Dear Reader, If you haven’t read part 1 of my story, I recommend you take a look at it! It’ll help you get your bearings!

In the last part of my tale, I had left Andre and Desi to explore the archeological museum of Skopje. Merrily, I walked toward the river, to the rather impressive building. The last time I had visited Skopje, I didn’t go in the museum, due to what I had considered at the time to be a high price tag. This time, the cost did not bother me. I took a quick photo of the river and made my way to the entrance.

*

It was closed.

*

So apparently, a lot of things in Skopje don’t work on Mondays, including the museums and the chairlift to visit the imposing cross. This left me with a couple of hours to fill before dinner time. I found myself a spot in what has now become my favourite park in Skopje and sat down to read for a couple of hours. A great deal of people walked past as I read: old married couples slowly meandering through the park, children skidding past on scooters, fashionably dressed young women in extraordinarily high heels. Eventually though, it was time to return to the hostel for my dinner and one of the most exciting travel experiences I’ve ever had.

Back at the hostel, a young man was dashing between the hostel kitchen and the reception, balancing between preparing food, manning the phone and welcoming guests. Patiently, I sat and waited for those magic words: “Dinner’s ready” and as nonchalantly as possibly, I entered the kitchen. Though initially I appeared to be the only guest in the hostel who had turned up for dinner, a trio of girls, Heladi, Giulia and Dani joined as I was plating my food.

“Hey, would you like to join us for dinner?”

“Sure, thanks. That would be lovely.”

“We have some wine as well. Would you like some?”

…

And so it began.

“So how do you all know each other?”

“Well, we met in Italy, when we were both studying there” said Dani, pointing at Giulia.

“And we are here on a programme with a Romani community” said Giulia, pointing at Heladi. Almost as exciting as a conference about bats I thought to myself. As we drank, three more interesting souls joined us: Branko, the young guy who had been making the food finally sat down to eat with us; his friend Marta, an English teacher in Skopje; and Anastasia, a somewhat eccentric Greek who was in Northern Macedonia for the same project as Giulia and Heladi.

Though we had planned to go out and see a little of the city at night, we were stopped by the conversation of the trio of them.

“So what do you do, Tom?”

“Oh, I’m an English teacher in Sofia.”

“OHHH!” For the first time in a long time, somebody was excited that I was an English teacher. “Will you come visit my class tomorrow?” said Marta, cheeks gleaming with expectation. I could hardly say no.

“Yeah, I guess I could do. What time?”

“12 o’ clock.” And so it was set.

After much more conversation, as well as an invitation to go to a flat party later on that evening, a few of us went out to explore Skopje post-sunset. We retraced the steps I’d taken earlier that day and I did my best impression of Zoran the tour guide, retelling the histories of certain statues, making brilliant jokes and being all round jolly. We stopped in a bar for a short while, before returning to the hostel.

“So, shall we go the dorm party?” We must have each proffered the question at some point during the walk back. All of us were planning to leave the next day, but it would be quite the experience.

“MAMAAAAAAAAAAA” As we stood outside the hostel door, the only apartment with any light began to exhale Bohemian Rhapsody in all its glory. “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

Anastasia, the eccentric Greek began to sing along at the top of her voice, while the rest of us deliberated whether this was in fact the dorm party or a different one. When Anastasia’s Bo-Rhap calls were not returned we ventured into the hostel, still undecided. As we reached the balcony however, Marta was sat, dressed up for the party and with a few friends drinking.

“You’re still here?”

“Yeah! Hahaha. I might go later. We’ll see.” Though we sat and played a couple of games for about an hour, most of us wanted to get some rest. We would be leaving the following day….or so we thought.

Day 3 – The big change of plans

Dani and I walked to the bus station to buy our tickets, but also to say goodbye to Giulia and Heladi who were going to their project in the village. We whiled away the time with coffee, before a teary-eyed goodbye and a solemn return to the hostel for Dani and me.

*

Our return was brief, as 12:00 was creeping up on us, edging ever closer to our scheduled guest appearance at Marta’s English class. When we were ready, we went toward the centre of the city, to where we believed the school was located. Eventually we stopped outside a clothes shop, with a giant bronze bull statue standing guard nearby.

“I think this is it” said Branko, who definitely was not as sure as he was saying. “Let me call Marta…” Over the next five minutes, Branko disappeared to figure out where exactly we had to go, Anastasia went in the clothes shop to check out some dresses, Dani joined her and I made friends with the bull.

“Over here guys….Where are they?”

I pointed at the shop “In there.”

We beckoned Anastasia and Dani to join us, with Branko leading the way to the school. Up the stairs we went and finally we had arrived. The class was small, only three students, all of which were incredibly shy and none of whom were actually from Northern Macedonia (one was Albanian, one Bosnian and one Turkish.) After paralysing the group with fear, we introduced ourselves and shared a couple of stories. Unfortunately the class was drawing to a close, so Marta finished the lesson and ushered the students out. It was lunchtime now and our stomachs were grumbling.

