North Macedonia is country number 65, and whilst for some of my FIRC colleagues, I am a mere amateur, my goal of visiting more countries than I have birthdays is well on target. But why Skopje, and why for just thirty-three hours?
Well, it comes down to those frequent flyer miles and the best means of using them. The best connection for my next destination is through Istanbul, but I didn’t want the hassle of a Turkish visa, thus somewhere with an early, but not too early, flight to Istanbul allowing the connection to be made.
My hotel was on Macedonia Square, close to the enormous statue of Alexander the Great. And it is very big. The idea of the government was to build big statues to celebrate the historic past of a country which, strictly, doesn’t have that much.
And there is a lot of statuary. Now, given that the country could do with some infrastructure, I would probably have used the money differently, but then I’m not trying to create a sense of nationhood.
I didn’t really have any plans, but did what I usually do, i.e. go and find the railway station and have a look around. Take my advice. Don’t bother. Skopje’s railway station is undoubtedly the most depressing place I have ever been, dark, gloomy, neglected. There are trains, albeit not that many, but you wouldn’t want to turn up too early, or during the hours of darkness.
The old railway station is now the Museum of the City of Skopje, with the clock stopped at the moment the 1963 earthquake struck the city. And that’s why they built a new one. Socialist brutalism is a thing, but not one to cherish.
The city lies between two ranges of hills, and the River Vardar runs through its heart on its way to the Aegean Sea. Its primary role in Skopje is to provide an excuse to build new-classical buildings along its banks, but it’s grey and not terribly inviting.
In the afternoon, I went for another walk, this time heading northwest along the river, past the home ground of FK Vardar, apparently the most renowned football team in North Macedonia. No, I hadn’t heard of them either, perhaps because they’ve never met an English opponent in the twenty seasons they’ve taken part in European club competitions. It’s a big stadium though, and the national team play here.
My goal was the Skopje City Mall, and to get there, my route took me through the City Park, which is rather peaceful and, whilst it isn’t terribly nurtured, it’s a nice place to walk.
The shopping mall is where the young of Skopje go to hang out and, whilst by our standards, it’s not that special, there’s a decent range of shops, some of which are vaguely familiar, including an outpost of Lush. But there wasn’t enough to persuade me to hang around, so I headed back to the hotel and an early night.
For I had a plane to catch in the morning...
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