Macedonia: Skopje & Mavrovo and Lake Ohrid

The very beautiful Macedonia (FYR of Macedonia, to be more exact) 🙂 after belonging to many empires over time, it is nowadays mostly shared by Christians and Muslims, who still come together at the fascinating Old Bazaar in Skopje, one of the Balkans’ largest markets.

Old Bazaar

Traditional Macedonian bags at Old Bazaar

The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since the times of Neolithic and later Bronze ages. The most famous settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress situated upon the city. The word kale arrives from turkish  word for the fortress. The fortress is thought to have been built during the rule of emperor Justinian I, the Byzantin Emperor.

Kale Fortress since the Byzantine Empire

Macedonia was part of Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empire, and most recently it was a federal Yugoslavian republic until it gained its independence in 1991, and Skopje became country’s political, cultural, economic, and academic center.

The city survived the great earthquake in 1963 of a 6.1 magnitude which destroyed 80% of the area. Today’s symbol of the earthquake is The Old Railway Station in Skopje with the clock on it. The clock stopped at 5.17 on July 26, 1963 as the earthquake hit the city.

Old Railway Station clock stopped after the earthquake in Skopje, 1963

Through Skopje flows the river Vardar over which is spreaded Stone Bridge that connects city center and Old Bazaar. Built on Roman foundations under the patronage of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, the bridge is also less frequently known as the Dušan Bridge after Stephen Uroš IV /Dušan of Serbia.

Stone bridge, 5th century

Incription on the Stone Bridge

My very good friend from Skopje brought me up the city walls to eat typical local food: ajvar (various vegetables’ souce) and drink Skopsko beer.  The place where we ate is called Čaršija and has many great restaurants with local food, music and the best view on the city.

Maria and me drinking Skopsko beer

Ajvar

Skopsko beer

Skopje has a projekt of 2014 which has been postponed to nowadays. It includes building many statues, renovating old buildings and building new ones but with its upmost kitchy style if I am to be asked, and many locals too, especially if they are asked where their money is going to. The estimated unofficial price tag of the project is €500 million.

It is a project of a questionable taste that brings in conflict urbanisms vs. politics as the government is trying to re-build the history as weel by this project. This is well to be seen with the Statue of the Warrior on a Horse, supposed to be Alexander The Great or Alexander of Macedonia (which was that time the region of Greece).

Alexander Great at the main square

Then there are this small statues after every corner representing girls from Skopje or some other public figure…

Skopje girls

Skopje girls having a bath

Then there is this kitchy bridge, one of many actually, over the river Vardar, with many lamps and statues, again.

Kitchy bridges of river Vardar

Kitchy bridges of river Vardar with many new buildings under construction

Aside from locals who have issues with the cost, I have to say this Porta Macedonia looks great. A triumphal arch located on Pella Square, whos construction started in 2011 (small giggle) 🙂

The Greek Foreign Ministry has lodged an official complaint to authorities in the Republic of Macedonia following the inauguration of the arch which features images of historical figures including Alexander the Great, ofcourse. 🙂

Amongst famous people from Macedonia, are Mother Teresa and singer Toše Proeski. 

Although she was from parents of albenian heritage, she was born in Skopje in 1910 (then part of Ottoman Empire) and practiced christian catholics religion. She left to Calcutta, India and became famous for her work to help the poor, and was affectionately called the “saint of the gutters”. Before she died, she recieved the Nobel Prize for Peace. As a nun and missionary, the pope Francis  canonized her as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

Statue of Mother Teresa in front of Her Memorial House built on the spot of her birth house 

Toše Proeski

Toše Proeski was pop singer from Skopje, born in 1981 and popular across Balkan area but died in a car accident on a highway in Croatia coming back from his concert. He was 26.

After Skopje I was heading to Mavrovo. A national park consisted of Šar mountain and Lake Mavrovo.  We were accommodated in a 5 star hotel Mavrovo for 4 beautiful days.

Set in breathtaking scenery amid grassy plateaus and snowy peaks, the abandoned church of St Nicholas was reportedly the victim of an artificial lake created to supply water to a local power plant.