*

Marta joined us and the five of us hurried to a restaurant by the river. Both Dani and I had a bus booked only a couple of hours away and we still had to go back to the hostel to collect our bags.

“How long will the food take? Will we have time to eat it all?” I’m sure we’ll be okay

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll be fine. I know a shortcut to the hostel.” Phew!

*

“Do I have time for ANOTHER beer?” I may have to drink it quickly….

“Yeah, yeah, you’ll be fine.” Phew!

*

“What’s the time now?” Maybe I shouldn’t have had that second beer….

“Hmm, you’ll probably have to run to the hostel.” I really don’t want to run…

“I mean…..we could just stay another night….” It wouldn’t be that bad….

“Yeah, yeah, definitely. You can even stay at my place.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah! Why not? It’ll be fun. We’ll get some drinks and have a bit of a party.”

Should I? I mean, I really want to visit Prizren tomorrow, but this is such a cool thing to do.

*

“…..aaaaaa……OKAY. I’ll stay”

“WOOOOO! Dani, what about you?”

“………okay, but I have to leave early tomorrow morning.”

“No problem, we’ll go to the bus station and buy the tickets soon. Anastasia, what about you?”

“I really want to, but I have to go to the village.” This was the first time I’d seen Anastasia without a smile. “But if I didn’t have to go, I would join you!”

*

Yet again, we were back at the bus station. I LOVE bus stations more than anything in the world it seems. This time not only were we buying our tickets, but we were also saying goodbye to Anastasia, cue more teary-eyed goodbyes and farewells, and then we were four.

We took the bus to Branko’s apartment. Skopje has, due to a kind donation from the city of London, double-decker buses, so we boarded and of course, went to the top floor in order to get a mini sightseeing tour of the city. Marta had to leave us for a few hours, but Branko, Dani and I journeyed on to his apartment.

*

A short mini-story here: Prior to getting on the bus, we noticed a woman having a bit of a breakdown. Though I’m not entirely sure what happened, from what I gathered she had been in a car accident with a petrol truck. Her car had been slammed forward and the truck drivers seemed to be unaware, uncaring and worst of all unapologetic. Did I mention the woman had a baby? Marta took care of the baby and an ambulance was called. She was put in a stretcher and taken to hospital. I hope she’s okay now.

*

When we arrived I had to have a nap, the day had been long and tiring. Dani was introduced to Branko’s flatmate, while my weary body rested. A couple of hours later I was up and ready to face the evening. As Branko and I went to get some food and drink we discussed a shared passion of ours, Eurovision and to this day, we send each other memes whenever possible. You really meet some kindred spirits while travelling. It took us a while to figure out exactly what we wanted, but we settled on some burgers from the local chain Fast Food 7. Filled with chips, as well as meat and veggies, they were delicious and if you ever visit Skopje, I strongly recommend you get these. To follow, you must drink the classic Balkan drink: rakia, just like we did.

*

Following the rakia, the night descended into more and more of a blur (this is what happens when you consume alcohol.) The highlights however must be everyone sharing a wide variety of music, everybody’s travels stories, me getting to practise Bulgarian even more with Dani and last, but certainly not least, Branko dancing this perfectly. All in all, it was quite the evening and I sincerely hope that we can all meet again in the future (and I sincerely believe we will.) The following morning Branko took Dani and me to my favourite place in the world, Skopje Bus Station. We had yet another teary-eyed goodbye before starting our journey home. Just after the border Dani got off and I was alone once more to reflect on my rather spontaneous trip to Skopje.

For those of you who don’t know, I am now living back in Sofia. This week, I had some time off work and took the decision to visit the neighbours over the border. Whilst in Skopje, I ate some delicious food, met some fantastic people and ended up at a house party. Here’s my story.

*

For perhaps the tenth time in my life, I was at Sofia’s chaotic central bus station. A mish-mash of many companies spread over two separate areas, no clearly visible central sales desk and taxi drivers hoping to take you to the city centre for a few lev more than usual. I’ve now learnt to navigate its less than charming ways.

Waiting at platform 41 for my bus to Skopje (and yes, there are over 41 platforms at this bus station), the sun was high in the sky, a sure sign of a positive trip. On the next platform a coach was filled with people heading to Prague, while the previous platform hosted a minibus destined to southern Bulgaria.

17:30 rolled around and I could see a couple of people nearby beginning to get a little nervous. Clearly they hadn’t travelled this route before. The bus is often a little late. A few minutes later a minibus rocked up, complete with a wagon at the back for our bags. A few of us ran to the back to get our bags in, while the driver seemingly disappeared. By the time we’d all loaded our bags and waited by the bus door for what felt like five minutes, he re-appeared, cigarette in hand, taking our tickets one by one as we entered.

