We arrived in Skopje, Macedonia on Monday and initial impressions were that it’s a dreary / dismal / gray city with excessive graffiti and depressingly over-cast weather (even worse than stereotypical Belgium). I’m sure that it’s better in the spring/summer as we got a teaser of what it could be like with warm sunshine over the week as the weather improved, which lead me to revise my impressions of the city to slightly less dreary and dismal, accompanied (or caused?) by eau-de-old-cigarette-smoke that permeated literally every place we were in. Actually, the permanent residual smoke would be my one real complaint about the city.
There are many statues in this style throughout the city... these musicians were my favorite The area of Skopje has been inhabited for over 200 years, so it’s an old place… but you wouldn’t know it from walking around as much of it was rebuilt in 1963 after an earthquake destroyed 80% of the city. And of course most of it was rebuilt in the Soviet mass-concrete aesthetic. The city doesn’t have a whole lot to capture your camera lens. It’s come a long way from when a 17th Century Austrian general called it the most beautiful city he’d ever seen in all his conquests of European Turkey… before burning it down to the ground. The only noticeable standing historical monuments or areas in the city are the Stone Bridge, the Fortress, and the Old Bazaar (a series of smaller streets lined by shops and cafes).
Downtown Skopje as seen from the Fortress across the river.
Another statue with the Stone Bridge behind it.
The 66 meter Millennium Cross on Vodno Mountain, built to mark 2000 years of Christianity in Macedonia. We kept seeing this from multiple points in the city and on our last day took a cab halfway up the mountain, walked the remainder, and hitch-hiked back to our cab.
Despite our lack of preparation, we got a few ideas on what to do with our free day and ended up taking a bus to Ohrid, a lake-side town close to the border with Albania. It was a foggy three hour bus ride each way through the mountains from Skopje but well worth the day trip. It’s a beautiful town to wander through as it is on a hill giving great views over the lake, both of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Standing on the lakefront with some of Ohrid in the background.In the Middle Ages it was known as the Slavic Jerusalem for having 365 churches — one church for every day of the year. One day wasn’t anywhere near enough time to visit everything in the area, so we concentrated ourselves on the sites in town—several churches, a monastery, and a fortress. One of the churches, St. Sophia, had 11th century frescoes on the walls. When Ohrid was part of the Ottoman Empire, this church was converted into a mosque and the frescoes were covered. Maybe half of them have since been restored. Three young women were minding the church and one of them gave me a small tour. My too-brief visit in St. Sophia’s was a highlight as I talked to my new friend and listened to her and her friends sing in a space with such beautiful acoustics. A colleague commented that this job makes you really appreciate moments… this was one of those moments for me.
We were lucky with the weather and the views we got of the town the higher we went up the hill. We reached our goals: Church of St. Clement and the Fortress. St. Clement’s supposedly has relics of the saint inside, but we couldn’t see anything recognizably relic-like.
The Church of St. Clement
Old Ohrid's defense system... hefty fortress walls.On our way back down into town, we came across the Church of St. John at Kaneo. It sits with its gardens on a cliff overlooking the Ohrid and the lake.
The Church of St. John at Kaveo as dusk is falling. We were in town during the off-season. I can only imagine how busy the place is during the spring and summer—there’s just so much to see and do in the area what with monasteries and the mountains and the lake.
We've since left Skopje and are now in Prishtina, Kosovo. Good-bye Cyrillic alphabet (for now?) at least you get easier with practice!
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