Skopje

Will finished all the cereal last night so we had to buy breakfast/lunch - we went for the cheap option and went back to 'burger friends'
I don't understand why no one puts salt on their chips.
We arrived at the meeting spot a half hour early so we waited - at first in the shade but then in the sun cause we were cold again.
Our tour guide, Zoran arrived - his teeth were awful! Rotten, half missing and I think the top ones he did have was a plate of sorts. He did spit a bit too - apart from that distracting feature he was great - super friendly and spoke English clearly enough:) we waited a little, but because he changed his usual tour time he didn't expect anyone to show - we only knew about the change of time because we booked and received an email - but the website actually specifies that you don't need to book. So lucky we did. A Spanish man came over and enquired about the free tour umbrella and joined too.
Our first stop was mother Theresa's birth place - the 1963 earthquake destroyed the house but there are gold outlines on the floor to mark where it stood. There is also a tree that she planted too.
Next up was an arch, variety of statues and parliament building. The parliament building still had some signs of the protests from last year. They didn't graffiti like most people, instead they covered the building in paintballs hahah.
We went to the old train station which is now museums and had some of the Thousands of statues explained.
Next we went to the main square - that ridiculously large Alexander the Great statue cost the government 9 million euros - no wonder they are cranky.
We looked at stone bridge and learnt about the explosives that were hidden in there during the war, and looked at another 2 bridges one covered in significant Macedonian artists and the other important Macedonian figures be it politics or philosophy etc. Most of the city is new because in 1963 there was a massive earthquake which destroyed 80% of the city.
we went through the old bazaar to reach fortress kale. We went inside today but there want much to see, it's still under construction. We went to a mosque (the one making a racquet yesterday) and then we went back through the old bazaar again where our guide, Zoran bought us some traditional Turkish sweets - delightful! Everyone else didn't like them as much so I got 3! ^.^
The Spanish dude - who btw was a knob at the start had warmed up and bought a sweet for himself and offered me a bite - it wasn't chocolate like expected but full of dates or similar. The old bazaar is my new favorite spot. It honestly looks like a theme park with matching shop fronts and clean streets but with people selling silly things.
Back in the day there was a designated street for each thing but now there is only one still doing that tradition which is the street selling gold/jewelry which we walked down.
The Spanish dude said bye to us, we tipped 1000 denar which is about 16 euro (the tour was free in theory - it's all tipped based) then we sat at a shop Zoran recommended. He came and sat with us for a while. He really is lovely but makes too many jokes haha and many of them sexual - the Spanish man and Will found them funnier than I did lol.
I had a traditional salad called a shopska * salad.
It's tomato, cucumber and onion covered in white cheese.
We were meant to go on a pub crawl but we went to the meeting point and no one was there. So we have now strolled through the city and are stopped at traditional Turkish place in the old bazaar.
Will is pretty devo.
We had traditional Turkish tea, it needed a lot of sugar to be yum. Will liked it and ordered another one but we got it on the house. :)
We also had some Melon hookah which was yum.
I feel uncomfortable, not unsafe but uncomfortable. I feel like my hair an eye colour really give me away and a lot of people look at me.
There were a lot of beggar kids walking around.
We gave a big tip again because the waiters were really nice and there money is worth squat. He was so appreciative and supposed.
I plan on buying dog/cat food tomorrow cause I can't deal with all the sad animals :(
We are currently watching Bear Grylls and will go to bed soon.
We both have obvious wind chafing on our faces.Read more