Skopje : Walking Tours

After missing the walking tour yesterday by 10 mins today I was 10 mins early and ready to go! I love walking tours, I think they are the best way to learn about a city, both in a historical, cultural and navigational perspective.

This walking tour turned out to be 4 hours long! But it was incredibly and would rate second behind the Berlin walking tour I did last year.

We began our tour at the Mother Theresa memorial house. From here we walked up to the National museum, back to the Mother Theresa memorial house for a tour, down the back of the house to see the oldest tower, up the pedestrian street to see the Alexander the Great statue and water fountain, across to the Arc of triumph, past Parliament House and a garden of statues representing war and peace.

We walked down the river admiring some new buildings and bridges, we crossed the bridge and heard a story of the stone bridge and started into Old Town and the Bazar area. From here we had a break and stopped in at our guide's local restaurant to participate in some local rakti and sausage.

Loaded up we headed up to the castle, across to the mosque and down into the real bazar, finishing outside on old Turkish bath.

Throughout the tour we learnt all about the history of Skopje, stories behind the monuments, buildings, 2014 project and lots of little jokes our guide shared.

our guide jokes that the mayor likes to copy and paste cultural relics. When he visits other countries he sees things they have and immediately wants them in Skopje. And that is exactly what is happening, called the 2014 project (it was meant to be finished in 2014) the city has been building all of these Neo-classical buildings and statues that one is accustomed to seeing in Western Europe. For example, the arc de triophme in Paris, a bull outside the finance building, bridges with statues and so on. There doesn't seem to be any fluidity as to where they lay out things, it's all jammed in. They are even covering current standing building in a neo-classical design. And the statues! You should see them lined up all over bridges and buildings.

Some funny notes our guide mentions:
- Macedonia has never won any battles, so the arc of triumph shows cultural and sporting achievement
- parliament is shared by a number of governments, including visiting ones
- bull, which is often seen outside the stock exchange in economically stronger nations, is seen outside a shoe shop in Skopje. As the guide points out they don't have a strong economy, he jokes they should have a chicken haha
- near the stone bridge you can hear a high pitched noise. It's supposed to only be heard by dogs to keep them away. Some dogs are used to it now and keep coming back, other times it keeps the humans away because they can hear it
- so many statues!

It's just bizarre. You travel to Western Europe to see all of these buildings because they are old. They were built hundreds of years ago and carry with them a historical story of our past. The buildings in Skopje are two to three years old, they mean nothing. It's almost mis-leading in some instances. And as our guide points out, their history and designs is that of the Ottoman Empire and should reflect that, if they are doing any buildings at all.

We end the tour at an old Turkish baths. Afterwards two of the others and I go back to the guides recommended restaurant and share a meal. We try three different types of meats, plus cheese with bread (amazing!) and beers.Read more