Balkans day 13: Into North Macedonia

Stone Bridge and fortress at Skopje

A relatively uneventful day today, which is no bad thing after nearly two weeks on the road. In the morning I went to the old part of Pristina and the Ethnographic Museum, which, though praised by both TripAdvisor and the guidebook, turned out to be just an old house with three rooms and no signage or other information.

In the Ethnographic Museum

Xhamia e Madhe mosque

Macchiato

I explored the town some more and had another macchiato before heading to the bus station. There is a direct railway line between Pristina and Skopje, but apparently no one can be arsed to run trains on it, and there’s a bus every couple of hours anyway. (Also, weirdly, the Interrail pass isn’t valid in Kosovo.) The minibus was quiet and the journey, at two hours, was very speedy compared to some of the other stretches I’ve been on.

North Macedonia is another brand new country for me, and it’s somehow comforting to be surrounded by Slavic again. I did some Googling and some maths and confirmed that all the countries I’ve been to on this trip put together, since (and including) Croatia, up to (and including) North Macedonia, have a total area that is less than that of the UK. From the futuristic-looking bus/railway station complex in Skopje I headed into town along the river bank. Several neoclassical buildings have popped up here over the last decade as part of a deliberate initiative to change the face of the city, and Lonely Planet is rather condescending in emphasizing how tacky it thinks these are. I think the sneering is unwarranted! The effect is impressive, and I admire the planners of Skopje for aiming for something with a bit of gravitas instead of the cookie-cutter glass-fronted shite that’s spread like a plague across the capitals of Europe.

Archaeological Museum across the Bridge of Art

Alexander the Great monument

Okay, I’ll admit that that monument is a bit much, though.