Tedi and the statue of his great uncle

We’ve had another busy day. After a few hours driving through wooded, hilly areas where we saw the new Open Balkans Highway being built incorporating high viaducts, built with the individual country’s money and a contribution from EU, we climbed to 1528m at a cafe and looked stop. Most of the drive up and down was in cloud but when we reached Matya Canyon where we had a 2.5 mile walk, the sun came out. There’s a hydro dam and the canyon is behind the dam. There were pleasure boats and kayaks going up the canyon.

At 1 we were back on board and heading for Skopje where we had a walking tour in the company of a local guide. Since the 1963 earthquake most of the city has had to be rebuilt though there are a few older houses reminiscent of Budapest. The new galleries, museums etc are in a hotchpotch of classical and modern architecture and hundreds of statues have been erected in honour of heroes from centuries ago till now.

We met our local guide under the statue to Tedi’s great-uncle who was a partisan in WWII and died after being tortured in a Nazi prison. There was an enormous statue to Alexander the Great and on a hilltop one of the biggest crosses in the world. We saw a block of stone telling us Mother Theresa had been born there. Yes we are inNorth Macedonia and she was Albanian, as was Tedi’s great uncle, but a lot of Albanians were, and still are, in North Macedonia. This country has population of only 1.8 million and the local guide explained they lose educated young people to the EU countries where there are more opportunities. He told us that most older people hanker after Communist times as the Tito regime was not as totalitarian as Hoxha’s and everyone felt secure with jobs, free education, health care etc.

As we were heading over the old bridge to the bazaar and church the rain started. We just made it to shelter when we had a huge storm with the thunder cracks exceedingly close. The church, rebuilt in 19th century, looked small as the Ottomans didn’t want anything to rival the nearby mosque. However it was deceiving as we went down steps to enter. The ceiling was covered by frescoes and the walls had the most beautifully intricate carved wood, unadorned by the usual gilt. The wall in front of the alter door, behind which only the priest could enter, was floor to ceiling icons, the lower level depicting the usual Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist and then one of local saints. Above were smaller ones showing Bible stories. Sadly no photos were allowed as it was really magnificent.

The rain eased off enough for us to see outside the mosque which apparently is very plain inside with only blue and white painted ceilings, but we weren’t given the opportunity to go in as he wanted to take us to the top of the hill where the old fortress had been before the earthquake. We got a view of the city below and the new football stadium before hurrying back to the bus which had driven up to meet us.

There was a traffic jam where there were roadworks getting on to the road for Kosovo. Once we got through
that we stopped at a service station to change any money to euros. (In fact both Albania and North Macedonia were happy to use Euros so we didn’t really need to change money).

After entering Kosovo we drove along a 6km bridge, part of the open Balkans highway. The countryside towards the capital Pristina was flat with agricultural land and towns with hills in the distance.

We arrived in Pristina around 7. We have a nice room overlooking a construction site - our windows have splashes of cement on them. The city seems to be booming - hard to believe it’s only 30 years since the war. The guide recommended a nearby restaurant that we went to with Marilyn and Janet but it turned out to be a very lively bar with minimal food. They had nothing veggie except salad and only airline type bottles of wine - French! We were too tired after such a long day of walking and travelling that we just stayed. It was lovely to see how busy the area was with young people with enough money to be out on a week night. It really feels like we are in a very poor place in UK now.