Well, another anxious border crossing turned out to be no big deal. All I needed was my passport, no test results were asked for. I got stamped out of Kosovo and then into North Macedonia and thirty minutes later I arrived in Skopje. Done and done!

Aside from knowing there was an ancient kingdom named Macedonia, I really knew nothing about this country, but they have quite a history! The heyday was in the fourth century BC with king Philip II and then his uber famous son, Alexander the Great. After Alexander’s death things kind of disintegrated and between Romans, Greeks, Bulgarians, Ottomans, and Yugoslavians, it took roughly 2000 years to put Macedonia back together again. You might be asking the same question I first asked, where is South Macedonia? Where indeed. It seems Greece took exception to their using the name, Macedonia, because then they might have a claim to Greek lands (?). Long story short, they compromised and called it North Macedonia, even though this land is mostly where the ancient kingdom actually was, even though the Greeks weren’t using the name for anything else, even though Greece was and is a completely different civilization, even though they’re referring to land claims from over 2000 years ago, and even though there is no South Macedonia. It all just seems silly to me.

In the center of Skopje is Macedonia Square. There was a huge push in the newly christened North Macedonia to create a sense of national pride through architecture and statuary. As a result, the buildings downtown are super grandiose and there are statues everywhere. Seriously, everywhere! Pretty much every significant person from Macedonia’s history has a statue somewhere in or near the center, but wait, they’ve also all been enlarged by about 20% from your normal statue size. In the middle of the square is Alexander the Great, which leads to the Ottoman stone bridge across the river where you meet King Philip II, and all of Macedonia’s heroes watch from the wings. The whole downtown area gets mixed reviews from the locals. I think it’s a beautiful work in progress, but I also find it a bit overwhelming.

Of course Skopje also has a fortress that’s been guarding the city since the 6th century. Other than the outer walls there’s really not much left inside, but the views out over the city can’t be beat. Right near the fortress is the Ottoman bazaar and the city’s main mosque. Whatever you need can probably be found there. It was fun strolling the cobblestoned streets for a while, but it’s basically an outdoor shopping mall, albeit a really old one.

I was a bit disappointed with the museums in Skopje, primarily because they were either closed or partially closed for renovations or mysterious reasons. Two former Turkish baths now house the city’s art collection which was nice. The Holocaust museum dedicated to Macedonia’s mostly extinct Jewish population, was closed for unknown reasons. The massive six story archeological museum that I was most looking forward to and had planned on spending the better part of a full day in was pared down to one floor of pottery and jewelry. Super bummed about that one! Luckily, the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Statehood and Independence was fully operational and saved the day. This place told the whole history of Macedonia starting with the Ottoman revolts in the early 20th century. It was part museum with artifacts, part art museum, and part wax museum. They had wax statues of every significant Macedonian, just in case the statues around town weren’t enough.

Also on the partially closed list, but interesting nonetheless is the old train station. In 1963, there was a devastating earthquake here that leveled a large portion of Skopje and killed over a thousand people. The train station is the only building they didn’t repair or replace. The clock is still stopped at the moment the earthquake occurred, 5:17am. They eventually turned it into a museum, but as you can see, the left side of the building is still just rubble. The aftermath of the quake also marked the first time that American and Soviet troops worked together on something during the cold war.

After thoroughly exploring the city, at least as much as I was able to, I rented another car to get me to some far flung places again. I did a few cool day trips, this time in a Volkswagen Golf. First up, Matka Canyon, where all of Skopje goes to get their nature fix since its only about thirty minutes from downtown. No kidding, I went and hiked the canyon fairly early, but in the late afternoon when I was finished it seemed the whole city showed up and getting out of there was quite a challenge. If you manage to go when the crowds aren’t bad, though, it’s a really beautiful spot.

The rest of my day trips took me all over the north eastern part of the country. Most of these places weren’t even mentioned in any guide books, but I managed to find some ancient cities, some natural wonders, and this megalithic 4000 year old observatory. The Kokino observatory doesn’t look like much at first glance, but in the 21st century BC the local inhabitants carved seats in strategic locations on top of this volcanic hill. By observing the sun, moon, and various stars moving through certain notches in the rock, some of which they made themselves, at certain times of the year, they were able to create their own 19 year lunar calendar and accurately predict the summer and winter solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes. Pretty incredible!

Nearby I found this little 14th century church of St George in the village of Staro Nagorichane. They’re obviously doing some restoration work on the outside, but inside is some really spectacular and untouched medieval art. I should mention every place I visited on these day trips to eastern Macedonia were blissfully free of people. I had each of these places completely to myself! I find it hard to believe they don’t get ANY visitors though.

The Kuklica Stone Town is a small site with some cool rock formations. They gave the big ones names, the bride, the groom, the godfather, the godmother, etc. While maybe not as spectacular as some of the stuff we have in the American southwest, it was still a worthwhile stop.

I found a lot of easily accessible archeological sites in my research for this part of the trip. A couple of them ended up not being worth the effort, but then a few others ended up being really cool. Here are the best ones. Vinica Calais occupies a hilltop above Vinica. There are no signs, so not only was it really difficult to find how to access it, but I have no idea what it is either. I couldn’t find any information about it online. So why did I go? Because I’m me, that’s why. There wasn’t much there, but the views were incredible!

Bargala was a small Christian city dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries AD, and turned out to be a real treasure. Again, I can’t believe more people don’t come out here. There are the foundations of three ancient churches with a lot of the original flooring, and also a lot of neatly laid sand probably protecting some amazing mosaics underneath. I so wanted to uncover them and have a look. That would have meant a lot of hard work in the hot sun, though, and perhaps a trip to jail if I had been caught.

I also visited Bylazora and Tauresium, but sadly there wasn’t much to see at either site. I did find what I assume is a Roman headstone at Tauresium, though, which was pretty cool.

Finally, I stopped at one more archeology site, but since I visited on the way out of Skopje and because this post is super long, and because I’m tired of writing, I think I’ll add it to the next post. If you made it this far you deserve an award of some kind. The last several days have been extremely busy. Until the next post…