Macedonia
Macedonia was recommended by my friend Lisa who had lived there for a year to work as a volunteer for childrens rights and to help Roma children with education. I didn't believe her that Macedonia could be a nice place so I had much doubt when me and my friend Pär bought a cheap flight ticket to the capital Skopje. Lisa had left Skopje by then so we couldn't meet up with her unfortunately, but she told me about some places I should visit, like the Absinthe Bar.
Romantic music was playing from the outdoor speakers when we were taking a walk down the river in the evening. I loved the new part too but for a completely different reason, and I love how different the parts are even though they are just a river apart. Maybe Lisa was right anyway, it certainly felt amazing to be here!
We visited a memorial house for Mother Teresa, who was born in Skopje, and some other tourist attractions like their own version of the triumphal arch.
Then I used the spa at the hotel as much I could, it was so great to be able to go to a spa for free whenever I wanted. Pär seemed to think of it as a bathhouse and he went in, had a swim and sat in the sauna for a couple of minutes and then he was finished, he couldn't believe that I would spend hours and hours in there, as you usually do at a spa. The only thing I could complain about was that the main pool was cold, how are you supposed to relax when you are freezing your balls off? Other than that I loved every second of it!
We went to the Absinthe Bar and I was scared to drink home brewed absinthe from Macedonia when you shouldn't even drink the water in the country. I was also scared because I have always thought of absinthe as something that is illegal because of its toxicity. So I almost ordered a bottled beer but then I changed my mind and ordered my first taste of absinthe ever, it tasted like cough medicine, a liquorice taste. I hated the taste but enjoyed the atmosphere in the bar and the psychedelic music from the 60's and 70's that they played, so it felt right to drink it anyway. Unfortunately we were there on a monday and so we were also the only ones there. We asked the bartender if all bars were empty on mondays and she nodded. I was ready to go back to the hotel but Pär wanted to give a hipster bar called Star Grad Pivnica a try, that we had walked by before. We went there and it was quite a lot of people there actually to watch a shitty cover band playing classic rock songs. Sometimes the singer even used his phone to see the lyrics on the Internet at the same time as he sang. So maybe it wasn't a hipster place even though they brewed their own beer. Pär loved the place but I couldn't understand why, the most fun I had was when the band said it was a break for 10 minutes so people could go out and smoke, and then almost no people came back for the second act. When we went back to the hotel that night we watched some Conan O'Brien episodes and I laughed until my jaw started to hurt from all the laughing. I had a blast with Pär and it was so fun to enjoy Skopje with him since we were best friends many years ago when we started a band called Ninjaspark together. We have always been friends since then but we don't see each other as much anymore, so it was great to have that close friendship back for the trip!
On the day before we were heading home, I went to the spa as usual and I felt an odd feeling in my stomach while I was in the bubble bath. I got scared that I was going to be sick and that Pär would have to leave me on a hospital in Macedonia by myself, fortunately it never evolved into something worse than an odd feeling until I came home from the trip. Some weeks after that I rushed to the emergency with more pain than I had ever felt. It turned out I had got a kidney stone and I'm so grateful that the pain didn't explode while I was on the trip.
The next day we were catching an early flight and something I never had expected was to hear a voice on the airport saying "Jim, what are you doing here?". It turned out it was Jonas who I know from back home in Gothenburg, Sweden. I knew he was going to be in Skopje for the spring and I had told him I was going, but he had taken it as a joke so he was surprised to see me.
When I got back home I thought that I had loved Skopje but at the same time I couldn't believe it, how could Macedonia be such a great place? I must have remembered it too good, it can't be that good, can it?
I had to find out so I went back the next year with my friend Michael. We had a road trip planned so the first day we were just going straight from the airport in Skopje by a rental to Kosovo. I saw a new side of Macedonia when we drove through the country which was total poverty. People were warming themselves around fire in barrels in the streets like homeless people, and the people who were working were using horses and wagons to transport stuff. My image of beautiful Macedonia got destroyed and I felt bad for the people struggling in poverty with no future. I think it was good for me to see it though so I didn't just get the tourist version of Macedonia.
After we had been on the road trip to Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro and back, we arrived at Skopje to be staying on one of the fake boats in the river that operates as a four star hotel. Yeah I know, I went down one star from last time but actually you couldn't tell because this was a great hotel too, in its own way. It was fun to be sleeping on a boat, even though it's fake and doesn't float for real. The view was spectacular and I can recommend both of the hotels for different reasons, maybe I dare to go for three stars next time I go to Skopje!
