Skopje, North Macedonia

Posted on August 21, 2023  •  17 minutes  • 3421 words

We really didn’t know what to expect with Skopje. I really don’t think I knew of it until I started planning this trip, and even then I didn’t put much thought into it. We ended up really enjoying it.

Easy check-in to the Airbnb and it was awesome! It was the 3rd floor, so a bit hot since the AC hadn’t had time to cool it down, but as soon as we walked in, the kids went crazy! Windows in walls, a loft with a ladder up and back corners to crawl around in. I’m pretty sure the kids would have been content never leaving. Even though the travel day was relatively easy, we did our usual travel day routine…get to new city, relax, buy groceries and dinner at home.

And the host left us a great bottle of wine. So good we tried to go buy some more to bring to Bulgaria, but we kept getting distracted when we were out.

The next morning, after a banana to go breakfast to try to beat the heat, we headed to the city center. We knew right where to go as we saw what can only be described as the giantist giganto man on a horse ever in the taxi the day before. And if the statue wasn’t big enough, it had to be put on an even larger pedestal to tower over the city.

Then add a bunch of statue warriors below surrounded by a fountain.

Can you picture it? Now multiply it by 10. Even seeing it, you can’t believe it is so big. Thanks to google we learned it is of Alexander the Great and the statue part is either 15m or 22m tall. Seriously so huge!

One might ask the question, compensating for something? Side note: Dan went on a city tour and learned that, yes they were! More on this later. As we left Alexander (but forever in his looming shadow) and headed to the river to cross to the bazaar I said to Dan, “this reminded me of Berlin”. The more I looked at it over the river, I couldn’t get over how similar if felt, minus the minarets.

We continued walking and found statues everywhere. Seriously so many! The kids stopped counting at 101. It was like someone had to out do someone else…hence the 6 story tall Alexander the Great on his horse.

We walked over an old stone bridge, sandwiched by two others about 100m away on each side. It was a beautiful view strolling over it. Oddly 3 giant galleons were ‘docked’ in the river that didn’t seem to fit. Again, so much of these odd things made sense to us after Dan did his walking tour. A statue of King Philip II (Alexander’s dad) and a fountain with Alexander’s mother and him during 4 stages of motherhood. I guess I should be happy motherhood got a shout ouf, or is it just another way to give more attention to Alexander. They really love that guy here.

And more statues. No joke. I won’t bore you with even more, but SO many. Everywhere you looked there were 10 more.

We left the land of a thousand statues and entered the bazaar. We were there as it was kinda waking up, which allowed the kids to have much more space to roam around and explore ahead of us. We stopped for some tasty treats because I can’t resist when there is easily accessible food to buy that looks fun.

The favorite was the hazelnuts in a sort of honey gu. Imagine you melted down a lot of honey gummy bears then stirred in a lot of hazelnuts, then set flat to dry. This is what you would get and it was amazing. After lots of walking around, we found a breakfast place.

We ordered an array and were very satisfied. We ended up unknowingly trying Ajvar (which is kind of a red pepper spread) that Macedonians eat about 50kilos of a year…or something like that. The whole family liked it, but probably not as much as the homemade ‘nutella’.

Already getting hot, and feeling like we had seen a lot in a couple hours, we headed home. Not before seeing more cats and the kids coaxing them to come over. Couldn’t resist a photo of the sleeping and Max on a colorful couch.

Back at our place we did a bit of schooling, but it was apparent the walk back and using their brains for 30 minutes required more food in their stomachs. Dan ran out to get some local fast food. It was more of less a burger with the fries on it. It was just what was needed and of course a huge hit with the kids.

I then headed downstairs to get a coffee and work while Dan stayed with the kidss. Yes, our Airbnb was above a coffee shop owned by our host and it was so cute…and great coffee.

Came up to this. :)

Dan was doing a walking tour at 5pm, so I came up to relieve him and think about dinner. I set the kids up with an Alexander the Great cartoon history show, but caught a few words and decided I probably needed to watch it too incase it needed to be stopped. We found a History Channel one that I let them watch 9 minutes of and then finally, dinner of hummus, bread, cheese, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m sure it will happen eventually, but I just can’t see us getting sick of tomatoes, cucumbers, olive oil, balsamic and pepper.

Dan came back from his 3hr tour with so much info. The giant statue trying to prove something, the Berlin feel…turns out there was a project called Skopje 2014 when they attempted to Europe-wash the city. Meaning, the government financed the project to give the city a more classical appeal. In the city center near the river and statue, the buildings got new facades. Nothing new about the building, just cover up the brutalist architecture with filigree. The statue was part of this. Turns out partway through this project, the government was voted out of office and the incoming party wasn’t for the Europe-wash and because some buildings were mid project, they were left as is…scaffolding and all. Dan’s guide said the scaffolding on a specific building had been there since 2018.

