More Skopje

We met as arranged at 0900 in the hotel lobby for our walking tour of the city. Our guide, Zoran, introduced himself, and apologised for the fact that, as a former teacher, he would finish each part of the tour with the words “any questions?”.

We started off in Macedonia Square. He gave us a potted history of Alexander The Great, family and friends, then we set off down Macedonia Street to the new church of Sts Constantine & Helena and the Mother Theresa Memorial House (she was from Skopje, you know). We stopped off at yet more statuary along the way.

The separate Bell Tower

The Church

Mother Teresa House

Interactive statuary

Our next stop was the green market or Zelen Pazar. This does was it says on the tin, it’s full of vegetable stalls. Zoran explained why Macedonian apples were so cheap: Macedonia is part of NATO so can no longer sell them to Russia, their traditional buyer, and the bottom has fallen out of the market. We tasted tomatoes and strawberries – Danijela had enjoined us not to eat too much for breakfast as this was a tasting, as well as a walking, tour. There is also another side to the market that sells “replica” goods – definitely not fake. Again, Zoran explained: fake trainers have the word Adibas on them, replica have the word Adidas. But yeah, not real.

How bazaar

Local spices - cheap!

We the walked past the parliament building, and yet more statuary in a park, representing more events of the country’s past. They’ve had a lot of it, since the days of Al The G, being variously occupied by the Romans, Bulgarians, Byzantines, Bulgarians again, Byzantines again, Serbians, Ottomans, Serbians again, Bulgarians yet once more, and Yugoslavia; before finally gaining independence and autonomy after the break-up of Yugoslavia, in 1991. Phew!

This is my office now

Zoran explained the significance of the Arc de Triomphe-like gate and the prevalence of double-decker buses: the gate was built to celebrate 20 years of independence and is actually hollow, containing rooms that can be hired, often used for occasions such as weddings. The double-decker buses were originally a gift from the UK, to celebrate the fact that Tito had split with Stalin and decided that Yugoslavia would be westward-looking despite being a communist country. European countries encouraged this – most with gifts of money, but the UK sent buses. Unfortunately, they didn’t send spare parts, so when they inevitably broke down they were scrapped. When the choice of public transport was offered to the people of Skopje after independence, many of them were nostalgic for the old double-deckers, but this time they ordered them from China, because (a) they were left-hand drive, and (b) they could get spares.

Independence Arch

We were back by the river Vardar by this stage so took a break from walking and had a coffee aboard the Senigallia, a hotel and restaurant that looks like a pirate ship on the river. Danijela had told us that if Serbia had won the Eurovision song contest the previous night, she would buy us all coffee; they didn’t (Bulgaria did), so instead Intrepid stood the bill.

After a rest we continued back across the Bridge of Civilisations – a veritable plethora of statuary – and into another pedestrian area. At the end of the Stone Bridge are two pairs of statues(!) of saints: the first two translated the bible into a new language called Glagolitic script, which they invented out of a cross between Greek and Hebrew. They did this because the heathens had no written language of their own, and because they were damned if they were going to use Latin (the other of the three main languages of Christianity) because they were from The Eastern Roman empire and didn’t want to use anything Western. This alphabet was later simplified and took the name of one of the saints, Cyril. Yup, they invented Cyrillic script, now the basis of Slavic languages including Russian. There’s even a clock with the first twelve letters of the alphabet instead of numbers.

The Bridge of Civilisations

We then headed onto the Old Town. Many of the shops, especially the jewellers, were shut, because Sunday. Zoran regaled us with tales of how gold was used for all special occasions, from the birth of a child to its first tooth (a sign that it was healthy), and marriages. We tasted orasnica, a local pastry, and took in the sights, sounds, and smells of the place. We finished up by Skopje fortress, as Zoran explained that although it looked impressive from the outside, there’s actually nothing inside.

That was the end of our tour. We walked back through the Old Town, trying to find a place for lunch. Zoran had warned us to check that our chosen establishment (a) took credit cards – many are cash only, and (b) served beer – many are muslim-owned so do not. We also checked that they (c) served food. We found none that fit these requirements, so headed back to the more modern section and found the Riverstone Lounge Bar. Just the ticket, I thought. Wrong. The word “Bar” should not be there, as they told me they didn’t serve alcohol. At this point we gave up, ordered sandwiches, and had some ice cream.