Having lived in Slovenia, it is very hard to believe that both Slovenia and Macedonia used to be part of a common country, Yugoslavia. It is true that both have rolling hills and beautiful green forests, but the Albanian-influenced Macedonia, couldn't be more different from the Austrian-inspired Slovenia.
My impressions of Macedonia are based on our 2-day stay in Skopje, the birthplace of Mother Teresa. There is a statue and a monument to her and a cross high on a hill representing the Christian faith. Mother Teresa being its claim to fame, Skopje is a very funky city - I loved it! It is a place of discovery . . . there seemed to be no one in town - maybe all at the seaside for summer vacation. And although, at first glance, the city seems crumbly and indelibly marked with a strong "socialist realism" architecture, a.k.a. Soviet-style blocks and weirdly shaped experiments, it is charming in many ways.
We ambled through the medina-like ancient walled town around mosques and stalls with locals selling their wares. I had seen what looked like an ancient fortress on the hill, not mentioned in our guide book, and not on any of the postcards I had spied at the market. We decided to head up the steep incline to find a lovely archway which led to some ruins of a fortress and a beautiful view of the city. Seeing the smorgasbord of Ancient, Soviet, and more traditional European buildings from a distance kind of made the city look even more unusual. It dawned on me that most of the postcards had views taken from this fortress, not of this fortress, which I found to be one of the highlights of the area.
Now for the food report - fan-freakin'-tastic! (Can I say that?): Fresh veggies, delicious cheese and bacon stuffed chicken, sausages, potatoes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The prices in Skopje where probably the cheapest of our whole trip which makes the food taste even better. And the people . . . surprisingly polite, classy, friendly, and they spoke quite a lot of English! They seemed rather unfazed by tourists (as there weren't any there!), but were very respectful. Shopkeepers as well as kids took the chance to practice the phrases they knew - "Here you go - here is your change." Wow! I was reminded by a Bulgarian, that even under Soviet times, the Yugoslavians were not directly connected with Russia. Therefore, their society was much more open and more people were able to learn English.
The one thing that was really expensive was the hotel. I mean, not really, but compared to other cities it was more. For instance, we were used to paying around 50 USD, and our hotel in Skopje was 70 USD. And, mind you, it was very simple- clean private hotel - but no frills. The reason being that there is no tourism there and the only visitors are international business people who don't bat an eyelash at those kinds of prices. We did have cable though and Joe's son's band came on MTV while we were there. It was an older video - but a goodie - I had never seen it. Check out Girls Not Grey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d5WlUR1T3k
OK, so I have a softspot for Skopje - it's my kinda town - cheap prices, friendly people, no crowds, and plenty to discover. I say, "Let me find the beauty! It's fun!"
No comments:
Post a Comment