After two months in one place, I got itchy feet again. I was staying in my apartment in a small town of Byala on the Black Sea. Everything seemed fine. Morning swims in the sea, afternoon siestas, evenings with friends, and a couple of hours of freelancing as a translator each day may look like a perfect mix of business and pleasure. What else would one wish? Yet, one thing was missing in my life – the road.
This time, I chose to visit the neighboring Macedonia where I had not been before. I packed as light as possible taking only the necessary stuff. The trip was supposed to be about 10 days. Nothing was prebooked, so I could be flexible with the route and my schedule. The only thing that I bought in advance was a train ticket from Varna to Sofia.
The train left at 10 p.m. It was my second time on the night train to Sofia. During the first ride, I shared the compartment with a lovely young Bulgarian mother and her little son. The train was old, made in Turkey before World War II. I slept well then. This time, I decided to treat myself to business class for 48 levs ($25). The compartment was clean and wide, with its own sink and three berths. Apparently, “business” meant that I had the entire compartment to myself. Everything looked good but… as soon as the train started moving it also produced an unbelievable variety of loud noises – the train screeched, squealed, and squeaked – sleeping was impossible. I lay quietly on my comfortable berth till morning regretting that I could not enjoy it.
At 6 a.m. I was in Sofia, in time for the bus to Skopje at 7 a.m. I watched from my bus seat Bulgarians driving to work – one hand was on the steering wheel, the other hand alternately held a cigarette or a cup of coffee.
The customs at the border took time – we were leaving the European Union and the bus was thoroughly searched. By 1 p.m. I was in Skopje. First of all, while still at the bus station I gathered all the necessary information for my day trips out of Skopje, then shouldered the backpack and walked to downtown.
I easily found a hotel room for €80/night with breakfast. It was slightly out of my usual price range for accommodation but the day was hot, the hotel was 5-star, and I was tired after the trip. I did negotiate the price. The initial quote was €100/night without breakfast. I turned away pretending that I was going to check another hotel. The rate immediately dropped, so I took the room.
The sun was scorching and I had to stay in the room until evening before I could go explore the city. Before I visited Skopje, I believed that Havana held the top spot as the city with most monuments per 100 square meters. I was so wrong. Skopje beats Havana by a wide margin. Skopje monuments are massive, most of them are void of artistic merit and executed in the same style whereas the monuments in Havana are a feast to your eyes whether they are modern installations or a thing from the bygone era.
The country’s name after it became independent was the subject of a decades-long dispute between Macedonia and Greece that believed that Macedonia had no right to appropriate historic and cultural symbols and figures that they considered to be traditionally Greek including Alexander the Great. The country had to change its official name to Republic of North Macedonia in order to be recognized by Greece.