There was talk about going to Kosovo, but I just didn’t have it in me. I didn’t want another bus and a long day trip…and when/if I go to Kosovo, I want more than 5hrs. Knowing it was going to be hot and having heard about a canyon (Matka Canyon) nearby you could swim at (and it was beautiful) we opted for that. Our host called us a taxi and 30 minutes later we got dropped off at a parking lot and started walking up along a river. A few minutes in and we saw the 29 meter tall dam. We winded our way up, past stalls selling snacks, fruit and of course gelato. At the top we were immediately asked about boat trips to the cave, kayaks, etc. We wanted to hike for a bit and said we’d probably be back as we had read this was a great thing to do. The hike started with stone mixed with concrete but as the people tapered off, so did the concrete.

We didn’t plan to hike long, but just kinda wanted to keep going to find a place to swim and the views were amazing that we were enjoying it quite a bit. Walking along a cliff with a sub par guardrail (where existed) was a bit stressful at times,

but the views took away the stress…and we kept popping back into forested area which was lovely.

After about 30 minutes, and us wondering ‘how far does this go’, Dan got out his phone and reported that we could walk to the end and then cross on the bridge to get to the cave. We had food and water so we decided to see where we were after 30 minutes of hiking to see if we could do it. It was not fast hiking with the ups and downs, rocks and cliffs.

As we hiked, we saw boat after boat go by. Dan and I started talking, maybe we can get a boat ride back as it was becoming a bit fun #2 and wasn’t looking forward to the hike back. Said boat passing.

We made great time in the 30 minutes and we decide to go for it, with that hope of the boat ride back. Dan was ahead when we go to the end; he comes back and says ‘bad news, no bridge’. Looking at his map, it says go across the river in a straight line, and we had just assumed a bridge. Cave on other side, dock on other side, we decided to deal with that later and have lunch in the shade as the kids put their feet in the water.That didn’t last long as they reported the water was freezing. As we were eating a guy on a boat comes up to us, we didn’t even need to panic flag him down and make a kid start crying, to ask if we want a ride across and then back. Um, YES!

He takes us over to the dock where we finish our lunch and I finally feel the water. Yup, freezing. They guy from the boat told us 10dec C….colder than San Francisco bay in winter. It was hot and we were in swimsuits, so at least I was going to do it. Holy crap it was cold! Enough to almost take your breath away and you wanted out immediately. I convinced Sam (I knew he would be the easiest victim) to go next with me, but the rest weren’t looking like they would. “Gelato for anyone who jumps in!” That got the rest of them, Ben very reluctantly, but after the first jump, he jumped 5 more times.

Sam set the record, go figure, for 7 jumps. The best being when another woman was being a wimp about jumping he looks at her and goes “Look” and he jumps. It really was fun jumping, complaining, jumping, squealing. And no, Dan did not throw Ben in.

I wish so badly we had a video of Sam’s first jump when he comes up all bug eyed because it was WAY colder than he had thought. After some more food and drying off in the sun, we changed into dry clothes and Dan took the boys to see the cave while I almost fell asleep on the dock. As they came out from the cave our boat had come back and they hopped aboard and then grabbed me.

Tranquil boat ride back and then off to get out gelato reward. It’s hard to see, but the trail with ‘guardrail’ is on the face of the cliff.

On the way we passed someone selling grilled corn, so got that, fresh OJ and raspberries. Gelato was extra yummy and Max ordered Facebook. Yes, Facebook was a flavor. Blue with sprinkles.

Sugar rush seemed to be enough for kids to try to carry each other down the hill.

Grabbed a cab home and the kids went back to their game and I ran downstairs to get a bit of work in. I later found out the game was where you write notes to each other, tuck them into a paper airplane and fly them to each other? They begged me to play and how can you actually say no to that. We literally had to drag them out of the house for dinner, but we managed. We realized we waited too late, but fingered crossed for no meltdown.

Short stop at the park to help along kids mental states.

Passed some scaffolding that has been there since 2018.

We went to an area in the bazaar pointed out by Dan’s tour guide…magical, bustling area with a fountain behind and a huge tree shading the whole area.

We ordered the 3 staples of Skopje cuisine and Sam had a melt down. Kinda managed with Dan taking him for a walk. They came back as the food was ready and as usual, he just needed food. He ate so many kebabs and was basically shoveling the salad into his mouth.

It was delicious, all of it, but he took an extra liking to it. Actually, all the kids and adults did.

Walk home with the kids running off energy that came out of no where and suffered through a late night of work. Not quite sure why this mural is here, but it was hard not to take a photo. Dan and I thought Rosanne and Arnold.

Last full dan in Skopje and how do you not see the fortress above. Actually, I probably could have skipped it at this point, but not the kids. Dan stayed back to work and we headed over, already with the temperatures too high. Not sure what this building is, but couldn’t resist a photo.

More statues. Aslan (and his twin beyond) we decided.

We weren’t sure why these openings existed on the outside of the building. They checked them out to see if they could be Azkavan but then Ben pointed out it couldn’t be because we weren’t on an island. I’m learning so much about Harry Potter!