Mavrovo Lake with submergd St Nicholas church

We visited as well the cave Šarkova dupka, found by locals and guided down by them as well. It was claustrophobic at the beginning but we managed to do it.

Šarkova dupka cave

Travelling more through the National Park of Mavrovo, we were admiring the green landscape that was covering rocky mountains and their cliffs secered by the brooks and rivers.

National Park Mavrovo 

The last point we reached was a Macedonian Orthodox monastery Saint Jovan Bigorski, lovated on a cliff amongst the forest as mystical place. The church is dedicated to saint John the Baptist with many beautiful frescos inside. It is considered one of the finest examples of wood-carved iconostases. According to its 1833 chronicle, the monastery was built in 1020 by Ivan I Debranin. The Ottomans destroyed the monastery in the 16th century, but it was restored in 1743 by the monk Ilarion.

The cloaster of the monastery

View from the monastery

Zen place

The monastery has a large collection of holy relics including John the Baptist, Clement of Ohrid, Lazarus of Bethany, Saint Stephen, Saint Nicholas, Saint Barbara and part of the Holy Cross.

Main altar

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2023

In 2023 I had a chance to visit again. I was invited to attend the wedding of a very good friend of mine from the students’ times. I was excited to re-visit, to be able to compare with the previous years and do some new explorations.

We landed the very first night into Skopje Airport. What changed is the name of the country. from Macedonia to North Macedonia due to political disputes with Greece. The second thing I have been told is that I need to go to eat into Boemska street – a new neighbourhood to dine like the Balkans. 🙂

What I noticed is that there are numerous dogs in the streets – something I do not remember from 2012 and 2014. The state is not take care of these dogs so they just friendly wander around.

But you will have a super big Macedonian salad with the freshest tomato from Grandma’s garden. You will have the musicians coming to you to sing you old songs and make you nostalgic for the past times.

If you go up to the old city, above the Kale fortress, you will end up at the Bazaar. I am not much of a fan but to go once-twice and observe the chaos turning into somehow working kozmos could be a good treat.

And if you want to eat, the meat from the grill is the best choice. There will be no pork, of course, so the best quality meat in your cevapi will be from veal and lamb. I think they call it there kebab which is similar to the rest Balkans when we say cevap. Language travels through cultures. Skopsko beer is inevitable.

The walk through Bazaar can be odd sometimes. As one of the oldest and largest marketplaces in the Balkans, it has been Skopje’s centre for trade and commerce since at least the 12th century.

Balkans like the blink blink and kitch so you can see the gold shops almost everywhere. I am not sure if these are fake or real though.

During Ottoman rule of Skopje, the Old Bazaar developed rapidly to become city’s main centre of commerce. The Ottoman history of the bazaar is evidenced by roughly thirty mosques, numerous caravanserais and hans, among other buildings and monuments. To me, the most interactive part is when you speak with the locals and buy the products. I bought peppers, pepperoni, black tea and some garlic chicken spice. All of these for 300 macedonian denars – which is less than 3 euros. But I know that these do not come from China but from grandma’s garden.

The bazaar was heavily damaged by the earthquake in 1555, the burning of the city in 1689, the earthquake in 1963, as well as during the First and the Second World Wars and faced various rebuildings following these events.

Greater Albania (Albanian: Shqipëria e Madhe) is an irredentist and nationalist concept that seeks to unify the lands that many Albanians consider to form their national homeland. It is based on claims on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas. In Old Bazarr there are many shqiptu – albanian ethnic groups. This is the reason why you can see many Albanian flags around to buy as souvenirs. I caught the mural of the Albanian political fathers that shaped the very first idea of Big Albania in 19th century.

Then we went down to the lower city which is Christian orthodox. I already said much about the Skopje 2014 project and nation building that goes with it. From one madness to another…

Downtown prevails with orthodox churches and Macedonian people. Here you can find pork on the menu, for example.

