28th July 14 - Crossing Over

With there not much to see in Kosovo we decided to get the bus to Skopje, However we didn't realize that it was a Public Holiday, so headed to the bus station hoping that the bus service was not affected that much. It was empty, only a hand full of people were about. We managed to find an open ticket booth and book a bus. However the bus was in 2.5hours. Great!!!.... The time actually went pretty quickily. It gave us time to dry our towls in the sun, sew on another patch to my bag and plan the next part of our trip.

The drive to Skopje was pretty easy. Leaving Kosovo was alot easier than entering. A quick scan of the passport and 2hours later we were in Skopje, Macedonia. We decided to stay in a hostel that we found on a leaflet at the previous hostel. It was only 3 minute walk so decided to made the journey on foot. We found the hostel pretty easy, but found out it was full. Luckily Shanti Hostel has two sites and the other had 2 beds left. Perfect! and it was only located behind. The hostel is a cool place, nice atmosphere and had everything we needed. The only issue was the 2 showers and 2 toilets for the whole hostel. It was only an issue in the mornings. Starving we decided to head out for dinner. They gave us details of a cheap local place and a fancier part near the river. We tried to get a cheap snack, or even self cook and shop at the mall, but obviously we took advantage of the fancy food along the river. We tucked in to some good food. The sites were brilliant. It felt like Rome or Athens, huge white columned buildings and statues lined the river. Bridges covered with statues and lights expanded crossed the river. I couldn't wait to explore tomorrow.

Time flying by, we headed back to the hostel full. We picked up some annemnities and finished the day chilling at the hostel with a cuppa and caught up with the blog and sorting out photos.

29th July 14 - Touring the City

After a great night sleep (these beds were so comfy) we squeezed our slot into the shower after about 10 minutes. Enjoyed the free breakfast. I made coffee with the filter powder which didn't dissolve so forced that down and then we were on our way. I didn't realise until we got into the town to take a photo that I forgot the camera's SD card. I tried to just use the Ipad, but this city was too cool. So ventured to a computer shop to purchase one. Amazingly we got a 16G SD Card for only 4euros. Immediatly we found a Macedonian flag for my bag. Ironically it cost the same as the SD card. Great start to the day.

I was snap happy with the camera here. As soon as you enter the centre of the city, statues and impressive buildings are everywhere. So we decided to call this place City of Statues. Our first site of the city was accidentally stumbling across a cool little park called Zhena Borets Park, This had the defenders statue, but more impressive than this was the larger Immortalis Monument, which was a white column dome with gold statues. There are to many statues to name. We then headed to the famous Macedonia square. This place has gone through a huge transformation in the last 10 years, however has caused some controversy. However I think it looks awesome and is the reason for the increase in tourism.

In the center of the square is a giantic monument that houses a cool fountain and status of Alexander the Great on a horse. Surrounding this are several other men on horses or political figures. We headed across the old stone bridge, We had amazing views of the Constitutional court, Ministry of foreign affairs and public office. These buildings although new looked Roman. A couple of other bridges the Eye brige and Art bridge were covered in statues and lights. They did look beautiful. On the other side of the Vardar river were even more fountains with statues. All as impressive. The Fountain of the Mothers of Macedonia was really nice, above this stood a large statue of a warrior. Either side of this were 2 fountains, one with lions and the other with horses protruding out.

We entered old town. After to attemps we managed to change up our Serbian and amazingly our Albanian Leke!!! It's taken us so long to find a place that would change exchange this. We strolled around old town and headed to the Kale Fortress, Unfortunately it was closed so we tried to get some decent photos before heading back down. We passed over the Lions at the Gose Delcev bridge and back into the center for some lunch. in one of the restaurants surrounding the square.

We took a stroll back to the hostel taking in the last few sites. We decided not to head up to the Millennium cross. Opting to use the zoom on the camera to photograph it. ... Lazy tourists lol.

We chilled for the rest of the day at the hostel. Planning the next part of our trip. I could sew on my Macedonia badge and sort out our funds. This was us pretty much for the rest of the day. Hopefully order some pizza tonight.....