Skopje, one day spent in the small capital of Northern Macedonia
He always welcomes with a smile, because a smile is the beginning of love. Maria Tereza
Hello travellers
After a year of work my wife and I took a holiday and chose to spend it abroad, somewhere we had never been before.
It was hard for us to decide on the location, the only information we had was only on the internet, we often prefer to organize our holidays ourselves without using a travel company (buying a holiday through a travel company we are bound by the program they make us, we just have to accept it, and if you don't like the program you stay at the pool or on a terrace or even in the hotel room), so we did and in this case the final destination was the turquoise beaches of Albania.
The distance to the final destination we decided to divide it in two, the road being quite long and very hard, with over 1200km covered by car but the hardest part of the route is the mountainous area with many curves and serpentines in Albania.
So we decided to spend a day in the beautiful capital of Northern Macedonia, a relatively new country considering that it broke away from Yugoslavia in 1992, but with a spectacular history.
In the first phase a few days before going on holiday we booked our accommodation at the Konak hotel on booking, from what I saw it was located right in the city center very close to the main sights, for this accommodation we paid 40euro/room/night, I say a decent price for a three star hotel.
When we got there we found it a bit difficult to park the car, the place where we had to leave the car was about 200m from the hotel in a place a bit dubious at first glance, between blocks under some construction that had only the roof finished, it seemed to me that it is an area under construction for some time, but everything was fine, I was glad I had somewhere to leave the car.
Ready for the walk, we leave the hotel and take a slow walk along the narrow cobbled streets where from the first steps we find on the pavement all kinds of souvenir and handicraft sellers, we clearly did not leave here empty-handed.
We continue walking through the streets of this charming city, where we come across sidewalk terraces, study the menu of some of them, many of which we don't really understand because they are not translated into English, but finally find a terrace where we sit down and eat a Macedonian pizza, let me not forget to tell you that here you can pay in euro, but the rest you will get in local currency (Macedonian dinars, the parity is 1euro = 63 dinars), don't be afraid that the waiters won't cheat you when they give you the change in dinars (here I had the best experience with them honestly they gave me the correct change until the last penny).
If somehow you end up in Skopje reserve a day to spend strolling along its streets, you won't regret it, plus the prices are very low even at those terraces I mentioned earlier.
Walking down the streets we come across a signpost to Macedonia Square and Old Skopje Bazaar, both of them I visited but I only took photos in Macedonia Square, in the bazaar it was extremely crowded and I didn't take photos of the locals because I didn't know how they would react when they saw me with my mobile phone filming or taking photos.
Skopje managed to awaken our olfactory senses, visually at one point we had the feeling that it is the capital of statues, arriving in Macedonia Square we came across many statues one of the most important is the fountain Mother of Macedonia depicting a woman in four poses, pregnant, mother, old and virgin.
You know how it is when you see a lot of people you go and see what is so interesting there, so we did and we discovered a spectacular bridge (Bridge of Arts) over the river Vardar, the bridge is a splendor, and on both sides being installed statues (about 28-29 statues) representing famous Macedonian artists.
From the bridge you can easily see a boat anchored at the shore, it has been there for a long time and has been transformed into a restaurant, dining here you can really have an experience worth trying.
Also here is the National Museum of Macedonia which has three sectors, historical, archaeological and ethnological, unfortunately it has not been opened to visit.
I almost forgot, walking along the main street at one point I thought I was in London, on the streets of Skopje were running red buses similar to the London ones.
At one point the call to prayer can be heard through the loudspeakers installed on the streets, they are mostly Muslims (at first I couldn't believe that there are so many Muslims in this area), I know something about the Muslim religion since I was in Egypt where I learned more, there I visited more mosques, interacted more with the locals, had experiences that I will never forget and would certainly like to have again.
Finally I can say that Skopje impressed me a lot, being a new country for us (I was here for the first time), I met a different culture, friendly people, a city in full development with a high tourist potential, accessible for everyone (prices lower than mine in Romania), with the greatest pleasure I recommend you to visit this city.
If you liked what you saw and read here please don't forget to give a LiKe, Follow, reBlog or a Comment, for all this I thank you, and until the next post I say goodbye.
P.S. The attached pictures you have just seen are taken by me with my mobile phone, and the text is also designed by me.
