Macedonia

We had planned to be in Skopje before dark, but a line at the border crossing insured that that didn't happen.

Once we crossed the border, the plan was to find our hotel, and then quickly go out and find something to eat. Macedonia is one of those countries where you have to check in with the local police within 24 hours of arriving.  The hotels do that for you, but that means they need to record all of your information. When the guy at the reception desk wrote down my info in the hotel log, he informed me that I was the 8000th guest at the hotel! I laughed and asked, "Do I get a prize?"  As it turned out, I did.  The owner of the hotel, Vladimir, happened to be standing there at reception, and had heard the entire conversation; he then took us on a tour of downtown Skopje. Vladimir also treated us to dinner at his friends' Italian restaurant (he seemed to know everyone in town, so I would guess most restaurants would be his friends' restaurants).

I didn't have any idea what to expect in Skopje, but our dear guide helped put it all in perspective. Everything seemed to be under construction.  As Vladimir put it, "Everywhere there is an empty space they put a building; here's a building, here's a building", and where there wasn't enough room for a building, they put a statue instead.  Vladimir was concerned about the government spending all of his granddaughter's money (sound familiar?), but he liked that at least now there was some sort of city planning happening.

 

I thought a lot of the new construction was too much; there is a statue in front of the columns, and then a statue in front of the statue

 

Skopje's famous stone bridge is now surrounded by beautiful, new government buildings...it makes it dificult to see the old fortress

Another building going up by yet another statue

The next morning we did a little shopping and sightseeing in Skopje. I wasn't crazy about all of the new stuff,  but the old stuff--the old bridge, the fortress, the churches--was nice.

 Alexander the Great statue in the center of town; the two-year-old statue reportedly cost €5 million

 

 

 

 St. Clement Church; I really like Orthodox churches!

 

 

 We spent some money on gifts and souvenirs in the Mother Teresa Memorial House (Did you know she was born in Macedonia?) before we headed out of town. 

statue of Mother Teresa in front of the Mother Teresa Memorial House

We were originally going to go through the Lake Ohrid area on our way to Tirana, but we opted for a different route that supposedly took the same amount of time: through southern Kosovo.