Balkans day 14: Skopje

I got up today with high hopes: the plan was to climb a mountain! Specifically, Vodno, the mountain that overlooks Skopje. Unfortunately, it was raining heavily in the morning, and the top of the mountain was in the clouds, so I decided instead to hop across puddles and explore the old town.

View from the Kale Fortress, with Vodno in the background

First stop was the Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Jews of Macedonia. This state-of-the art museum gives a harrowing account of the origins and ultimate fate of the country’s Jewish population: of eight thousand Macedonian Jews, only 350 survived the Holocaust, with most of the rest being gassed at Treblinka. There’s also information about the Sarajevo Haggadah (much more than there was in Sarajevo) and the origins of the Macedonian Jews; I didn’t know that they mostly came there after their expulsion from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, and originally spoke Ladino/Judeo-Spanish.

Monument to the Jews of Macedonia

Onward into the old bazaar. This winding section of town isn’t as touristy as its Sarajevo counterpart, but feels more like a real part of the city.

Bazaar street

Caravanserai

I also visited Skopje’s Kale Fortress, high above the river. The views are spectacular, but the fortress itself is a bit of a dump, a desolate, litter-filled place. Lonely Planet draws a Game of Thrones comparison, which I couldn’t really see. It’s a shame Skopje couldn’t have spent a bit more money on this at the same time as it was constructing a vast neoclassical frontage along the river.

After this, with the weather persisting in being not very nice, I retreated to my hotel room to rest. Tomorrow is a big travel day.