I showed Michael around since I had been here before, I had no clue to show him around the old town though since it's still a maze for me and I will never learn how to find my way around it. I kind of like that, it's irritating in one way but at the same time you get so happy when you find what you are looking for in the end. I felt at home this time, and I can honestly say I just like it even more now, Skopje is definitely a hidden gem and I consider it my home away from home. Since the Absinthe Bar was closed we ended up at the hipster slash rock cover band bar and to my surprise I loved it this time around. The beer tasted amazing, the staff were very friendly, just as everybody else in Skopje, and I thought to myself, Pär was right all along, this is a great bar, at least when no cover band is playing!
* Best things about Macedonia – the contrast between the old town and the new, and how they complement each other, I also love the feeling of the city as a fake place in a good way, feels made up like Disneyland with all its statues, fake boats in the rivers and music playing through outdoor speakers around the river
* Most mediocre thing about Macedonia – I both love and hate that I can never understand how to find anything in the labyrinth called old town, so I guess you can call it mediocre then
* Worst things about Macedonia – outside of the city center of Skopje you can see how poor the country is, and I feel bad for the people struggling, for us as tourists I think the worst is the food, they can even make a pizza taste bad
Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. Croatia
2. Andorra
3. Cyprus
4. Greece
5. Italy
6. Iceland
7. Denmark
8. Lithuania
9. Macedonia
10. Ireland
11. Belgium
12. Estonia
13. Kosovo
14. Finland
15. Latvia
16. France
17. Bulgaria
18. Luxembourg
19. Liechtenstein
20. China
21. Bosnia And Herzegovina
22. Albania
We arrived in Skopje an extremely cold day and all I wanted was to get to the five star luxurious spa hotel to be able to change clothes and dress warmer. It was a fun feeling to be able to stay at a five star hotel for the first time in my life because of the prices in Macedonia being so much cheaper, for once I was rich!
Oddly enough the luxurious hotel was located in the old parts of Skopje which seems as the most poor area. There is a smell of burning wood in the air and I guess that they still keep warm by using fire instead of radiators. We tried to find the hotel but as we would soon find out, the old town is a labyrinth. We found the Absinthe Bar by accident that Lisa had told me about and some graffiti imitating Keith Haring, a great American artist. Close by someone had also wrote "2 Pac" and "Thug Life" on the wall and I thought it was funny to see how American culture influences so many places, even a country like Macedonia.
I loved the vibe in the old town and it was beautiful and had its own charm even though it's worn down. We finally found the hotel and realized that five stars in Macedonia is like three stars in Sweden but we had nothing to complain about. Me and Pär would share a double bed and the music in the hallways were playing sensual songs by Eros Ramazzotti, so we understood that this hotel was probably just for rich couples who would use it as their love nest when visiting Skope. The hotel staff probably thought we were gay and I had no problem pretending to be Pär's boyfriend, they even had a German gay channel for us ready on the TV.
We went out on the streets and went into the newer parts of Skopje and there's a river that separates the two parts. The newer part is like an artsy Disneyland because it feels so made up with fake boats in the river that are hotels and casinos. There are gigantic statues everywhere with the Alexander The Great statue being the most dominant of them all, when he's riding a horse in the middle of the square.
Romantic music was playing from the outdoor speakers when we were taking a walk down the river in the evening. I loved the new part too but for a completely different reason, and I love how different the parts are even though they are just a river apart. Maybe Lisa was right anyway, it certainly felt amazing to be here!
We visited a memorial house for Mother Teresa, who was born in Skopje, and some other tourist attractions like their own version of the triumphal arch.
Then I used the spa at the hotel as much I could, it was so great to be able to go to a spa for free whenever I wanted. Pär seemed to think of it as a bathhouse and he went in, had a swim and sat in the sauna for a couple of minutes and then he was finished, he couldn't believe that I would spend hours and hours in there, as you usually do at a spa. The only thing I could complain about was that the main pool was cold, how are you supposed to relax when you are freezing your balls off? Other than that I loved every second of it!
