Knock-out in North Macedonia

Location: Skopje
Km on the clock: 2,973

Cycling from Pristina to Skopje is an easy 100 kilometers and 5-7 hours ride. It took me about seven hours including a longer break at a small shop somewhere along the R6 road. Three guys were chilling in front of it - the owner and two of his buddies. They invited me for a lemonade and to hang out with them for a bit. They told me about the struggles of getting a Schengen visa as a citizen of Kosovo. 'It takes at least one year. Even if you've all your documents ready. As tourists we can only go to Albania, Montenegro and Turkey without a visa. For every other country we need one.'

Once again in my life I realized how fortunate I am that I can easily travel pretty much anywhere in the world to, only because I was born in Germany. Hearing that makes me appreciate my passport even more than I already do.

It was already dark when I arrived in Skopje. The city can be seen already from miles away. There's a huge cross - Millennium Cross - on top of Vodno Mountain and its lights are turned on every night. It's one of the tallest crosses in the world and it symbolizes 2,000 years of Christianity in North Macedonia.

I stopped at a hostel to ask for accommodation but unfortunately they were fully booked. I found another hostel just a few minutes down the road but this one also didn't have a free bed. However, the receptionist invited me to stay at her house. She said: 'You only have to wait until 11pm. I'm expecting a travel group from Italy.' I accepted her offer and waited with her. It was about 1am when the Italian travel group finally appeared. They checked in and we went to her house.

It was a small house in a nice looking neighborhood a few kilometers outside of the city center. The inside was a bit messy. Clothes were piled up all over the place and the last clean-up of the kitchen must have been weeks ago - if not even months. I even saw a cockroach crawling in the small kitchen area. I thought: Whatever! Now it's too late to find another place for the night. It'll be fine. She moved a bunch of clothes and other stuff from the couch on which I could sleep. I fell asleep after a drink and some very awkward discussions. Her favorite topic was how brilliant Hitler was.

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Chris Fritze (@fritzechris) am Aug 21, 2019 um 1:53 PDT

'You can stay here another night if you want', she said the next morning but I wasn't too keen for more awkward discussions. So I turned down the offer, thanked her for her hospitality and went back to the city center to find a hostel.

Right the first one had a free bed. So I checked into Unity Hostel for one night and started to explore the city. The center was only a couple of minutes walk away from the hostel. There's an incredible rediculous amount of statues in Skopje. They're literally everywhere and locals told that nobody really know how many there actually are. I think it could be an interesting challenge to walk around and count them all. :D

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I joined a free walking tour to find out more about the city and the statues. The most significant statues are the ones of Alexander the Great and his father Philip of Macedon. During the tour I learned that all the statues are not ancient at all although they look like they are. The government announced the project to set them up in 2010 to give the capital a more classical appeal. The historic looking buildings are also fake. They're are mainly old Soviet constructions with new plastic facades. If you touch and knock on them you'll realize it.

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Chris Fritze (@fritzechris) am Feb 8, 2020 um 10:26 PST

I left Skopje in direction south. I chose Thessaloniki in Greece as my next destination. The days were grueling hot and the roads hilly. One day the heat knocked me out. Temperatures were above 40 degrees Celsius. I was that much exhausted that I had to take nap in the shade under a tree on the side of the road. I used my water bottle as a pillow. I took a dirt road above the river Vardar the other day. The view down into the valley was spectacular and at the end of the road there was a grape field. I took a few and shuffled them into my mouth. They were incredible juicy and delicious. I filled a bag with even more, attached them on the back of my bike and headed further towards the Greek border.

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