Trip Report: North Macedonia
Visited in March 2018
North Macedonia is the latest country that got its name changed. For years, the name Macedonia was a point of contention between the country as well as Greece, where a region with the same name is located. The Greeks accused the Macedonians of making territorial claims to Greek territory by choosing Macedonia as their country’s name.
For this reason, Greece always blocked the Macedonians’ EU membership efforts. The Macedonians then gave in and changed their name to North Macedonia. Nevertheless, they did not join the EU anyway, which is why quite a few Macedonians must have felt pretty screwed.
When I went to North Macedonia, the country was still called Macedonia. It was my 69th country and my last country of former Yugoslavia. However, as the country changed its name in the mean time, I will call it North Macedonia in this article.
The route to North Macedonia and the pleasures of Wizz Air
The trip to North Macedonia was a spontaneous one. One week before, my flights to Dublin got canceled due to a snow storm and I didn’t want to spend the next three weekends at home. Fortunately, flights to Skopje were still pretty cheap, and that’s why I decided to travel to the only ex-Yugoslavian country I haven’t visited yet. I had in mind that Colin, who joined me for Luxembourg a few months before, once showed interest in traveling to Skopje. I was right. It didn’t take him too long to say yes to this trip and we booked the flights just six days before the departure.
So, what did I know about North Macedonia before this trip? Not so much to be honest. I knew that 2 million people live there, some of them are Albanians. A quarter of the population lives in Skopje, the capital. Moreover, I knew about the political conflict I mentioned before. Except for that, Macedonia was the most unknown country of former Yugoslavia to me.
You should try everything at least once in life. The exception is taking a flight with Wizzair. This company is the Central/Eastern European Ryanair with its base in Hungary. I didn’t have high expectation but I must honestly say that this airline really sucks. First, they let us wait in line for one hour until boarding. Second, we departed one hour late. And third, I had never such little legroom than on this Wizzair flight. It was terrible, but you get what you pay for. In my opinion, Easyjet is still the Emirates among the low cost carriers.
Due to the delay, our flight arrived after midnight and as it takes half an hour from the airport to the city center, we arrived at the hotel at 1.30 AM. If we had an hour earlier, we might have gone out for a drink, but it was too late now. Never mind.
One day in Skopje
We only had one full day in Skopje and tried our best to see most of it. Our hotel was perfectly located. It was in a side street of Macedonia Street, which connects the Skopje City Museum and Macedonia Square. It didn’t take long after we left our hotel until we spotted the huge Alexander the Great statue on Macedonia Square. One of many good things about Skopje is that the city is walk-able. Almost all the sights are around Macedonia Square, the city’s main square.
My first impression was that Skopje has one of the most beautiful city centers in Europe. And believe me, I have seen almost all capitals on the continent. That square is just impressive. Of course, the large statue of Alexander the Great draws all the attention, but I also enjoyed the beautiful floor.
The square somehow reminded me of Rome, as it appears imperial and glorious. The Stone Bridge at the end of the square is another nice landmark of Skopje. It was built during the Ottoman Empire and connects Macedonia square to the Old Bazaar. Having all these landmarks next to each other and also a lot of cafés around, I really enjoyed spending time there.
My second impression was that I cannot remember the last time I have seen so many statues. The city is full of it and they are all wonderful. Maybe that’s the reason why Rome came to my mind. They are not only in the center but everywhere in the city. Not so wonderful were all the stray dogs in the city, as I cannot recall any other European cities with so many of them.
However, it was also a sign that we were at the Eastern end of ex-Yugoslavia. Perhaps, some people believe that all the ex-Yugoslavian countries are more or less the same. But honestly, Skopje is worlds away from Ljubljana, the geographically most Western capital of a former Yugoslavian country.
Meet our tour guide Nina
The reason why my buddy Colin joined the trip was his friend Nina who lives in Skopje. The two studied together and wanted to meet again after nine years. Nina joined us when we were having lunch. She is one of these people you like straight from the beginning, as she is intelligent, humorous and attractive. After the obvious “how have you been? What did you do in the last years?”-talks between Colin and Nina, we left the restaurant to see more of the city. Luckily, we now had a tour guide with us.