We went to the Absinthe Bar and I was scared to drink home brewed absinthe from Macedonia when you shouldn't even drink the water in the country. I was also scared because I have always thought of absinthe as something that is illegal because of its toxicity. So I almost ordered a bottled beer but then I changed my mind and ordered my first taste of absinthe ever, it tasted like cough medicine, a liquorice taste. I hated the taste but enjoyed the atmosphere in the bar and the psychedelic music from the 60's and 70's that they played, so it felt right to drink it anyway. Unfortunately we were there on a monday and so we were also the only ones there. We asked the bartender if all bars were empty on mondays and she nodded. I was ready to go back to the hotel but Pär wanted to give a hipster bar called Star Grad Pivnica a try, that we had walked by before. We went there and it was quite a lot of people there actually to watch a shitty cover band playing classic rock songs. Sometimes the singer even used his phone to see the lyrics on the Internet at the same time as he sang. So maybe it wasn't a hipster place even though they brewed their own beer. Pär loved the place but I couldn't understand why, the most fun I had was when the band said it was a break for 10 minutes so people could go out and smoke, and then almost no people came back for the second act. When we went back to the hotel that night we watched some Conan O'Brien episodes and I laughed until my jaw started to hurt from all the laughing. I had a blast with Pär and it was so fun to enjoy Skopje with him since we were best friends many years ago when we started a band called Ninjaspark together. We have always been friends since then but we don't see each other as much anymore, so it was great to have that close friendship back for the trip!
On the day before we were heading home, I went to the spa as usual and I felt an odd feeling in my stomach while I was in the bubble bath. I got scared that I was going to be sick and that Pär would have to leave me on a hospital in Macedonia by myself, fortunately it never evolved into something worse than an odd feeling until I came home from the trip. Some weeks after that I rushed to the emergency with more pain than I had ever felt. It turned out I had got a kidney stone and I'm so grateful that the pain didn't explode while I was on the trip.
The next day we were catching an early flight and something I never had expected was to hear a voice on the airport saying "Jim, what are you doing here?". It turned out it was Jonas who I know from back home in Gothenburg, Sweden. I knew he was going to be in Skopje for the spring and I had told him I was going, but he had taken it as a joke so he was surprised to see me.
When I got back home I thought that I had loved Skopje but at the same time I couldn't believe it, how could Macedonia be such a great place? I must have remembered it too good, it can't be that good, can it?
I had to find out so I went back the next year with my friend Michael. We had a road trip planned so the first day we were just going straight from the airport in Skopje by a rental to Kosovo. I saw a new side of Macedonia when we drove through the country which was total poverty. People were warming themselves around fire in barrels in the streets like homeless people, and the people who were working were using horses and wagons to transport stuff. My image of beautiful Macedonia got destroyed and I felt bad for the people struggling in poverty with no future. I think it was good for me to see it though so I didn't just get the tourist version of Macedonia.
After we had been on the road trip to Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro and back, we arrived at Skopje to be staying on one of the fake boats in the river that operates as a four star hotel. Yeah I know, I went down one star from last time but actually you couldn't tell because this was a great hotel too, in its own way. It was fun to be sleeping on a boat, even though it's fake and doesn't float for real. The view was spectacular and I can recommend both of the hotels for different reasons, maybe I dare to go for three stars next time I go to Skopje!
I showed Michael around since I had been here before, I had no clue to show him around the old town though since it's still a maze for me and I will never learn how to find my way around it. I kind of like that, it's irritating in one way but at the same time you get so happy when you find what you are looking for in the end. I felt at home this time, and I can honestly say I just like it even more now, Skopje is definitely a hidden gem and I consider it my home away from home. Since the Absinthe Bar was closed we ended up at the hipster slash rock cover band bar and to my surprise I loved it this time around. The beer tasted amazing, the staff were very friendly, just as everybody else in Skopje, and I thought to myself, Pär was right all along, this is a great bar, at least when no cover band is playing!
* Best things about Macedonia – the contrast between the old town and the new, and how they complement each other, I also love the feeling of the city as a fake place in a good way, feels made up like Disneyland with all its statues, fake boats in the rivers and music playing through outdoor speakers around the river
* Most mediocre thing about Macedonia – I both love and hate that I can never understand how to find anything in the labyrinth called old town, so I guess you can call it mediocre then
* Worst things about Macedonia – outside of the city center of Skopje you can see how poor the country is, and I feel bad for the people struggling, for us as tourists I think the worst is the food, they can even make a pizza taste bad
Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. Croatia
2. Andorra
3. Cyprus
4. Greece
5. Italy
6. Iceland
7. Denmark
8. Lithuania
9. Macedonia
10. Ireland
11. Belgium
12. Estonia
13. Kosovo
14. Finland
15. Latvia
16. France
17. Bulgaria
18. Luxembourg
19. Liechtenstein
20. China
21. Bosnia And Herzegovina
22. Albania
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