Skopje, North Macedonia

Years ago, on a visit to Thessaloniki, Greece, I had rented a car and wanted to go to FYROM -the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but was told that the car would be pelted by the locals, and I decided to heed the advice, and deferred my trip.

Turns out, I could never finish that goal because FYROM ceased to exist, and in 2020, it was named as North Macedonia.

On my trip to Kosovo, I planned to go that neighboring country and visit their capital, Skopje. It was a two-hour bus ride that cost about $12. The host at my Kosovo Airbnb was kind to drop me to the bus station and wait until I found the right bus.

The bus traveled on a modern highway that went through cityscapes and farmlands.

The green mountains with dense vegetation were ever present and some had very steep roads leading to pretty looking houses.

Soon the bus reached the international border and stopped for customs/immigration check. It was a very quick process.

I had to walk a bit to reach my Airbnb in Skopje and came across the church of the Three Holy Hierarchs.

The Skopje Airbnb was a large apartment with one-bedroom, kitchen, and a living room, that looked modern, sparkling new and a steal for a $25 nightly rate.

Soon after, I set out to explore the capital. The best way for me to explore is to walk around and I saw multi story buildings with modern infrastructure on the couple of kilometers walk to the city center.

In this city of statues, the first one I saw was the monument to the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia.

A statue of Nikola Karev on horseback outside the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia in Skopje was nearby. Nikola is considered a Bulgarian and North Macedonian hero.

The Woman-Warrior Park was the green space with many statues, including a woman warrior figure.

The park is a peaceful respite from bustling city tours, with ample shaded areas, benches, and refreshing fountains. The park showcases various carved figures of male soldiers, writers, politicians, and revolutionaries, contrary to its name.

Monument to the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization was right next to the Woman Warrior Park and I was feeling like I had seen so many statues and monuments in a span of 5 minutes. Little did I know, more was yet to come.

A few minutes later I saw the Monument of Pitu Guli, an Aromanian revolutionary in Ottoman Macedonia, a local leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization.

A bronze sculpture of Pjeter Bogdani, a famous Albanian writer from the 17th century who organized a resistance against the Ottomans and a pro-Austrian movement in Kosovo in 1689 was next along the path.

Monument to Kuzman Josifovski-Pitu one of the main organizers of the anti-fascist movement, a hero of Yugoslavia, was a few paces ahead and I was getting overloaded with the large number of statues I was seeing without even looking for them.

Defenders of Macedonia Monument in the Zena Borec Park was the next one I saw and accepted the fact that I was in a monument city. On this memorial are the names of the 75 Macedonian soldiers who were killed in the struggle with the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA), in 2001.

Skopje's new triumphal arch, built in 2012 with the Alexander statue in the background was the next big, decorated monument I came across.

The arch is dedicated to 20 years of Macedonian independence and its outer surface is covered in marble reliefs showing the history of Macedonia. It contains rooms, souvenir shop, elevators for roof access.

Right next to the arch is the statue of Pavel Shatev. He resisted against the Ottomans and had a long career as a revolutionary, spy and terrorist. He worked on creation of Macedonian Republic and got various government positions after the second world war but then later jailed until his death for his Pro-Bulgarian tendencies.

After the break-up of Yugoslavia his legacy was rehabilitated in the new Republic of Macedonia as an unjustly accused of Bulgarophilia.

I took the pictures of the views of the arch of triumph from all sides as they all had beautiful imagery carved on them.

Walking beyond the Arch, I saw the 1910 birthplace of Mother Teresa.

Mary Bojaxhiu was Mother Teresa's birthname, she was born here in 1910.

I came by the city square with beautiful, tiled street and the very ornate Marriott hotel was in front of me.

The monument to Alexander III of Macedonia was right in front of the Marriott. It was highly ornate and had many bands of sculptures on the big pillar on which the equestrian statue was mounted.

There were fountains on the base of the statue.

The statue of Dimitar Popgeorgiev, a Bulgarian revolutionary was next sighted in front of a building. As I looked for whose statue this was, I found the Skopje 2014 project which was the source of finances for all these statues concentrated in this small area.

Right ahead of me was the Stone Bridge across the Vardar River built in the 15th century by Sultan Medmed from the Ottoman period.

From the bridge you can see more sculptures, more monuments and feel like you have been immersed in a never ending.

The area with the statue of Alexander is called the town square.

Another ornate statue of Goce Delchev was on another side of the town square.

The marble monument of Justinian I, made in Florence and installed in 2011 was just on the outside periphery of the town square.

From the Stone Bridge, Archaeological Museum of the Republic of Macedonia is visible, and it was opened in 1921,

The central part of the building reminds me of the Parthenon in Athens.

Karposh’s statue was in front of the museum. He rebelled against anti-Ottoman uprising in the Central Balkans in 1689. After fierce battles, the Ottomans took the rebel stronghold, and Karposh was captured, cruelly put to death on the Stone Bridge.

Gjorgji Pulevski's statue stood by the other side of the bridge.

Philip II of Macedon, King of Macedonia in the 4th century BC looked pretty majestic.

A monument to Saint Clement and Saint Naum of Ohrid was at end of Stone Bridge.

Fountain Olympia serves as a tribute to Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. It had 4 statues, two on each side.

A statue of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius was in the area too.

Seriously, I was getting too much exposure to culture and history by now in a short span of a few hours.

There were horses, lions leaping out of mountains, heroes on horsebacks, emperors and kings everywhere.

There was another bridge parallel to the stone bridge with beautiful views.

I started to get hungry with all the walking and sightseeing. There was a boulevard with a lot of eateries and an interesting old man statue.

The memorial house of Mother Teresa was on my path.

I had found a very highly recommended restaurant by now named Dva Elena. It had a natural arboreal feel, and it was huge, with seating for almost 200 people.

With wine and bread, eggplant and soup, I had a delightful dinner.

I had a short stay in Skopje and was flying to Moldova next. The following morning, I headed to the airport which had its name in Cyrillic, and I bid goodbye to North Macedonia.