We first headed to the Holocaust Museum, which was closed though, and after that to the Old Bazaar. The majority of the people in North Macedonia is Christian-Orthodox, but a third of the population is Muslim. Therefore, Skopje is a melting pot, where the West mingles with the Orient. The influence of the Ottoman Empire is omnipresent, as you will see mosques, souks and Turkish cafés as soon as you’re in the Old Bazaar-area.
Another thing I had noticed was that the city is full of beggars, as at least six people asked us for money when we were having coffee in Old Bazaar. Generally, Macedonia is a poor country. Average wages are low and unemployment is high. I assume that most of the young people hope that the country will join the EU someday in order to find their luck somewhere else.
Mountain Vodno
Skopje is surrounded by beautiful nature. Lake Matka is only a short drive away from the city and the pictures I had found online looked beautiful. However, Nina had other plans and wanted to show us Mountain Vodno. A cable car took us there and we got a good view over the city from above. In my opinion, we got the best views inside the cable car, as the city is too far away from the top. The view at the top is still great though.
The millennium cross is 66 meters tall and another landmark of Skopje, which is on top of Vodno. Actually, the cross is lit at night and you can see it from the airplane when you’re landing. The construction of the cross began in 2002 and it serves as a memorial for 2000 years of Christianity in North Macedonia.
The mountain is a nice place to spend time when in Skopje if the weather is fine. I read that it’s even possible to hike from Vodno to Lake Matka. Going down from the cable car station can be tricky, as there are no taxis waiting to get the people back to the city. A bus is running, but we would had to wait half an hour until departure. Therefore, Nina called a taxi but we weren’t the only people looking for a cab. Two other people wanted the same taxi that we ordered. Solution? We all squeezed into the car. “No problem in North Macedonia!” Nina said.
It turned out that the other girl was from Serbia and knew another guy who studied with Colin and Nina. Small world. We headed back to the hotel to rest a bit. A good night out was the plan for later.
Night out in Skopje
Two hours later, we took a taxi from our hotel to a traditional restaurant. The kind of restaurant we went to is called kafana, it’s a place where people meet to eat and drink, and there is live music. Oh, and smoke! Plenty of it. We were sitting in sort of a winter garden and almost everyone was smoking. If you cannot bear cigarette smoke, North Macedonia might be an annoying country for you,
Food in Macedonia is more or less the same as in other Balkan countries. Nevertheless, I found more Turkish food in Skopje than in Croatia or Serbia for example. Another remnant from the Ottoman times. Of course, the food it’s dirt cheap. The highlight was when three gentlemen entered the kafana and started to play music. They started at our table and played traditional songs. One of the guy started talking to me in German, as he had been in Hamburg for a while. He told me that he enjoyed the city, especially the nightlife. “Reeperbahn?” I asked. “YES!! REEPERBAHN!! AHAHAHAHA!!” the guy giggled, as if this was the naughtiest thing he had ever heard in his life.
The area with many bars was not far from the place where we had dinner and of course the drinks were cheap as well (and strong). Bars are usually open until 1 AM and after that people continue their nights in clubs. After a few drinks, we went to the next bar. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the names of the places we went to. It seemed that nightlife is not bad at all in Skopje. Our night ended in a nightclub called Epicentar. It’s an underground techno club, much more expensive than the bars we have been before, but a decent place.
My travel experience in North Macedonia
This short trip to the North Macedonian capital rocked! It was a great trip from the beginning to end and we had also so much fun thanks to Nina. The trip wouldn’t have been the same without her. In general, it’s always better when you’re with a local, because you don’t have to organize much and you don’t have to search the places you want to visit. Nina did an excellent job of showing us cool places. Thank you again!
Now, I have been to all ex-Yugoslavian capitals and each of them is different from the others. The most similar to Skopje is probably Sarajevo, but they are both unique and still have their own character. If you travel from Slovenia to Macedonia and visit all the countries of former Yugoslavia, you will realize that the countries feel less “European” the more you travel eastwards. Macedonia, the most Eastern country of former Yugoslavia, still has a bit of the old communist world character.
North Macedonia is still not on many people’s radar, although the tourist numbers must have increased in recent years. Lake Ohrid seems to be the place that draws the most tourists and if you check out the pictures online you know why. As the country is so small, you could see almost all of it in a few days. Actually, it’s not the worst thing that I had only 30 hours in Skopje. I really enjoyed the time there and it gives me a good reason to revisit North Macedonia.
Find the trip reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
