Skopje Macedonia: As We Travel Europe

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• published: 08 Aug 2011
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http://www.aswetravel.com/its-in-the-little-things-skopje-macedonia/ Skopje Macedonia. Europe We’ve just taken an overnight train from Belgrade down to Macedonia, and we’re going to get off in Skopje soon. Well I don’t know how long till we’re there. We should be there about an hour ago. But like usual down here, trains are always a few hours late leaving and arriving. I had a good sleep though. We got a smaller compartment this time. Last time we had sick people in the room. We’ve only got two this time so it’s perfect. I actually slept pretty good. So we left our backpacks back at the hostel, and it’s still pretty early so we’re going to start exploring the city today. When most backpackers or tourists come to Macedonia, they don’t see Skopje as a final destination. Most of them come here, the first thing they want to do is leave. We haven’t heard that many good reviews about the city as a city, but we decided to stay here. We decided to stay here, explore and see what Skopje has to offer. We’re walking over the stone bridge here, it’s one of the few attractions here in Skopje. And just looking over the bridge, you can see there’s a lot of construction work going on, from a building over there, there’s some sort of fountain down there, and over there. And it seems to me that Skopje’s a bit sick of people coming and leaving straight away, and they seem to be recreating the main city area here by adding new buildings, attractions like this. So it could be nice to come back in six months to see what they actually created here in the center of town. This is a part of Skopje that we had heard about, Carsija. It’s the old part of town. It’s also one of the best preserved examples of urban Ottoman architecture. There’s also a bazaar around the corner, so we’re going to go and check that out now. This is a really bustling market, and it has been for centuries. This used to be the meeting point where Muslims and Christian people, who used to live in separate parts of the city, came to do their shopping. During the Europe Train Challenge, it’s been our mission to taste a local dish in every single country. During the last four countries, it’s been very hard to find something which is unique to each country. Yeah, they all seem very influenced by the Turkish cuisine. Here we have a plate of baklava and other Turkish pastries. They’re really good, and they’re all drenched in some sticky syrup. They are sticky. Tastes pretty good though. This is a really cute part of town. We’re going to check out the fortress now, the Kale Fortress. Seems pretty cool. Like we said before, in Skopje, there are not many tourist attractions, things to go and see. They do have this one thing though, it’s called the Kale Fortress. It’s an incredible fortress on top of a hill overlooking Skopje. And we just tried to get in, and apparently we’re not allowed. This is an amazing site though, people would love to come and see because they found, a few years ago, they found remnants of people living here over 3,000 years before Christ. So it really is a place that would gain a lot of tourists. I find that kind of funny you know, you don’t have that much going for you, everyone knows about it, so the stuff that you do have You close. That’s not exactly good tourism. I really enjoyed the Old Town and the cafés around there. It’s too bad the fortress was closed. But there’s one thing that Skopje can be really proud of, and that is the fact that Mother Theresa was born here, so I think this is an important place to visit. Tomorrow we’re off to Greece, Thessaloniki, so I’ll see you there.