We take a bus from Sofia for the five hour journey to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, or to be more accurate The Republic of North Macedonia. The name change was just recently agreed with Greece who also have a region called Macedonia.
The bus is a comfy coach and not full so we’ve lots of space. About two hours into the journey we reach the border. A border police official comes onto the bus and takes our passports from us individually. He goes off with them, presumably to stamp them and delivers them back about ten minutes later… then we realize that was the Bulgarian border control so now we have the same process a few feet up the road at the Macedonian border control! Another ten minutes there and we’re good to go. No passport stamp for me mind you.
We reach Skopje around 12 noon and drop our bags to the hotel so we can do some exploring before our welcome meeting later this evening. We’re on an Intrepid tour and we’ll get to meet our fellow travelers later today. We start by visiting the memorial home of Mother Teresa. She was born here in Skopje and although her house is no longer standing there’s a plaque, close to the main square, marking where it once stood. A short walk from the square is the memorial building which houses lots information, photos and artifacts from Mother Teresa’s life. I find out that she was born on the same day as me (August 26th) and there’s a photo of Loretto college in Dublin where she attended.
Happy to have ticked off the main thing I wanted to see in Skopje, we go for our first Macedonian lunch. We choose traditional chevapi (not how it’s actually written as they use the Cyrillic alphabet) and it’s really tasty…. throw in some salad, the giant bread and a local beer and we’re happy out!
Time to explore the rest of the city. Everything is centered around the main square Plostad Makedonija with a giant statue of “man on horse” in the middle:
In fact there are giant statues everywhere and you can’t go too far without seeing one or a set of two or three! Apparently there was a major renovation of the city (called Skopje 2014) with a view to creating a unique revitalized city. Many old communist buildings were given a facelift with new–classical facades and Greek style statues placed on them and massive statues of former glorious leaders were placed throughout the city. It certainly does give the city a unique feel.
More massive statues by the river with the picturesque Stone Bridge and a huge Greek classic style building behind.
The other thing I notice as we walk around is there are small plaques with quotes from mother Teresa (or Momma T as we now call her) in random places all over the city:
The pope is visiting in a couple of days so there’s lots of preparations going on around the town including barriers going up and streets getting closed off. We’ll be leaving just as he arrives.
We wander across the river and walk around the old town where there are lots of bars and cafes. Weirdly there are a huge amount of shops for very fancy evening wear…. over the top dresses are everywhere I look – I’d love to know where people are going dressed in these!!
After an afternoon of exploring we head back to the hotel for our welcome meeting and meet our tour group for the next 12 days. It’s a mixture of Americans and Australians and we’re a group of thirteen in total, including our guide Bashkim who seems cool. Here’s hoping we’re in for a good time.
Next day we take a thirty minute drive outside of Skopje to Matka Canyon, a deep ravine cut into the Suva mountains.
We hike along the edge of the lake, through the gorge
We take a boat ride and get some great views all along the canyon
We stop at Vrelo cavern, a water-filled cave with incredible stalagmites and unchartered depths – it’s speculated to be the deepest underwater cave in the world.
We head back into the city for lunch with the group and we have another delicious traditional meal with a glass of local red wine…. some pour for €1.10!
We spend the day walking around around the town again and visit the fortress where we walk the ramparts and get some great views of the city.
A quick stop at the Museum of the City of Skopje, housed in the old Railway Station. The buildings’ part-ruined exterior is a result of the 1963 earthquake. The large clock on the outside of the building is frozen at 5:17, the moment the earthquake shook the city.
Next morning we board our private bus to Lake Ohrid. This is Europe’s oldest lake, and allegedly one of the oldest human settlements in the world. The town is said to have once been home to 365 churches, one for each day of the year, earning it the nickname “the Macedonian Jerusalem”. After checking into the hotel and having a spot of lunch we set out to explore the small town. The view from the hotel:
We start with a short hike up to the beautiful tiny Orthodox Church (Sveti Jovana Kaneo) perched on the edge of the lake:
A medieval church next – St Clement and Panteleimon which is surround by ancient ruins and inside has amazing old mosaics and frescoes
We continue to the fortress sitting above the city:
The nations of the Balkans love their flags and you’ll always find one flying close by…
Continuing on the tourist trail we visit the ruins of the old Roman amphitheater but we stumble upon a really cool church with the most vibrant coloured frescoes we’ve seen. As we approach the church there appears to be no one around and then out of nowhere a man runs towards us and opens the door, turning on lights and ushering us in, we weren’t able to take photos but the frescoes truly were amazing and the guy talked us through many of them… it was quite a find, the church was called Mother of God Peribleptos.
It’s been a long day so we find a local “eatery” (as the guide calls them) and have some local food and wine before calling it a night.
Next dat we embark on a scenic cruise on the turquoise waters of Lake Ohrid, which is surrounded by mountains, villages and beaches. It is 34 kilometres long, 14 kilometres wide, and over 300 meters deep and is shared between Albania and Macedonia, although right now we are staying on the Macedonia side.
It’s sunny and the water is calm but the weather has been hit and miss and it’s a bit cool. It’s a beautiful two hour jaunt on the water though…
In the afternoon we take a short bus drive to St Neum, a monastery complex on the south side of lake Orhid near the Albanian border.
We explore the area, have some lunch and enjoy some glorious sunshine
Tonight we have our final meal in this wonderful country and after probably a little too much local red wine (so delicious and so cheap compared to home) we say goodbye and get ready to head west to Albania.
odohertyelaine 