When viewing the statues of Skopje, here is how to mostly discern the time period that the statue is depicting:
- Clean shaven – Socialist
- Bearded – Ottoman era
- Half naked – Ancient
Statues were part of a plan called Skopje 2014. It started in 2009, and they are still working on it, maybe because they take five-hour coffee breaks. The city looks old, but the buildings are new but trying to imitate antiquity. The city is more than 23 centuries old.
It’s not clear why they have so many statues. A great deal of money has been spent, and they are a small country with not much money. The original estimate for this project for Skopje was 800 million US dollars. One billion is the final price tag, and the project is ALMOST complete.
We hiked up to the Kale (pronounced Collie) Fortress. Kale means fortress so Kale Fortress means fortress, fortress!
We rode a bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. We had to get off the bus when we were leaving North Macedonia to have our passport stamped. Then we got back on the bus and drove about a 100 yards and got off the bus to have our passport stamped upon entering Bulgaria.
After a six-hour bus ride and a 25-minute walk, we arrived at our Airbnb in the city center.
We needed to eat fast so we opted for McDonald’s. There were only two people working. Soon they went outside for a smoke. We wanted to get a cone and they said that they were closed for 30 minutes … so we went home calcium deprived. Ray Kroc would have been livid!!!
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