has a tag on the ear.  This means they have been safely sterilised and vaccinated.  As someone who used to be scared of dogs, they’re not intimidating at all, quiet (aside from the above example) and keep their distance.  

Across the road from Temu Berlin is North Macedonia’s parliament building.  There’s another statue out the front of a guy on a horse (probably got a good offer to bulk buy).  The story goes that protestors filled condoms with paint to throw at the parliament building.  They called this the colour revolution.  There’s no sign of any paint left, so whoever had the thankless taste of cleaning the place up has done a brilliant job!  A new government was elected last year, and everything is good now.  Enjoy it while you can guys, it won’t last!

Outside the front of the parliament building, Vasko stops and whips out a couple of flags. Both have a red background with a yellow rays spanning out from the sun in the middle, but the new one is a bit more straight liney and stylistically simpler.  The red represents blood shed and the sun comes from the national anthem.  On that note, two thirds of the days in a year are sunny here.  Back home we do well to get two thirds of a day of sunshine in a year!

I mentioned earlier about the disputes with Greece.  As well as having to change their name, North Macedonia was  also forced to change their flag – I mean it’s like cheating doing school homework isn’t it?  Just take someone else’s work, make a few changes and hope no one notices!  

The tour continues past the Mother Teresa memorial house and the old railway station, now the City Museum.  I’ll save both of those for Wednesday, as we’re planning on taking a look inside.  Vasko has a catchphrase – he’ll tell you how to get to these places, and how much they cost to get in… “but not on Monday”.  Looks like most of the city is closed on this day.  What day is today?  Yeh… you’ve guessed it!  Monday!

Beside the railway station is the Hotel Bristol.  It looks pretty run down, but legend has it that the guy who inspired the film Zorbas the Greek lived in this very building for the last 10 years of his life.  Would that not make him Zorbas the Macedonian?  Maybe this is what the Greek / Macedonian ethnic dispute really boils down to!

Walking through the main square again, we arrive at the Vardar River, some 400km in length.  Spanning across it are a number of bridges, but the most interesting looking is the Stone Bridge, completed by the Ottomans in the 15th century.  For some reason, this managed to survive the earthquake, when most of the rest of the city did not.  

At the north side of the river, and the vibes shift.  At this side, you find the Old Bazaar, and it’s much more Islamic in demographic.  This seems to be where Skopje’s Muslim population live and work, and they seem to stick to this side of the river.  There’s a blend of smells as we walk through the Bazaar – some good / some bad.  This is said to be where you find the best, and cheapest restaurants – and it’s a popular jaunt for the locals.  

The tour concludes up outside Skopje Fortress, and we say our farewells to Vasko.  He offers to write our names in North Macedonian Cyrillic, and I scramble to find a bit of paper.  A receipt will have to suffice!

We return to the Bazaar area for a spot of lunch.  On offer is the Shopska salad – true to form, it’s basically a Greek salad, but ever so slightly, subtly different.  This time the Feta cheese is grated over the top.  It sure tastes like a Greek salad!

After lunch, we go back to our apartment to freshen up, then come back out for dinner.  Walking back into the city centre, there’s a lot of people gathering outside the theatre.  We strongly consider trying to get tickets, but have no knowledge of what is on.  Even though there are tickets, the queues are just too long, and so continue on our merry way.

Vasko had recommended a restaurant called ‘Bad Donkey’, and it was only a two minute walk from Macedonia Square.  I’m getting a bit sick of grilled meats, so go for another Macedonian staple – Pizza (jk, we all know Pizza belongs to Italy, and Italy only!). There’s a guy singing covers with his guitar – he actually looks the spitting image of my sister’s ex boyfriend. Fortunately it isn’t him and an awkward encounter is avoided!

I must say I was very concerned about Skopje when driving through the other day, but this place is just lovely!  I’d give this place a slight edge over Tirana, to be honest, but it would be perfect for anyone considering a long weekend / city break.  So far, so good!