The fortress was great, no entry fee and no people. No placards explaining things, but we walked along the walls and got great views of the city below.

My heart continually skipping a beat as a kid almost trips with a shear drop off and a guardrail that didn’t seem to have enough inter rails. Was it better to have them hold the rail, but be closer to the drop off, or not hold it and be further from the drop off?

But I managed a smile as I tried to keep up.

Always aware of hunger levels to ward off meltdowns, we took a break to hang out in the shade of a tower for a snack and silly faces before the hot back walk to the entrance/exit.

Quick dunk of the hats and some on the inter-castle walls.

I was hot and wanted shade and gelato, so we left and headed towards the bazaar. We walked past a cool looking tree and the kids had to check out the seed pods. A desire I believe cultivated in Arizona with so many to check out and crack open.

On the way to the bazaar, after cool trees, I saw a mosque that I had seen photos of on my search of ‘what to do in Skopje’. Not being planned, I didn’t have on my long skirt. I told the kids we could just walk around the grounds and as we walked by a man ushered us inside the gates. We walked the grounds and he waves us over to the entrance. We see signed to take off our shoes and he goes to grab me a skirt and scarf. It was beautiful inside and somehow my kids understood my ‘be quiet!’ threats. We walked around, stared up and took it all in. The same man points to the kids, holds up a 3 and I nod with a smile. He then puts his hands together (like praying) and looks up and laughs/ smiles. He says we can go upstairs, he offers to take our picture (I wasn’t sure it was allowed).

The entry looking up. I’m fascinated at the way the domes are built so well to stay up for so long.

And my favorite part: he asks where we are from and when I say ‘The United States’…he gives me a huge smile and a THUMBS UP! Never in my life have I been given a thumbs up when responding to that question. We waved goodbye and walked through the bazaar to gelato. This place was fresh our of Facebook, but had SnapChat. I don’t even know what to think.

Another cool water fountain in the city.

Back at our place, lunch of left over kebabs and you guessed it, tomatoes and cucumber. I worked in the coffee shop for a bit, but came back with a decent time before dinner because we promised the kids both Dan and I would play the airplane note game.

It lasted a bit, with Dan and I cracking up from the notes the kids were sending (Sam told Ben ‘mom needs help’).

Finally we needed food and Dan found a place that was local food about a 10 minute walk. It had a water wheel in the photo, so I was sold.

Kids went crazy when they saw the water wheel, interior pond, bridge, etc. It was a really cool space, but they just couldn’t stay calm. Lots of timeouts and finally they got it. Don’t run, don’t be loud. We had a place bordering the pond, ordered food and told the kids they could look for fish until food came.

Not knowing the mental states of our kids, we got a pizza to be safe for fast calories. We also got raviolis, seafood bruschetta (it was a seafood restaurant we found out), salad, fish soup and tomato soup.

Ben thought the salad was bitter and Sam once again shoveled it into his mouth and asked for more with extra balsamic. To be fair, the arugula was a bit bitter. Seafood bruschetta was a hit. From there Max ate most of the pizza, Ben ate most of the fish soup and Sam ate everything, including the tomato soup.

He shouted ‘this is the best soup ever!’ It was pretty good. :) When it was time to leave and pay, Sam pulls out his money pouch with the equivalent of 50 cents in it. He told me he wanted to give the waiter a tip from HIS money because he soup was so good. He pulled out about half and when we were leaving, he gave about 20cents to the waiter and told him the soup was the best soup ever. Ben was behind with the real tip. Again, we had such a great experience with nice staff. When Max wanted to ask for the toilet by himself, he got an escort towards the door and then a high give from another waiter. We got lots of waves when we left and Sam was inches from hugs.

We told the kids on the way home we could have 5 minutes at the park as it was getting late. Then as one kid is running after another, this happened and we headed home with a very upset boy. Not sure if he was more upset about face-planting on asphalt or missing the park.

It took a while to calm him down, but we got the kids in bed, I went back to work for a bit and then started packing up for our 7am bus.

Our host was so sweet to make sure he was up at 6am to call us a cab. Dan and I were up at 5:30, wrapping up the packing, getting bags downstairs and kids up and dressed. Fast cab ride and in an effort to spend all our denar, I let the kids decide the tip. I think we paid double and the cab driver was very grateful.

We had just the right amount of time to find a last minute bathroom, buy snacks and figure out which berth was ours…and for the kids to run around and ride the suitcases.

Easiest bus ride to date! Zero traffic, and even though we had to get off the bus with all our stuff at the border crossing, it was still fast. There was a decent amount of road construction to straighten out roads, but we were there too early to reap the benefits. We noticed this in Albania and North Macedonia too. We got a bathroom and coffee stop and arrived only 15 minutes late. Kids were pretty good on the bus. Some gummies, site words, multiplication tables and some reading made the time fly by…and Max gazing into Sam’s eyes…with Dan’s sunglasses.

We didn’t have Bulgarian currency yet, so we decided to brave the 24 minute walk, according to google…it was a bit longer thanks to a certain 3yo.