I sat near the front, but it made little difference to my comfort – there was next to no leg room, but it mattered not: we were finally on our way to Skopje.

A couple of hours later we stopped at the border between Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia. After remaining motionless for five minutes, a border guard slid the door open, glanced at us all, then motioned us off to inspect our bags.

Remember how I said there was a wagon at the back with all our baggage? Well, some of it had slid far to the back. I took it upon myself therefore, to climb into the wagon to help get everybody’s stuff out. As we waited around, the guard looked at a few of our passports and in a few people’s bags, but he clearly trusted me a lot, as he walked straight past me. Either that, or he just didn’t care.

We got back in and waited ten more minutes before moving anywhere. Just to clarify, this is rather normal when taking the bus over the border. Eventually, we made it to the other side, where we had a short break to run to the bathroom, buy some snacks and for our driver to have another smoke. Already the sun had gone down and I was starting to feel a little tired.

The final ninety minutes were rather different: nothing to see out of the window, no Internet and I was sat in a different seat (near the aisle, so I had some legroom – woop woop.) Arriving in Skopje, I climbed back into the wagon to help get the bags out, then made my way to the hostel. On arrival, I checked in and almost immediately went to sleep – it really had been a long day.

*

My first full day in Skopje (and in fact the only full day I had planned) started with breakfast, which the hostel kindly laid out. The only other people at breakfast were three girls from Serbia and Croatia.

“So what are you doing here?” They asked me.

“Oh, I’m just visiting from Sofia – I have a one week break from work. What about you guys?”

“We’re going to a work conference.”

“Cool. What sort of conference?”

“Bats”

“Pardon?”

“Bats”

“Like Batman – bats?”

“Yes” they laughed. “Everyone always says Batman!”

We discussed the intricacies of bats a little more before they had to leave. I had some time before my walking tour, so I walked to the city centre, grabbed a coffee and sat at the main square to read a little. A few minutes later, a group had gathered around a gentleman I’d soon learn to be called Zoran and I went over to join the tour.

The Tour Around Skopje

Zoran, a geography teacher based in and born in Skopje was our guide for the day. A jolly fellow who was prepared in many ways to tell us about the city, culture and habits, the only question I had was why he wasn’t at work teaching!

We started in the main square and after a few introductions, the eight of us began our walking tour. I shan’t mention every single detail about what Zoran told us (you’ll have to visit Skopje yourself for that), but I will mention a few of my favourites.

Our first stop was the location of Mother Theresa’s old house, where now there is just a plaque and some gold plates to show where it used to stand. Much of the city was destroyed in an earthquake in 1963 which killed 1,000 people and 80% of the city was destroyed. We later visited the old train station (now the city museum) which was heavily damaged in the earthquake, including stopping the clock on the face of the building. Since then, the clock has not been restarted, as a way of remembering the horrific earthquake. Whilst standing here, Zoran was proud to mention that this was the first place that Soviet and US forces worked together for the first time since the end of the Second World War.

As we walked around, we saw many statues and monuments. It’s remarkable how many are in Skopje. Nobody is really sure how many now exist, but they really are everywhere. They have their own Arc de Triumph, Brandenburg Gate and a huge warrior on a horse on the main square. (Originally it was entitled Alexander the Great, but was changed to appease the Greeks. In fact, Zoran pointed out that many things were changed to appease the Greeks.) We stopped for coffee on the main square and somehow one of the topics that came up was orthography of a variety of languages. Zoran had wanted to teach us how to write our names in Cyrillic, but most of us already knew it, so he was left to drink his coffee in sadness.

As we were sat in the main square, more and more children began to gather wearing outfits one would usually only see at Hallowe’en. As it turns out, in Skopje (not even the whole of N. Macedonia), the 1st April tradition is to dress up in an outfit, though there was no trick or treating going on. For us however, there were more pressing issues, such as seeing the other side of the city, where there were, you guessed it, more statues. We went past the statues though, into the old bazaar, which has morphed into a hipster-village/tourist area/historic area/bazaar. It’s a strange mix of shops, cafes and restaurants, but all very charming.

Some dogs joined us as Zoran told us about the way Skopje had once been one of the largest cities in the area before a plague hit the area, drastically reducing the population. Our final stop was a lookout at the fortress, which looked on to the old and new city, the football stadium and up toward the giant cross of Skopje.

Alas, it was time to say goodbye to Zoran and have lunch. Here I was joined by Desi and Andre. As it turned out, Desi lived only a few metro stops from me in Sofia and Andre had also visited Myanmar (which you all know I adored.) In fact, Andre was taking an unconventional trip around the world, being sent from one place to another by a friend of his, not knowing exactly where his next destination would be. I on the other hand knew exactly what my next destination would be: the archeological museum of Skopje.

Thank you for reading Part 1 of my trip to Skopje. Part 2 is on its way, as are my tales of the rest of Asia! Stay tuned!