Macedonia is famous for Alexander the Great, Mother Teresa and Lake Ohrid. We had passed through Macedonia when it was a part of Yugoslavia but had never stopped at Skopje before.
I did remember the huge earthquake of 1963 when a lot of the city was flattened.
Macedonia has been trying to join the European Union since 2005. 64% of the people are Macedonians of Slav ethnicity, 25% are Albanian, 3% Turks, 2.7% Roma and 1.8% Serbians. Bulgarians think that Macedonians are Bulgarian, some Serbs think it is Serbian, while the Greeks think that they are anything but Macedonians as they feel they own this name but it is well documented that the Ancient Greeks hated the ancient Macedonians. In a recent EU vote, France and Greece both vetoed Macedonia's application to join them.
Skopje was another city travelers told us not to bother to go to as it does not have much to offer but we headed there anyway. We checked out our usual web site for hostels but found they were more of a shambles than the one we stayed at in Sofia so we opted for a budget hotel this time.
The hotel was on a hill 30 minutes walk from the city centre and they accommodated us in a block across the street from the main hotel but we could use the hotel pool and free wifi if we wanted to.
There was a statue of Mother Teresa in town as she was born in Skopje but was of Albanian ethnicity. Ironically she went to save the homeless children in India when there are hordes of begging homeless children in Skopje. Fortunately for us it was a hot day and they were cooling off in the river that runs through the city centre so we didn't get pestered by them. We did hear from an Australian girl that a lady grabbed her camera and when she realized it wasn't a wallet, threw it back at her.
There is a modern walking street lined with noisy cafes pumping out popular tunes in English and in the evenings they are full of people drinking coffee (Turkish style), and eating desserts.
An old stone bridge spans the river from the walking street and square to the historic Ottoman quarter. When you look down over this part of the city you can see lots and lots of mosque minarets used by the mostly Albanians who live here but the majority of Macedonians and Albanians belong to the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Not many women were wearing head scarves here.
On the hill are the remains of a fort so we sat there awhile in the cooling breeze overlooking the city. There were some birds that looked like brown and black crows or maybe even ravens and they were having a great time playing in the thermals above the fort tower.
We wanted to see the opening of the Beijing Olympics on TV but because we had to stay later in Sofia for John's dental treatment we missed it and were so disappointed. However, we have seen some highlights since. Spectacular!
