The Macedonian capital Skopje - the former capital of Bulgaria
Skopje, or in Bulgarian Skopje, from 972 to 991 was the capital of Bulgaria. During this period (9th century – 10th century), the city was part of the First Bulgarian Kingdom and the young Bulgarian Tsar Roman was hiding from the Byzantines in the Skopje fortress. In the future, Skopje will be another two times part of the Bulgarian kingdom (third), but not as a capital: from October 1915 to September 1918 and from April 1941 to September 1944.
Skopje became the capital of Macedonia in 1991, when the independence of the Republic of Macedonia was declared.
On June 12, 2018, under the long-term pressure of Greece, the Macedonian government decided to change the name to the Republic of Northern Macedonia. The referendum will be held on September 30. Otherwise, they are not allowed into the EU - Greece strongly objects.
The capital of Macedonia, Skopje, really surprised me. Because, despite the fact that I was preparing for the trip, in reality everything turned out to be much larger.
This is the border between Bulgaria and Macedonia. Since Russian citizens do not need a visa for a tourist trip to Macedonia, it is not difficult to cross the border: you only need to have a passport with you.
I can’t give full information on the visa, there are some conditions and restrictions, so who cares, look for information on the official websites.
Only 230 km from Sofia to Skopje, it’s true that you have to lose about an hour at the border, but this is not very problematic, because the border guards themselves approach, the line is small, and the road is beautiful and good.
My first shock was in the old town of Skopje Charshia - it does not look like anything like that from what I saw. This is just some kind of toy town - all the houses are short and narrow. The streets are also narrow, and not paved with cobblestones, but it looks like marble.
The city is very large - you can walk all day, although it is, in fact, a museum. That is, it is recognized by the Republic of Macedonia as a historically important cultural center and is protected by the state.
Everything works here: shops, cafes, restaurants and workshops for leather and wood carving. Barber barbers also work, and the masters in them are only men. By the way, there are men around. Women are only shoppers and tourists. Moreover, most of the customers in hijabs.
By the way, this was another surprise of mine - in preparation for the trip, I somehow lost sight of the fact that the old center of Skopje is Muslim. So my advice to women is to put on long and closed clothes in Skopje. It’s more convenient if you don’t like being looked at as food.
The third point: in Charshia, not every institution serves alcohol, that is, beer. And also, it is difficult to find a restaurant with an assortment of meat dishes - mostly only kebabs are prepared here, but very tasty!
In general, if you want to drink and eat national Macedonian cuisine, then it is better to leave the old city and find a restaurant where the Macedonians live - in the new part. In Charshia, Albanians live.
However, there are also interesting cafes serving Turkish coffee and tea in small glass cups, and Albanian kebabs are very tasty.
The next shock was the feeling of a fairy tale changing when we left the low-rise old town on the Macedonia square with huge statues and buildings in the classicist style!
This is a statue of Philip II - he stands on the other side of the Vardar River, opposite the statue of his son Alexander the Great.
This Stone Bridge is also a landmark that connects the monuments of father and son. Skopje has interesting museums, the entrance to which is either free or very inexpensive.
And this is another bridge - on it in a row are statues of various important personalities in Macedonian history. There is still a golden bridge, but I did not take a photograph of it - I stood with my mouth open.
Here I have to say that Skopje is a very old city. As a settlement, it is known from the third century BC. This city has a very rich history, so the authorities decided to capture all this in architecture. And, I think, right. Let some say that it’s gigantomania and kitsch, but tourists knock down, but it’s beautiful and interesting and I want to know more about Skopje right away. After the trip, I read about Macedonia all that I had found for a week and now I wonder how I could not know this before. After all, Macedonian history is very closely intertwined with Bulgarian.
A statue of Alexander the Great stands in the fountain, as does Philip II, and the fountain pulsates to the music. The statue itself is 22 meters high, and behind the rider, on the mountain, stands the Millennium Cross.
By the way, there are a lot of statues and sculptures in Skopje - I do not know any other such city.
The statues are very different, both huge and great, and miniature and playful, like this cleaner.
Prices in Macedonia were not so low, against my expectation. That is, almost everything costs about the same as in Sofia. Why did I think it would be cheaper? But I don’t know - somehow after Serbia I left it.
In Macedonia, their money is called Denars. One denar is 100 den.
The Macedonian language is very similar to Bulgarian, so we did not experience any communication problems. But Albanian is much smaller, but the good thing is that although we were at a loss to understand them, they understood us perfectly.
Arc de Triomphe Macedonia.
In addition to statues on horses, there were also chairs.
In general, Skopje is a very interesting city - it leaves a lasting impression. I recommend it from the heart!
The only thing I want to note, since Macedonia has a transitional climate to the subtropics, is very hot in summer (+ 37C), so I think the best time to visit is autumn.
I am writing about Bulgaria, just Macedonia is nearby 😊
Thank you for your time and attention.
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With love from Bulgaria @varya-davydova