Off to Macedonia

We are overdosing on cities right now!
After Prishtina and Prizren in Kosovo, our next stop was Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.

We parked waaay outside the center next to a large sports complex with plenty of parking space all around. Not pretty, not exactly the quietest place, but convenient.

With the bike, it was just 15 minutes into the center for my human.

The free walking tour with guide Dino was outstanding.
After a rather ambivalent first impression, somehow derelict and yet adorned with an incredible number of impossibly huge statues, he really got her to see the city from itˋs interesting and pretty side.

Alexander the Great Italian marble, no less

Alexanders father, Philipp the II

Scupi, as it was known, is attested for the first time in the second century AD, then part of the Roman Empire.

When it was seized in 1004 by the Byzantine Empire, it became a center for a new province called Bulgaria.

Then the Ottomans came along in 1392. And so on...

In 1963 a massive earthquake shook the city and destroyed around 80% of it, killing 1000 people and leaving 200.000 homeless.

So most of what there is to see today is relatively new. Including a lot of those grandiose statues my human couldnˋt help to notice instantly.

Porta Macedonia

Seat of the government

Most of them are part of a so-called "Project 2014". The government in power at the time was of the opinion that new government buildings were needed and also a facelift for the whole city to attract more tourism and to represent the different phases of the countries illustrous past.
Hence, all those statues of important historical figures.

The project started, things were being built. Then the government changed. The new one considered "Project 2014" a waste of money (it was estimated to cost around 800 Million taxpayers Euros).

A week ago, the "old" government got back to power and instantly the building resumed and, according to Dino, it will all be finished this year.

Views from the old fortress

In the old Bazar

The largest covered market in the country

Tavce gravce with cevapi, a typical Macedonian lunch; just the Rakija is missing

Another monstrosity on top of Vodno hill

We already mentioned the citys (and countries) most famous daughter last week - Mother Theresa.

She was born here in 1910, moved to Ireland for a short period when she was only 18, before moving on to India, where she began her work which made her the Saint she is recognized as today.

This is where the house stood which Mother Theresa was born in

Nowadays a museum dedicated to her, this is where the church stood she attended

Mother Theresa as a young girl

Saints among themselves

The Matka Canyon, formed by the river Treska, a short ride from the city, is one of the most visited attractions in the country.

The Matka Lake within the canyon is the oldest artificial lake in North Macedonia.

You can hike along the edge of the canyon for about an hour. When you get to the end of the trail, you can see the entrance to Vrelo cave on the other side.
The exact depth of the cave is unknown, but it is believed to be one of the deepest in Europe, maybe even the world.

The dam from one side...

...and the other

Meet the locals

If life was only this easy

To get to the cave, you have to take a boat tour or hire a kayak or SUP.

What was a 40-minute paddle on the way out turned into more of an hour on the way back, due to a decent headwind.

Worth the while, though. You canˋt penetrate the cave very far, but itˋs still nice to see.

Unfortunately, there are no photos from the cave. My human decided, wisely, not to take her phone with her on the paddle board.

After the canyon, we dove to Vratnica, a small village at the foot of the Sar Planina mountain range. This area is a popular ski region and very busy in winter.
From here, Mt. Ljuboten, 2498m, can be climbed.

It´s not the most scenic hike, a lot of it is on forestry roads and only when you get to the base of the mountain, the terrain becomes more enjoyable.

She is obviously not doing this hiking stuff for the view

We made a brief stop in Tetovo to see Sarena Dzamija, the Painted Mosque. It was originally built in 1438 and rebuilt in 1833.
Every centimeter of the inside walls is beautifully painted with floral and geometrical ornamentation, with some landscape thrown in for good measure.

The best way to look at Tetovo, from far away

And this is really the only attraction there is in the city. The rest is brutalistic buildings and congested roads.

Above the city, many small villages are littered among the mountains and passes of Sar Planina.

If you remember, I mentioned Mt. Korab a couple of weeks ago, the highest mountain in the country. Turns out, if you want to climb it from North Macedonia, you get to the start of the hike only via a 17km dirt road (one way), which, according to locals, is in rather bad condition. And if they call a road bad...

I have new shock absorbers now, but that doesn´t mean that we want to put them to the test immediately.
So instead, we will make do with Tito vrv, the highest in this range and with 2748m only 6 meters lower than Korab. Good enough.

Our spot for the night, above Popova Shapka

Really? Again?

A brandnew lamb

Popova Shapka

After some adventurous driving, sponsored by GoogleMaps, we made it to another mountain village from where my human took off on another hike to some waterfalls.

Cold, colder, oh, so cold!

Coming down from this range, we made our way to Bitola, the third-largest city in the country, just to get into another mountainous area called the Pelister National Park.

In the 40s, during Osman rule, a military academy was founded in Bitola. Itˋs most famous cadet was Musafa Kemal Atatürk, who went on to become the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as the first president from 1923 till his death in 1938.