As part of the mentioned project Skopje 2014, Macedonia has embarked on a major revamp of its capital city, Skopje. But the changes have been controversial with some calling the makeover a “crime”. Indeed, many public money has financed the corruption while nation-building and inventing the statues.

The banks of the Vardar River, which runs through the city centre, now boast new museums, government buildings and a reconstructed National Theatre. All of them have been built in a style its proponents label either neoclassical or baroque, in striking contrast to the socialist and elsewhere modernist character of most of Skopje.

Due to all that madness, there is a local say: you have to count all the statues. Just by checking the photos here, can you count them all? 😀

Time to eat, again.

Ajvar is the local dish. Made principally from sweet bell peppers and eggplants. On our first day in Skopje, driving from the airport to the city center, the taxi driver explained us how they used to bake ajvar in the street – it was kinda of a people’s street festivity. Due to European Union regulations (I would say more due to local security regulations) they are not allowed to self-organise anymore in the city to do so.

Lake Ohrid

Lake Ohrid  is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of Europe’s deepest and oldest lakes, with a unique aquatic ecosystem of worldwide importance, with more than 200 endemic species.

Technically we went to the south of the Macedonia of the North. Hope this will keep Greeks happy 🙂

The towns situated at the lakeside are Ohrid and Struga. We had a time to visit only Ohrid – the Jerusalem of the Balkans. Very touristy, more poshy and super expensive.

As Macedonia is famous for cakes, and so far I had no opportunity to try the famous cake of three milks – I decided to try my destiny here. I am not much of the sugar, but this was great.

Time to explore.

The city is rich in picturesque houses and monuments, and tourism is predominant. As an episcopal city, Ohrid was a cultural center of great importance for the Balkans. Almost all surviving churches were built by the Byzantines and by the Bulgarians, with the rest dating back to the short time of Serbian rule during the late Middle Ages.

If you are careful enough, you can spot the details on your travel like the street lantern in the shape of the merchant Ottoman house from the Middle Ages. To be more precise, it is the Robevi House – a famous and historic building in which famous Ohrid merchant family lived for centuries.

There is a very famous Church of Saint Sophia since 11th century. The interior of the church has been preserved with frescoes from the 11th, 12th and 13th century, which represent some of the most significant achievements in Byzantine painting of the time. 

The old city of Ohrid is a typical medieval city. With many shops to explore. However, I was attracted by more. Our driver brought us to a place that was more prehistoric. Driving us next to the coast of the scenic villages…

What you see on the photos is the other side of the lake which belongs to Albania. One day, to be conquered by Ivana too. 🙂 For now, I just enjoyed passing by, cruising down the riviera and reflecting on the sun.

We stumbled upon this very cute place – the museum on water, otherwise known as Bay of Bones, an archaeological complex located at the excavation site. This used to be a pre-historic village. The findings point out to a massive settlement, supported by 10,000 wooden piles, each anchored to the lake bed. Learned guesses put the settlement at the very end of the Bronze Age, and the beginning of the Iron Age, effectively making it over 3000 years old. I found this place truly exclusive. Just think about it …

Finally, Ostrovo was the last place on the Ohrid coast that we visited. And the best. It is hard to put the words on the screen to explain the serenity. Perhaps the only place where I have seen the water more beautiful and transparent was in Plitvice lakes.

While there, be sure to keep your eyes open for the famous rare white peacocks. My luck wasn’t big enough so I saw only a normal beautiful creature of it.

This beautiful peacock guides us to the sources of the lake. We ended up on a small boat with pure transparent water that looks like 30 cm deep but in reality, this was at least 3 metres in deep.

Our guide Nikola was rowing the boat while explaining the flora and fauna in such a whispering voice like himself was a bird, belonging to the lake.

The peace and serenity was complete with the the Monastery of Saint Naum – an Eastern Orthodox monastery named after the medieval Bulgarian writer and enlightener Saint Naum who founded it.

Posted on April 17, 2017 15 By RED RIDING HOOD Home page Posted in Home page, Travel

RED RIDING HOOD

Weltschemerzer mit Sehnsucht. Travel is my catharsis.