Skopje was the second destination on our three-week tour of the Balkans – You can find part one (Sofia) here.
The night bus from Sofia to Skopje
We’ll start this blog post from the same point we ended the last. So, without any further ado, let’s get the night bus from Sofia to Skopje out of the way! “Getting it out of the way” was pretty much our attitude at the time. Unfortunately, night buses are rarely a relaxing experience and never result in a good night’s sleep.
The timetable told us the night bus to Skopje took six and a half hours. Plenty of time for a snooze. However, when the ‘bus’ (and I – Matt – hesitate to call it that… I’m not sure the UK would allow it on the roads) parked in front of us, it became quickly apparent that we would have very little sleep.
Almost all of us, at some point, will have had to endure a journey in an overcrowded and crumbling school minibus. Think of that. But add in travelling from Bulgaria to Macedonia in the middle of the night. Yeah. The bus was full, and one poor passenger had to stand for the best part of an hour before giving up and getting off.
We endured the dreaded border crossing. Here, the authorities frogmarched us off the minibus and made us stand in the freezing cold. We clasped our baggage for inspection by guards who almost certainly got the job through their ability to wordlessly intimidate tired young travellers.
Arriving in Skopje
To add insult to injury, we had to endure countless cigarette breaks.
One of these breaks, a mere 70 minutes into the journey, managed to last for thirty minutes – with the entire minibus (bar us) disembarking to smoke. Needless to say, these conditions weren’t helping the quest for sleep. We weren’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed when we rocked up in Skopje three hours earlier than expected.
You might not be surprised to learn that there isn’t much to do at Skopje bus station at 3:30 am. Apart from gambling your next bus fare away at “Admiral Casino”…
We had planned to leave the bus station when it got light outside. So we waited and waited, commenting on how sunrise seemed to be later here than in Sofia. Eventually, Lucy ventured around the other side of the building and discovered that we’d been looking into an underground bus bay and that it was, in fact, sunny outside. In fact, it was really quite pleasant – almost t-shirt weather for the English.
A morning exploring Skopje
We headed towards the main part of town, deserted at 6am bar a few stray dogs. The city centre, especially along the riverfront, was under construction/renovation. We gazed upon a series of very impressive and imposing buildings. These housed government departments, museums, opera, theatre and more. Each was built in a classical style, making it look more like London or Vienna – but they’re all brand new. Some weren’t even open yet.
Even the lampposts and benches were ornate. Elsewhere, statues of famous Macedonians stood along the walls and bridges every few metres. Each of these new buildings had numerous plaques with Mother Teresa’s face (Skopje is her birthplace) and an accompanying quote. If there’s one thing that we learnt about Skopje, it’s that they absolutely love Mother Teresa. Who can blame them?
We walked over the old stone bridge and made our way to the stadium. No prizes for guessing whose idea that was! [Lucy – I was thrilled.] On the way, we passed a massive campsite in the middle of the road opposite the presidential palace, which we named ‘Occupy Macedonia’. A month before our visit (June 2015), Skopje ground to a halt as thousands of people took to the streets to protest against government corruption – Occupy Macedonia is home to the remaining hardcore. We walked along the river on the way back from the stadium (which we obviously couldn’t get into) and nearly fell asleep when we sat on a bench. The temptation was genuinely overwhelming.
The quest for Breakfast
It was clear that the night bus was beginning to take its toll, so we decided to go for coffee and breakfast at a restaurant in the square. On the way, a stray we named “Skinny Dog” began following us. He was so relieved to find humans who saw him as a novelty rather than a pest that he followed us into the restaurant. Unfortunately, normal service was resumed as he was chased away by a couple of locals. [Lucy – I am scared of dogs, so I usually find strays terrifying, but not even I was frightened of Skinny Dog].
Breakfast confirmed what we’d read during our research into Macedonia. It was cheap. Incredibly cheap. Good quality scrambled eggs and fresh pesto on nice bread, as well as a cappuccino, in a nice restaurant bang in the middle of the city centre, for £2.20 each.
Feeling temporarily refreshed, we headed to the Mother Teresa Memorial House and Chapel. This is a small but interesting building dedicated to her life story and contains a good collection of letters, photographs, and other personal items. The chapel itself is a peaceful, intimate room. A stained glass window gives the light a blue tinge. We wondered how often it gets used. Overall, the site is well worth a visit – it’s definitely one of the best things to do in Skopje.
A rather rude welcome to our accommodation
After going back to the bus station to buy our tickets for tomorrow’s journey to the lakeside town of Ohrid, we headed to our accommodation, optimistically hoping we might be able to check-in a few minutes early and have a much-needed nap.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t see anyone around. We wandered through the one open door we saw and asked a woman if she could help us. The welcome was frosty, as she barked, “this is not the reception”, before coming to the conclusion that we couldn’t check-in.
She insisted that we sit on some plastic garden chairs in the garden for an hour whilst staff prepared our room. Our British awkwardness/politeness shone through here as we accepted the ‘offer’ of the chairs – we should just have asked to leave our bags and gone for another explore. Oops.
The apartments were far from the advertised ‘luxury’. Without wanting to bore you with the details, these were the problems when we were finally allowed into our room: immediate power cut (toilet breaks had to be taken in complete darkness or with the door wide open), no WiFi, the television wasn’t working (weren’t going to watch it anyway to be fair), the door wouldn’t lock or shut, live wires hanging from the wall, and the spiral staircase up to the bed was very unstable indeed. However, all we needed was somewhere to nap in. It was also wonderfully cheap, so we couldn’t really complain.
Read next: Returning to Skopje in 2023.
An afternoon in Skopje
We headed back into town post-nap via a lunch break at a riverside restaurant. Once we’d sat down, we waited for thirty minutes for the waiter to come back and take our food order before realising that we said “yes” when he asked, “just drinks?”. Oops. When the food came, it was in massive portions and, once again, an absolute bargain. Both of us were starving when we sat down, but neither of us could finish off the mountain of food on our plates. Kudos, Macedonia. Kudos.
Food stocks replenished, we headed to the fortress up a steep hill past the old town. There, we had the pleasure of following a couple around the walls who insisted on taking the most ridiculous posy photos we’ve ever seen every few steps. I’m sure they looked great on Instagram. The walk around the walls took a while. There were also countless wedding photoshoots taking place around the fortress and the riverfront. Wherever we go, they seem to follow us around.
On the way down from the fortress, dehydration had got the better of us – especially Matt – and so we decided an emergency drink stop was in order. By this point, it was getting late. However, we had seen Skopje’s sights – as much as was possible in a day, anyway.
So we accepted defeat, limping back to our “apartment” for an in-room picnic dinner and hopefully a decent amount of sleep before our 07:00 bus to Ohrid. It had been an exhausting start to the Balkans tour – but we were looking forward to having two nights in Ohrid to let us relax and catch up on sleep…stay tuned for more!
So long, Skopje!
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