A drive through the mountains brought us to North Macedonia! Once called just Macedonia, Greece insisted it added 'North' as they have a large region called Macedonia which this was once part of. Their flag is beautiful, but that caused controversy too!
The sun symbol relates to King Philip II of Greece... or Macedonia depending upon your viewpoint! Our driver, from mydaytrip sorted out passport control, and we were in our 4th country that is new to us. The Republic of North Macedonia is quite small, with a population of 2 million. 64% Macedonians, 25% Albanians 4% Turks, and the rest are Roma, Serbs and Vlachs. Religion is divided mainly between Orthodox Christian 47% and Muslim 32%. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides. It gained independence in 1991 when Yugoslavia broke up, but all the countries around it think it should belong to them. It is in a 5 way tug of war! The capital city is Skopje, where we were heading. We arrived in the early evening to a city centre that was a bustling, modern metropolis. Our air bnb was in the pedestrianised section, and was quirky and great. Called the 70s Music Box, the owner has created a homage to the music and design of that era. We loved it.. and to paraphrase Coldplay ... it was all Orange!
Out for a walk and we discovered that this city loves statues. BIG statues! 136 at the last official count!
Here is Alexander the Great presiding over the main Square.
Many of the city's historical areas and buildings like the Grand Bazaar, Hammams, churches, mosques etc. were seriously damaged by huge earthquakes, most recently in 1963, devastating fires, both World wars and Communism. Consequently it is a city rebuilding itself. We walked to the area of the Old Bazaar, still with its characteristic winding streets, shops, stalls and restaurants, but not so many old buildings. This whole street was gold jewellery shops! The wedding and party dress shops were very sparkly, and the crinoline appears to be all the rage for Weddings!
The waterfront and squares are modern and vibrant. This is the Parliament, the archaeological Museum and the old Hammam.
We sat in a cafe watching the world go by.
Sadly, Roma children were here going from table to table asking for money. In every country we have been to on this trip, the Roma people have been discussed. We learned that Roma, or Romani has no connection with either Rome or Romania! The word comes from Rom in the Romany language, meaning Man. Also, the term Gypsy originates from Egyptian, because historically people thought the Roma came from Egypt. In fact, their origins are as nomadic people who came from the Indian sub continent around 1800 years ago. Interestingly, the one thing they cannot do in most countries here is roam! They must have a fixed address, and many live in camps or Roma villages. These are often very poor, and they can be seen using horses and carts, and non mechanised farming methods. I think it is fair to say from everything we have seen and heard, that they are not popular, are often assumed to be associated with crime, and are not made welcome. We were astonished to find out that there are over 14 million Roma people spread across most countries of the world.
We headed to bed as we have a big day tomorrow! That day will get a separate blog! Suffice it to say that we were back by 6.30 pm, and went out for another walk. Firstly we stopped at the amazing turkish delight shop, where we were immediately given fruit teas and free samples!!
We headed for Macedonia square where Chris had a Macedonian Craft IPA, keeping up his record of trying locally made beers in every country! One thing we have found slightly difficult is that many people in the Balkan countries still smoke, and in many places it is still allowed indoors in restaurants, trains and buses. You realise how used we have become to these areas being smoke free. Back to our Music Box for some packing because we move on tomorrow. Up early because we want to explore town a bit more before our departure at 10.30. We walk over the bridge of Civilisations, and discover lots more statues.
My 2 favourites are this one of the divers, and a beautiful fountain dedicated to 4 stages of Motherhood.
Then, off to the Mother Theresa memorial house, in the centre of the city.
Mother Theresa was born in Skopje a few streets from here in 1910.
She got her calling aged 12, and at 18 left to go to Ireland to become a Nun.
After training, aged 28 she was posted to India and stayed there for the whole of her life, founding a children's service with accommodation and workshops. In her lifetime she was recognized across the globe for her humanitarian work, and given honorary degrees and the Nobel Peace Prize. After her death, she was canonised by the Catholic church and became Saint Theresa.
This memorial house and chapel receives 100,000 visitors a year.
Time for our pick up, and another journey with Daytrip.com. We are staying within North Macedonia, but travelling to the southernmost part of the country, Ohrid Lake. On the way we have asked to stop at Tetovo mosque.
Our driver, S.... is charming. He has even supplied some drinks and snacks!
At Tetovo, he puts his tour guide badge on and takes us to the truly incredible painted mosque.
Dating from 1495 it is exquisite outside and in.
The yellow pigments were from egg yolk, the red from rabbits blood and the green from green walnuts. Definitely worth the stop.
The 2 hour journey south is almost totally through mountains. The trees are just beginning to turn, but we realised what difficult terrain this is, especially for farming. There were a few huge quarries, and mining is a big industry here, but mostly we saw trees and peaks! Our destination is the town of Ohrid, by the Lake that shares it's name. Lake Ohrid is huge - 30km x 14 km, and one of the deepest in Europe at 288 metres (938 feet) It is also one of the oldest, predating the ice age by about 2 million years. It is extremely biodiverse, and ringed by mountains. 25% of the Lake is in Albania. The old town of Ohrid climbs steeply up the side of lake. Our delightful studio was quite high up in the tangle of cobbled streets and ideal for one night.
No time to waste, so we headed straight out for a self guided exploration passing most of the must see features here. There are churches everywhere, many ancient and in relatively good condition. We climbed further up the hill past the chapel of St Cosmos, and the church of Saints Constantine and Helen, both locked but with amazing views over the Lake!
The biggest surprise was an old monastery church on the top of the hill, Holy Mary Peryvleptos.
It's frescos date back to 1295. This is at the top of Ohrid old town, called Varosh, a charming tumble of cobbled streets and houses heading down to the lakeside. At the very top of the hill is King Samuel's fortress. The heavily restored ramparts are a great viewpoint, but there is little left inside the castle. Just around the corner from the church is the wonderful ancient Macedonian theatre... which is in the Hellenic, or Greek style, built around the 2nd century BC, and predates the Romans. It was only discovered in the 1980s! They also found an ancient tomb, probably of a nobleman and his wife, dating back to the 4th century BC.
Onwards around the top of the old town to the church of Saints Clement and Panteleimon. This is Byzantine, with some wonderful complex brickwork and a great view.
Excavations of the site are revealing roman buildings and mosaics.
Next, a rural walk down the steep, wooded hillside to a promontory, on which sits the lovely church of St John the Evangelist. It has gazed across the lake since the 14th century, possible as a beacon.
From here we did a lovely walk along the shore and the boardwalk back to Ohrid town centre, stopping at a delightful bar to watch both a cormorant, and then a cat, fishing! Oh, and have a local beer of course!
In town, the main church is dedicated to St Sophia and has not yet been restored so the frescos were in their original condition. Which was somehow even more moving.
We also visited the museum of pressed paper making. Rather niche, but interesting, using wood pulp, water, and petals for colouring, to create the paper by hand. They use an old Gutenburg printing press to make cards and posters etc.
The town has lots of old merchants houses which have been restored. We had a super dinner at a lakeside restaurant, Kajche, although as the wind increased, so did the waves, and we all had to move back from the waterfront tables due to splashing!
Finally a steep climb up the dark stepped and cobbled alleyways to our apartment, and a good nights sleep before our pick up in the morning. Ohrid is a lovely pace, and a great location to end our Balkan explorations.
Except our next post will be about the day trip we made from Skopje! See you there .... when I've written it!
Macedonia is lovely and even more so because of the lovely people. You touched on two controversial subjects. I won’t comment on they gypsies but will remind everyone that Mother Theresa was of Albanian extraction and her Christian ideas of deserved suffering left her dying patients without adequate pain relief.